King County Marine and Sediment Assessment Group

The best decisions are based on Sound information

The King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks has a long history of water quality improvements in Puget Sound through its Wastewater Treatment Division. The Marine and Sediment Assessment Group supports a comprehensive, long-term marine monitoring program that assesses water quality in the Central Puget Sound Basin on behalf of and in coordination with the Wastewater Treatment Division.

Routine Monitoring includes monthly water quality sampling of both the offshore water column and beach water, high-frequency, real-time water column data collection at three locations, semiannual sampling of butter clam tissue, and biennial sampling of subtidal sediments. The County's routine monitoring program is also part of an intergovernmental monitoring effort, the Puget Sound Assessment and Monitoring Program (PSAMP). Currently you can download and graph Puget Sound CTD water column data through this Web site as well as view real time data from mooring buoys. In the future you will be able to download and graph data from our other routine monitoring programs.

View our collection of marine photos. We have an extensive collection of underwater photographs of Puget Sound Marine Life that you can view.