The face of the landscape in western Washington is rapidly changing. As our population has grown, our forested landscapes have changed to developed landscapes that have increased the amount of impervious surfaces, such as rooftops, driveways, roads, landscaped areas, and parking areas, as well as compromised fish and wildlife habitat. Impervious surfaces increase the amount of water running off the land, which ends up delivering pollutants such as oils, pesticides, pet wastes, sediment, and heavy metals to our waterways. Other impacts from increased storm water runoff include: flooding; erosion and stream scouring; siltation of streambeds; reduced recharge of groundwater; and insufficient stream-flow during late summer and early fall. Increased storm water runoff is one of the primary causes of water quality and aquatic habitat degradation in this region.
Dark and light orange denote a rapid rateof population growth while yellow and green denote the slowest rates of population growth.
Washington State University (WSU) Extension provides a range of programs to educate key audiences on ways to reduce storm water or mitigate its impacts. One program, the "Water Resource Education Program for Real Estate Professionals" educates developers and real estate professionals on how to avoid increasing storm water runoff from sites as they are developed, as well as provide certified clock hours toward their professional license renewals. These programs provide developers and real estate professionals with a background in water resource issues so they can make informed and environmentally suitable decisions regarding development practices, as well as educate their clientele about land stewardship, water quality, and aquatic habitat issues.

Pacific Northwest Regional Water Quality Coordination Project Partners Land Grant Universities Alaska Cooperative Extension Service Contact Fred Sorensen: 907-786-6311 http://www.uaf.edu/ces/water/index.html University Publications: http://www.alaska.edu/uaf/ces/publications/ Idaho University of Idaho Cooperative Extension System Contact Bob Mahler: 208-885-7025 http://www.uidaho.edu/wq/wqhome.html University Publications: http://info.ag.uidaho.edu/Catalog/catalog.html Oregon Oregon State University Extension Service Contact Mike Gamroth: 541-737-3316 http://extension.oregonstate.edu/ University Publications: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/ Washington Washington State University WSU Extension Contact Bob Simmons: 360-427-9670 ext. 690 http://wawater.wsu.edu/ University Publications: http://pubs.wsu.edu/ Northwest Indian College Contact Michael Cochrane: 360-392-4299 mcochrane@nwic.edu or http://www.nwic.edu/ Water Resource Research Institutes Water and Environmental Research Center (Alaska) http://www.uaf.edu/water/ Idaho Water Resources Research Institute http://www.boise.uidaho.edu/ Institute for Water and Watersheds (Oregon) http://water.oregonstate.edu/ State of Washington Water Research Center http://www.swwrc.wsu.edu/ Environmental Protection Agency EPA, Region 10 The Pacific Northwest http://www.epa.gov/r10earth/ Office of Research and Development, Corvallis Laboratory http://www.epa.gov/wed/ For more information contact Jan Seago at 206-553-0038 or seago.jan@epa.gov
	The Project Land Grant Universities, Water Research Institutes and EPA Region 10 have formed a partnership to provide research and education to communities about protecting or restoring the quality of water resources. This partnership is being supported in part by the USDA’s Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension System (CSREES). Our Goal and Approach The goal of this Project is to provide leadership for water resources research, education and outreach to help people, industry and governments to prevent and solve current and emerging water quality and quantity problems. The approach to achieving this goal is for the Partners to develop a coordinated regional water quality effort based on, and strengthening, individual state programs. Our Strengths The Project promotes regional collaboration by acknowledging existing programs and successful efforts; assessing program gaps; identifying potential issues for cross-agency and private sector collaboration; and developing a clearinghouse of expertise and programs. In addition, the Project establishes or enhances partnerships with federal, state and local environmental and water resource management agencies, such as by placing a University Liaison within the offices of EPA Region 10.
	WSU Extension also provides focused programs on "Low Impact Development" techniques. During the past 3 years, over 1,200 local decision-makers, planners, site development engineers, and landscape architects have participated in our programs. WSU is also actively researching and monitoring which techniques are most effective in this region. Storm water issues have also been incorporated into the Master Gardener and Watershed Steward volunteer training programs so these volunteers can educate their communities on methods to reduce storm water runoff and its impacts. Extension also works with forest landowners and farmers to improve their economic viability, which helps to ensure that these landowners are able to keep their lands in uses that have minimal storm water runoff. The WSU Thurston County Extension Office has established the Native Plant Salvage Project. The project's main mission is to promote the retention and re-establishment of plants so that our water resources are protected by the natural role that plants take in slowing water runoff and encouraging water to soak into the ground. Over the past decade the project has established over a dozen demonstration gardens and learning landscapes with area schools and businesses, provided training programs on landscape restoration and ways to best manage storm water on individual lots.
	National Water Quality Program Areas The four land grant universities in the Pacific Northwest have aligned our water resource extension and research efforts with eight themes of the USDA's Cooperative State Research, Education and Extension System. Animal Waste Management Drinking Water and Human Health Environmental Restoration Nutrient and Pesticide Management Pollution Assessment and Prevention Watershed Management Water Conservation and Agricultural Water Management Water Policy and Economics
	CSREES is the Cooperative States Research, Education and Extension Service, a sub-agency of the United States Department of Agriculture, and is the federal partner in this water quality program.

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HOME | About | Calendar | Contacts | Links | PNW Water Updates | Sitemap CSREES National Water Quality Program The USDA is an equal opportunity provider and employer. Partners in this Regional Program are also equal opportunity providers and employers. all external sites will open in a new browser window page last modified on August 27, 2006