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The greater Port Angeles Harbor Ecosystem is a group of Coastal Watersheds along the Strait of Juan de Fuca and includes Ediz Spit a massive Barrier Beach and the watersheds of Peabody, Tumwater, Valley and Ennis Creeks, some of which extend into Olympic National Park. The Elwha Watershed is to the West, and Dungeness Watershed is to the East. The Elwha Drift Cell landform is included because of its importance in sustaining Ediz Hook. Port Angeles Harbor itself is entirely within the City of Port Angeles, and so is governed by City shoreline master planning and comprehensive planning. It is also a Model Toxics Control Act cleanup site as well as a Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act site under Natural Resource Damage Assessment. The Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe has strong interest in the harbor, as well as the Jamestown S'Klallam Tribe.
Local Ecosystem Planning[edit]
The City of Port Angeles submitted their proposed Shoreline Master Program update to Department of Ecology in June 2012, following local approval. The city worked in conjunction with the department of ecology on numerous changes and additions that were needed to complete the Program. On September 3rd, 2014 the City received a complete list of changes required by the Department of Ecology. The following final document contains those changes. The City Council accepted the changes required by the Department of Ecology and locally adopted the Shoreline Master Program on October 21st, 2014.
The Shoreline Master Program will influence what uses and future development are allowed in shoreline areas. The Locally Adopted SMP includes a new system of Shoreline Environment Designations. Vegetation Conservation Areas are identified by shoreline reach, which is also a change from the city's current SMP. The SMP must ensure protection of currently intact waterfront habitat including beaches and bluffs, forests, and sand spits.
- File:Port Angeles Harbor Planning Committee 2011 harbor resource management plan.pdf - describes the results of a multi-resource planning effort intended to inform the SMP process.
- File:Port Angeles 2014 shoreline restoration plan.pdf is an appendix of the ratified shoreline management plan.
- File:Peterson et al 2015 climate change preparedness plan.pdf describes risks and priorities for responding to climate change impacts
- City of Port Angeles has initiated a Climate Resilience Plan process with a webpage.
- The 2016 comprehensive plan update included goals and policy changes File:Peterson et al 2015 climate preparedness north olympic peninsula.pdf
- Futurewise has initiated work to evaluate daylighting lower Valley Creek through the Greenlink Program - http://www.futurewise.org/projects/greenlink-port-angeles
MTCA Cleanup and Natural Resource Damage Assessment[edit]
Areas of harbor-adjacent soils and the marine benthos are affected by dumping and release of wood waste as well as hazardous substances such as PAHs, PCBs, and Heavy Metals.
- NOAA website and article of western harbor settlement
- Ecology Cleanup and NRDA page
- SAIC 1999 describes large scale degradation of sediments by log booming operations. Wood waste has long term impacts on subtidal surfaces.
- Steding 2012 describes the challenge of wood waste impacts in Port Angeles Harbor, as a legal and technical example.
Biological Assessment[edit]
- Haring 1999 describes limiting factors for salmon and steelhead in Ennis, Peabody, Valley and Tumwater creeks
- Valley Creek has been a focus of restoration with estuary reconstruction in 1998. McHenry & Odenweller 1998 describes a conceptual restoration plan. Downstream of highway 101 conditions are hostile to salmon with extensive steep culverts and channel confinement. The system has no less than 30% impervious surface with low wood levels. Salmonids except cutthroat have been extirpated. There is no reported monitoring of Valley Creek estuary use.
- Tumwater Creek is also affected by urban development with extensive head cutting with winter turbidity. Smolt trapping by WDFW in 1998 found coho and steelhead. The system is extensively modified below 8th street (described as a "shotgun barrel"). Peabody Creek is also severely damaged.
- Ennis Creek is the smallest of snow-fed streams in the North Olympic, with headwaters in the National Park. Smolt trapping by WDFW in 1998 found Steelhead the most abundant salmonid. White creek is a lowland tributary to Ennis Creek, which has been extensively damaged by urbanization. Peninsula College calculated juvenile salmonid densities for coho, steelhead and cutthroat. Wood abundance is generally poor below RM 3.0. Channel above RM 3.0 is often bedrock and cobble with gravel accumulation dependent on wood structure. Highway 101 runoff is poorly controlled. Fecal loading has been high in the past with observed direct sewer discharge.
Shoreline Armoring[edit]
- Haring 1999 reported that:
- approximately 90% of the shoreline between Morse Creek and the Elwha River has been armored.
- construction of a shoreline trail east of Port Angeles on the old railroad grade retained armoring.
- in 1930 an industrial water line was buried and armored along feeder bluffs up drift of Ediz Hood, reducing sediment supply from 270,000 yards per year to 40,000 yards per year, potentially affecting the integrity of Ediz Hook. This has resulted in reduced growth of the distal bulb and observable steepening and coarsening of the beach face.
- Galster & Swartz 1990 provides a case study of Ediz Hook management, and provides estimates of sediment source and rate.
