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M e e t i n g S u m m a r y - March 26, 2004
GENERAL PARTNERSHIP BUSINESS
Introduction Vice-Chair Jim Haslett opened the meeting. New members introduced themselves and are: Bonnie Canaday, Mayor pro-tem and Dennis Rhodes, Director of Community Development will be representing Centralia; John Penberth has been appointed by the Mayor or Pe Ell to represent that town. Visitors at this meeting were Jim Hill, Chehalis and Dave VanderKolk, Centralia. Twenty of the Partnership's twenty-eight member organizations had a representative or alternate at the meeting. Thirteen additional citizens, alternates, or visitors were at the meeting.
The agenda was reviewed and there were no changes. Vice-Chair Haslett shared that he has learned that Cardinal Glass Company has just applied for a groundwater right for its proposed new glass manufacturing plant in Winlock. Mr. Haslett, who is a Napavine City Council member, expressed that City's hope that if water is found to be available for Cardinal Glass Napavine's application will also be approved. Napavine applied for a water right over 10 years ago and their application is still pending.
Steering/Technical Advisory Committee The March meeting of the STC focused on resolving specific concerns raised during the February Partnership meeting about portions of sections I, II and III of the watershed plan for consideration today. The next STC meeting will be April 1 st .
Water Quality Committee The committee received presentations on water quality grant/loan projects and completed its prioritization of the projects. The results will be presented later during this Partnership meeting for approval. Ecology's representatives updated the committee on the pilot groundwater monitoring project Ecology is currently implementing in the basin and the proposed fecal coliform bacteria TMDL for the upper Chehalis River. The Chehalis River Council held a public seminar on the TMDL in Centralia. The next meeting is scheduled for April 8 th in Montesano.
Citizens' Advisory Committee The Citizens' Advisory Committee did not met in March. Chanele Holbrook-Shaw, Chair of the committee attended the STC meeting, briefed the City of Tenino on the plan and is working with the Chehalis River Council on an announcement about the plan.
Other Business Water Quality Grants & Loans Ecology's representative gave a brief overview of Ecology's guidelines for local review and prioritization of grants and loans submitted to Ecology. By performing this local prioritization, the Partnership assures that each project will receive extra points that are factored into the projects priority on the state list for funding. The Partnership has carried out this local prioritization since it was initiated. For the last four years the Water Quality Committee has done the work and forwarded its recommendation to the Partnership. The Committee's recommendation for 2005 funding is attached to this meeting summary.
The Partnership approved the Water Quality Committee's recommendation and the Vice-Chair and a representative from the lead agency signed the letters of agreed priority for WRIA 22 and 23. The letter will be hand delivered to Ecology today.
SPECIAL PROJECTS
Watershed Planning Review of the draft watershed plan Due to a statewide meeting of County officials and other conflicts some members of the Partnership could not attend today. Lee Napier is the alternate for Bob Beerbower representing Grays Harbor County. Craig Swanson is the alternate for Richard Graham representing Lewis County. Jim Nichols is representing Bob Spahr and the City of Chehalis. Bonnie Canaday and Dennis Rhodes are the newly appointed representative and alternate for Centralia. John Penberth is the newly appointed representative from Pe Ell.
At the February 27, 2004 meeting the Partnership approved sections IV (Recommended Actions) and V (Unresolved Issues). Today's meeting will focus on sections I (Introduction), II (Why the plan is needed) and III (The Watershed Planning process).
The meeting announcement packet for this Partnership meeting included a draft of the watershed plan dated March 18, 2004. The Partnership reviewed the draft and discussed the changes that have been developed since the February meeting. Those changes were noted in the March 18 th draft as follows: additions are shaded and deletions have a line through them .
Changes agreed to at today's meeting will be incorporated into a final plan if it is approved by the Partnership. In addition to the ones noted in the March 18 th draft these changes include:
Page 2, to the second sentence in the first shaded paragraph - add with our current knowledge.
Page 4 and 5 - the meaning of the word "Trust" in reference to federally reserved water rights may not be appropriate and could create confusion with its use in action #27 on page 26.
Page 5, first full paragraph - strike the last sentence.
Page 13, second paragraph - the wording of the second sentence was revised.
Page 17 - the last word in the shaded paragraph is changed from "construction" to "implementation."
At the conclusion of the review and discussion of Sections I, II and III the Partnership members were asked if they could agree to approve the sections as revised. Two Partnership members, John Penberth (Pe Ell) and J. Roach (citizen, Thurston County) said they could not agree to approve the plan for the following reasons:
John Penberth - The citizen involvement effort of this planning process was flawed and this plan does not represent what citizen's think.
J. Roach - I understood that Ecology and The Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis were going to develop a recommendation regarding adjudication. The language of action #56 on page 20 of the March 18 th draft is very vague. Everything we need to do to manage water in the Chehalis Basin is clarifying who has valid water rights through adjudication and it will all be delayed until this is resolved. Also, the issue of flows from Black Lake has not been addressed.
Discussion Partnership members disagreed with the statement that the citizen involvement portion of the plan was flawed and a representative from the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis explained that it will take time to develop acceptable language about adjudication.
It was suggested that the summaries of the Partnership meetings where the actual discussions on plan approval occurred should be an attachment to the plan.
Copies of Appendix "B" of the Partnership by-laws where the consensus decision making process is described were handed out and discussed.
Some concerns were raised about if the counties will implement the plan and how they will do it. This subject will be addressed when the Phase 4 Implementation Plan is developed.
The role of the Partnership after the plan is approved by the counties was questioned "is there a future role for the Partnership after we approve the plan?" The Intergovernmental Agreement that formed the Partnership appears to support a continued role (see sections 2.0 Purpose and 3.0 Goals on page 2 of the agreement).
Several different approaches to resolving the concerns blocking consensus were discussed. At the close of the meeting the following steps were agreed upon:
A small group of Partnership members (Terry Willis, Lee Napier and Kahle Jennings) will meet with John Penberth and the Mayor of Pe Ell in an attempt to resolve the issues John has raised.
The Steering/Technical Committee will meet with J. Roach on April 1st and attempt to address his concerns.
A special CBP meeting is scheduled for Friday April 9 th . If the efforts described above are successful in addressing the issues that have been raised the Partnership should be able to approve any wording changes, approve sections I, II and III of the plan and still have time for Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason and Thurston Counties to hold public hearings on the plan before the joint county meeting scheduled for May 28 th to approve the plan.
Salmon Recovery Letters from groups intending to apply for Salmon Recovery Funding Board habitat restoration funds are due to Grays Harbor County by the close of business on March 31 st .
Brian Peck, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, presented a list of potential salmon habitat projects that have been submitted to that agency for funding. The individual projects were reviewed and prioritized by a technical review committee he organized. Brian asked if the Partnership would concur with the prioritized list of habitat restoration projects and the Partnership agreed.
Next Meeting A special CBP meeting is scheduled for Friday April 9 th .
Decisions
The Partnership approved the priority list of water quality grant and loan projects developed by the Water Quality Committee and authorized the vice-chair and lead agency to sign the letter of agreed priority.
Reached agreement on changes to specific sections of the draft plan.
The Partnership concurred with the USFWS priority list of habitat restoration projects.
The Partnership authorized a special meeting on April 9, 2004 to continue work on approval of the watershed plan.
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