Sinclair Inlet is a shallow embayment in the western part of Puget Sound in Kitsap County, Washington , USA. It has a maximum depth of 20 meters. It is the southwestern extension of Port Orchard , and it touches the shores of three of Kitsap County's four incorporated cities: Bremerton , Bainbridge Island , and Port Orchard . It is connected to Dyes Inlet by the Port Washington Narrows and to Puget Sound by Rich Passage . It was named by United States Navy explorer Charles Wilkes for George T. Sinclair , acting master of one of his ship's crews. The Puget Sound Naval Shipyard is located on the north shore of Sinclair Inlet.
21-614: The Port Orchard Independent is a weekly newspaper serving Port Orchard and southern Kitsap County, Washington . It is owned by Sound Publishing, an imprint of Black Press , and is part of the Kitsap News Group's weekly publications. In 1890, there were two local newspapers serving Port Orchard: the Broad Ax and the Kitsap County Pioneer. Walter L. Wheeler purchased the two papers and merged them under
42-500: A Washington (state) newspaper is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Port Orchard, Washington Port Orchard is a city in and the county seat of Kitsap County , Washington , United States. It is located 13 miles (21 km) due west of West Seattle and is connected to Seattle and Vashon Island via the Washington State Ferries run to Southworth . It is named after Port Orchard ,
63-510: A male householder with no wife present, and 36.3% were non-families. 27.7% of all households were made up of individuals, and 9.5% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.43 and the average family size was 2.96. The median age in the city was 34.5 years. 23.5% of residents were under the age of 18; 10.4% were between the ages of 18 and 24; 29.1% were from 25 to 44; 23.4% were from 45 to 64; and 13.5% were 65 years of age or older. The gender makeup of
84-641: A result the Port Orchard post office ended up in Sidney, and the Charleston post office ended up in Port Orchard. It wasn't until 1903 that local politician Will Thompson convinced the state legislature to correct this confusing situation, and relocated the Charleston post office to Charleston, at the same time renaming Sidney "Port Orchard", as it is known today. A new city hall was opened in May 1999, replacing
105-574: A seismically vulnerable building constructed in 1947. It was to be a catalyst for new development in the city's downtown. On December 18, 2018, a cul-de-sac in Port Orchard was struck by an EF2 tornado with winds between 120 and 130 miles per hour (190 and 210 km/h), the strongest tornado in Washington since 1986. The tornado uprooted trees and damaged up to 450 homes and businesses, some of which sustained total roof loss. Some neighborhoods were evacuated due to reported gas leaks. Port Orchard
126-652: Is in the South Kitsap School District . Sinclair Inlet Over 20 streams of various sizes drain into Sinclair Inlet, the largest being the Gorst, Blackjack, Anderson, and Wright Creeks. The embayment is triangular, about 1.9 km across and 6.4 km long. It is a tidally dominated, non-stratified, saline body, due to a low inflow of freshwater. Gorst Creek and Blackjack Creek, both spawning grounds for Chinook salmon , are tributaries to Sinclair Inlet. In 2002, over 17,000 Chinook salmon escaped into
147-566: Is located in south-central Kitsap County at 47°31′54″N 122°38′18″W / 47.53167°N 122.63833°W / 47.53167; -122.63833 (47.531563, -122.638405), on the south side of Sinclair Inlet , an arm of the Port Orchard strait connecting to Puget Sound . The city is bordered to the north across Sinclair Inlet by the city of Bremerton . According to the United States Census Bureau ,
168-415: The 1980s, the sediment of Sinclair Inlet was found to have elevated concentrations of organic compounds. A remedial investigation of the waters around the naval complex at Bremerton took place in 1996. The goal of the sediment clean-up was mainly to reduce the risk for humans of consuming bottom-dwelling fish with elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB) in their tissues. Sinclair Inlet has been
189-825: The Puget Soundkeeper and the Washington Environmental Council issued a notice of intent to sue the U.S. Navy for violations of the Clean Water Act , as a consequence of scraping the hull of an aircraft carrier, the USS ; Independence (CV-62) , inside Sinclair Inlet, without an appropriate discharge permit from the United States Environmental Protection Agency . The tribe estimated that 730 cubic yards of material were removed during
210-442: The city has a total area of 11.21 square miles (29.03 km ), of which 9.64 square miles (24.97 km ) are land and 1.57 square miles (4.07 km ), or 15.65%, are water. The city is home to South Kitsap Regional Park , a 209-acre (85 ha) public park with multiple fields and installations such as hiking trails, a playground, a skate park, and batting cages. Port Orchard Airport , located 7 miles (11 km) south of
231-442: The city was 50.3% male and 49.7% female. As of 2000 the median income for a household in the city was $ 34,020, and the median income for a family was $ 41,946. Males had a median income of $ 33,610 versus $ 25,739 for females. The per capita income for the city was $ 16,382. About 10.9% of families and 12.9% of the population were below the poverty line , including 17.2% of those under age 18 and 9.1% of those age 65 or over. The city
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#1732793632807252-445: The city was 80.8% White , 3.4% African American , 1.3% Native American , 5.8% Asian , 1.4% Pacific Islander , 1.0% from other races , and 6.4% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6.6% of the population. There were 4,278 households, of which 33.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 45.7% were married couples living together, 13.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 4.6% had
273-473: The city, is a private airport with an industrial park . As of the 2020 census , there were 15,587 people, 5,840 households, and 3,894 families residing in the city. As of the 2010 census , there were 11,144 people, 4,278 households, and 2,726 families residing in the city. The population density was 1,539.2 inhabitants per square mile (594.3/km ). There were 4,630 housing units at an average density of 639.5 per square mile (246.9/km ). The racial makeup of
294-538: The hull-scraping. In January 2020, the Navy reached a resolution with the tribe, agreeing to pump a layer of sand at least 10 centimeters thick into the area where the Independence was harbored. The agreement also contained a provision for a 10-year moratorium of hull-scapings, because of the harmful pollutants scraped into the inlet, including copper and zinc. The agreement is particularly pertinent given plans to scrape
315-485: The inlet, along with another 10,000 adult salmon into Gorst Creek. Other species of salmon, such as coho and chum , have also been found in Sinclair Inlet and its surrounding streams. Sinclair Inlet has been significantly modified by human encroachment. Shallow water habits have been altered or lost, riparian vegetation along the shoreline has decreased, and both sediment and water quality have declined. In
336-648: The name the Sidney Independent , which was later renamed the Port Orchard Independent . Wheeler remained the owner and publisher of the paper until he sold it to W. L. Thompson & E. E. Brooks in 1899. The Port Orchard Independent has won multiple awards from the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association for its news, advertising, special sections and photography. This article about
357-770: The new location after his father, Sidney. The town of Sidney was incorporated September 15, 1890, and was the first in Kitsap County to be both platted and incorporated. Shortly thereafter, the U.S. Navy sought a suitable location for another installation on the West Coast , and found it with the assistance of Sidney's residents in Orchard Bay (this installation would later become the Puget Sound Naval Shipyard in Bremerton). The county seat
378-468: The sedimentation rate is relatively slow. From 2000 to 2001, remedial dredging attempted to decontaminate the site, and indicators suggest this had a significant positive effect on the inlet as a whole. Still, total mercury concentrations in unfiltered water from the Sinclair Inlet were roughly three times higher than those of central Puget Sound. In January 2017, the Suquamish Tribe , along with
399-417: The site for mercury remediation , as years of the naval shipyard's activities have degraded the area. Peak concentrations of mercury, according to dated sediment cores from the inlet, occurred around World War II. The contamination decreased following WWII due to better metallurgical management practices and increased environmental regulations. However, the concentrations of mercury have decreased slowly because
420-477: The strait that separates Bainbridge Island from the Kitsap Peninsula . The population was 15,587 at the 2020 census , and estimated to be 17,089 in 2022. The first European-Americans to settle in what is now Port Orchard were William Renton and Daniel Howard, who set up a sawmill there in 1854. The town that was to become Port Orchard was originally platted in 1886 by Frederick Stevens, who named
441-549: Was originally in Port Madison , but moved to Sidney after a popular vote in 1892. In December of that same year, the residents of Sidney petitioned both the state legislature and the Post Office Department to rename the city "Port Orchard". The legislature refused, as Charleston (now West Bremerton ) had also requested that name. The Post Office Department, however, went through with the name change, and as
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