The Puget Sound Action Team (Action Team) recently announced that $790,000 in awards will go to 14 organizations to help Hood Canal. The projects are aimed at increasing the all-time low levels of dissolved oxygen in Hood Canal and helping to improve the quality of water for fish, shrimp and other marine life.

The Action Team will distribute the money for the projects during the next 14 months. The projects seek to improve the management of onsite sewage systems, investigate alternative sewage management approaches, make productive use of previously discarded salmon carcasses and conduct extensive landowner education and outreach.

The projects include:

Human Sewage Management

Mason County – $57,000 The county will perform an analysis to determine the best options to manage wastewater from homes and businesses in the shoreline area from Hoodsport to the Skokomish River. The study will look at treatment technology options, management structures and land use issues.

• Washington Department of Health – $23,000
• Washington Onsite Sewage Association – $26,000
• B-Line Construction and Tahja-Syrett Designs – $38,000
• Environmental Earth Systems – $42,000
• Five Star Environmental Solutions, Inc. – $61,000
• Monitoring company, to be determined – estimated $46,000

   These organizations will explore innovative ways to design and manage onsite sewage systems to reduce nitrogen and keep it from contaminating groundwater and adding to the canal’s nitrogen problems. Currently, most systems along the canal and throughout Puget Sound do not adequately treat nitrogen, and therefore they can add to the low dissolved oxygen problems.

Salmon Carcass Uses

Skokomish Tribal Nation – $92,000 and American-Canadian Fisheries, Inc. – $95,000. This cooperative effort will help create alternative uses for chum salmon carcasses. Historically, tribal members disposed of the carcasses directly into the marine waters of Hood Canal, after fishermen removed eggs from the carcasses. The tribe will work with American-Canadian Fisheries to use the chum salmon to feed people, add to pet food and livestock feed, and explore other commercial uses.

Livestock Waste Management

Mason Conservation District – $12,000 The conservation district will evaluate innovative technologies to treat agricultural livestock waste and fish carcasses using enclosed treatment systems. The analysis will also explore potential benefits associated with the gas and fertilizer byproducts of the treatment systems.

Public Involvement and Education

Hood Canal Coordinating Council – $160,000 The Council will assess new septic system technologies and educate shoreline residents about the technologies in collaboration with other organizations. The Council will also determine if economic incentives can be used to improve onsite sewage treatment and water quality. The Washington Department of Ecology is funding $120,000 and the Action Team is funding $40,000 of this project.

University of Washington Sea Grant – $45,000 and Washington State University Jefferson County Extension – $45,000. The university programs will educate and recognize people who own property along shorelines for their efforts to keep fertilizer and pesticides on their lawns and gardens and out of the canal. The university programs will also work with homeowners with onsite sewage systems and educate them in steps to get and keep the systems in good working order.

Kitsap County Health District – $44,000 The health district will perform shoreline surveys and collect samples of water and nutrients to check pollution along a portion of Kitsap County’s Hood Canal shoreline. Staff will use the results to identify sources of pollution, such as septic systems that aren’t working properly and agricultural manure, and then they will work with property owners to fix the problems by offering free technical assistance.

Rep. Dicks worked with Congress to appropriate $500,000 and the Washington State Legislature appropriated $100,000 for these awards. For the Action Team funding, a total of 31 proposals requested $2.1 million to undertake innovative and effective projects to help improve the canal’s oxygen levels.