Chehalis Basin Partnership
GENERAL PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS
Introduction
Chairman Spahr welcomed everyone and opened the meeting.
Seventeen of the Partnership's thirty-two member organizations had a representative or alternate at the meeting. Eighteen additional citizens, alternates, or visitor attended.
Citizens' Advisory Committee
Margaret Rader reported for the chair of the CAC that the committee has been working on a public involvement / communication plan for the Partnership. They have developed a draft brochure that describes the Chehalis Basin Partnership, its members and its mission. A draft of the brochure was handed out and discussed. There is an error on the cover - citizens should be below the graphic on the cover not above it.
After a general discussion of the brochure and suggestions for changes, the Partnership expressed gratitude to the Citizens' Advisory Committee for its work on the brochure. It is a very good product and will be useful.
Steering/Technical Advisory Committee
There was a brief report on the meeting held June 28th. A full summary of that meeting was included in the meeting packet for the July 27th Partnership meeting.
On the same day, members of the Citizen's and Steering/Technical Committees met with Triangle Associates and went through the interview process as a group.
The August meeting of the Committee has been moved from the 2nd to the 16th.
Annual Plan of Work
Dates for the Salmon Recovery Funding portion of the Annual Plan of Work have been revised and will be integrated into the document.
Record of Decisions
Past decisions are still being compiled. Ideas about how the information can be made readily available to Partnership members and the public are still wanted. The following three ideas were discussed at the June 22 Partnership meeting: (some limiting issues are identified in Italics)
When the Record of Decisions is completed for all meetings to date, a copy could be distributed to each person on the mail list. (Expensive and hard to keep current with monthly changes; not available to the general public)
On-going up-dates would be printed at the end of each meeting summary and it would be the responsibility of each individual to update their own copy of the Record of Decisions. (Each member would need to update their own record; not available to the general public)
The Record of Decisions could be posted on an Internet site along with other Partnership Documents such as the Level 1 Assessment, agreements, etc. (Some members may not have web access; CBP does not have a web site)
Other Updates
John Penberth introduced the subject of the proposed WalOMart Superstore in the Chehalis area and suggested that the Partnership take a position on the effects the store will have on local business and family wage jobs. John also introduced two guests he invited representing labor interests.
Partnership members who felt that the Partnership meeting was not the appropriate forum for discussions on labor issues interrupted the discussion. A brief discussion of the merit of having a labor representative as a member of the Partnership was held and the Partnership members present agreed that adding a member representing labor should be evaluated as part of the revision of the by-laws. A follow-up suggestion was made that the Partnership also consider asking the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium to be a member. Both these suggestions will be evaluated.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Watershed Planning under RCW 90.82
Grays Harbor County, acting in its role as Lead Agency, handed out a summary of the budget (attached). The County did receive funds for continued Lead Entity operations from the Department of Fish and Wildlife. At this time the exact amount of funds was undetermined, but WDFW did provide an estimated range between $50,000 and $55,000 per year for the 2001-2003 biennium.
The County presented a report from Triangle Associates (attached) summarizing the results of the July 13th Watershed Management Plan workshop. Partnership members were thanked for the time and effort they put into the interview process. The results of the interviews were mailed out and helped focus the July 13th workshop.
Discussion of the July 13th workshop resulted in the following comments:
The need for a better understanding of the Partnership's vision and mission. It was agreed that for Partnership purposes the vision and the mission are the same thing. A draft vision was developed at the workshop: "A water management plan that will eventually result in effective and equitable management of the water in the Chehalis Basin to sustain healthy populations of native fish and healthy communities."
It was suggested that it might be difficult for a watershed management plan to sustain "a healthy population of fish" because there are too many elements that affect population that occur outside the basin. Perhaps it would be better so say that we want to sustain "a healthy habitat."
There is some anxiety of the use of the term "water management plan." This implies that we may be suggesting changes to minimum flows or water rights. These are serious issues for many of the Partnership constituents and will be controversial.
At the workshop we began to discuss people's individual goals and began to see some common themes (see Page 2 of the workshop summary).
Regarding leadership (first bullet on page 2 of the summary) who cares if we show leadership? We need to prepare this plan because we recognize the need. Preparing an effective plan will set an example.
There is not a lot of reference to cost-effective solutions. Affordable goals need to be incorporated. We need to include a cost factor in the process of developing plan recommendations. Perhaps that factor is the accepted "cost/benefit analysis." We also need to reach agreement on what a "benefit" is.
We need to make sure all organizations that have a voice in approving the plan before it goes to the counties for final adoption participate in the development of the plan and buy into its recommendations. We don't want someone coming in at the last minute after not participating and saying, "Whoa, we need to back up here and reconsider this part." Partnership members need to participate and be actively involved in the whole process of developing the plan.
There was considerable discussion at the workshop of the concept of using sub-groups to work on individual plans for sub-basins of the Chehalis. There was some concern that this approach could break up the Partnership. Eventually it was decided that it would work out as long as everyone understood that the sub-groups working on these individual sub-basin plans are just like sub-committees. There was some discussion of the boundaries of the sub-basins. It was agreed that we don't want to sub-divide into too many groups.
These comments were recorded and will be discussed further at the next work session on the Watershed Management Plan, which will occur during the August Partnership meeting on the 24th. That work session will focus on developing an actual outline of the elements of the plan. During that meeting we will review the vision/mission statement and the goals.
Salmon Recovery RCW 77.85
A revised schedule for the entire 2001 Salmon Recovery Funding Board's grant cycle was handed out. A letter of intent must be submitted to the Lead Entity (Grays Harbor County) by August 3rd. The Chehalis River Council has agreed to provide web-site space to host the Partnership salmonid habitat database form and Grays Harbor County thanked them for this support. Volunteers for the review panel that will evaluate and rank projects are needed. If anyone is interested please contact Lee Napier at (360) 249-4222. There will be a Salmon Recovery Technical Review Panel meeting on August 30th.
Applications will be due to the Lead Entity September 28th and the Partnership will be asked to approve the local priority list of projects at the October 26th Partnership meeting.
Flood Control
Sue Patnude and Chad Stussy, both with the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, were recognized by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers representative for obtaining $30,000 for a Satsop River flood plain study that incorporates elements of salmon habitat. Sue informed the Partnership that there will be a meeting August 9th at the Olympic View Grange to look at the history of the Satsop River. The meeting starts at 7 p.m. and the presenters will be local long-term river residents.
Centralia Flood Damage Reduction Project
Beth Coffey was introduced as the new project manager for this project. Information that will lead to the selection of a preferred alternative is being gathered. The selection of an alternative should be completed by September 30th of this year. An independent review of the flood model has been completed. .
Chehalis River Basin Ecosystem Restoration Study
A draft work plan for the Chehalis River Basin Ecosystem Restoration Study should be completed in late July. It will be presented to the Grays Harbor County Commissioners on August 3rd (Grays Harbor County is the project sponsor). If it is accepted a presentation to the Partnership will be scheduled.
TMDL Updates
Grays Harbor Fecal Coliform Bacteria - Ecology has delayed submittal of the report to EPA until it completes a responsiveness summary to the comments and revise the draft cleanup plan sometime this Fall.
Upper Chehalis Temperature - Ecology is still preparing a response to the comments received on this TMDL
Humptulips River Temperature TMDL - This TMDL was submitted to EPA in June.
SPECIAL PRESENTATION
This portion of the meeting was focused on a discussion of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Funding of Salmon Habitat projects in the Chehalis Basin. Brian Peck reviewed the process USFWS used to solicit for, evaluate, and select projects for funding. The process for this federal fiscal year 2001 (ending 9/30/01) was delayed and then abbreviated because of staff turnover. Eighteen projects were submitted with a total cost of $550,000. The amount of funds available is approximately $194,000. Obviously, not all the projects -- not even all the good ones -- can be funded.
After reviewing the process the USFWS service used to prioritize the projects, Brian provided a table that showed the projects in priority order (attached). The table also shows the seven projects that can be funded. There is enough to fund the seven projects at and above the "0" in the right-hand column.
The Partnership was asked to concur with the proposed list of projects to be funded by the USFWS in federal FY2001. After discussion the Partnership members present reached consensus agreement that the projects proposed for funding in federal FY 2001 should be funded by the USFWS.
The process for federal fiscal year 2002 has already started. Information/application packets have been sent out. A letter of intent providing a one-page overview of the proposed project is due in September. Site visits will be scheduled based on the information in the letter of intent. Full applications are due in January 2002. Brian is available to answer questions at (360) 753-8084.
OPEN COMMENT
None noted
The meeting was adjourned at 11:30. The next meeting of the Chehalis Basin Partnership will be at 9:00 a.m. on August 24th at the Lucky Eagle Casino.
Decisions
The salmon habitat projects proposed for funding by the USFWS in federal FY 2001 should be funded.
Recommendations
Adding a member representing labor and a member representing the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium should be evaluated as part of the revision of the by-laws.
Future Agenda Items
A report on the summer flow monitoring study.
A presentation on the Humptulips temperature TMDL
Notes
The Partnership expressed gratitude to the Citizens' Advisory Committee for its work on the brochure. It is a very good product and will be useful.
This page created and maintained by Chehalis River Council
Send comments or questions to the: Chehalis River Council