King County's marine monitoring program has two components: outfall monitoring that focuses on areas near treatment plant discharges and ambient monitoring that focuses on areas outside the immediate vicinity of known discharges. It is important to monitor areas outside the influence of outfall discharges in order to assess background conditions in Puget Sound and to provide data for comparison to waters near outfalls.

This sampling and analysis plan (SAP) addresses water, macroalgae, shellfish, and intertidal and subtidal sediment monitoring for the ambient program and water macroalgae, shellfish, and intertidal sediment for the outfall monitoring program. Included are descriptions of the monitoring program, sampling stations, sample design, data quality objectives, sampling and analytical methodologies, quality assurance criteria, and data validation procedures. Sampling and analytical methodologies for outfall subtidal sediment monitoring are addressed in separate SAPs.