Dog Waste Removal in Port Orchard

Blackjack Creek finishes its run inside Port Orchard and empties into Sinclair Inlet. The USGS keeps two monitoring sites on it, one named for the creek at Port Orchard and one at the mouth. Annapolis and Karcher creeks reach the same inlet a little east of it. Those three names sit on a document that makes dog waste here more than a lawn problem. Ecology's bacteria cleanup plan for Sinclair and Dyes Inlets assigns the City of Port Orchard a stormwater load for Blackjack, Annapolis and Karcher creeks, plus one nearshore site.

The monitoring behind that plan sorted local streams into two lists. Anderson, Ross, Chico and Mosher met the freshwater standard. Blackjack, Annapolis, Karcher and Sacco came back over it. Among the actions the plan hands to cities carrying those allocations is installing and maintaining pet waste education and collection stations at municipal parks and other public land next to streams and marine shorelines. That is a state cleanup plan telling a small city where to hang the bag dispensers.

The city's own rule is POMC 7.04.110, and it has a second half most owners never run into. Subsection one is the familiar part: it is unlawful to let your animal defecate anywhere in the city other than your own premises unless you immediately remove and properly dispose of it. Subsection two makes it unlawful to take that animal off your private property at all without a means of disposal already in your possession. Your own back lawn is the only ground the section leaves alone.

For somewhere to actually turn the dog loose, McCormick Village Park on SW Old Clifton Road has fenced dog park areas, and the city lists Mutt Mitts among the park's features. Howe Farm on Long Lake Road SE has an off-leash area inside its 83 acres, with one thing worth knowing before you drive out. Kitsap County asks that no pets enter the historic farm and wildlife area, so the dog park is the only part of it your dog gets.

That leaves the yard, the one piece of ground in all of this that nobody inspects. Annapolis, Retsil, Parkwood, East Port Orchard, out to McCormick Woods and down the Bethel side. We handle that part.