Description: Who we are and what we do: We are an independent, citizen-led group dedicated to improving the overall water quality in the Tenmile Creek watershed. Our goal is to bring the waters of the Tenmile Creek watershed into compliance with bacteria water quality standards, and maintain those clean water conditions. We aim to achieve this…
We want to improve the health of the Tenmile watershed, protect people’s health, and make sure we are not contributing to bacteria pollution that seasonally prevents shellfish harvest in portions of Portage Bay. In recent years, we have helped reduce fecal coliform bacteria levels in this watershed . While more work is needed, we know we can do better.
The Tenmile Clean Water Project has been active since fall 2013, but people living here have a history of actively addressing water-related challenges. Our work builds on the effective Tenmile Creek Watershed Project that ran from 2001 to 2008 and used common-sense community approaches to improving water quality and habitat.
And this watershed also offers many characteristics that allow us to test what works in our county, with a diversity of both land uses (residential, commercial, agriculture) and landscapes (well and poorly drained, peaty, gravely, hilly, flat, wooded, open.)