The Manchester Naval Fuel Department (MNFD) has been receiving, storing and supplying various types of petroleum products to military fleet units and shore activities in the Pacific Northwest since World War II. Because of the generally poor condition and outmoded design of the MNFD fuel pier, it is being replaced with a new pier of comparable length. The replacement project involves construction of a 390-m fuel pier, dredging approximately 80,000 cubic yards of material from the site of the new pier, and disposal of this material at the Puget Sound Dredged Disposal Analysis site in Elliot Bay. At present, the new fuel pier has been installed, and the old pier is being demolished.
In February 1991, the Habitat Investigations Program of the Coastal Zone and Estuarine Studies (CZES) Division, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy, began a monitoring program to assess environmental conditions before, during and after fuel pier replacement. Major elements of the program included water quality, eelgrass (Zostera marina) distribution and density, juvenile salmonid migrations, and fish abundance. The results of the first year of monitoring in 1991 were reported in Dey (1991). Here, we report on the results of the second year of monitoring, with comparisons to the 1991 findings.