From: streamkeepers

Sent: Wednesday, March 09, 2005 11:04 AM

Subject: Streamkeepers' fecal sampling sites & scheduling--please advise

Dear Streamkeepers advisors:

In order to fill out a grant application, we seek your recommendations re: fecal sampling sites & scheduling for the biennium beginning July 1.

Our fecal sampling is performed by a special Streamkeepers team that goes out on a grab-sample round once per quarter, generally taking one sample and recording the air (and in some cases water) temperature from near the mouth of each of the following streams--generally speaking, the ones we have been monitoring for water-chemistry on a regular basis:

Jimmycomelately

Johnson

Bell

Cassalery

Siebert

Bagley

Morse

Lees

Ennis--plus some additional upstream sites on Ennis & White Creeks for the City of Port Angeles

Peabody--plus some additional upstream sites for the City of Port Angeles

Valley--plus some additional upstream sites for the City of Port Angeles

Tumwater--plus some additional upstream sites for the City of Port Angeles

Bear (Sol Duc)

Lake (Sol Duc)

Elk

Now, here are the questions:

1. Would you recommend that we change/add/subtract streams/sites/frequency?

2. We currently don't measure flow when we grab fecal samples. Should we start doing this at some/all of our sites? (Even if the stream has an automated gage?)

Here's some background information:

A. We've been paying for Streamkeepers' lab work ($25 per sample) with a WDFW grant, and the City of PA pays for theirs. We're applying to continue our grant for the next biennium, and we need to project how much sampling we'll do.

B. In addition to the above grant, we've applied for a big state Centennial grant which would include a comprehensive rewrite of our fecal sampling plan, to be implemented this fall. But we probably won't find out about the grant until May or June.

C. Val Streeter has grant money to pay for monthly fecal coliform sample analysis for Bell, Johnson, Golden Sands, Cooper, Meadowbrook, Dungeness River, Matriotti, Siebert, Bagley, Morse, Lees, Ennis, Peabody, Valley, Tumwater, and Dry Creeks in addition to camping locations next to rivers in the West end. Each sample will also include a measurement of flow. She still has to write the QAPP but hopes to start soon. Streamkeepers will be doing a considerable amount of this sampling.

D. If we measure flow at all of our sampling sites, we may have to reduce the number of sites we sample at, unless we are able to recruit a bigger fecal sampling team.

E. It's not clear if the current fecal team would be willing to increase their sampling frequency from quarterly to monthly. They probably would, but it would probably require a fair amount of staff time to make sure things were on track each month.

FYI, we've attached a summary of our fecal data, as well as a badly-formatted compendium of our raw data.

Thanks, Ed & Hannah