Drops
Of
Water
Issue 36 January 2000
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error.
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Welcome
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Issue 36 January 2000 |
This newsletter appears monthly in 45,000 households throughout the watershed. Printing is done by The Chronicle, and distribution is by the Chronicle, the Olympia Daily Olympian, the Tenino Independent, the Rochester Sun News and the Aberdeen Daily World. This is an early edition available only to WWW users. Please send us your Drops of Water feedback.
The first people to find errors in spelling or word structure receive a free map of the Chehalis watershed. Send us an e-mail note telling us about the error. |
Special Thanks
Drops of Water is funded by organizations interested in the watershed.
These editions are made possible by substantial grants from:
U.S. Fish and wildlife Service
Weyerhaeuser Company
- Washington State Department of Transportation
- Chehalis Basin Partnership
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Inside this Issue
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Teri King, Washington Sea Grant Program
Wet weather is a good time to check your septic system.
Some things are much easier to observe during wet weather than any other time. Leakage into your septic system and lot drainage are two such things. If you have an effluent pump as part of your system now is a good time to check for leakage into the system. If you have controls that record the number of times the pump starts and the time it stays on, record those numbers. More than usual cycles or run-time can indicate a problem. Call your installer or the health department if you have questions about how to interpret the results.
If you do not have recording system controls, listen to see if the pump seems to be starting too frequently to be explained by the water usage in your home. Your drainfield was not designed to handle household sewage and large volumes of leakage too.
For septic systems without pumps, look at the drainfield area itself to see if drainage water is accumulating in that area. Look also for roof drainage, driveway run-off, and any drainage running onto your property.
Try to minimize the amount of water that is allowed to soak into the ground above or at your drainfield.
Excess water from all sources is a major cause for temporary or intermittent failure. If your drainfield area is saturated from wet weather drainage, minimize household water use as much as you can. Reduce laundry, length of showers, and anything that is truly optional.
Your actions can help preserve water quality.
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Mike Kelly, USFWS
To be safe, I checked the phone book for any Mr. or Mrs. Mudminnows that I might offend with this statement, so here it goes: "Mudminnow" is a really bad name. Come on, if your name is Mike Mudminnow, for example, you're gonna get beat up. You'll have to really earn your respect. (Note: I'm not advocating violence against people with funny names, but hey, kids can be cruel.)
People have scoffed when I've tried to talk seriously about our own special little native Chehalis River fish. This fish gets very little respect, and I think it's mostly because of its name. If it were named "Olympic monstertruckfish" people would probably have posters of it in their bedrooms.
Heck, maybe a bad name is a good thing if you are a fish. Who would want to eat something called "mudminnow?" Someone would probably taste an Olympic espressofish, and if it tasted good there could be trouble. Hip urban professionals would probably pay a dollar to have one sprinkled on their mocha. Examples exist of fish with bad names who should have left well enough alone. You may have seen a fish called "orange roughy" in the market. Before there was a market for this fish, it was a "slimehead". Would you pay good money to eat a slimehead? Probably not. But people are paying big bucks to eat orange roughy. See what happens when you go around trying to please people?
The scientific name of the Olympic mudminnow is Novumbra hubbsi . The worst thing that might happen to you if your name was Novumbra hubbsi is that lots of people would ask you where you are from.
Why should you get excited about the Olympic mudminnow? Oh boy, where do I start?
Reason #1 There are only FIVE species in the mudminnow family (Umbridae) worldwide. Compare that to the 66 species in the family Salmonidae, which includes the salmon, trout, and char. Or compare that to the number of species in the family Cyprinidae, which includes the carps and true minnows. (I can't give you an actual number because it would be a tremendous waste of tax payers' dollars for me to sit here and count up this list I have. Let's just say there are thousands of species in the family Cyprinidae.) So you can see that mudminnows are not your run-of-the-mill fish.
Reason #2: Those five species have a really strange distribution. There is one in Washington, one in Alaska, one in the Great Lakes region, one the in the east coast states, and one in Europe. Scientists get pretty excited about these unusually wide distributions - it presents a little puzzle that they can bore their dates with over an otherwise romantic dinner. In fact, a similarly strange distribution in the family Osteoglossidae (one in Africa, three in South America, and three in Australia) served as a clue in figuring out the theory of plate tectonics and continental drift. Actually, scientists believe that the Olympic mudminnow's restricted range is due to having been isolated by the advance of glaciers thousands of years ago.
Reason #3: Olympic mudminnows ONLY occur in western Washington, and the Chehalis River basin is probably the best place to find one. Like bird watchers, there are fish watchers who go around looking for different species to add to their life lists. If a fish watcher wants to see an Olympic mudminnow, they have to come here. They would probably buy some gas and a sandwich, and maybe stay in a hotel, which certainly wouldn't hurt the economy. Anyway, they are the only fish endemic to Washington - which means they are the ONLY fish species that lives ONLY in Washington.
Reason #4: They can breath air from the atmosphere. Olympic mudminnows typically live in boggy, weed-choked areas with very little current. I was once looking for frogs down in the Coffee Creek area, and I fell into a ditch that was so weed-choked that I didn't see it. After my so-called friends quit laughing, we netted some mudminnows out of the opening I made in the weeds. Water in these places is often very low in dissolved oxygen, which fish normally absorb through their gills. Breathing air allows mudminnows to live where other fish cannot. The flip side of this is that they have trouble living where other fish do live. They don't have any other obvious way to avoid being eaten by predatory fish. A mudminnow who finds itself mixed up with some cutthroat trout is probably a snack. In fact, one biologist in my office calls them a "predator idiot," but I prefer to think of them as "predator challenged." (Credit Carrie Cook-Tabor for the "predator challenged" joke.)
Here's some other general information:
The first time I saw Olympic mudminnows I immediately thought they were smallmouth bass fry. Then I noticed that the fins are in the wrong places and I said, "Whoa, what's this?!" The moral of the story is that if you think you have a bass fry, look closer. Not only are the fins placed differently, but there are no spines in them.
Their average size is a little over 2 inches. They are not picky eaters, and will consume small worms, insects, crustaceans, and other aquatic organisms. They spawn in the spring. The male establishes a territory and warns off intruding competitors. If the intruder ignores the warning posture - LOOK OUT! The defender hurls himself at high speed at the intruder's body. The impact can knock the intruder off his fins. Eventually, the male hopes to attract a female with his dancing and pretty blue spawning colors. She lays her eggs in the weeds, he fertilizes them, and the eggs are left to hatch without care from the parents. (See Inland Fishes of Washington by Wydoski and Whitney for a more detailed description.)
I haven't figured out how to neatly end this little essay, so I'll just say, "Support your local endemic fish."
My name is Mike Kelly, and I manage the Chehalis Fisheries Restoration Program for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. I can be reached at 360-753-9560, or at mike_kelly@fws.gov.
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NOTICE: ANNOUNCEMENT OF PROPOSED REVISIONS TO THE UPPER CHEHALIS RIVER DISSOLVED OXYGEN TMDL
I. TENTATIVE DETERMINATION
The Department of Ecology has prepared a draft revision of the Upper Chehalis River Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for dissolved oxygen. The original TMDL was developed by Ecology in response to a history of violations of state water quality standards for dissolved oxygen in the river above the town of Porter. Adequate oxygen levels are important to maintain healthy living conditions for fish, plants and other aquatic life.
The original TMDL called for dramatic reductions in sources of pollutants that cause dissolved oxygen to be "used-up" during the chemical or biological processes that degrade the pollutant. To achieve the reductions the original TMDL proposed that zero-discharge provisions be written into the wastewater discharge permits for the City of Chehalis and WestFarm Foods (formerly Darigold). The original TMDL proposed prohibiting discharges to the river from their existing wastewater treatment outfalls between May 1 and October 31 each year. Discharges from the City of Centralia were also limited during the same period.
The draft revised TMDL changes the calendar based prohibition against a discharge to a prohibition based on actual river flows. This change reduces the cost of compliance for the dischargers during periods of high river flows that occur after May 1, and provides additional protection of the river during periods of low river flows that occur after October 31.
The U.S Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA) approved the existing Dissolved Oxygen TMDL in October 1996. The U.S. EPA must also approve the proposed revisions before the changes take effect.
II PUBLIC COMMENT AND INFORMATION
Interested persons are invited to submit written comments regarding the proposed changes to the dissolved oxygen TMDL within 30 days of this public notice. Comments will be considered to have met the 30-day deadline if they are received by 5:00 p.m. Friday January 14, 2000. Comments should be sent to:
Department of Ecology
Southwest Regional Office
c/o Chehalis River TMDL
P.O. Box 47775
Olympia, WA, 98504-7775
All comments will be reviewed and a response document will be prepared. The draft revised TMDL may be modified further before it is submitted to the U.S. EPA for approval if the comments received identify issues that make further modifications necessary.
Copies of the draft revised dissolved oxygen TMDL are available upon request. It is also available for inspection and copying, by appointment, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. weekdays at the Southwest Regional Office of the Department of Ecology. The Street address is 300 Desmond Drive, Lacey, WA. To obtain a copy, or to arrange to view a copy at the Southwest Regional Office, call (360) 407-6276, or write to the Southwest Regional Office at the address provided above.
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Thurston County Planning Commission has a package of proposed rules. Public hearings will be scheduled and here's a summary:
A limitation on developing in areas of high ground water.
A requirement for vegetation preservation in areas of high ground water.
A requirement of minimum setbacks in areas of high ground water.
An increase in the minimum elevation of new or repaired home to 2 feet above the highest known flood level.
A limitation on the amount of impervious surfaces.
A restriction on filling in high ground water areas.
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by Teri King
Washington Sea Grant Water Quality Specialist
Here are some New Years Resolutions that will help the Chehalis Watershed
There are a few things that each of us can do to make 2000 a little healthier. Please consider these resolutions for the New Year.
* Plant at least one tree.
* Compost leaves and debris from the yard.
* Put a nozzle with a shut off valve on the garden hose to save water when washing the car.
* Find out where your on-site sewage system is and draw a map of it.
* Learn more about how your on-site sewage system works.
* Make a promise to fix the drippy faucets around your home.
* Install water saving devices in your toilet and shower.
* Use biodegradable laundry soap, not detergents.
* Join with your neighbors and conduct a shoreline cleanup.
* Walk or at least bicycle one car errand weekly.
* Recycle your bottles, cans, and papers.
For more information on making these resolutions become reality, contact me at 427-9670 ext. 396. Have a Happy New Year!
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Kahle Jennings, Ecology
By the time this edition of Drops of Water reaches you the Salmon Recovery Funding Board will have completed making its decisions on how the Early 2000 Application Cycle for salmon recovery project funds will be run.
While we don't know the exact details at the time this is being written, it is very likely that the following elements will be included:
If a Lead Entity for a specific area has been approved by the Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife, all potential projects from that area must submit their applications through their Lead Entity. (In the Chehalis River/Grays Harbor area the Chehalis Basin Partnership has designated Grays Harbor County to act in its behalf as the Lead Entity.)
Eligible applicants include local government (counties, cities/towns, conservation districts), state agencies, Tribes, non-profit organizations, and private landowners. Private landowners are eligible only if the project occurs on their land and appropriate assurances are provided to protect the state's investments for the long term.
Eligible projects for this cycle include: Habitat acquisition, installation of devices to prevent fish from entering water diversion structures, removing in-stream blockages to fish passage, enhancement of in-stream habitat, improving riparian habitat, improving upland habitat that directly affect the quantity of water and/or the quality of water important to fish.
Key dates for this application period are:
December 1999 Lead Entities solicit project from eligible applicants.
January 14, 2000 Project applications are due to the Lead Entity.
January 31, 2000 Lead entity completes an evaluation of project applications and submits the evaluation criteria and a prioritized list of projects (and supporting documents) to the Salmon Recovery Funding Board.
March 2000 Salmon Recovery Funding Board makes funding decisions.
One very important element of this grant application process is that the Salmon Recovery Funding Board will be paying close attention to the methods used by the Lead Entity to evaluate and prioritize the individual projects. The methods must be based on the best information available that has been developed using widely accepted scientific processes. If the process used by the Lead Entity to establish the prioritized list of projects does not satisfy this requirement then the entire list will most likely be rejected and the funding opportunity available during this application period will be lost.
The Chehalis Basin Partnership has elected to use the application forms and rating criteria adopted by the Salmon Recovery Funding Board. The approved application forms and rating criteria should be available soon after December 3rd. Applications are due to the Lead Entity (Grays Harbor County) by 5:00 p.m. on January 14, 2000. The Partnership realizes that this is not a lot of time to prepare applications, however, this schedule leaves the Lead Entity only two weeks to complete project evaluation and prepare a prioritized list before the January 31 deadline.
For addition information on this Early 2000 Salmon Recovery Funding opportunity or to find out how to obtain a project application form, you may contact one of the following individuals:
Lee Hansmann, Grays Harbor County, (360) 249-4222
Kahle Jennings, Department of Ecology, (360) 407-6310
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Stickin' My Chin Out, Dave Palmer, CRC
Have you ever thought that the Y2K problem and our resource problems are similar and maybe related?
Just think - what were the basic issues behind the Y2K problem? Old computers? Lazy computer programmers? Dumb customers? Bad software? No, the issues were far more basic than that. The Y2K problem was caused by humans who did poor planning, ignored reality and who looked for a short term solution to a long term problem. Any system which has the Y2K problem could have been designed without the Y2K problem.
If your are a frequent reader of DOW aren't these the basic issues behind today's resource problems?
Y2K got our attention. Millions, if not billions, of dollars have been spent on trying on the Y2K problem. In a few days Y2K will be behind us.
But, you cannot throw away old water and buying new water, or throw away farm land and make new farm land or destroy flood plains and build new flood plains. Most of our resource problem didn't attract millions of dollars or the attention of the press. In 2000 we will have the same resource problems we had last year.
Is there hope?. Perhaps. With a new century in front of us will we avoid further poor planning, recognize the reality surrounding us and choose long term solutions to problems? The choice is ours.
Elsewhere in this newsletter the Black River is described as one of the largest undisturbed freshwater wetland systems remaining in the Puget Sound Region. I believe the entire Chehalis watershed is one of the healthiest, most naturally productive watershed left in the state. Many of us in the CRC want to see this watershed improved, restored where needed, and maintained for today and tomorrow. To do that we will have to do better planning and make better decisions.
As you think about resolutions for the new year, perhaps you will carve out time to get involved in your neighborhood, your watershed, your community, your county and your state.
If you have to deal with these issues you have access to the CRC and other volunteer and resource groups to help you. We want to be involved. The future of the Chehalis watershed lies in your hands and in our hands as partners. The future is now. Let's work together to make it the best.
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Mike Kuttel, Jr.
Lewis Conservation District
Are you interested in protecting water quality or restoring streams? It's a safe bet that you are if you are reading this article! My name is Mike Kuttel, Jr. I work for the Lewis County Conservation District in Chehalis. The District is involved in several different projects aimed at protecting our water resources.
One of the newest and potentially most promising is the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP). The intent of this program is to restore riparian forests along approximately 1,000 miles of salmon spawning streams flowing through agricultural lands in Washington. At the present time the Skookumchuck River and tributaries and the Newaukum River and its tributaries are eligible here in the Chehalis Basin.
Participation in CREP involves several components. The first is planting and maintenance of a riparian forest buffer along an eligible stream. The buffer can range in size from 50 feet to a maximum of 150 feet (depending on soil type) and must be composed of a diverse mix of native tree and shrub species. Plant materials, livestock watering facilities, fencing, labor, and other needed practices are cost shared at a rate of 87.5%. The landowner contributes the remaining 12.5% with cash or labor. The landowner will receive a rental payment on this acreage for a period 10-15 years. This program is totally voluntary and is flexible based upon landowner needs and characteristics unique to each site.
The District also works with many farmers in the basin developing farm plans and encouraging implementation of 'Best Management Practices' (BMPs). When properly implemented, BMPs prevent or reduce water pollution while allowing the farmer to run a profitable business. When we think about water pollution it is very easy to point our fingers at agricultural producers as the main culprits. This is a scapegoat reaction. We are all part of the problem! Will the watershed really be better off when the dairy is torn down and replaced with a paved sub-development of 200 homes? I think not. We need to protect open spaces such as farm land, wetlands, and forests. These areas act like giant sponges soaking up rainfall, thereby slowing runoff and filtering pollutants prior to entry to surface waters. Every time we add more roof area, concrete, asphalt, or other 'impervious' areas we accelerate the flow of polluted runoff into our streams, rivers, and lakes.
This brings me to the third aspect of our involvement in water stewardship, outreach and education. One of the most rewarding aspects of this job is getting out and interacting with the public. Currently I spend a lot of time visiting area elementary schools leading discussions about the importance of clean water to salmon and people. This school year the response has been outstanding! I have visited 29 classes and have many more presentations scheduled.
My main focus is prevention of 'nonpoint' pollution, those difficult problems our basin is facing that we all contribute to in one form or another: i.e. storm water runoff polluted by oil, antifreeze, pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers, failing septic systems, litter, soil erosion, and flooding. The only way that we can reduce or prevent nonpoint pollution is to examine our actions very carefully. Next time you are at the grocery store on a rainy day, look at the parking lot! That oil and gas is going to end up in some local water body. Take a look at a stream or river during a high water event. It will probably be full of valuable soil, leaving our land less productive and our rivers with even fewer salmon following siltation of spawning gravel. The list goes on and on. We can reduce or prevent many of these problems by simply taking the time to think about the consequences of our actions, then acting accordingly. I urge you to do just that.
Once again my name is Mike Kuttel, Jr. I am the CREP and Outreach & Education Coordinator at the Lewis County Conservation District. If you have any questions about CREP, BMPs, water stewardship, or environmental education please feel free to call me at (360) 748-0083 ext. 114. If you prefer e-mail, I can be reached at: mike-kuttel@wa.nacdnet.org.
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by Margaret Rader
Thurston County Citizen Representative
At its December 3rd meeting, the Chehalis Basin Partnership selected Grays Harbor County to be its lead agency. Grays Harbor County takes over from Lewis County, which served as lead agency since the Partnership came together in 1997. After the resignation last month of Marc Duboiski, who served as Lewis County's staff support to the CBP, Lewis County decided not to continue to fulfill this function.
Because the CBP is not a corporation, a lead agency is required to apply for and administer grants and to execute contracts. Mike Daniels, Grays Harbor County director of public services, said that the county was consulting with the Grays Harbor Regional Planning Commission and with Columbia Pacific RC&D to work together to fulfill lead agency functions. Columbia Pacific RC&D will hire a fish biologist to work on the Partnership's Salmon Recovery grant under SB 2496, and the planning commission will assist with planning issues. The county intends to appoint Lee Hansman, their current project coordinator, to serve as administrative staff to the CBP and fulfill administrative functions related to the Partnership's watershed planning grant (SB 2514).
In other business, the Partnership reelected Mayor Spahr of Chehalis and Dr. Sodhi, Chehalis Tribe, as chair and vice chair for the coming year.
The Partnership also gave a green light to the consultants who are putting together the Level I Watershed Assessment and confirmed the direction given by a workshop of water professionals held on October 29th. Joy Michaud, Envirovision consultant team leader, gained approval to proceed with consideration of 29 subbasins within the Basin based on control points for instream flow as set by the legislature and by gauging information. The group also agreed to defer the issue of exempt wells to Level II but include in the Level I Assessment a description of a pilot project to estimate the impact on water availability of exempt wells. Another issue was the extent to which the Grays Harbor estuary will be considered in the Level I Assessment. Although initially it did not appear that the estuary was included in the Scope of Work for Level I, the Partnership agreed that a narrative description of the research currently underway in the estuary should be included in the Level I Assessment, with fuller consideration planned for Level II.
Plans for soliciting and prioritizing proposals for funding from the Salmon Recovery Board's Early 2000 Application cycle were also presented by Kahle Jennings from Ecology. Proposals can come from local government, state agencies, Tribes, non-profit organizations, and private landowners. Eligible projects include habitat acquisition, installation of devices to prevent fish from entering water diversion structures, removing in-stream blockages to fish passage, enhancement of in-stream habitat, improving riparian habitat, improving upland habitat that directly affects water for fish.
During the transition from Lewis to Grays Harbor County as lead entity, the CBP Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) and Kahle Jennings will administer this process. Applications are due by January 14, and if any group or individual thinks they may want to submit a project, they should contact Kahle immediately at (360) 407-6310 for further information and an application packet. Since there is a lead group in this Basin, all projects asking for funding from the Salmon Recovery Board must go through the CBP process.
In other business, J. Roach, one of the Thurston county citizen advisers, updated the Partnership on his work in bringing together data management professionals to set a direction for data management for the Basin that will result in the information the Partnership gathers being fully accessible to the public and to the counties and cities.
The Partnership will not meet on December 17, so the next meeting will be January 28, 2000, at 9 AM at the Chehalis Tribal Center Casino near Oakville.
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David Hamilton
Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force
In 1999 the Task Force, which is comprised of representatives of volunteer, business and tribal entities within the Chehalis Basin, accomplished a number of projects that improved the environment for anadromous and native fishes within the basin.
In downtown Aberdeen, the Port of Grays Harbor and CBFTF partnered a habitat project on Frye Creek, which runs through Port property before emptying into the Chehalis River. The project consisted of the placement of twenty-one Large Woody Debris in the stream at intervals through out the reach that is within the Port's property. Also a culvert was anchored by placement of one-man rock on tile stream bank around the mouth of the culvert, and revegetation of the stream bank was done by planting of evergreen and deciduous trees along both sides of Frye Creek within the project boundaries. This project was accomplished because the Port of Grays Harbor and the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force worked together to make things happen.
The Task Force, US Fish and Wildlife Service and the Department of Natural Resources cooperated on a road abandonment project on a small tributary to the Chehalis River in Grays Harbor County. The county had to first give up the right of way to the Department of Natural Resources, who in turn abandoned the right of way. This allowed the removal of a culvert from Jack Creek that was blocking about a mile of spawning habitat from being utilized by coho salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout, Once the culvert was removed the banks of the stream were seeded with grass to prevent erosion and the old roadbed was blocked off to keep vehicles from crossing the stream. The actual work of removing the culvert and blocking the road was done by the DNR, with part of the funding for the project being furnished by CBFTF through a grant from USF&W Service.
The Task Force completed two fencing projects this year, one on the main stein of the Chehalis and one on Lincoln Creek, a tributary to the Chehalis. The project on the main stem of the Chehalis was the Mahoney Fencing Project. This was a five strand barbed wire fence that will keep the Mahoney cattle away from the Chehalis River and will protect the stream side vegetation front any further damage. This fence was 5,248 feet long when completed. As you can see, almost a mile of stream bank was protected by this one project, providing a buffer for the stream bank and a habitat corridor for many different kinds of wild birds and animals.
The project on Lincoln Creek was called the Remund Fencing, and consisted of 16,000 feet of five strand barbed wire, which encompassed both sides of Lincoln Creek. This was a particularly tough job for the contractor, Smith Fencing of Rochester, because of the meandering nature of Lincoln Creek through out the Remund property.
There were 251 corner posts needed on this project, both H-brace and bed log corners. Also four hard rock crossings with gates were installed, with appropriate berms around the crossings to keep overflow during high water events to a minimum.
This was an especially important project in that the protection of the stream banks on this section of Lincoln Creek was of top priority if the system was to be made stable and minimize silting of the stream bed downstream of this property. This coming spring (February or March) we hope to have the funding to go in and revegetate both banks of the stream inside the fenced off strip. Getting some trees planted to provide shade along this stretch of Lincoln Creek will hell) to keep the water temperature down during the summer months and will further stabilize the stream bank in this area. The revegetation of the stream banks will also provide cover for a variety of wild birds and animals, once again helping the whole ecosystem, not just the fish.
Lincoln Creek has a population of native cutthroat trout and is home to hundreds, if not thousands of coho salmon that return to spawn and die each year. Also sea-run cutthroat trout and probably some Steelhead may utilize portions of the creek for habitat at different life stages. These are all wild fish now, as no planting of hatchery stock takes place in the Lincoln Creek drainage at this time. The Remund Project will help to assure that these wild salmonids will have clean cold water to live in.
The Elma Game Club's Satsop Springs rearing facility is currently adding to the off channel over wintering and rearing areas at their facility. This past year saw another piece of over wintering habitat completed. These over wintering areas are also utilized by chum salmon for spawning when water conditions are right and the adult chums can access these artificial channels. This is a long-term project and each year sees a little bit more accomplished as funding becomes available.
The Okie Thompson project on the Wishkah River involved the raising of tile water level downstream of a culvert by building a series of steps to allow adult coho to access the habitat above the culvert on this small tributary to the Wishkah. This project was partially completed before the HPA window ran out, and will be monitored over the winter and next spring before completion next summer. This project when completed will open tip a large tract of habitat to anadromous and native fish.
The last project that I will mention that was accomplished this past year was actually a partnership between one of the groups who hold a seat on the Task Force Board of Directors, Friends of the Chehalis (FOC) and a local dairy farmer. The FOC partnered with the farmer to build a berm to catch storm run-off from around his barns and divert the run-off away from Lincoln Creek. While this was a small project, it definitely will help preserve the water quality on Lincoln Creek. FOC paid for the concrete needed to finish off the berm.
This is what was accomplished in 1999 by the Chehalis Basin Fisheries Task Force and the different landowners and partners who helped to get these projects off the ground. Our project coordinators are continually looking for new projects to help improve habitat and water quality for native and anadromous fishes of the Chehalis Basin. If you know of an area that you think needs help to become better habitat for the fish of the Chehalis Basin, contact our office in Aberdeen (360) 533-1766 and our office manager will make sure our project coordinator gets in touch with you.
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Sometimes we overlook the unique and wonderful resources in our watershed. For example:
"The Black River and its adjacent swampland form one of the largest undisturbed freshwater wetland systems remaining in the Puget Sound Region"
Washington Wildlands, Winter 1999-200
"In 1980, the Fish and Wildlife Service identified the so-called Black River Swamp as one of the 20 most important fish and wildlife habitats in the state."
The Olympian, October 6, 1999
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During heavy rainfall events, the City of Aberdeen experiences extensive street flooding. Much of this flood water finds its way into the sanitary sewer system. This extra water is referred to as "Infiltration/Inflow" (I/I). Storm events can increase flows to the treatment plant beyond its processing capacity, thereby creating system backups.
To minimize the flooding problems which appear to be a major contributor of excessive I/I, the City has initiated a major storm drainage improvement project. The project involves the construction of nine large storm water pumping stations. The combined pumping capacity of the stations exceeds 60,000 gallons per minute. Funding has been secured for the construction of all the stations and all of the pumps have been ordered. Designs have been completed, contractors selected, and construction is in various stages on the seven largest pump stations. Design work is being finalized on the two smallest stations. All work is anticipated to be completed this winter.
The City has also completed an extensive smoke-testing program and has identified over 250 locations where private property owners were draining either rainwater or ground water into the sanitary sewer system. The City is taking aggressive action in having all of these private problems corrected.
Throughout the coming winter, spring, and summer, the City will be involved in other programs to eliminate private sump pumps that discharge ground water to the sewer system, correct faulty plumbing that drains water from crawl spaces into the sewer, sea] manhole lids, and investigate a variety of locations on private property that have been identified as sources of I/I.
Rather than spending millions of dollars to increase the capacity of the treatment plant to meet the peak events created by winter rain storms, the City will be doing everything possible to prevent that extra water from getting into the system.
Concern has been expressed that the connection of the Stafford Creek Correctional Center will create problems at Aberdeen's waste treatment plant when the City experiences high sewer flows during storm events. The City has addressed this concern by constructing a 1,560,000-gallon sewage storage tank at the Stafford Creek Correctional Center site. This large storage tank will be used to detain the sewer flows from the facility during periods of high treatment plant flows. The flows from the facility will then be pumped to the treatment plant after the storm is over and plant flows are lower.
LARRY D. BLEDSOE, P.E.
Director of Public Works
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time to talk back WE WANT YOUR THOUGHTS
What are the envorinmental concerns you have?
What would you like to read about?
Send your comments to:
Chehalis River Council , P.O Box 586, Oakville, WA 98568
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Individual teachers who promote knowledge and stewardship of clean water can compete in the year 2000 for $750 "Magic Apple" grants from the Washington State Department of Ecology. The program uses funds from an Environmental Protection Agency section 319 grant. The grants will recognize past achievements while supporting new or continuing activities. Application forms are available from:
Annie Phillips
Department of Ecology
PO Box 47600
Olympia, WA 98504-7600
(360) 407-6408
aphi461@ecy.wa.gov
Eligibility: Any elementary, middle/junior high school, or high school full-time educator, parochial or private schools in Washington state. Educators who team-teach are eligible; team members will share the award.
Categories: We will award three grants in each of these categories: Primary/Elementary schools, Junior high or middle schools, High schools - including vocational skill centers
Criteria: We are looking for teachers who demonstrate they will use this money most effectively for water quality education in next year's classes. Teacher must show specifically how they intend to use the money - i.e., test kits, supplies, field trips.
The grant is based on past performance in water quality education, and must be used to support future water quality education. The principals will oversee the use of the grant to make sure it's fulfilling its intended purpose. We will require a brief report at the end of the 2000-2001 school year describing how the money was used, and a description of any aspects of the teacher's program that may be helpful to other teachers.
Applications : Nominations may be made by the teacher, students, other faculty or administrators.
Timing: Please return the completed form, narrative description, and two letters of recommendation, by March 1, 2000, to Annie Phillips. A committee of professional educators will judge the entries and announce the winners by April 1, 2000. Schools will receive checks in the name of winning teachers, and "Magic Apple" certificates will go to the teachers by May 15.
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