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HomeMy WebLinkAboutSurface Water Work Session June 25 20191 Whatcom County Council 2 Surface Water Work Session 3 4 June 25, 2019 5 6 CALL TO ORDER 7 8 Council Vice -Chair Todd Donovan called the meeting to order at 10:31 a.m. in the 9 Civic Center Garden Level Conference Room, 322 Commercial Avenue, Bellingham, 10 Washington. 11 12 13 ROLL CALL 14 15 Present: Barbara Brenner, Rud Browne, Barry Buchanan, Tyler Byrd, Todd 16 Donovan, Carol Frazey, and Satpal Sidhu. 17 Absent: Tyler Byrd 18 19 20 1. WATHERSHED PLANNING UPDATE 21 22 Gary Stoyka, Public Works Department, "reported on the following items and 23 answered questions: 24 • Watershed Management Board meeting schedules, agendas, and the five year 25 work plan. 26 & Management Team meeting work on the regional water supply plan 27 • Funding for water conservation efforts, including domestic and agricultural 28 water efficiency plans 29 • Groundwater model phase four deliverable is to simulate impacts to drainage 30 or regional scale activities 31 • The Water Utility Coordinating Committee meeting schedule and 32 recommendations for an update to the coordinated water system plan (CWSP) 33 34 The following people answered questions: 35 0 Steve ]ilk, Public Utility District (PUD) 36 0 Henry Bierlink, Ag Water Board 37 38 Councilmembers and staff discussed the PUD developing a drought contingency plan 39 and whether the County and Planning Unit should be involved, water conservation efforts in 40 domestic use and in the cities and industrial areas, and preserving water rights in the water 41 bank. 42 43 2. HOMEOWNERS INCENTIVE PROGRAM 44 45 Ingrid Enschede, Public Works Department, gave a staff report on the following items 46 and answered questions: 47 • Origin and history of the homeowners incentive program (HIP) 48 • Current work with the Conservation District to engage homeowners 49 • The professional certification program 50 • The two tiers of the program 51 • Program easement requirements and reimbursement 52 0 How the process works for a homeowner 53 • Accomplishments to date and next steps Surface Water Work Session, 6/25/2019, Page 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 • Landscaping design examples • Program statistics • Program challenges Gary Stoyka, Public Works Department, answered questions. Councilmembers and staff discussed the program's total goal of phosphorous removal, the main differences between the early program (HIP 1) and the most recent version of the program (HIP 2.0), whether they can engage volunteers to work on projects, monitoring, the process for changing an agreement, next steps with the City of Bellingham, and the budget. The following people spoke: • Nancy Alyanak spoke about calculation of phosphorous reduction calculations. • Kathy Sabel spoke about the drought contingency plan, the need for public hearings on water planning, and the water resource inventory area (WRIA) 1 framework. • Ellen Baker spoke about concerns about a 50-year plan outside a public process. Carol Perry spoke about the need for the Council to provide leadership, clarity, and assurance that every stakeholder is included at the table. Unidentified speaker spoke about Whatcom County as the lead agency for watershed planning. ADJOURN The meeting adjourned at 12:00 p.m. The gouT)ci`l'dUh;rpued these minutes on July 23, 2019 ATTEST:_©� Dana E �:rown=D i 6 ,pciI Clprk Jill Nixon, Minutes Transcription WHATCO C NTY UNCIL WHATCO CPQNTY, W SHINGTON Rud Browne, Council Chair Surface Water Work Session, 6/25/2019, Page 2