Deschutes Watershed

Place

Places are locations in the landscape recognized by people

Regions

• Admiralty Inlet
• Chehalis River Basin
• Comox Coast
• Discovery Islands
• East Sound
• Fraser Lowlands
• Gulf Islands
• Hood Canal
• Qualicum Coast
• San Juan Islands
• South Puget Sound
• South Vancouver Island
• Strait of Juan de Fuca
• Sunshine Coast
• West Sound
• Whidbey Basin

Salish Sea References

• Watershed Characterization Mapper
• The Encyclopedia of Puget Sound
• PRISM Project Search
• Washington Coastal Atlas
• WDFW's Salmonscape Map

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"The Deschutes River is one of the largest streams in Thurston County, flowing over 57 miles from its forested headwaters to Puget Sound. The watershed that drains into the river includes a variety of land uses, including timber and agricultural lands, as well as developed areas within the cities of Olympia and Tumwater. While the Deschutes River currently supports a variety of wildlife habitat and recreational uses, it also suffers from ongoing pollution concerns. The river is listed under the federal Clean Water Act for dissolved oxygen, fecal coliform, temperature, pH, and fine sediment, and is the subject of a state-coordinated cleanup plan. Nutrient levels in the Deschutes contribute to pollution issues in Capitol Lake (which is the Deschutes Estuary), and it is considered a major contributor to low dissolved oxygen levels in Budd Inlet. Anticipated future development in the watershed could exacerbate water quality issues." - Thurston County, 2017 (with parentheses added)

Notes

• The Deschutes Watershed flows into the Deschutes Delta which anchors the Budd Inlet Ecosystem.
• Thurston County has prepared a Deschutes Watershed Land Use Analysis
• That work has resulted in a current conditions and development scenarios report and maps set[1]
• WRIA 13 completed a watershed plan between 1999 to 2004 that was never ratified with materials archived by Thurston County.
• Thurston County completed a land use study of the Deschutes watershed and approved findings in 2016 and created a document archive
• Ecology completed a watershed streamflow restoration study in response to the Hirst Decision
  • Materials are archived at an EZ-View page
  • As part of that process, Squaxin Island Tribe hired Confluence to complete a coho salmon recovery strategy, published in 2015.
• SPSSEG has initiated work on high value spawning areas in the upper watershed.
  • They published a story map.
• WRIA 13 Salmon Recovery Lead Entity is now housed at Thurston Regional Planning Council.
• County Webpage summarizing information about the basin.
• Ecology Deschutes TMDL - Deschutes watershed multi-parameter TMDL
• Deschutes Watershed Characterization Report (2011) by Thurston County.

Chronology

• 2023 - Legislature provides DES $7M to complete design for restoration of the Deschutes Estuary
• 2021 - Publication of draft watershed plan for SRFB review in response to the Hirst Decision
• 2020 - Publication of TMDL by EPA following revision.
• 2015 - Publication of a draft TMDL study of the watershed by Ecology.
• 2016 - County commissioners approve a land use study.
• 2015 - Squaxin Island Tribe drafts coho recovery strategy for the watershed.
• 1999 - Beginning of watershed planning

Questions

• How does the TMDL compel the County, State and Cities (including LOTT to change nutrient pollution.

the level of oxygen gas present in water, indicating its ability to support aquatic life.

bacteria associated with feces that indicate the likelihood that drinking water will cause a bacterial infection.

particles of clay, silt, sand, gravel, or cobble, transported by water, are called sediment.