The north coast watershed association (ncwa) seeks to monitor the lower columbia river and its tributaries for roadway runoff toxins and to educate inhabitants of northwestern clatsop county on…

The north coast watershed association (ncwa) seeks to monitor the lower columbia river and its tributaries for roadway runoff toxins and to educate inhabitants of northwestern clatsop county on practices that can affect water quality. Ncwa staff and volunteers will conduct field sampling at 10 established sites over two rainy seasons. Samples will be sent to university of washington, tacoma center for urban waters for testing/analysis. Results of these analyses will be shared on ncwa's website, with project partners, with the public through educational programming, and put into map-form to begin targeting mitigation projects. The ncwa will organize a series of school and community events to educate people about historical and current activities that have the ability to affect the toxic load of the columbia rivermdash; and their effects on humans and wildlife. Through monitoring and education, the ncwa will work to address data gaps, increase access to data, and generate support to implement future projects to mitigate chemical loads, especially those related to roadway runoff, in the lower columbia river basin. The north coast watershed association will receive $97,016 in columbia river basin restoration funding assistance program - lower columbia river estuary competitive funding awarded under EPA-R10-OW-crbrp-2022-01.activities:this project will perform monitoring to evaluate trends; by conducting sampling and testing over the course of two seasons in an area of the lower columbia river basin that has little to no current data on toxic substances and roadway runoff specific chemicals. Ncwa and its partners will help to develop baseline knowledge of toxics in the area. This project will also be the first to monitor for 6PPDQS in the area. Ideally, this research will be continued beyond the scope of this grant. Ncwa will also promote citizen engagement or knowledge; through education of both children and adults who live in the surrounding area via presentations. Activities to be performed during this project period include developing field sampling quality assurance protocol, volunteer recruitment and training, the development and aggregation of educational resources, educational presentations, field sampling, sharing results and creating the final report, and with clatsop county collaboration, analyze future projects.subrecipient:no subawards are included in this assistance agreement.outcomes:IT is anticipated that this project will result in the following deliverables: 1.) field sampling during storm/high water events from 10 sites up to 6 times (once a month) during the fall/winter of 2022-23. The samples will be tested by UW tacoma labs using LC/MS/MS methods and their staff will analyze the data, resulting in new data generated on the presence of toxics in the lower columbia and its tributaries pertaining to roadway runoff chemicals.; 2.) field sampling during storm/high water events from the same 10 sites up to 6 times (once a month) during the fall/winter of 2023-34. The samples will be tested by UW tacoma labs using LC/MS/MS methods and their staff will analyze the data, resulting in continued data collection that can begin to determine trends and inform project collaborators on how to continue monitoring and where to begin mitigations.; 3.) the ncwa will present water quality research, including findings from this grant, to inhabitants of the skipanon, young's BAY, and nicolai-wikiup watersheds at no less than 15 school/community events. Additionally, a clatsop community college biology course will be held in the fall of 2022 and will include a water quality aspect conducted by ncwa educational staff. These efforts will increased public understanding of and engagement with issues effecting the toxic makeup of their watersheds. Ncwa estimates 80 students, 5 volunteers, and at least 200 community members will be reached.; 4.) ncwa staff will aggregate data gleaned from this study and integrate IT into