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King County WaterWorks Grants Available

January 28, 2021

King County’s Wastewater Treatment Division is offering $2.2 million in funding for community-driven projects through its WaterWorks Grant Program, for projects that will help protect water quality, control pollution, and build […]

Grants
Low Impact Development
Press Release

Puget Sound Recovery – All Day Toxics in Puget Sound Workshop

January 19, 2021

Join us on February 5th for an all-day science workshop featuring short talks by researchers including Dr. John Stark and Dr. Jennifer McIntyre, synthesis presentations, and showcases of emerging research […]

Press Release
Puget Sound Initiative
Research

Puget Sound Recovery – All Day Toxics in Puget Sound Workshop

Join us on February 5th for an all-day science workshop featuring short talks by researchers including Dr. John Stark and Dr. Jennifer McIntyre, synthesis presentations, and showcases of emerging research projects. This is a free event from the Stormwater Strategic Initiative Lead Team with funding support from The US EPA. Please RSVP to Heidi Siegelbaum and stay tuned for details on the next workshop in this series where you’ll learn about what’s being done now, what could be done, and how to help inform future priorities to avoid and reduce toxins in the Puget Sound.

Toxics Workshop Flyer

Register Here

WSC Municipal Stormwater Talks: Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Projects Regional Model

Presenter: David Jackson, Community Conservation Program Manager, Snohomish Conservation District

The community conservation team is a team within the Snohomish conservation district (SCD) focusing on green stormwater infrastructure, urban agriculture, and other urban and suburban conservation efforts. We employ a team of veterans from the veterans’ conservation corps (VCC) to install our GSI (Green Stormwater Infrastructure) projects. We have enjoyed local and regional success in GSI installations and creating community partnerships.

The regional stormwater action team was a grant from the DOE (Dept. of Ecology) and the Washington Conservation Commission. The grant’s goal was to take lessons in stormwater from SCD and other districts and introduce them regionally to increase capacity in other districts. Increasing capacity, in this case, was done through consultation, training, and demonstration project installations. Project installations were carried out in partner district areas, using the VCC and paid for by the grant, and included residential and commercial GSI installations.

With the implementation portion of the project completed, we are hopeful that the increased connections and capacity in partner CDs (Conservation District) will continue, and that we can all continue to build regional resilience in stormwater.

The presentation will cover the basics of the grant that allowed us to do with work, the districts we partnered with, the projects that were completed, the lessons learned, and the next steps we are hoping to take. We hope that this will help inform others of these resources and facilitate regional planning.

If you’re interested in attending this event please contact Laurie Larson-Pugh for meeting ID and password.

Tire-related chemical is largely responsible for adult coho salmon deaths in urban streams

December 03, 2020

Every fall more than half of the coho salmon that return to Puget Sound’s urban streams die before they can spawn. In some streams, all of them die. But scientists […]

Press Release
Research

Strategic Action Monitoring (SAM) Bioretention Project Results for Bioretention Hydroloigic Performance Study II by Bill Taylor

Presentation – Bioretention Performance Monitoring and Modeling Results of Constructed Projects throughout the Puget Sound Basin

Register Now

Study Team:

Bill Taylor, Taylor Aquatic Science
Doug Beyerlein, Clear Creek Solutions
Jenny Saltonstall, Associated Earth Sciences, Inc.
Bryan Berkompas, Aspect Consulting
Anne Cline, PLA, Raedeke Associates, Inc.

Through the SAM funding process, supported by Western Washington permittees, our team has been conducting hydrologic monitoring, infiltration studies, plant community development, and modeling comparison of ten newly designed and built bioretention projects throughout the Puget Sound Basin.

We will present our recently compiled findings and recommendations to jurisdictions for improved design plan review, inspection, and expected bioretention performance. These findings will cover actual measured field results from:

  • Hydrologic response
  • Infiltration studies
  • Bioretention media composition
  • Plant community composition and survival
  • Comparison of measured hydrology to modeled predictions
    using the new WWHM 2012 Bioretention Module

Toxics in Fish- A Strategy Waiting for You

November 10, 2020

 Fixing the past and offering future opportunities  Toxics in fish. How did the toxics get there? What happens to fish and people when they are contaminated? How can we correct past […]

Puget Sound Initiative

Pierce County COVID-19 Vehicle Adaptation

October 29, 2020

When COVID-19 became a part of our daily lives we were all forced to adapt. For Pierce County O&M Division Maintenance Manager Jeff Campbell that meant retrofitting vehicles used by […]

Municipal

Northwest Climate Conference

The NW Climate Conference brings together more than 500 researchers and practitioners from around the region to discuss scientific results, challenges and solutions related to the impacts of climate on people, natural resources, and infrastructure in the Northwest. The conference also provides a forum for presenting emerging policy and management goals, as well as information needs related to regional climate impacts and adaptation. Conference participants include policy- and decision-makers, resource managers, and scientists from academia, public agencies, sovereign tribal nations, non-governmental organizations, and the private sector.  Registration date TBD

Social Marketing SPARKS Conference

The SPARKS conference is a two-day event. The first day features social marketing experts speaking on behavior change related to some of the most urgent issues we face, including public health, injury prevention, environmental health and protection, and community well-being in the Pacific Northwest. The second day includes in-depth training on social marketing strategies used to tackle these issues.

Register Here

Member (Two-day conference) – $85

Non-Member (Two-day conference) – $135

Student (Two-day conference) – $50