By Aurorian Pate. Aurorian is a senior at Western Washington University studying Environmental Science and Environmental Policy.
When I first arrived in Bellingham, Taylor Dock was one of the first places I explored. It was early spring, and the boardwalk was bustling with people, there were sailboats floating on the glittering shore, and a few brave (and apprehensive) kids plunging into the bay. This gathering place was my first impression of the city and its people, and I felt the sense of community that this dock held. As residents of Bellingham Bay, we all share the golden sunsets, busy streets, and stormwater drainage systems. The city of Bellingham’s impact on the Bay is a collective responsibility we all share, and the status of the Bay tells a larger story of the city’s future development and the marine ecosystem’s health.
Stormwater drainage: Aging systems, limited pollution testing
The City of Bellingham’s sewer system is over 100 years old and consists of 300 miles of pipelines that extend beyond city limits. The City is responsible for those 300 miles of main lines and the 19,000 connected side lines are the responsibility of private property owners. Gray water from our homes is diverted to the Post Point Wastewater Treatment Plant in Fairhaven. But stormwater drainage that flows through our streets is directly sent to Bellingham Bay at various outposts. The City of Bellingham’s mitigation efforts for managing stormwater before it enters the bay include natural and artificial retention systems. Greenspaces can help naturally filter water before it enters the bay, but impervious surfaces like concrete and roofs quickly send water into our street drains before various pollutants can be filtered. The City of Bellingham is not required to monitor its stormwater, and stormwater drainage is currently the biggest source of pollution in Bellingham Bay.
Monitoring stormwater drainage pollution is very costly, and with the treatment plant’s capacity limits, the influx of stormwater can cause overflow of raw sewage directly into the Bay. The City’s infrastructure still has connections between stormwater and sewer lines, and after rainfall events are typically when high levels of E. coli are reported. However, at the Bennett Creek outfall along Taylor Dock, the overall trend of E. coli levels is not always directly correlated to rainfall, and occurs even in dry periods. An interactive map can be found here to view recent water quality levels along the Bay.
Kirsten McDade, the North Sound Waterkeeper at RE Sources is a part of the Waterkeeper Alliance that upholds the United States Clean Water Act. She monitors the water quality of the Salish Sea and conducts community outreach programs like beach cleanups and a volunteer program for community scientists. McDade said the atypical E. coli trend levels could be linked to decaying infrastructure that leads to sewage leaks on private property sidelines. Considering most pipeline infrastructure is underground, it is very difficult to pinpoint the source of pollution that leads into our shared Bellingham Bay. Testing is limited to the outfalls due to the enclosed infrastructure and the restricted access of manhole covers, which are typically only accessible to city employees rather than community volunteers.
Because pollution levels at the outputs are always changing and testing is conducted at limited sites, it is difficult to establish an overall status of water quality in the Bay. RE Source’s conducted a three year long, monthly data collection from 2021-2023 of Bennett Creek’s mean levels of E. coli in stormwater output. Its mean levels were 500 cfu/100 mL, this was 5 times higher than Padden Creek, the second highest contaminated site for E. coli bacteria. For reference, a maximum safe output is considered to be 100 cfu/100 mL. Chronic levels of bacteria contamination in the bay pose safety issues for recreational activities and for marine life.
Swimming in the bay after recent rainfall is not recommended, and if you are immuno- compromised or have an open wound, you could be more vulnerable to an E. coli infection. Stormwater pollution affects marine life at all levels of the food chain in the Salish Sea- from small shellfish, salmon, and orcas-who have been in the news lately due to population concerns. Shellfish and small invertebrates are filter feeders, they absorb pollutants in the water, this buildup accumulates in the shellfish and impacts populations. Accumulation of pollutants in shellfish also impacts industries as this can lead to shellfish being unsafe for human consumption. Going up the food chain, fish that consume contaminated filter feeders also accumulate these toxins in their tissues and reduce reproductive success. Salmon populations have been struggling to maintain stable populations, with a widespread impact on Indigenous communities, fishing industries, and marine ecosystem stability. In 2020, the University of Washington discovered that a chemical from rubber tires was contributing to salmon deaths; this chemical was entering water systems through stormwater drainage. As for the Southern Resident orcas that travel through the Puget Sound, their populations are at an all time low due to sound pollution, prey availability, and the further accumulation of pollutants that impact reproductive success.
With the cumulative impacts of stormwater drainage pollution in the Bay, how can we mitigate the impacts of today and reduce pollution moving forward? There are a few ways you can mitigate your own contributions, but with so much impervious infrastructure in place, technical solutions and future city planning with green infrastructure are what the city is capable of implementing at this time.
McDade noted, “The city has a new urban forestry plan which is very optimistic, they’re going for the upper limit of about 45% canopy cover. Planting trees across the landscape is great. But one of the main issues with Bellingham and all cities is that the worst stormwater pollution is in areas that have the most impervious surfaces. The newer developments that we have in Bellingham have much better stormwater systems. Looking further down the road, there are some council members that are interested in writing in city code that building [developments] need to do a certain amount of restoration, if they’re going to tear it down and build a new one, we set those [boundaries] back. We can’t just tear down the buildings and rebuild, but as we need to replace them, we need to make renovations. We need more filters along those creeks. All four of our big urban creeks, they need more space.”
When we visit Taylor Dock and walk along the wooden planks, looking down at the water beneath us or the horizon beyond, we may not realize how connected to the land we really are. Or the people we pass by on the docks, many faces of many ages, all enjoying a common space. To laugh, to recreate, or to be still amongst the churning waters and breaking winds. Even if you don’t frequent the dock, we all are simultaneously influencing our environment and in return influencing it back. Being informed about what is happening in your community and understanding the larger implications on global systems is critical. I was told once that if you want to save the world, you should start in your own backyard. This couldn’t be more true for the City of Bellingham and its residents.
References
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Friends of the Salish Sea. (n.d.). The stormwater monitoring project. Retrieved
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RE Sources. (n.d.). North Sound Waterkeeper. Retrieved from https://www.re-
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RE Sources. (2023). How healthy is Bellingham stormwater? Retrieved from
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Water Reporter. (n.d.). Interactive map of water quality in Bellingham Bay.
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