For the first time since 2007, the Port of Port Townsend’s water quality test in October was compliant with state Department of Ecology standards.

“Boat Haven and the Port of Port Townsend has been out of compliance of their stormwater sampling copper and zinc benchmarks,” said Stephanie Liden, communications manager at the Southwest Region of the Department of Ecology.

Using chitosan technology along with their stormwater filtration systems, the port has been able to maintain compliance at Boat Haven and hopes to continue to do so in the future, said Jim Pivarnik, the port’s interim executive director.  

“We have partnered with Ecology for the last 20 years to do a lot of improvements to the yard,” Pivarnik said.

Pivarnik was deputy director at the port under Executive Director Larry Crockett, when the port installed a new stormwater system that wasn’t up to par with state standards.

“Ecology gave us a grant to put in Stormwater RX systems,” Pivarnik said. “Those worked for a while. They’re like big Brita filters. But they didn’t have a lot of durability. After two years, they didn’t seem to work.”

After the previous executive director, Sam Gibboney, left the position and Pivarnik came back to the port, one of Pivarnik’s primary goals has been to improve stormwater compliance.

“We’ve replumbed the Stormwater RX boxes with eight-inch PVC pipes, and in those pipes we put chitosan socks,” Pivarnik said.

Chitosan attracts metal particles such as copper and zinc from the water, so that these metals don’t enter the Port Townsend bay.

Research done by the WSU extension shows stormwater containing metals is harmful to wildlife and the Puget Sound ecology.

“We’ve done two samples so far, and we’ve passed our benchmarks both times,” Pivarnik said. “But we don’t know what that means long term. … We’re hoping that it is a Band-Aid fix, but that’s all it is — a Band-Aid fix.”

The chitosan successfully filters out metals for up to 100,000 gallons of water. To be sure their tests remain compliant with Ecology’s standards, the port maintenance team is tracking how many gallons of water filter through the Stormwater RX systems. When 100,000 gallons have gone through, they replace the chitosan socks. Pivarnik said the port recently ordered 15 more chitosan socks at $150 a piece.

Although redoing the Jefferson County International Airport runway and replacing the Point Hudson jetty are some of the large capital projects in the port’s future, working on its stormwater filtration system is just as important, Pivarnik said.

A possible long-term solution could be a rain garden at Boat Haven, he said.

“It would be a 5,000-square-foot rain garden,” Pivarnik said. “The water would go through the material and go down into the soil.”

Bob Simmons, water resources faculty member from the WSU Extension, said rain gardens encourage water to soak into the ground instead of running off along the surface. The soil used often is a mixture of compost and sand, which soaks up water and purifies it.

In late September, the port commission approved a $32,000 contract with the engineering consulting firm Landau Associates to determine if the rain garden plan would work. Pivarnik said they hoped to have the report in late January.

“That report is going to tell us if it’s feasible, if the ground is good enough to perk, and if we can handle the waterflow that comes off 17 acres,” Pivarnik said. ”And they’re going to tell us how much they think it’s going to cost to do it.”