By Pierce County Surface Water Management

The Spanaway Lake Management Plan is being developed. It will include recommendations for measures that will improve water quality and provide habitat for fi sh and wildlife. Currently, the project team is collecting information about the lake, which will be used to make recommendations about managing water quality in the lake. Information about water chemistry, fl ow, groundwater, and soils are being collected now.
Recommendations based on the data collected will be developed by the project team and presented to a stakeholder group of area residents early in 2016. The County will work closely with the stakeholder group to develop the Spanaway Lake Management Plan. A draft plan will be presented at a public meeting in mid-2016, giving all residents and interested parties the opportunity to provide their feedback. Feedback from the public will be considered in the final
recommendation, which will be presented to the Pierce County Planning Commission and Pierce County Council for adoption in 2016.
Grant for Pervious Pavement Installation at Spanaway Park in 2016
Pierce County received a grant for $990,000 to complete the water quality retrofit of Spanaway Park in 2016. This phase will retrofit the access road through the park and storm drains. The road through the park will be replaced with pervious pavement, which allows rainwater
to soak into the ground instead of running off . Storm drains throughout the park will be replaced with fi lter systems that treat runoff before releasing it to Spanaway Lake or infi ltrate stormwater into the ground.
Prior to improvements in Spanaway Park, stormwater runoff from hard surfaces in the park fl owed through the stormwater system and into Spanaway Lake without treatment. Completion of this retrofi t project
disconnects runoff in the park from the lake and increases the amount of water infiltrating into the ground. These improvements reduce the amount of polluted runoff that flows to Spanaway Lake and will help protect water quality for humans, fish and wildlife.
In 2014, Spanaway Creek’s water quality grade was D, the same as 2013. Creek grade is determined based on a water quality test that tests for certain pollutants and the number and diversity of bugs collected from the stream. In Spanaway Creek, temperature and low dissolved oxygen have continued to keep the grade low.