Chehalis Basin Partnership (CBP)

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• Chehalis Basin Partnership Meeting Notice and Agenda
• Meeting Summary-March 23,2001
• Chehalis Basin Partnership - Citizen's Advisory Committee
• Draft Cleanup Plan for Grays Harbor Chehalis Watershed Fecal Coliform TMDL

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Chehalis Basin Partnership Meeting Notice and Agenda

Meeting Summary-March 23,2001

A. GENERAL PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS Introduction Chairman Spahr welcomed everyone and opened the meeting.

Seventeen of the thirty-two member organization's had a representative or alternate at the meeting. Twenty additional citizens, alternates, or visitor attended.

Citizens' Advisory Committee

The Citizens' Advisory Committee had its second work session on a public outreach strategy. The committee has worked on setting public outreach goals and is beginning work on developing strategies designed to meet those goals. The next meeting is April 11th at the Oakville Office of the Chehalis River Council. (The results of that meeting are included with this mailing.)

By-law Review Committee

The committee evaluating the by-laws met March 15th at the office of the Chehalis River Council to continue work on draft Operating Procedures (currently called by-laws). The committee has made it through five of the six sections. As soon as the sixth section is complete a draft will be sent out to Partnership members for review and comment. It is anticipated that the draft should be completed sometime in May, although the process of selecting a consulting firm to help with the initial stages of Phase 3 (Planning) of the Watershed Management Plan special project will take precedence over completing work on the revised by-laws.

Annual Plan of Work

The purpose of today's discussion was to remind members that there is still time to comment on the draft Annual Plan of Work that was included in the March meeting packet. The Annual Plan of work will be presented to the Partnership at its April meeting for discussion and approval. There are many demands competing for the attention of the Partnership and over the last couple of years these demands have more or less controlled the actions of the Partnership. The Annual Plan of Work will help the Partnership manage its workload by identifying priority activities that need to be accomplished during the year, assigning target dates and responsible parties, and allowing the Partnership to track progress. (Copy attached)

TMDL Updates

Grays Harbor Fecal Coliform Bacteria: More than 80% of the total fecal coliform bacteria load to Grays Harbor comes from the rivers entering into the harbor. Approximately 50% of this loading is from the upper Chehalis River drainage. A 65% reduction in fecal coliform bacteria loading from the rivers must be achieved for the system to meet state water quality standards. The advisory group is in the final stages of completing a draft Summary Implementation Strategy. This draft will be presented to the Partnership at its April 27th meeting by a panel of the advisory group members. Ecology's goal is to release the draft for formal public review and comment in May and prepare for a formal submittal to the U.S. EPA by the end of June 2001. (Information attached)

Upper Chehalis River Basin Temperature: Working together, EPA and Ecology have revised the 1999 Temperature TMDL for the Upper Chehalis Basin. The revisions change the temperature wasteload allocations for point source discharges to the river where temperature is warmer than the water quality standard, and clarify how forestland activities will be handled. The public review and comment period on the revised Temperature TMDL package ended March 16th. Comments were received from eight organizations. Ecology will review the comments and prepare a formal written response prior to submitting the revised TMDL to the U.S. EPA. The target date for submittal is June 30, 2001.

The discussion of the status of these two TMDLs led to a discussion of how the state is revising the state WQ standards. Mayor Spahr from the City of Chehalis expressed his frustration and anger over the process that Ecology uses when it makes revisions to regulations such as the Water Quality Standards. The Mayor feels that Ecology doesn't do enough to inform the public about proposed changes, and by the time they find out it is too late to have any meaningful say in the outcome. The proposed changes to the Temperature standards are an example. The City of Chehalis is already faced with having to reduce the temperature of its effluent to 18 degrees C under the proposed Temperature TMDL, and now proposed changes to the temperature standard could reduce that to 12 degrees C. If it is adopted, this change will take the City from a very difficult (and expensive) situation to a practically impossible situation. It is unlikely that the Chehalis River itself ever had summer water temperatures as low as 12 degrees C.

Kahle Jennings, Ecology's representative to the Chehalis Basin Partnership said he would check on the status of the Water Quality Standards and include the information in the meeting packet mailed out for the April 27th meeting (attached). There was support among the Partnership members for a presentation by the Department of Ecology on the proposed changes to the state Water Quality standards and the implications for TMDL's.

Water Quality Financial Assistance

The application period for water quality grants and loans administered by the Department of Ecology closed March 2, 2001. Ecology has kept the option for local prioritization of grant/loan applications in the rule that guides its administration of the grant/loan program. Local prioritization must be completed and a letter of agreed priority submitted to Ecology by April 18th . The Partnership delegated the responsibility of signing the letter of agreed priority to the Chair. A sub-committee made up of Brian Shea, Ron Schillinger, Laura Schinnel and Mac McWhorter will review the projects from the upper basin. Only one project was received from the lower basin.

B. SPECIAL PROJECTS

Watershed Planning under RCW 90.82

Level 1 Assessment The Level 1 Assessment of existing basin information on water rights, flow, water quality and fish habitat has been completed. The Level 1 assessment is the foundation for the watershed Planning process the Partnership has been funded to do under RCW 90.82. The assessment will be available on CD free, but there is a significant cost to reproduce it as a paper document. Right now the best local estimates of the cost for a paper copy are around $80.00 but an effort is being made to check with other printers. Ecology -is working on creating a link to an electronic version of the report through the Chehalis Basin page in the 'Watershed" section of Ecology's web site.

Budget Grays Harbor County (Lead Agency for the Watershed Planning Grant) provided a handout that shows the status of Phase 2 and 3 of the Watershed Planning Grant from Ecology and the Salmon Recovery grant from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife. A copy of the handout is attached. Phase 2 of the Watershed Planning grant paid for the Level 1 Assessment. The remaining funds in Phase 2 are for filling critical data gaps identified in the Level 1 Assessment. Phase 3 funds are for plan development.

Draft Request for Qualifications for beginning Phase 3 (Planning) A draft Request for Proposals for a consultant to help the Partnership determine the scope of our Watershed Plan was handed out. This is for a short-term contract that will go through approximately September. It could possibly be extended to include work on the plan if the Partnership is comfortable with the initial work of the consultant.

The reason for initiating Phase 3 before Phase 2 has been completed is fairly simple. The Level 1 Assessment just completed identified a lot of gaps in the information needed to develop a plan to manage water quantity, water quality, and habitat. There are many more information gaps than can be filled with the limited amount of Phase 2 funds that remain. By developing the outline of what will be in the Phase 3 plan now, we can use that information to prioritize which data gaps are the most important to fill.

Once the draft RFQ has been approved by the Partnership it will be published in the Vidette and the Daily Journal of Commerce. Grays Harbor County will coordinate the process of selecting a consulting firm to do the work. A sub-committee of Partnership members will review the proposals and participate in the interview process.

The Partnership approved the draft RFP.

Salmon Recovery RCW 77-85

Lead Entity Grant Grays Harbor County has been acting as the Lead Entity for this special project. It is time to reapply for the grant from the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife to continue the work. The County requested that the Partnership authorize the County to draft a grant proposal for support to continue the salmon recovery work. The Partnership approved the request.

Limiting Factors Analysis Carol Smith will present the Limiting Factors Analysis for the Upper/Lower Chehalis Basin (including Grays Harbor) to the Partnership at the April meeting.

The Technical Advisory Group has been developing criteria to prioritize habitat needs identified in the Limiting Factors Analysis. The prioritization will be one of the basic building blocks of a detailed salmon recovery strategy for the basin.

Flood Control

Centralia Flood Damage Reduction Proiect Dennis Fischer reported that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has received approximately 75% of the river cross sections. The remaining cross sections should be completed in the next couple of weeks. The cross sections are being updated because the computer model uses river cross sections as one factor in predicting flood levels. Up until now, the only cross-sections available were from the 1980's.

Proposals for independent review of the flood model are also due in the next couple of weeks. The best current estimate is that selection of preferred flood damage reduction alternatives will be completed by December 31 st.

Chehalis Basin Study Lori Morris (project contact for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers) reported that they have been working with Grays Harbor County to develop the scope of the project and a budget. The actual project is anticipated to begin sometime between July and September of this year.

This is a distinct project from the Centralia Flood Damage Reduction project. This project is based on the recognition that there are basin-wide needs for flood control, mitigation and restoring the health of the basin. The two projects are related however, and eventually both projects will work together.

C. SPECIAL PRESENTATION

The focus of today's presentation is the Chehalis River Basin Fisheries Restoration Program. An assessment of various habitat concerns and a report outlining the status, trends and restoration goals for the Chehalis Basin was completed in 1993. Since then, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has received a limited amount of funding each year for restoration efforts.

An independent review of that program was completed in 1998. That review, along with a response prepared by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, was distributed at this meeting and is available from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

Based on the findings of the independent review the USFWS is proposing to make changes in how the program is implemented. Up until now, most restoration funds have been used to implement individual projects that support the goals of the restoration program. The projects have been implemented through many different organizations and they have been spread throughout the basin. One weakness in this approach is the difficulty of documenting the real results of the individual projects.

The USFWS proposes to select a sub-basin of the watershed and spend the time necessary to prepare a detailed analysis of the sub-basin. This analysis will focus on the natural and human processes that create various habitat conditions. The resulting information will make it possible to determine if restoration efforts are showing results and where to focus our efforts.

The timing of these changes coincide with a change in USFWS staff working on the project, however that timing is a coincidence. The changes were planned shortly after the independent review of the program was released in 1998. Mike Kelly, the former USFWS coordinator for the program introduced Chris Mendoza. Chris is the author of the independent review and has been hired by the USFWS to replace Mike as the project coordinator. For copies of the independent review and USFWS response contact Chris Mendoza at (360) 753-9560.

The next meeting of the Chehalis Basin Partnership will be at 9:00 a.m. on April 27th 27 at the Lucky Eagle Casino.

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Chehalis Basin Partnership - Citizen's Advisory Committee

Recommendations for the CBP's Public Participation Plan April 11, 2001

The Citizen's Advisory Committee (CAC) conducted a series of workshops with Lee Hansmann and John Kliem to identify key elements of a Public Participation plan for the CBP. The following are our recommendations.

I. TOOLS FOR PUBLIC PARTICIPATION

The CBP should implement a Public Participation plan that allows the public to participate and contribute at all stages of watershed planning. This means that we need tools that help us (1) listen/find out what the public wants, and (2) share our findings with the public. The following tools were identified by the CAC:

1. Tools for Listening/Finding out What the Public Wants

Workshops using ToP or other compatible methods: These are facilitated workshops designed to collect information and opinions from groups in a fair and unbiased manner.

Interactive I Displays/Listening Posts: These are displays that give information while at the same time allowing the public to ask questions and voice concerns to a CBP representative. The displays could include activities that solicit input from people on targeted issues. These would be set up at public meetings, events and fairs, and other public places.

Public Meetings : These are required in a public process, and provide an opportunity for people to speak to a larger group of CBP representatives. Public meetings sponsored by the counties are required in the final Plan approval process. These must be supplemented by other outreach methods, since many people are uncomfortable speaking in these types of meetings.

2. Tools for Informing the Public about the Mission and Activities of the Partnership

The following tools can be used to increase basic watershed knowledge, encourage stewardship, and inform the public about CBP activities.

Interactive Displays: see above description. These displays present information in graphical and easy-to-read formats; interactive activities encourage participation and learning.

Public Meetings : see above description. These might range from formal public meetings (especially when we are presenting our management plan) to simple informational seminars.

Brochures, newsletters, and websites: These are passive forms of outreach that supplement other methods. They are a necessary foundation for an outreach program, since they provide a means to distribute written information on the CBP's mission and activities.

II. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION FOR THE PHASE 3 OUTLINE CONTRACT

The CBP will soon hire a consultant to develop an outline/scope of work for the Watershed Management Plan. While developing this outline, the consultant will need to do the following kinds of outreach:

1 Gather information on what kinds of planning processes and watershed issues are important for a Watershed Management Plan. Since the outline is probably not of high interest to the general public, this effort might focus on interest groups and active CBP participants. Recommended methods include Facilitated ToP Workshops and Interactive Displays set up at CBP meetings.

2. Inform the Public about the Proposed Outline/Scope of Work. This would occur primarily in Public Meetings, including CBP workshops to review the draft outline and briefings at County Commissioner meetings in the four major counties.

III. PUBLIC PARTICIPATION ELEMENTS OF THE PHASE 3 WATERSHED MANAGEMENT PLAN

Development of the Watershed Management Plan will require extensive and continuous public participation. The Phase 3 Outline/Scope of Work should identify how and when public outreach will occur for the Plan. Methods designed to gather information would occur in the early stages of planning to identify what the public wants in a plan, and at intermediate stages to identify what the public thinks about our recommendations. Methods designed to share information would occur early on to inform the public about what we are doing, and later in the process to tell people about our recommendations. Public meetings sponsored by the counties are required in the final Plan approval process.

IV. BASIC PUBLIC OUTREACH MATERIALS NEEDED BY THE CBP

Regardless of what process is used to develop a Watershed Management Plan, the CBP will need some basic outreach materials that explain our mission an . d activities. These include an introductory brochure and a well designed website. The Citizens Advisory Committee will develop material for an introductory brochure. The Chehalis River Council is currently hosting a basic website for the CBP that is functional but needs to be upgraded for targeted public outreach.

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Draft Cleanup Plan for Grays Harbor Chehalis Watershed Fecal Coliform TMDL

The attached Draft cleanup plan was developed by an extensive advisory group of citizens, landowners, Tribes, Local and State Government representatives, Health Departments, shellfish, and industrial interests throughout the Chehalis basin. The advisory group will be explaining today why the plan is important, how it aligns with the water quality objectives of the Chehalis Basin Partnership, and how the Partnership can help support the plan. We want the Partnership to be familiar with the Draft plan before it is circulated for formal public comment in early May.

The cleanup plan was developed to complement rather than duplicate work already underway to protect beneficial uses that clean water provides people in the basin. The plan directly supports the water quality interests and overall mission of the Chehalis Basin Partnership. We hope you will review the plan and become comfortable with it. We want the Partnership to support the many months of work that the advisory group invested in development of the plan. We hope that the Partnership will adopt this plan as an installment towards the broader water-quality objectives they have chosen.

Grays Harbor watershed cleanup plan advisory workgroup (February, 2001)

me/strong>	Representing/strong>
Bob Amrine	Lewis Conservation District
Mark Ballo	oyster grower
Brian Blake	Citizen
Scott Brummer	Thurston Conservation District
Randy Cox	Weyerhaeuser-Cosmopolis Mill
Brady Engvall	oyster grower
Raman Iyer	Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis
Jeff Nelson and Doug George	Grays Harbor County, Public Services
Melanie Kallas and Mike Madsen	Mason Conservation District
Don Melvin	WA Department of Health
Jim Nichols	City of Chehalis
John Olson	League of Women Voters
Dave Palmer	Chehalis River Council
Sue Patnude and Chad Stussy	Wa. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
Wally Remund	Citizen/Cattleman
Dean and Diane Schwickerath	Wildlife Forever of Grays Harbor and Grays Harbor Audubon Society
Brian Shea	City of Aberdeen
Armen Stepanian	Citizen, Ocean Shores
Gary M. Waltenburg	Citizen
Ron Wisner	Grays Harbor Conservation District
Jeannie Yackley, RS	Lewis County Environmental Services
Craig Zora	WA Department of Natural Resources

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