Water Quality Committee

March 9, 2006

Grays Harbor County Forestry Building

Terry Willis, John Kliem, Dave Rountry, Ron Schillinger, Nancy Allison, Rob Schanz and Lee Napier were present.

Phase IV-Detailed Implementation Plan

The group assigned names to the list of representatives for Objective 13 from the workbook. 

John explained the workshop concept to the Water Quality Committee.  He asked one member to be team lead for this objective.  This person would help to introduce the topic during the workshop and be available to answer general CBP watershed planning process questions. 

John reviewed the workshop planning from the STC meeting.  The STC workshops will be scheduled during the regular meeting times for April, May and June for objectives 1, 3, and 11.  They tentatively planned for the following:

• For Objective 1, the oversight committee will try to meet in April and the STC will host a workshop in June. Mark Swartout will be the team lead.  For the April meeting Steve will check for Tom’s availability, then circulate the dates for others to commit to.  Steve will try to book a room at Ecology for this meeting. 
• Objective 3 will be scheduled for the April meeting.  Steve Craig will be the team lead.  This group will meet at the County’s Forestry Building.
• Objective 11 will be schedule for the May meeting.  Glen Connelly will be the team lead.  The Forestry Building might work for this meeting. 
• Lee will send out invites to reserve the date for the workshop with meeting materials to follow. 

Lee explained the prioritization process.  The prioritization was only to schedule work.  It may not necessarily reflect the objectives that are most important.  It may be more a reflection of work that seemed achievable. 

Terry agreed to be the lead.  The group set May 11 as the workshop date.  Lee will send out the notice. 

Patrick asked about resources to accompany the letter.  The letter will reference the website, the WMP, and a copy of the issue paper associated with the objective.  The group thought that would be adequate to start the discussion. 

Rob felt that this objective was not an objective that improved water quality, in comparison to other objectives.   He feels the objective is worthwhile, but from his perception, it would not be the first objective he would pick.  Lee will try to explain this during the workshop.  Dave agreed with Rob’s observations.  He sees this objective as a means/task to achieve high quality or correct impaired waters.  He also feels that in hindsight WMP Action 31 should have been a goal instead of an objective.  Rob suggested linking this objective with objective 12. 

Ron shared his observations from a program he watched related to work by the UW.  Nancy has some contact information that she will share with Lee, so they can be included on the mailing list.

Ron shared with the group the article from the March 1, 2006 issue of the Daily World County Delays Decision on Forestland Development.  This rezone proposal by Grays Harbor County appears to conflict with this watershed plan objective.  The City of Montesano will ask the BoCC to defer a decision until Objective 13 is further discussed during the workshops. 

The group discussed how to incorporate the watershed plan into local land use decisions. 

Water Quality Monitoring by the Chehalis River Council

Rob presented the progress over the last four years of the Chehalis River Council’s water quality monitoring project.  He showed depicting where they monitor.  The monitoring sites include: Elk Creek, South Fork Chehalis, Middle Fork Newaukum and South Fork Newaukum.  They monitor under three conditions, winter storm, dry winter, and summer. The parameters include Dissolved Oxygen, pH, temperatures, fecal coliform, benthic macroinvertebrates, sediment, riparian canopy/shade. 

He showed slides depicting the species they collect and how they collect their samples.  He handed out the data collected since 2002.  This information is also available from the CRC website- www.crcwater.org

What’s next for this monitoring program?  It ends this year because the grant expires.  They did not apply for additional funding.  The group is primarily led by Rob and Bill Barmettler with a handful of volunteers.  He suggested that if anyone pursues this type of monitoring, hire a coordinator for the volunteers.  He will continue to work with the schools such as Boistfort to implement some projects and continue to monitor the South Fork Chehalis. 

Terry asked how this project would fit into the DIP and what would you need to further your work.  This work helps to confirm the location of the areas with higher quality of water, but more data would supplement this assumption.  He also supports some piloting of projects at a subbasin level.  This may help with implementation and outreach.  This project highlights the difficulty, and infrastructure necessary, to collect basin wide data.  Rob asked if the CBP would be interested in a presentation.  The group thought they would appreciate a presentation and suggested July as a possible date. 

The next meeting is April 13, 2006.