by ALANA LINDEROTH
Sequim Gazette
In an effort to increase community awareness of Bell Creek, a historical vein of water running through the heart of Sequim, students belonging to Sequim High School’s Be The Change club are assisting city officials to create a questionnaire-driven route along the creek.
“The goal is to remind residents that we have a really cool creek with an amazing history that flows right through Sequim,” Ann Soule, City of Sequim water resource specialist and project manager for the Stormwater Stewardship project, said.
Although the exact route still is being mapped, participants will be led near the creek’s headwaters on Burnt Hill, to the creek bed within a deep canyon carved by gla-
cial ice formations, to a wetland where Bell Creek seemingly disappears, but re-emerges to find its way through the city and residential neighborhoods before emptying into the saltwater at the delta near Washington Harbor.
“I think it will be cool to know what it (the route) turns out to be and to know that I helped work on it,” Cortney Gosset, Be The Change club member and a sophomore at Sequim High School, said. “I didn’t even know Bell Creek reached all these places.”
The development of an interactive route along Bell Creek is among the tasks occurring under the Stormwater Stewardship project spearheaded by city officials to integrate all aspects of stormwater management, including local streams, ground water and runoff into the city’s first stormwater master plan. Among the jurisdictions on both the Olympic and Kitsap peninsulas, Sequim is alone in its lack of a plan, program and utility fee for stormwater management.
“Because individuals make choices in their homes and workplaces which prevent or cause water pollution, education and outreach is always a component of stormwater management work,” according to the Stormwater Stewardship project overview.
Polluted waters
Acting as a reminder of how water stewardship can impact water quality, Bell Creek has long fallen short of federal water quality standards and is thus found on the Washington Department of Ecology’s 303(d) list of a polluted waters. The creek fails to meet a variety of quality standards for fecal bacteria, dissolved oxygen, pH and macro-invertebrates and likely will require cleanup – though there has been no enforcement yet.
Bell Creek also is considered “critical habitat” by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for both bull trout and Puget Sound steelhead, which are both protected species by the Endangered Species Act.
Sequim resident Peggy McClure sought collaboration with students from the Be The Change club to design and implement the interactive route as a component of her own community volunteer project required by an educational program known as Citizen Action Training School hosted by the North Olympic Salmon Coalition.
“The students are going to identify specific sites along Bell Creek and write text for the signs at each location,” McClure said. “They’ll also create a Facebook page.”
The chosen locations and information on Bell Creek will coincide with a questionnaire of sorts to hopefully inspire “active community participation,” she said. McClure also plans to develop a Story Map Journal, an ArcGIS supported online interactive map program and smartphone app about Bell Creek and the chosen sites.
“Ann wanted to tie it (the interactive route) into the Irrigation Festival,” McClure said.
The route and educational signage will be permanent, but during the 120th Sequim Irrigation Festival from
May 1-10, participants will be able to submit their complete questionnaire about Bell Creek to Soule for a contest, McClure explained.
With the oversight and guidance from Soule, McClure and Be The Change club members hope to finish their project by the end of March. Additionally, within the next month public notice signs will be installed at every point a road crosses Bell Creek to help heighten public awareness of its presence.
Once the route is complete, Soule will provide links to resources and maps associated with the project on the city’s website and anticipates presenting the project to the Sequim City Council at its first meeting in April, she said.
For more information on the Stormwater Stewardship project, visit www.sequimwa.gov/index.aspx?NID=646.
