The Skokomish Tribe is upgrading its water quality lab to a state-of-the-art facility.<\/p>\n
The tribe recently purchased high-end water quality lab equipment from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe to conduct more sophisticated work, such as looking for cancer-causing compounds.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a major deal for Hood Canal,\u201d said Ron Figlar Barnes, the Skokomish Tribe\u2019s EPA coordinator. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity for tribes within Hood Canal and Puget Sound to have close access to this type of equipment and help everyone. We\u2019re bringing high-end water quality equipment to a more centrally located area.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/nwifc.org\/w\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/06\/Skok-Shoalwater-Bay-h2o-equip-May-2013-8831-web-300x200.jpg\" "\\"Shoalwater")
Charlene Nelson, Shoalwater Bay Tribe chair and Guy Miller<\/p><\/div>\n
The Shoalwater Tribe used the equipment to research toxins causing reproductive issues with its tribal members. The tribe tested a variety of sources, including water, soil, tissue, marine animals and fin fish, looking for compounds that are toxic, such as flame retardants and PCB’s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t had a need for it lately though, so now we\u2019re able to pass it on to someone else,\u201d said Gary Burns, director of Shoalwater Bay Tribe\u2019s environmental program.<\/p>\n
Without the new equipment, the Skokomish Tribe could test water samples only for dissolved oxygen, e-coli, phosphorus, nitrate, nitrite and\u00a0ammonia. \u00a0The tests help alert the tribe to any potential water quality problem in the Skokomish River and\u00a0potentially\u00a0Hood Canal. The tribe still has to send off water samples to be tested for fecal coliform but hopes to do it in-house in the future.<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce the advanced lab is set up, which is expected to be within a year, the tribe will be able to expand testing to include fish and shellfish tissue,\u201d said Figlar Barnes.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not going to limit ourselves,\u201d said Guy Miller , the Skokomish Tribe Chairman. \u201cWe\u2019re going to use it in every way we can to help our people, our community and our natural resources.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"from the NW Indian Fisheries Commission –\u00a0Jun 24th, 2013 The Skokomish Tribe is upgrading its water quality lab to a state-of-the-art facility. The tribe recently purchased high-end water quality lab equipment from the Shoalwater Bay Tribe to conduct more sophisticated … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10544"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10546,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10544\/revisions\/10546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/amicuscuria.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}