Henderson Inlet effectiveness monitoring

Henderson Inlet, located at the south end of Puget Sound, hosts productive shellfish beds and recreation. However, historically poor water quality led to beach and shellfish-harvest closures.

Thurston County, the cities of Lacey and Olympia, and Thurston Conservation District carried out a range of projects to tackle this water quality problem. These projects aimed to reduce potential sources of fecal contamination like residential wastewater, stormwater, pet waste, and agricultural runoff.

Meanwhile, we monitored water quality in streams throughout the Henderson Inlet watershed to study the effectiveness of these projects. We found that fecal coliform levels in Woodland and Woodard Creeks declined over the timeframe of these projects, despite increases in local population and development.