Salmon-Drift Creek Watershed Council

"Protecting And Restoring Local Watersheds"

Water Quality

The small coastal watersheds within the Salmon River to Drift Creek watersheds vary in condition but several have significant water quality problems that impact valuable ecosystems and salmon populations. Most of the water quality problems within these watersheds are due to non-point-source pollution. This means that issues are not due to pollution coming out of a particular pipe, for example, but rather to land-use, landscape-level, or problems such as malfunctioning septic tanks.

Several severe problems have been highlighted by our data. In the 2009 data, all sites dipped below a pH of 6.5 in late summers and fall. The Salmon River system suffers from temperature, bacteria, and turbidity issues. Its tributary, Panther Creek shows an enormous amount of bacteria, E. Coli occasionally above 2,400 (off the scale,) most likely due to failing septic systems. Devils Lake had extremely high temperatures throughout the summer, even on the bottom of the lake, which is a detriment to its potential as summer refuge for Coho salmon. Rock Creek is a cooler tributary, but has bacteria issues in the lower section, possibly due to livestock. Schooner Creek is consistently of high temperature, 7 day average maximums above 18°C (statewide standard) for around a month and consistently above 13°C (spawning standard) throughout the summer. At the Schooner Creek bridge below the sewer treatment plant, total coliforms measured out of range above 2,400. Drift Creek has very high temperatures, 18-20°C average maximums for 2 months running and above 13°C in the summer. Drift Creek also shows high bacteria at multiple sites where the total coliform numbers were occasionally above 2400.

The watershed council has monitored these conditions since 2001 with the aim of providing a baseline of data and identifying problem areas. Some of the problem areas have been listed as impaired waters, as defined by section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. For 303(d) listed waters, the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality is required to establish Total Maximum Daily Load standards (TMDL)s that establish the maximum amount of a pollutant that the waterbody can receive while still meeting water quality standards. DEQ is currently working with our council and other stakeholders to define these TMDLs for our area. The next step is to develop implementation plans to meet the TMDL goals and a Designated Management Agency (DMA) that will be responsible for implementation. For example, in an private forested area the DMA might be the Oregon Department of Forestry.

We don't need to wait for the TMDL process to be completed before we can act to improve the waterquality in our basins. Many of our projects will directly or indirectly improve waterquality conditions and some of them target obvious problems. For instance planting trees along a river will help eventually decrease the temperatures in the stream. There are several important things that you can do to help the water quality of our streams and lake:

Have your septic system inspected and maintained regularly (every 2-5 years depending on use and system type.)
Plant native trees and shrubs, especially near streams or stormdrains; install a raingarden to treat runoff
Don't allow animal feces from your pets to remain on the ground
Talk to your neighbors and friends about their septic systems
Conserve water, especially in the summer.
Report any problems that you notice, such as failing septics, illegal dumps, erosion issues, or removal of vegetation next to a body of water.

More details on our water quality monitoring program and the data we've collected are here:

Salmon-Drift Creek Watershed Council

Salmon-Drift Creek Watershed Council

"Protecting And Restoring Local Watersheds"

Water Quality

SDCWC water quality reports (large pdfs)