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Additional Article Content

• Figure One
• Figure Two
• Figure Three
• Table One
• Table Two
• Table Three
• Table Four
• Acknowledgements
• References

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• Stormwater Temperature Monitoring in Federal Way, WA

As large-scale watershed alterations have advanced, the stability and quality of local stream and riparian environs has degraded. The magnitude and frequency of high flows has increased, habitat has disappeared, sedimentation has escalated, and pollutant levels continue to grow. As a result, the magnificent and diverse floral and faunal populations of the Puget Sound, especially native salmon, have become at risk.

Since incorporation in 1990, the city of Federal Way, WA, has completed a number of projects designed to counteract the extensive changes that have affected West Hylebos Creek, an important small stream in the Central Puget Sound that once yielded healthy and plentiful salmon runs. Improvements have included a series of regional stormwater detention facility installations, wetlands rehabilitation, and stream restoration projects that were designed to be consistent with the principal goal outlined in the city’s Surface Water Management Plan: “To protect, preserve, and enhance the beneficial uses of surface water for recreation, fish and wildlife habitat, aesthetic enjoyment, aquifer recharge, and open space.”

The city has long recognized the critical connection between riparian characteristics and watershed habitat conditions, and it continues to seek local aquatic ecosystem improvements. In 2004, the city pursued a golden opportunity—the Surface Water Management (SWM) division applied for and was awarded a State of Washington Department of Ecology Centennial Clean Water Fund Grant to fund an innovative restoration project targeting the West Hylebos Creek.

Initiated in 2003, the project was designed to prevent further stream degradation in this altered drainage basin where historical high-energy flows caused severe erosion of the streambed and streambanks. The ambitious undertaking included efforts to address adverse changes that resulted in extensive sediment and gravel transportation, localized flooding, loss of wetland function, and degraded aquatic habitat.

The project also involved a stratagem for ongoing water-quality monitoring with a comprehensive plan modeled to measure the restoration’s effectiveness in reducing pollutant loadings. The essential question being asked was “Will restoration of the stream improve both water quality and aquatic habitat as desired?”

Paul Bucich, surface water manager, addresses the issue by commenting, “Too often a restoration project is constructed and then all the participants from the designers to the permit writers pat each other on the backs, congratulate each other, and then move on without another backward glance—never to learn if the project was a success.” He continues, “With this project, we had the opportunity to partner with a state resource agency to study the long-term effects of our work. Unlike many monitoring efforts, this one had a well-defined question we could craft a monitoring effort around.”

The Hylebos Watershed
West Hylebos Creek lies within the Puget Sound Lowland ecoregion of western Washington. From its headwaters in Federal Way, the stream flows to the Commencement Bay in Tacoma. The entire watershed makes up nearly 4,300 acres and is composed of 10 miles of stream corridor, two natural lakes, four manmade lakes, two major wetlands, and various unnamed ponds.

The majority of the mid- to upper-West Hylebos Creek basin is over 90% impervious, including highly intensive commercial land uses that generate large volumes of stormwater and urban pollutants. These areas have been developed nearly completely with buildings, parking lots, and highways that have limited or nonexistent aquatic habitat.

By contrast, the mid to lower reaches of the basin contain low-density land uses. Generating less stormwater per acre and contributing essential groundwater to the system, these portions of the watershed (forested and wetland-covered) provide a significant buffer against impacted stormwater flowing from upstream terrain.

The Salmon Issue
An icon of the Pacific Northwest, salmon (Oncorhynchus spp.) are critically important to our cultural heritage, economy, and quality of life. Their elaborate life cycle takes place in a variety of fresh and saltwater environments, and includes thousands of miles of migration from inland streams to the ocean and back again.

But urbanization has caused the fish to disappear from approximately 40% of their historical range in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and California (Nehlsen et al. 1991). According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the most recent cause of depleted salmon stocks is the loss of their freshwater habitat.

Considering these statistics, it is not surprising that West Hylebos Creek no longer hosts the annual runs of thousands of coho and chum salmon and hundreds of Chinook salmon and cutthroat trout that it did 30 years ago. Presently, the productive fish habitat within Hylebos Creek is reduced so severely that an average of only 10 Chinook and 80 coho have been counted annually between 2002 and 2008 (FOH 2008).

Chris Carrel, executive director of the local nonprofit group Friends of the Hylebos, reminisces, “In the 1970s, when I was a student at the Spring Valley Montessori just downstream from the project site, we used to witness tremendous runs of coho, Chinook, and chum salmon—the stream was literally full from bank to bank. Because of the loss of habitat, we now have runs that are a mere memory of those historical runs.”

As a result of their dwindling numbers throughout the region, Puget Sound Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1999, and reaffirmed in 2005. Due to specific risk factors, coho (Oncorhynchus kisutch) were also listed as an ESA species of concern in 2004.

Restoration Project Description
In recognition of the growing problem of stream degradation and declining salmon populations, the West Branch Hylebos Creek Restoration Project was designed to include the following activities and goals:

Activities

1. Stabilize approximately 2,500 linear feet of streambank through the installation of a series of log weirs, revetments, and woody debris.
2. Plant native vegetation along the banks of the stream project area.
3. Monitor surface water quality (chemical and biological), log installations, and planting mortality.
4. Implement a public education program.

Goals

1. Reduce sediment scour and improve overall water quality.
2. Prevent both sediment deposition and downstream flooding.
3. Expand large woody debris habitat and pooling complexes.
4. Improve salmon spawning and rearing.

The project involved a remarkable collaboration between organizations. The state Centennial grant provided a total of $726,000, with the State Department of Ecology reimbursing 75% of all expenditures back to the city. Federal Way supplied staff support (oversight, administration, and monitoring).

Additionally, Friends of the Hylebos, who provided much-needed political and communal support, championed the project. According to Carrel, “The West Hylebos Restoration Project restored habitat in a critical reach of the Hylebos system. This reach is relatively untouched by urban development and contains our best opportunities for full restoration of salmon habitat.”

CH2M Hill Inc. designed the project to include placement of three types of log structures within the typical high-water mark of the West Hylebos Creek: 11 log weirs to improve fish passage, 12 engineered log jams to trap sediment, and three log revetments to protect eroding streambanks. Additionally, selected riparian areas were cleared and replanted with native vegetation and upland forest species.

Heavily forested, the project area allowed very limited access for construction equipment. A helicopter was used to lower the large logs down to each stream channel site. Once delivered, the timber was sized, hoisted, jacked into position, assembled by hand, and fashioned into discrete structures designed to stabilize the stream channel and provide the essential stream features that salmon—in all their life stages—require: deep pools for refuge and good spawning habitat.

Monitoring Objectives
Soon after the in-stream structure installation, an extensive monitoring program was implemented to generate meaningful water-quality and biological data collected from the middle reach project area. More specifically, the monitoring regimen was created to gauge the long-term effectiveness of the restoration efforts.

Before initiating water-quality monitoring activities, SWM prepared a quality-assurance project plan (QAPP) developed in accordance with the Department of Ecology’s Guidelines for Preparing Quality Assurance Project Plans for Environmental Studies. The QAPP provided minimum monitoring standards and described in detail various data-quality methodologies, procedures, and objectives. The attainment of consistent, representative, and comparable field data was the primary goal of the QAPP.

Water-Quality Station Setup
Four water-quality-monitoring stations were successfully established for this project (Figure 1). A water-quality instrument, Yellow Springs Instruments model 6920, was selected to collect and record water-quality information. The instrument (or sonde) compiles data from a five-parameter water-quality-monitoring system: temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, turbidity, and specific conductivity. The unit is self-contained, with power supplied by conventional batteries located in a sealed compartment. The sensor data are stored within the sonde on nonvolatile, flash-memory recording devices.

In February 2007, all four YSI 6920 water-quality-monitoring sondes were upgraded from a polar-graphic, Clark-type, steady-state dissolved oxygen sensor to an optical dissolved oxygen sensor. The new ROX optical DO sensor technology required less-frequent calibration and maintenance, and was designed to collect long-term measurements in severe fouling and low-oxygen environments.

The sondes were stationed within stilling wells equipped with locking lids to prevent damage from vandalism or flooding events. Three were positioned in-stream at the edge of the flow (Brooklake, Montessori, and 373rd), and one was placed within a stormwater vault structure (Panther Lake).

The bottom of the sonde was situated at a height sufficient to adequately submerse all of the individual probes during low flows. Best efforts were made to sample representative water-column conditions at each monitoring site, but placement of the sondes depended on security, accessibility, and right-of-entry issues.

The following is a brief description of the importance of each water-quality criterion measured:

• Dissolved oxygen, the most critical and commonly employed measurement of water quality, is the amount of free oxygen dissolved in water. Adequate concentrations of DO are necessary for the life of fish and other aquatic organisms.
• Temperature influences the physiology and behavior of aquatic life and determines the habitat suitability for each species. Stream temperatures affect fish in many ways throughout their life stages, especially cold-water salmonid species and trout. Temperature can also influence DO concentrations.
• Turbidity is the condition resulting from suspended solids in the water, including silts, clays, industrial wastes, sewage, and plankton. Such particles absorb heat in the sunlight, thereby raising water temperature. Accumulated silt can also cover and smother fish eggs deposited in the streambed.

The measurement of acidity or alkalinity is defined as pH. Most aquatic animals and plants have adapted to life in water within a specific pH range and may suffer from slight changes. Additionally, a change in the pH can alter other chemicals and elements (such as heavy metals) in the water column, which makes them more bioavailable to aquatic life.

Although specific conductivity by itself is not an important parameter for measuring water quality, its measurement (along with barometric pressure and temperature) is used to calculate DO concentration by the Clark-type DO sensor.

Water-Quality Station Maintenance
A routine schedule for station maintenance was implemented to maintain monitoring integrity and to reduce data loss. By adhering to the station maintenance protocols outlined in the QAPP, credible data were generated during the nearly 40 months of sonde deployment. The following outlines the typical field duties performed and the observations logged during station maintenance:

• Inspection of site for signs of physical disruption
• Inspection of sensors for fouling, corrosion, accumulation of sediment, or damage
• Battery or power check, and battery replacement when necessary
• Stilling well maintenance and modification
• Equipment time checks

Water-Quality-Monitoring QA/QC
Water-quality-monitoring quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) involved a combination of lab calibration and sonde field checks that adhered to QAPP protocols. The collection of representative data was best achieved when field and laboratory personnel were well trained and detail minded. It was important that equipment calibrations were fully documented and performed carefully, and that all manufacturer instructions were consistently followed. The following sections describe the various laboratory and field QA/QC procedures that were employed to produce high-quality data for this project.

Water-Quality Lab QA/QC. Calibration drift commonly occurs between the time a sensor is field-deployed and when it is retrieved. Fouling (chemical precipitates, stains, silt buildup, or aquatic growth), which results from exposure to surface water, generally causes drift.

To ensure that credible data were generated, in-house laboratory cleaning, reconditioning, and calibration of the YSI 6920 sondes was performed at an interval recommended by YSI applications engineers for deployment in freshwater streams (once every 30 days). All lab calibration activity utilized EcoWatch software and use of known lab standards and followed the procedures outlined in the YSI Environmental Monitoring Systems Manual for 6-Series Sondes.

Water-Quality-Control Field Checks. Each YSI 6920 sonde underwent periodic quality-control field checks in order to record, track, and correct both fouling drift and calibration drift. Taking place at the end of each 30-day deployment period, the QC field-check procedure required the positioning of one fully calibrated reference sonde (calibration sonde) side by side in the flow at the monitoring station next to the in situ sonde (field sonde). After a short time, allowing for stabilization, the sample interval was reduced to five seconds, and a series of measurements for each of the five parameters were simultaneously recorded by both the calibration sonde and the field sonde over a 20-minute period.

Strict field check guidelines established in the QAPP were used to determine if the field sonde was producing quality measurements within acceptable tolerance limits. A pass/fail calibration check designation was then assigned to the tested sonde.

When persistent drift could not be corrected by a change in monitoring protocol, the frequency of quality-control field checks was increased. When multiple quality-control field check failures occurred, or when sensor problems could not be properly identified or repaired in house, the problematic sensor was sent back to the manufacturer for service.

Water-Quality Data Management and Data Quality Control. The data management and data quality-control procedures designed for this project addressed the path from acquisition in the field, to the laboratory, to final use and archiving. Detailed standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the collection and transfer of field data were developed and modified during the course of the project. For example, unique SOPs were designed for the portable YSI hand-held data logging device (YSI 650 MDS) that included step-by-step instructions and detailed procedures for properly sequencing through device menus, downloading data from sondes, setting up the field-check recording intervals, and managing electronic files. Adherence to written SOPs helped to avoid unnecessary data management miscues and loss of data. Raw data were considered provisional until verified by SWM. Data were subject to significant change or deletion, and considered defective, as a result of but not limited to the following circumstances:

• Unacceptable instrument and calibration drift
• Low or absent surface water flow contacting the probes
• Sondes submerged in silt or sediment
• Instrument power failure
• Improper lab calibration
• Damaged or deteriorated water-quality probes
• Malfunctioning equipment

Water-Quality Data Review and Correction. An initial data review was conducted as soon as possible after site visits to verify that raw field data were accurately transferred, and also to identify whether abnormal events occurred (i.e., instrument power failure or sensor error). A protocol based on the US Geological Survey’s written procedures was implemented to correct data drift that occurred during the sonde deployment period (USGS 2006).

Parameter data drift that resulted from either environmental effects (fouling of sensors) or instrumentation effects (sensor calibration drift) was corrected. Because data drift was assumed to occur at a constant rate, a linear interpolation was applied to all affected sensor data generated during the time period between sonde installation and sonde retrieval.

Prorated data correction was completed when the values for fouling and calibration drift error exceeded the acceptable tolerance limit range calculated during the quality-control field check exercise. All data that was recorded between calibration events underwent a two-point correction in order to 1) linearly interpolate the amount of the correction by time from zero at the beginning of the correction period to the maximum value at the end of the correction period, and 2) linearly interpolate the amount of the correction, based on percentage error, over the range of recorded values.

Figure 2 illustrates a set of DO water quality data that was corrected by linear interpolation.

Water-Quality-Monitoring Discussion
The following is a timeline of water-quality-monitoring events:

• Pre-restoration baseline monitoring: February to June 2004 (4 months)
• Stream restoration activity: June to September 2004 (4 months)
• Post-restoration monitoring: October 2004 to July 2007 (33 months)

Due to the project timeline and the minimal amount of credible pre-restoration water-quality data available, it was not possible to perform valid post-restoration spatial (upstream-downstream) or temporal (over time) trends analyses. Although these efforts could not be completed due to the short baseline-monitoring period, future long-term studies will be conducted as larger populations of credible data are generated.

Most importantly, the project succeeded in establishing strict field-tested protocols and achieved the principal QAPP goal: to generate consistent, representative, and comparable water-quality field data that the Federal Way can utilize to evaluate the effectiveness of the West Branch Hylebos Creek restoration efforts over the long-term.

Adherence to QAPP protocols required systematic recordkeeping. This thorough process provided critical information that was used to continually evaluate the program’s ability to generate reliable monitoring data. The following are several major findings that led to program modifications and improvements.

• During the course of the 40-month sonde deployment (February 2004 to July 2007), a total of 616 field checks were performed on each of the four separate sensor probes (DO, pH, temperature, and turbidity). As a result, 13% of the field checks exceeded the QAPP-established acceptable range of values and required data correction to compensate for parameter data drift.
• Prior to January 2004, the frequency of QC field checks and lab calibration occurred approximately every 27 days, resulting in a 14% sensor failure rate. After January 2004, when failures reached an unacceptable level, field checks were completed more often (on average every 22 days). The sensor failure rate then dropped to 12%.

As expected, DO and pH sensor performance was most affected by fouling. Table 1 shows the failure rate of each monitoring site sensor as documented by the field-check exercise.

Final data validation included reviewing records and re-checking all calculations. Pursuant to grant requirements, the city submitted all validated and corrected water-quality data to the Environmental Information Management System, the Department of Ecology’s main monitoring database that consolidates physical, chemical, and biological analyses records and measurements collected throughout the state of Washington.

Final data were prepared in the following formats:

• Temperature data were calculated as seven-day averages of the daily maximum temperatures (7-DADMax).
• Temperature, DO, pH, and turbidity were calculated in three formats: daily average, daily maximum, and daily minimum.

The results recorded at the three individual stream monitoring sites (373rd, Montessori, and Brooklake) were found to be relatively stable. Conversely, data generated at the Panther Lake stormwater vault monitoring site exhibited erratic characteristics that reflect the variable water-quality patterns typically observed in urban settings. As a result, Panther Lake saw more frequent sensor fouling with remarkably higher failure rates. This finding illustrates the difficulties in obtaining consistent and robust stormwater data, as opposed to the more reliable data that can generally be obtained from the ambient sampling of receiving waters.

Further examination of the final water-quality data revealed that several of the stream monitoring sites exhibited numeric values that exceeded standard criteria set forth for the state of Washington (WAC 173-201A). The documented receiving water exceedances were not caused by restoration activity and did not result from Federal Way municipal stormwater discharges, but instead occurred from natural conditions existing within the watershed.

Benthic Macroinvertebrate Monitoring
Traditional chemical and physical stream measurements may not provide sufficient information to detect or resolve all surface water problems. As a supplement to water-quality measurements, biological studies of benthic macroinvertebrate populations were conducted to provide a clearer understanding of the stream environment.

In brief, the measurement of the diversity and quantity of the tiny microorganisms living in a waterway can help to determine the overall health of an aquatic system. Benthic macroinvertebrates are particularly well suited for biomonitoring; they are diverse and abundant, sensitive to human disturbance, and excellent indicators of a stream’s condition. Macroinvertebrates are also key components of the aquatic food web, often long-lived, and not migratory.

Since 1998, SWM has collected macroinvertebrates at a select number of locations in the West Hylebos Creek basin. The multi-metric benthic index of biotic integrity (B-IBI) is used to summarize invertebrate data. It is composed of 10 metrics representing multiple biological aspects that are consistent and predictable in their response to human disturbances affecting stream health (Fore et al. 1996 and Karr and Chu 1999). The 10 metric scores are added to produce a total B-IBI score that is rated qualitatively as excellent, good, fair, poor, or very poor.

As with many urban streams, the subject drainage system has been degraded over the last few decades due to increased volume of stormwater flow and decreased water quality. This is borne out by macroinvertebrate studies from 1998 to 2007 that show metric B-IBI scores consistently in the range of very poor to fair, indicating overall depressed diversity (Figure 3 and Tables 2 and 3).

Beginning in 2004, a more robust and extensive macroinvertebrate-monitoring program in Federal Way was designed and implemented as part of the West Hylebos Restoration Project. All field B-IBI data-management protocols described in the QAPP conformed to the methods described by Fore and by Karr and Chu and were modified slightly per the direction of the Department of Ecology.

Rhithron Associates Inc., the city’s contract laboratory based in Missoula, MT, implemented standard sample processing and data management procedures. Recordkeeping and QC were performed during sample receiving, sorting, taxonomy, data entry, and reporting. Designed to rigorously evaluate and improve the performance of all staff and laboratory efficiencies, each QC step was monitored through the execution of sound internal procedures.

Establishment of Macroinvertebrate Sampling Locations
Pursuant to the QAPP developed for this project, locations throughout the West Hylebos Creek project reach were sampled for benthic macroinvertebrates once annually (approximately late summer to early fall) to determine if biological conditions in the restored stream sections improved. This part of the year is traditionally selected for sampling because stream flows are stable, the macroinvertebrate populations are high, and access to sites is easier for field crews.

In order to evaluate the response of macroinvertebrate populations to the completed restoration work, it was important to select sites that were similar with regards to their physical features (surface substrate and flow regime). Therefore, the macroinvertebrate monitoring plan included the most suitable sampling locations in the project restoration area—fast-moving water over rock or cobble.

Macroinvertebrate Statistical Analysis
A total of four individual statistical tests were completed in an attempt to determine whether any significant macroinvertebrate trends (both temporal and spatial) were evident following stream restoration activities. Care was taken to ensure that the individual site locations (inside restoration area, downstream, and control) were selected to best provide a means for accurate temporal and spatial statistical analysis. A summary below describes the four separate evaluations that were performed:

Test Number 1. This test was done to analyze macroinvertebrate sampling data for annual spatial trends in the stream segment. Extending from upstream (Restoration 2) to downstream (373rd), the test was performed to determine if water-quality improvements occurred during the four-year period following restoration activity (2004 to 2007). The analysis was done using the non-parametric correlation Kendall Tau test. The level of significance was  Data from a total of five sampling sites were used.

Test Number 2. This test was done to analyze macroinvertebrate data in order to determine whether statistically significant differences exist between four pairs of adjacent sampling sites in the stream segment, extending from upstream (Restoration 2) to downstream (373rd), during two distinct time periods: pre-restoration (1999 to 2003) and post-restoration (2004 to 2007). The T-test for dependant samples was used with a level of significance of

Test Number 3. This test was done to analyze macroinvertebrate data in order to determine whether there were statistically significant temporal trends at five individual sampling sites in the stream segment, extending from upstream (Restoration 2) to downstream (373rd), during two distinct time periods: pre-restoration (1999 to 2003) and post-restoration (2004 to 2007).

Due to the likelihood that tied values would be encountered, test 3 involved the gamma coefficient (a variation of the Kendall Tau), which used ranked data (ordinal level data). The test compared the number of concordant (increase from one year to the next) and discordant (decrease from one year to the next) values. A p-value  less than 0.05 indicated a significant temporal trend.

Test Number 4. This test was done to analyze macroinvertebrate data collected on both the West Hylebos Creek (impact stream) with other macroinvertebrate data collected on other city streams (control streams) to determine if there were any statistically significant differences attributed to restoration activity. The before and after control impact (BACI) analysis included an equal number of data values collected during identical periods before and after the restoration project. A factorial ANOVA (analysis of variance) test was performed, with focus on the interaction between the two factors of location (impact-control) and time (before-after). The factorial ANOVA produced an F test statistic and a corresponding p-value. A comparison was made of the mean scores before restoration and following restoration. A significant difference was indicated by p-values  less than 0.05.

Macroinvertebrate Monitoring Discussion
At a glance, the historical Hylebos Creek macroinvertebrate data presented in Figure 3 may be interpreted as clear evidence pointing toward upwardly trending B-IBI scores. This is apparent at two stream sites 373rd and SR 99, where a noticeable bump occurs after 2003. Further discussion and additional data collection is warranted before it can be assumed that restoration activity resulted in B-IBI improvements.

The higher scores recorded after 2003 are reasonably attributed to the implementation of improved and more stringent QAPP field protocols. Of primary significance was a modification to procure larger benthic composite samples as recommended by the Department of Ecology.

In order to yield adequate biota, larger sample volumes are typically needed from urban streams—an improved protocol that results in a better representation of the benthic community. Beginning in 2004, SWM tripled the amount of area sampled at each macroinvertebrate stream site (from 3 to 9 square feet).

According to Wease Bollman, chief biologist with Rhithron Associates, “Sampling a larger streambed area would be conducive to higher B-IBI scores. Considering that several of the B-IBI metrics are based on richness, an increase in taxa collected would translate into improved metric performance, or higher scores.”

In addition, a cadre of volunteers was no longer utilized for macroinvertebrate sampling after 2003. Subsequently, as SWM personnel became increasingly competent and employed more skillful field techniques, the overall condition of the taxonomic samples improved.

Again, Bollman comments, “Better collection generally results in better representation. Dominant taxa are collected in the most casual sampling, but rarer taxa—usually the more sensitive kind—need careful attention paid to the way samples are actually taken.” The result was higher B-IBI scores beginning in 2004.

None of the four independent statistical analyses described above showed any significant post-restoration macroinvertebrate trends. Most notable was the absence of trends detected by the BACI analysis (test 4), which examines differences between the impact stream (West Hylebos Creek) and control streams. Although it is possible that other factors (i.e., urban stormwater) could have impacted the stream significantly enough to affect macroinvertebrate populations, the BACI data analysis (Table 4) establishes that the biological health (B-IBI scores and associated metrics) remained stationary up to four years after the completion of the 2003 restoration project, while additional development occurred in the watershed.

It is important to note that the statistical studies performed were limited only to the post-project period. Additional macroinvertebrate data collected in future years will allow for more robust analyses and may eventually reveal statistically positive B-IBI trending.

The Big Picture
Although neither of the data studies described here demonstrated significant trends, it is evident that the restoration efforts have improved aquatic habitat in the West Hylebos Creek. Stream inspections have documented that sediment transportation and deposition has decreased in many of the targeted locations. Additionally, engineered log structures have created essential instream features, improvements that include expanded salmon spawning habitat and deeper cold-water pools critical for juvenile salmon rearing.

The West Hylebos Restoration Project meshes well with a new state agency called the Puget Sound Partnership (PSP), a coordination of federal, state, local, tribal, and private resources (citizens, scientists, and businesses) set in motion by the Washington State governor and legislature in 2007. A detailed action agenda to be laid out by the PSP by December 2008 involves creating a path leading the region to a healthy Puget Sound by 2020.

The PSP involves a community-wide effort to identify threats and restore and protect a critical and invaluable resource. As all of our city’s waterways are linked to the Puget Sound, the West Hylebos Restoration Project addresses many of the PSP’s concerns, including habitat and land use, species food webs and biodiversity, stormwater quality, and instream water quantity.

The PSP characterizes the Puget Sound as “ecologically delicate.” Local population growth outpacing global rates, increasing development, and stormwater runoff are considered by the PSP to be primary threats to the Puget Sound. With this in mind, Federal Way has been at the forefront to implement an effective ambient water-monitoring program, acquire quality habitat, and restore and preserve our aquatic resources.