Blog Posts

What can we learn from outside the Tenmile Creek watershed that will help us understand things closer to home? A ‘bird’s eye’ view, so to speak. Well there are no great revelations here, but it’s all informative nevertheless.

First, some good news!
Drayton Harbor shellfish harvest upgrade:

Effective Oct 22, a new area of 765 acres is approved for commercial shellfish harvest in Drayton Harbor! This brings the total to more than 1500 acres, after marine water sampling, extended over time, indicated sustained improvement.  The reclassification of the shellfish growing area reflects the Drayton Harbor watershed community’s commitment to finding & fixing preventable sources of human & animal bacteria pollution. So how we mark such important milestones?

Shellebration of course!

Join the community and celebrate the three-year anniversary of reopened shellfish harvesting in Drayton Harbor:
Friday, Dec 13th, 4 to 6:00 p.m. at the H Street Plaza located in downtown Blaine, right next to Drayton Harbor Oysters – so stay and have some more!
This free event will include refreshments, oyster samples courtesy of the Drayton Harbor Oysters, and the presentation of community awards at 4:30 p.m.
We will be outdoors (!!) so be sure and bring all the layers you need!

Finally, a look at Nooksack River
water quality issues, watershed-wide.

This link displays the monthly E-news from Whatcom County PIC Program (Pollution, Identification & Correction). Our monthly water quality sampling is part of this program. You can register here to receive this monthly e-news by email.
Embedded in this month’s issue is a good water quality summary of the Portage Bay shellfish beds, a focus for the PIC Program and our work. E.g. this image:This map shows routinely-monitored sample points in the shellfish beds, which lie just south of the Nooksack River estuary, where fresh water flows into Bellingham Bay. Colored dots summarize fecal bacteria sample results for the fall period (Oct-Dec) for the last 5 years. Red indicates sample points that have exceeded the 90th-percentile water quality standard for human consumption of harvested shellfish. (This standard tracks the ‘spikes’ in high bacteria levels – different than the overall averages.) These high bacteria levels continue to keep Portage Bay beds closed to harvesting during the fall period – all of which explains the emphasis and extra scrutiny throughout the lowland Nooksack watershed during this time!
There is also a monthly data summary for the Nooksack basin,
which you can download here.

‘April showers bring May flowers’ …

Thus begins a familiar proverb. So, what do October showers bring? In the Nooksack lowlands, all too often our soaking rains act to flush contaminants off surface areas into the River and its tributaries, like Tenmile Creek. Typically, material from the ground, gutters, ditches, paved areas, animal lots, trees, etc gets washed into the creek. Here are some observations lately from our lower Tenmile watershed.

Our regular sample run in October occurred on the 22nd, coinciding with 2.5 inches of rain over 24 hours; and that came after 5 straight days of intermittent showers, which had the river gauge peaking later that day. The result had our creek running fast, deep and muddy. Lab results for the day confirmed a pattern repeated across the county: many sites reporting excessive levels of fecal bacteria well above water quality standards. (See our other recent post about September results, here.)

Another notable condition that day is reported by our dauntless volunteer out there collecting samples… “An odd anomaly occurs when the Nooksack River reaches a certain level: lower Tenmile Creek flows upstream. This can be observed where the creek flows under the Barrett Road bridge.”
(seen here a previous year, similar conditions)“Upstream, east of the bridge, Barrett Lake lies below the river when it runs high, so during major rain events water flows into Barrett Lake from both the landscape upstream, and the river downstream.” In these conditions, the usual creek sample drawn at the bridge (identified as ‘T1’) will show conditions in the river, not the creek.

Now as a footnote, we must admit there are side-benefits to the often-challenging task of collecting water samples from the creek. For example, in the midst of all the rain & bad news about what’s in the water, the day’s intrepid volunteer reports this:

Any sample day without rain is appreciated, but today is particularly nice.
Sun breaks show on fall colors, with dark purple clouds in the background. Especially bright is the crimson foliage
on blueberry fields.
And even though it is super slippery after all the rain, at least I don’t have to deal with spiders everywhere.

(Photo: Wikimedia Commons)