King County monitors the ecological health of Pine Lake Creek in a variety of ways, including collecting and analyzing water, sediment, and benthic invertebrate samples. Since 1987, water quality samples have been collected monthly near the mouth of the creek at Station A680. The station is located downstream of the railroad tracks between East Lake Sammamish Parkway and the East Lake Sammamish bike trail. Sediment samples have been collected from Pine Lake Creek as part of the Streams Sediment Monitoring Program starting in 1987. King County began collecting benthic macroinvertebrate samples in Pine Lake Creek in 2002.
The Pine Lake Creek sub-basin is located within the City of Sammamish, Washington and drains 1,175 acres from the East Lake Sammamish Subbasin into the lake along the eastern shoreline. Pine Lake Park, a 16 acre park, is an important recreational and aesthetic resource to the City of Sammamish.
Land use in the Pine Lake Creek sub-basin is mostly developed and forest. Low intensity and open spaced is the most common type of developed land use while mixed forest is the most prevalent among forested lands. Relative to land that is developed or forested, there is not much scrub, wetlands, or other land uses (grassland and open water); and agriculture is not present. See Table 1 below for more details on land use.
Table 1. Total land use in the basin
The 1994 East Lake Sammamish Basin Plan identified Pine Lake Creek as providing habitat for anadromous fish use up to River Mile (RM) 0.6 and resident fish use above that. Good spawning substrate was found in the lower section of the creek. Pine Lake provides valuable fish and wildlife habitat for many species. In 1988, drainage from a large wetland was diverted from Pine Lake into Pine Lake Creek to reduce nutrient loading to the lake (King County, 1994).
Water quality samples are analyzed monthly for temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, conductivity, turbidity, total suspended solids, ortho-phosphorus, total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrate-nitrogen, total nitrogen, and fecal coliform (FC) bacteria. Results are compared to State water quality standards. Water quality standards are designed to protect public health and aquatic life. Comparing monitoring results to water quality standards allows an understanding of how safe the creek is for recreational contact as well as for aquatic life (see link at top of page to view current water data). State water quality standards were revised in 2003. Pine Lake Creek is now categorized as “Core Summer Salmonid Habitat” for aquatic life use, and “Extraordinary Contact” for recreational use. As part of the updated water quality standards, portions of Pine Lake Creek have been assigned an additional “Supplemental Spawning and Incubation Protection” temperature criteria of 16 °C. The creek is on the Washington State Department of Ecology’s (Ecology) 303(d) list for violation of water temperature, DO, and FC bacteria standards (Category 5). See Table 2 below for routine monitoring summary statistics of water quality data collected to date. If stormwater data is available for this site, it will be shown as Table 3. Historical data reviews can be found in the annual reports produced by METRO/King County DNRP. To view charts of current water quality data, please visit the Data Download webpage. Water Quality Index A Water Quality Index (WQI) rating system was developed by Ecology that evaluates several water quality parameters and gives a single rating of “high,” “moderate,” or “low” water quality concern. To see how these ratings compare with other stream sites, please visit the Water Quality Index webpage.
Water quality samples are analyzed monthly for temperature, dissolved oxygen (DO), pH, conductivity, turbidity, total suspended solids, ortho-phosphorus, total phosphorus, ammonia, nitrate-nitrogen, total nitrogen, and fecal coliform (FC) bacteria. Results are compared to State water quality standards. Water quality standards are designed to protect public health and aquatic life. Comparing monitoring results to water quality standards allows an understanding of how safe the creek is for recreational contact as well as for aquatic life (see link at top of page to view current water data).
State water quality standards were revised in 2003. Pine Lake Creek is now categorized as “Core Summer Salmonid Habitat” for aquatic life use, and “Extraordinary Contact” for recreational use. As part of the updated water quality standards, portions of Pine Lake Creek have been assigned an additional “Supplemental Spawning and Incubation Protection” temperature criteria of 16 °C. The creek is on the Washington State Department of Ecology’s (Ecology) 303(d) list for violation of water temperature, DO, and FC bacteria standards (Category 5).
See Table 2 below for routine monitoring summary statistics of water quality data collected to date. If stormwater data is available for this site, it will be shown as Table 3. Historical data reviews can be found in the annual reports produced by METRO/King County DNRP.
To view charts of current water quality data, please visit the Data Download webpage.
Water Quality Index
A Water Quality Index (WQI) rating system was developed by Ecology that evaluates several water quality parameters and gives a single rating of “high,” “moderate,” or “low” water quality concern. To see how these ratings compare with other stream sites, please visit the Water Quality Index webpage.
King County operates a stream gage on Pine Lake Creek near its mouth at the Sammamish River Parkway (15b).
Sediment data were collected from Pine Lake Creek as part of the Streams Monitoring program starting in 1987. Data were compiled and analyzed for the years 1987 through 2002. Data were analyzed for trends, correlations, and were compared to sediment quality guidelines. No significant trends were identified during data analysis for any of the parameters tested. Results indicate that Pine Lake Creek sediments did not exceed any sediment quality guidelines. Of the 27 steams monitored in King County, Pine Lake Creek had the 11th lowest metals concentrations.
Benthic macroinvertebrates are small animals visible to the naked eye (macro) that lack a backbone (invertebrate) and live in or around the streambed (benthic). This group includes aquatic insects (such as mayflies and dragonflies), crustaceans, clams, snails, and worms. Benthic macroinvertebrates are of interest to scientists and water resource managers because they are an excellent indicator of the biological health of stream ecosystems and are a critical component of the food web in aquatic communities. Scientists quantify the composition and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrate populations in a stream to compare the biologic integrity of different streams. King County has utilized benthic macroinvertebrate sampling to assess biological health of numerous creeks across the county (see map). For more information about benthic macroinvertebrates and King County’s Benthic Macroinvertebrate Program, please visit the King County Stream Bug Monitoring webpage. To see the benthic macroinvertebrate data for Pine Lake Creek, please visit the Puget Sound Stream Benthos webpage.
Benthic macroinvertebrates are small animals visible to the naked eye (macro) that lack a backbone (invertebrate) and live in or around the streambed (benthic). This group includes aquatic insects (such as mayflies and dragonflies), crustaceans, clams, snails, and worms. Benthic macroinvertebrates are of interest to scientists and water resource managers because they are an excellent indicator of the biological health of stream ecosystems and are a critical component of the food web in aquatic communities. Scientists quantify the composition and diversity of benthic macroinvertebrate populations in a stream to compare the biologic integrity of different streams. King County has utilized benthic macroinvertebrate sampling to assess biological health of numerous creeks across the county (see map).
For more information about benthic macroinvertebrates and King County’s Benthic Macroinvertebrate Program, please visit the King County Stream Bug Monitoring webpage. To see the benthic macroinvertebrate data for Pine Lake Creek, please visit the Puget Sound Stream Benthos webpage.
Water Resources Inventory Area (WRIA) 8 In WRIA 8, citizens, scientists, businesses, environmentalists and governments are cooperating on protection and restoration projects and have developed a science-based plan to conserve salmon for future generations.
Water Resources Inventory Area (WRIA) 8
In WRIA 8, citizens, scientists, businesses, environmentalists and governments are cooperating on protection and restoration projects and have developed a science-based plan to conserve salmon for future generations.
