NCWA Water Monitoring Expansion and Data Analysis

The North Coast Watershed Association (NCWA) seeks to enhance our water quality monitoring program by including flow and fecal bacteria monitoring and to interpret our existing long-term temperature data. Sites are located within the Skipanon, Nicolai-Wikiup, Youngs Bay, and Ecola Creek watersheds.

In 2021 Clatsop County partnered with the Association of Oregon Counties and SeaGrant to assess local water information needs. They identified a lack of water quality and quantity data and systems where existing data is difficult to find. State, Local, and Federal agencies do not have the capacity to conduct comprehensive testing throughout all watersheds or to conduct detailed interpretation of results. In addition Community Action Team Inc. (CAT) now has funding to help Clatsop and Tillamook County residents upgrade failing septic systems. NCWAs fecal bacteria testing can help hone their outreach efforts.

From May-October 2025-26 the NCWA will take continuous stream height measurements and monthly velocity readings at 3 sites to determine flows and conduct bi-monthly E. coli/total coliform testing at 13 sites. Salinity will be measured at all site visits. This will serve as a pilot program with the intent of building monitoring capacity within the NCWA through staff experience and training, volunteer recruitment, and engagement of project partners. Temperature data trend analysis will be conducted by the long time Project Manager who will receive additional training in data analysis and the Executive Director; this will inform how to move forward with both monitoring and restoration efforts. Our partners include Clatsop County, CAT, Tillamook Estuary Partnership (TEP), Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ), Oregon Water Resources Department (OWRD), ODFW and Clatsop Community College (CCC).

Data from this project will be shared with project partners to fill persistent data gaps, the public, and used to inform restoration and management decisions.

This project aims to monitor water quantity/flow at 3 sites and fecal bacteria content at 13 sites throughout the summers of 2025-26, and to conduct a trend analysis on the NCWAs long-term temperature data. There is very little flow data in the NCWAs service area which encompasses popular summer vacation areas such as Cannon Beach and quickly-expanding municipalities like Warrenton which depend on ground and surface water resources. Data collected in this project will begin to provide a baseline of data on streams that provide drinking water to the City of Astoria and the City of Warrenton as well as the Klaskanine Hatchery, keeping a finger on the pulse of the quantity of water we have for salmon as well as for human use. Low water quantity can exacerbate issues such as rising temperatures and reduce habitat connectivity. Astoria is the oldest US settlement west of the Rockies and many aging homes in rural areas rely on septic systems to dispose of household wastewater. Community Action Team (CAT) currently has funding from Oregon DEQ to assist homeowners to replace failing septic systems, but they are struggling to find people who could benefit from this funding. NCWAs bacteria monitoring will not only provide valuable information about habitat conditions for salmonids but also to CAT which can reach out to land owners about their septic systems which may be contributing to this issue. Finally, the NCWA has been conducting summer temperature monitoring at 9 sites since 2016, 5 sites since 2017, and 8 sites since 2018 for a total of 22 sites. In both 2021 and 2022 one site was added to total 24 monitoring sites. By 2025 most of the first 22 sites will have 8 years of data, which is DEQs standard for long-term data (some sites may not due to lost temperature loggers, resulting in missing data). This long term data will be analyzed for trends through this project, which the NCWA will use to hone the future of our monitoring efforts as well as to target projects to mitigate rising temperatures.