During wintertime there are particularly high tides around Fidalgo Island. At some of the shoreline outfalls the stormwater pipe is engulfed in these high tides and seawater flows into the pipe. This can make for inaccurate measurements of pollution indicators. Seawater could be mixed with outflowing stormwater and indicate water quality problems that do not really exist.
Our team devised a way to measure the stormwater further uphill from the shoreline outfall. Diane Hennebert, the City of Anacortes stormwater manager, works with our volunteers. Diane pulls manhole covers so our team members can take samples.
On this day they find out how far up the stormwater pipe network the seawater has intruded.
