Chehalis Basin Partnership Meeting Agenda and Meeting Summary
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DATE: - - Friday October 27, 2000
TIME: - - 9:00 to 11:30 AM
LOCATION: - - Bingo Room, Chehalis Tribe
Chair: Mayor Bob Spahr, City of Chehalis (360) 507 -3149
Vice Chair: Dr. Sodhi, Chehalis Confederated Tribes (360) 273-5911
Meeting Purpose: - - Receive latest information on continuing activities and provide direction on how to proceed with watershed planning, salmon recovery and flood project efforts.
| Introduction |
Mayor Spahr |
9:00 AM |
| Lead Agency Update: Salmon Recovery Funding, Work Planning, Announce November Nominations for Chair and V.Chair, Other issues |
Lee Hansmann |
9:10 - 9:40 AM |
| Envirovision Report on Level 1assessment |
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9:40 - 10: 10 AM |
| Water Law 101 - an Introduction |
K. Gillespie |
10: 10 - 10:50 AM |
| Citizen's Advisory Committee Update |
Rob Schanz |
10:50 - 1 1:00 AM |
| Flood Control Projects Update |
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I 1:00 - I 1: 10 AM |
| Open Comment |
Audience |
10: 10 - I 1: 15 AM |
| Wrap-Up/Adjourn for some hands-on play with the DNR GIS CD |
Mayor Spahr |
11:15 AM |
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Meeting Summary - September 29, 2000
Introduction
Chairman Bob Spahr opened the meeting shortly after 9-00.
Attendance: According to the signup sheet fifteen designated representatives or their alternates attended this meeting. There were twenty-one additional citizens, alternates, or visitors that attended.
Salmon Recovery Project Priority List (Agenda item #1)
Staff for Grays Harbor County, acting in its capacity as Lead Entity for Salmon Recovery, presented the prioritized list of salmon recovery projects that will be submitted to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board during its "Late 2000" funding cycle. The priorities list for the fourteen projects and a map showing where the projects are located are enclosed in this packet.
County Staff presented a brief description of the process used to solicit for projects, evaluate the projects and develop the priority list. Today the Partnership is being asked to accept the priority list so that it can be submitted to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.
No objections to submitting the list as presented were raised. The following comments were made:
- The number one project "Black River Refuge" will not result in the loss of public access to the land acquired. These lands will become part of the National Wildlife Refuge system and public access is allowed for a variety of uses.
- Ranking of project #4 "Chehalis Basin Watershed Assessment" was conditioned by some reviewers upon receiving a letter from the project sponsor (WDFW) that all data resulting from the project will be compatible with GIS/data standards being developed for the State of Washington. This letter has not yet been received, and if it is not the ranking of this project will have to be adjusted downward.
- Appreciation for the people that committed four to five days of their time to helping the Partnership evaluate and rank these projects. Appreciation also for the additional time and effort Lee Hansmann and Chad Stussy put into organizing the process.
- A debriefing with the applicants was suggested to learn if, and how, the process can be made even better.
- The changes initiated by the SRF Board have improved the process.
Watershed Planning Guidelines for Salmon Conservation (Agenda item #2)
Phil Miller from the Governor's Salmon Recovery Office met with the Partnership to discuss the links between local watershed planning to manage water issues, local salmon recovery planing, and state/federal salmon recovery efforts. A discussion paper titled "Watershed Conservation Plan Guidelines" was mailed out with the agenda for this meeting, and copies of the overheads Phil used in the presentation are included with this meeting summary.
Eventually a recovery plan for threatened or endangered species will have to be developed for species listed in the Chehalis. Currently, listed species are limited to the Bull Trout, but in the future the list may include Sea-Run Cutthroat trout and possibly Coho salmon. State, federal and local efforts all recognize that watershed level work is fundamental to salmon recovery. If local planning can, in addition to meeting local priorities and needs, meet state and federal criteria we will have achieved the best possible outcome - addressing local water issues AND compliance with ESA.
Major discussion items & comments:
- It would be so much easier if the federal government would just tell us what they would accept and we will build our plan based on that. Instead they expect us to keep preparing local plans and submitting them until we get it right. [The guidelines are intended to help local planning groups develop plans that will also satisfy federal ESA requirements.]
- Are these "guidelines" requirements? Will "local" plans have to all fit some kind of standard profile? If so, all of a sudden the plans aren't very "local" anymore. [The intent is not to be directive, but to develop a framework. There is going to be tension between local and federal needs and we may not be able to reach agreement on all of our objectives. The intent is to try to get to a meeting of the minds while recognizing differing local needs.]
- If we are successful in meeting federal requirements through our planning process it is also important that the federal agencies commit to follow those plans and recommendations. This means that the federal agencies need to make a commitment to pay attention to our LOCAL needs when it comes to federal projects in the basin. Management of federal facilities and lands doesn't always measure up to the environmental standards that they want states and local citizens to meet. It has to work both ways.
- There will be a need for more local resources to accomplish all the planning and implementation work necessary to recover salmon. That is the reason the schedule calls for finalizing the guidelines before the next legislative session.
- Since the USFWS has oversight of the Bull Trout recovery (due to its threatened status) and since so much recovery emphasis is being placed on these local plans, the USFWS should designate someone to be our contact and they should be participating in our process.
- How can people comment on the guidelines? [Individual and group comments are being accepted now, and will continue to be accepted through the beginning of the year]
It is important that the Partnership comment on these guidelines. It was suggested that the Technical Advisory Committee review the guidelines and provide a summery of that review to the Partnership in time to get comments to the Governor's Salmon Recovery Office.
Envirovision Report on Level 1 Assessment Contract (Agenda item #3)
Joy Michaud presented the Draft Level 1 Assessment. There are five sections to the Assessment. .
Section 1 - Introduction
Overview
Watershed Description
Section 2: Technical Summary
Geology/Hydrology
Water Rights/Water Use
Water Quality
Fish Habitat/Channel Modifications/Stocks
Section 3: Selected Sub-basin Assessment
Chehalis Headwaters
Lower Newaukum
Cloquallum/Wildcat Creek
Lower Reach Chehalis River
Humptulips River
Section 4: Data Gaps/Recommendations
Section 5: References
It is important to remember that this is a DRAFT document. The Partnership's Technical Advisory Committee will begin to review this material and will meet to discuss it. The first meeting is scheduled for October 12, with follow-up meetings on October 26, and November 9. Interested persons should contact Lee Hansmann at Grays Harbor County for information on participating in the review of the Assessment.
There was discussion of how the Assessment (and other information prepared by or for the Partnership) will be stored and made available to the Partnership members and the public. The Timberland Regional Library system and State Geological Library were two suggestions. Having it available on a compact disk (CD) and accessible over the Internet were also proposed.
After the review is completed and the report has been finalized the next steps are to,
Understand the recommendations.
Prioritize the recommendations (and possibly add to them) for Level 2 Assessment work.
Begin the Level 2 Assessment for the highest priority information/data gaps.
Lead Agency Report - Strategic and Project Planning
At the August Partnership meeting the Lead Agency recommended that we look into hiring someone under a contract to lead the Partnership through discussion and development of a list of tasks and a schedule for accomplishing our work. The focus of the effort would be on integrating all the different processes we are working on (watershed planning, salmon recovery, etc.) and developing individual project management plans for accomplishing the work. We are generally still responding to issues as they come up instead of having a well thought out strategy describing:
- How we are going to accomplish the specific work we have received funding to do,
- How that work will be coordinated with other activities we are being asked to do;
- Which of these things are most important and need to be done first.
At the August meeting the Lead Agency was instructed to advertise and see what response they received. The one person who responded has done a lot of this kind of work for local governments and other groups in the area.
The general discussion that followed resulted in consensus on only one issue. With the help of some volunteers from the Partnership the lead agency should review its proposal and respond back to the Partnership at the next meeting.
The volunteers are Mark Swartout, Terry Calkins, John Penberth, Mike Daniels, and Kahle Jennings.
Citizen's Advisory Committee Report (Agenda Item #4)
At the September meeting the committee hosted a representative from the USGS who talked about some of the research being done on the amount of pesticides in urban streams. Handouts from some of those studies were provided at this Partnership meeting. Some of the findings include-
- More types of pesticides were detected in urban streams then in agricultural streams.
- In the Puget Sound Basin, more pounds of pesticides were applied in urban areas than in agricultural areas.
- Twenty-three pesticides were detected in water from urban streams during rainstorms, and the concentrations of five of these pesticides exceeded limits set to protect aquatic life.
- Pesticides sold for use on lawns and gardens are found in urban streams, including four of the five found that exceed limits set to protect aquatic life.
- According to a 1997 survey, almost half of the twenty-three pesticides detected in urban stream water had no retail sales. Many of the pesticides found in urban streams might be the result of nonresidential applications to areas such as rights-of-way, parks, and recreational areas.
Following up on a discussion held during the August meeting of the Chehalis Basin Partnership, the Citizen Advisory Committee decided it would like to send a representative to the Public Outreach sub-committee.
The Committee also suggested that a base map be brought to all Partnership meetings so that presentations on issues with a geographic focus are more meaningful to the audience.
The next Citizen Advisory Committee meeting will be held in conjunction with the Technical Advisory Committee to review and comment on the Draft Level 1 Assessment presented here today.
Flood Control (Agenda Item #5)
Flood Control Project
There was not a formal presentation or update on this subject.
Open Comments (Agenda item #6)
John Penberth brought a news article from a local paper about a $300,000 levee project that he claimed won't work.
Red Cox questioned the practice of allowing filling in the floodplain.
Stanley Johnson asked if this group was following the proposed revisions to the Shorelands Management Act (particularly the requirements for a 250 foot setback) and proposed requirements to meter private wells? The Chair responded that the Partnership is not a regulating agency. We could invite someone to come and discuss those issues for the purposes of education ourselves.
Grays Harbor County led a discussion about Partnership meeting dates for the rest of the year. Due to holidays and other conflicts the meeting dates for the rest of 2000 are October 27, November 17, and December 15.
A request was made that ' someone look into whether private citizens who are participating in special committees for the Partnership can be reimbursed for mileage.
Aberdeen provided a packet of information that explains how the Department of Ecology will use a local advisory group to help develop a water clean-up plan to address concerns about fecal coliform bacteria loading in Grays Harbor.
Wrap-up/Adjourn
The next Chehalis Basin Partnership meeting will be held on Friday October 27, 2000 in the Bingo Hall of the Chehalis Tribe's "Lucky Eagle" Casino from 9:00 to 11:30 a.m.
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