A. GENERAL PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS
Introduction
Chairman Spahr welcomed everyone and opened the meeting. Nineteen of the Partnership's thirty-two member organizations had a representative or alternate in attendance. Nineteen additional citizens, alternates, or visitors were at the meeting.
The agenda was modified to allow students from Rochester schools who have been involved in water quality monitoring to make a presentation at 11:15.
Citizens' Advisory Committee
No report
Steering/Technical Advisory Committee
A summary of the January 2nd and January 16th STC meetings was distributed (copy attached). Issues the STC focused on in January will be discussed later during this meeting. The next meetings of the STC will be on January 30th and February 20th.
Water Quality Committee
A meeting summary for the January 9 Water Quality Committee meeting was distributed (copy attached). The next meeting of the Water Quality Committee will be on February 12, 2003 in the Grays Harbor Forestry Building from 9:00 a.m. until noon. The Water Quality Committee will be reviewing the proposed changes to the water quality standards at its February meeting and making a recommendation to the Partnership on what comments should be forwarded to Ecology.
Copies of the proposed changes to the state water quality standards were available at the Partnership meeting. The deadline for comment is March 7, 2003.
Other Business
A concern has been expressed by a Partnership member/grant applicant about how local prioritization of grants and loans submitted to the Department of Ecology was carried out last year by the Partnership. In March the Partnership will be asked to review the process used last year to prepare a local prioritization of grant and loan applications submitted to the Department of Ecology and decide how to carry out the prioritization this year. The local prioritization is due to the Department of Ecology by 5:00 pm April 30, 2003.
B. SPECIAL PROJECTS
Watershed Planning under RCW 90.82
Grant Opportunities - EPA has some potential grant funding that could be a source of support for additional work in the Chehalis Basin. The STC will review the information and report back to the Partnership in February. Applications are due in March.
Update on Watershed Planning - Bob Wheeler (Triangle Associates) provided an overview of the status of Chehalis Basin Watershed Planning including plan deadlines, focus of the Steering/Technical Committee, key basin issues, and a schedule of activity for the next couple of months. A scaled-down copy of the slide presentation is attached.
In-Stream Flow Presentation -Cynthia Carlstad (TetraTech/KCM) presented the results of the in-stream flow study done between June and November 2002 at 16 sites where regulatory flow have been established but stream flow data was not previously available. The study showed the following:
The conclusions of the study so far are:
The next steps for the study are to continue flow monitoring to build upon the very limited amount of data one year of monitoring provides (this is a longer term action), determine what approach the Partnership will use to evaluating existing regulatory minimum flows for the Chehalis Basin and tie in fish habitat data to assess whether the low flows recorded impair fish habitat.
A thick packet of the slides used for the presentation today was handed out. Copies of the handouts are available from Kahle Jennings (360-407-6310).
Salmon Recovery Project
Due to evacuation of the Casino to test lighting systems and the student monitoring presentation no time was available for a report.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Work in the Chehalis Basin
Flood Damage Reduction Project sponsored by Lewis County: Due to evacuation of the Casino to test lighting systems and the student monitoring presentation no time was available for a report.
Ecosystem Restoration Project sponsored by Grays Harbor County : Due to evacuation of the Casino to test lighting systems and the student monitoring presentation no time was available for a report.
C. SPECIAL PRESENTATION
Tom Hulst from Education Service District 113 introduced Martin Woodruff (8th grade Physical Science teacher) and Pat Moll (7th grade Life Science teacher) who in turn introduced four students from the Rochester Middle School that have been involved in a student water quality monitoring program in the Chehalis Basin. Each student made a short presentation on a different aspect of the student monitoring program: a description of the Chehalis basin and how watersheds function; monitoring sites and parameters; the student monitoring congress held at Grays Harbor Community College in April 2002 and finally the importance of good water quality to our lives.
The student presentations were well done and a recommendation was made that the student monitoring program and results be included in the Chehalis Basin Watershed Plan.
A copy of information about the Chehalis Basin Education Consortium was handed out (copy attached).
The next meeting of the Chehalis Basin Partnership will be at 9:00 a.m. on February 28, 2003 at the Lucky Eagle Casino.
Decisions
Results of the Student Monitoring program in the Chehalis Basin should be included in the Watershed Plan
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