Skagit River Basin Water Supply Scoping for the Joint Legislative Task Force on Water Supply

Timeline: November 2021 – May 2022

Sponsoring Agency: WA Department of Ecology on behalf of the Joint Legislative Task Force on Water Supply

A WSAS Committee on the Skagit Water Supply has been advising the Joint Legislative Task Force on Water Supply (JLTF) on scientific and technical issues relating to the Skagit River Basin. The committee prepared a “Proposed Scope for a Comprehensive Hydrologic Study of the Skagit Estuary” which included suggestions for an integrated set of research projects that could, over time fill knowledge gaps and provide valuable information to policymakers.

The committee recommended a set of research projects in the following areas: topographical and seasonal inundation dynamics, temporal variation in aquatic habitat characteristics, habitat suitability index development of targeted fish species, hydrodynamic modeling, integration of the estuary and the upstream basin, and measurement error, uncertainty, and error propagation. The committee also suggests that the potential impacts of changing climate on the Skagit watershed provide an overarching issue that will need to be considered as research is conducted. 

Committee Members

Michael Goodchild, chair (UCSB Emeritus)

Rebecca Flitcroft (USDA)

Eric Grossman (USGS)

Se-Yeun Lee (Seattle University)

Mark Wigmosta (PNNL)