Hood Canal's 'Dead Sea' - meeting today 6pm

[pdxkevin]

'Dead sea' feared for Hood Canal
Locke, Dicks pursue federal, state money to help stem oxygen depletion



If Bob Hagar's lawn isn't as green and weed-free as others along Hood Canal's Lynch Cove, it's for good reason.
He's trying to keep the oxygen- starved Hood Canal from turning into a "dead sea."

"I don't fertilize my lawn and I maintain my septic system," Hagar said of his individual efforts to reduce the amount of nutrient pollution entering Hood Canal.

The Belfair-area resident was in Olympia on Monday to hear Gov. Gary Locke and U.S. Democratic Rep. Norm Dicks -- another Hood Canal resident when he's not in Washington, D.C. -- pledge financial and political support to reverse a worsening problem of low dissolved oxygen levels in the fjord-like, 60-mile-long arm of Puget Sound.

Since November, Dicks has secured $850,000 in federal money to assess the pollution sources and to start work to correct them.

"Hood Canal is on life support, and we need to begin treatment now to revive it," he said. Dicks said he will seek $3 million in the 2005 federal budget to finance a sophisticated computer model to analyze the various causes of the low oxygen levels, which show no signs of letting up.

Natural conditions and human sources contribute to the problem, researchers say. Failing septic tanks, stormwater runoff, lawn fertilizers, livestock waste and pet waste are all adding to the nutrient load that feeds plankton and algae blooms, which decompose and rob the water of oxygen.

Compounding the problem are the canal's poor water circulation and slow flushing time, as well as changes in ocean conditions that influence how much oxygen is in the water.

Low oxygen levels led to fish kills and fishing closures this past fall.

Dissolved oxygen levels in Lynch Cove near Hagar's home hovered around 0.5 parts per million in January, a perilously low level for marine life and the lowest January reading on record for Lynch Cove....

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