Healthy Water Quality
Our goal is waters and sediments of a sufficient quality to support human uses and enjoyment, and that are not harmful to native species.
From mountain peaks to the mouth of Puget Sound rivers to the Pacific Ocean, water connects different parts of the ecosystem. However, the condition of this key resource is at risk for all who depend on it.
What do the Vital Signs and indicators tell us about the Healthy Water Quality goal?
We must do more to improve water quality, especially since climate change and an increase in the human footprint will add to the challenges that already exist in the ecosystem. We must restore the health of both marine and freshwaters for the recovery of the whole Puget Sound region.
Freshwater quality and stream habitat health are mixed across Puget Sound; however, over time B-IBI scores have either improved or remained stable.
Overall, these trends are encouraging. While development has increased in the region, stream health (as measured by the diversity and abundance of insects and other invertebrates) appears to have improved in more than one in five streams and declined in only one in 50 streams.
Marine water quality continues to change throughout Puget Sound, as shown by measurements of oxygen, temperature, pH, and nutrient balances documented in the Marine Waters 2021 Overview.
The conditions of marine waters in Puget Sound vary by region, depending on where basins are located. Read the Overview Report here .
As the climate changes, so does marine water temperature and salinity.
Since 2014 Puget Sound waters have been seasonally warmer and saltier than average. Higher salinity is driven by decreased precipitation and low river flow into Puget Sound, while water temperature is driven by deep Pacific Ocean inflow and regional climate events. An unprecedented extreme heat event occurred in early July 2021, when air temperatures persisted above 100ºF for several days, causing mass intertidal mortalities and very warm surface water. If extreme heat events become more common with climate change, impacts to communities will intensify with less time for slow-growing organisms to recover.
Excess nitrogen from human sources can fuel macroalgae blooms that decompose and deplete oxygen from the water.
Low-oxygen waters may stress or kill fish and shellfish, reducing food availability for other animals such as birds and marine mammals. In 2021, hypoxia persisted from May to November in South Hood Canal, where low-oxygen areas are common at certain times of the year.
Aquatic animals in Puget Sound are exposed to complex mixtures of thousands of chemicals that may have cumulative impacts on their health and survival and limit the amount of seafood we can safely eat.
PCBs remain a problem because they are harming the health of aquatic life, like Chinook salmon and Pacific herring, and creating health risks to people consuming seafood from Puget Sound. However, PBDEs, a type of flame retardant, declined in many areas, suggesting remediation actions have been effective at mitigating this contaminant.
