King County WQBE Toolkit
Herrera worked with King County to develop a Water Quality Benefits Evaluation (WQBE) toolkit that will inform King County’s decision-making and planning processes for water quality-related infrastructure investments over the next 30 years. The WQBE toolkit provides transparent, standardized methods for evaluating the water quality benefits of different actions and programs. The toolkit specifically includes a set of computational models for:
- Estimating baseline pollutant loads for major County waterbodies
- Identifying cost-effective combinations of potential water quality actions for reducing pollutant loads or stormwater volumes
- Defining relationships between potential water quality improvements and five ecological/human health endpoints (southern resident orcas, Chinook salmon, toxics in fish, toxics and pathogens in shellfish, and algal toxins and pathogens at swimming beaches).
To develop these models, Herrera coordinated the work of a large, interdisciplinary consultant team: Paradigm Environmental, Lotus Water, HDR, Robin Kirschbaum, Inc., and Kearns & West.
We were pleased to work on this project with so many partners to support King County’s efforts in planning for future water-quality related infrastructure in our community!
Contributor: John Lenth
Posted In:
Environmental, Seattle, Stormwater, Uncategorized