Approach

Study Participants

USGS IAM Contributions

In 2004, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) was asked by Congress to become actively involved in the study of the causes of low dissolved oxygen concentrations in Hood Canal. At a meeting between the USGS, local groups and governments, agencies, tribes, and the University of Washington, it was agreed that one of the major factors affecting dissolved oxygen in Hood Canal was the input of nutrients, especially nitrogen, into the canal. Thus, the USGS developed a study plan to assess the sources and quantifying the amounts of nitrogen compounds discharged by those sources to Hood Canal.  

This work and future USGS work projected for 2005 are part of, and planned for within, the HCDOP Integrated Assessment and Modeling (IAM) study, though funded through an appropriation directly to USGS through Congressman Norm Dicks. 

In 2005, the USGS will concentrate their HCDOP IAM efforts on groundwater assessment, fish disease and hypoxia effects, and marine water modeling to complement that being conducted by UW-PRISM as part of the IAM study.

For more info about the USGS work in Hood Canal, check out:

http://wa.water.usgs.gov/projects/hoodcanal/