Umatilla County
Critical Groundwater Taskforce
Minutes of February
2, 2006 Meeting
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1. CALLED TO ORDER: The
February 2, 2006 meeting of the Umatilla County Critical Groundwater Taskforce
(Taskforce) was called to order by Chairman Kent Madison at 2:00 p.m. in the
Board Room at Umatilla Electric Co-Op in Hermiston, Oregon.
2. INTRODUCTIONS: Chairman Madison
requested that the Taskforce members and public participants introduce
themselves and sign-in. There were 15
Taskforce members, two staff members and approximately 17 public
participants. (A copy of the sign-in
sheet is attached to the original minutes and included by this reference.)
3. MINUTES: There were no
changes suggested for the December 2005 minutes. Charles Miller moved to accept the minutes as submitted. Bob Bowers seconded the motion and it
carried unanimously.
There were no suggested changes to the January 2006
minutes. Bill Quaempts moved to accept
the minutes as presented. David Hadley
seconded the motion and it carried unanimously.
4. WEB PAGE COMMITTEE: Mr. Cook
reported that there has been some discussion that a link to the OSU web site be
added to the Taskforce web page, as well as adding a power point presentation
link or brochure that people can go to that describes the Taskforce.
Bob Bowers suggested putting a list of the Taskforce members
and their representation. Bob Bowers
moved to add a listing of the members and their representation without any
contact information to the web page. Bill
Burke seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
5. GRANT WRITING & PROJECT REVENUE
COMMITTEE: Mr. Cook reported that last month they were in the process of
putting together a federal appropriation request. He also stated that in the last few weeks he has had some pro
bono help in putting together an ASR/feasibility test kind of Phase 1 look at a
comprehensive conjunctive water management program in the west county. The federal request is for approximately $250,000. Mr. Cook will send out the request for
comments after he has had a chance to refine it.
Mr. Cook is going to Washington D.C. on February 13 - 17,
2006. He is hoping to get an idea of
the political environment there and possibly find some other avenues or try to
tie the Taskforce in with another project.
Mike Wick reported that Westland Irrigation District (WID)
has resubmitted their request for funding to OWEB for the Westland
Project. Funding decisions will be made
in March. Chairman Madison encouraged
staff to present information on current projects in the area to show legislators
that the citizens are trying to take care of the water problems on a local
level.
Mr. Cook reported that he got word that DLCD has
awarded the Taskforce another $5,000 technical assistance grant. The work product for that $5,000 is the
visioning workshops that OSU proposed after the synthesis was complete.
Mr. Cook also reported that the County Grant Packet
goes hand-in-hand with what is being put together for the outreach
program.
6. NEW PROJECTS COMMITTEE: The
New Projects Committee has not met.
Mr. Madison reported that Mike McCarty’s has his ASR
well up and operational. He starts the
testing phase within the next week and Chairman Madison begins testing on his
ASR well the following week. These are
privatized ASR projects for agricultural use.
They should be fully operational four or five weeks after the testing
phase. These two wells, according to
ASR specialists, are the first two known agricultural projects in the nation
possibly worldwide.
Chairman Madison also reported that he attended the
meeting between the Tribes and WID. He expressed
that it was a very productive meeting.
The Bureau of Reclamation’s appropriation to study the basin did not include
groundwater. The Bureau cannot study
groundwater under the original appropriation.
Part of the Memorandum of Understating between WID and the Tribes is to
also allow the Tribes to determine their water needs. They encouraged the Bureau to include groundwater in the Phase 1,
Phase 2 and Phase 3 projects. Bill
McDonald of the Bureau indicated that if they were instructed to write language
into this bill to allow it to be used for groundwater mitigation that they would.
The Bureau recommended that local
governments submit letters of support that they can use to show local support
when they go back to lobby. Chairman
Madison recommends that the Taskforce draft a recommendation to the BOC in
support of that Memorandum of Understanding and try to include language to
allow these projects to be used for surface and ground water issues. Ray Kopacz moved to have the Chairman and
Vice-Chairman sign a letter of support to the BOC. Bill Quaempts seconded the motion and it carried
unanimously.
7. OBJECTIVES / 2050 PLAN COMMITTEE: The
Objectives / 2050 Plan Committee did not meet.
Mr. Cook reported that he met with Aaron Skirvin and
discussed the need to draft the fundamentals of the plan. This could be used when meeting with their
respective commissions so that the commissions can see the process and comment
on it before they actively participate as a coordinating entity. He would like the committee to meet to begin
drafting those principles.
8. OUTREACH COMMITTEE: Jaime Clarke
reported that the subcommittee has come up with outreach priorities, venues and
forums. They are planning to develop a
brochure and a logo prior to an upcoming outreach event on February 21, 2006 at
the Running Dry presentation.
Running Dry is a documentary that describes water
issues around the globe and touches on water quantity and quality. The producer is traveling with the film and
is coming to Oregon to present it to OSU and as OSU’s guest he will travel to
Umatilla County to present the film in Hermiston and Pendleton. Ms. Clarke is putting out a press release to
all of the local newspapers. Their
intention is to have a brochure about the Taskforce prepared by that time.
9. COUNTY STAFF REPORT: Mr. Cook thanked
Harmon Springer for inviting the Taskforce to the Oregon Water Coalition annual
meeting. Senator Nelson and
Representative Jensen spoke at that meeting.
Mr. Cook stated the Representative Jensen didn’t stop short of saying that
we need to take a serious look at the water policies of the state having a direct
influence on the land use policies instead of them running parallel paths. This is a good year to have them looking at
this issue since it is the year of the “Big Look”.
Mr. Cook reported that there hasn’t been much
information from OSU to update the Taskforce with. Mr. Cook and Mr. Reed have had conferences with OSU to instruct
the workers on what the Taskforce wants.
OSU is working on getting a contour map developed and one staff member is
gathering reports on the studies that she can get from the Bureau or OWRD such
as the Sub Basin Plan. They are focused on items such as general data, current
consumptive data and socio-economic regions.
They will be working with current data not creating new data.
Mr. Cook reported that the BOC requested that the
Taskforce make a formal recommendation for Bill Quaempts to be a member of the
Taskforce since he originally was assigned as an alternate for Bill Burke. Sam Nobles moved to recommend Bill Quaempts
to become a member of the Taskforce.
The motion was seconded and it carried unanimously. There is still one Taskforce position
vacant.
10. PAUL CHALMERS UMATILLA COUNTY ASSESSMENT
& TAXATION PRESENTATION ON RESOURCE OPPORTUNITES FOR WATER MANAGEMENT: Mr. Cook
handed out a list that Commissioner Doherty distributed to all of the county
department heads that shows the burden that is placed upon county tax payers. This information was listed by county for
the entire state of Oregon.
Mr. Chalmers reported that when looking for options of
fees and financing for the Taskforce he found two sources. Those two sources would be either a fee
based system or property taxes.
The Taskforce could form a water improvement district through
Chapter 552 with a particular geographic boundary. That water improvement district
would have a tax base. Another option
would be a fee based internal option for the Taskforce’s geographic area that
could possibly use the property tax system for collection purposes with an
administrative fee. The last option
would be a simple fee based system that the Taskforce would administer
itself. If a district was formed and
the fee was applied it would have to be taken to the people and approved by a
double majority vote.
There were numerous questions and extensive discussion
on items such as Measure 5, property taxes, property values, geographic areas,
how to determine who and how to charge fees, etc.
11. ANNUAL REPORT AND RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE BOC: Mr. Cook reported that he incorporated the comments that
he has received into the outline of the annual report. He wanted to use this report to inform the
BOC and the Tribal Water Commission of the Taskforce’s progress. Mr. Cook said that this has been helpful for
the BOC to understand what the Taskforce’s progress has been and where the next
year’s activities are going. The
Taskforce members reviewed the outline, no corrections were suggested and it
was accepted. Mr. Cook intends to have
the Annual Report ready for presentation in March.
12. STANFIELD ZONE CHANGE: Mr. Cook
explained the handout that included a letter from OWRD to the City of Stanfield
along with an ordinance amending the City of Stanfield’s development code. (A copy of which is attached to the original
of these minutes.) Mr. Cook explained
that the BOC was looking for Taskforce feedback on how Stanfield dealt with
Goal 5 in their urban growth boundary amendments, particularly in the fourth
whereas in the document that is inconsistent with Oregon water law. The Planning Commission wanted this to be
used as a discussion topic about Goal 5.
Mr. Cook went on to explain that counties and cities
have joint management agreements about how an urban growth boundary is
managed. When a city does a zone change
or amendments to their comprehensive plan or development code within an urban
growth boundary the county has to co-adopt those amendments.
Mr. Colgan explained that this item is not before the
Taskforce for action but rather to show the Taskforce an example of something
that the Taskforce needs to address in their Plan. It was generally agreed that the Taskforce has a great deal of
public outreach to do including the municipalities, as some clearly are not
familiar with the Plan.
13. WALLA WALLA: Bob Bowers
reported that the Watershed Council has applied for additional grants from EPA
and OWEB to finish out the recharge project through the fifth year of their
limited license. They are also
developing a White Paper to work with USGS.
OSU is doing two economic studies for Walla Walla with water and
hydrology that includes both surface and ground water.
14. NEWSPAPER COLUMN: Mr. Cook reported that
he will be writing the first article for the East Oregonian. He has not received any recommendations from
members as of yet and will send out a reminder requesting suggestion.
15. TOPICS OF UPCOMING MEETINGS: Topics
for March are expected to be going over outreach literature, a report on the
Washington D.C. trip by Mr. Cook and possibly the NASA/CTUIR Temperature Study
and/or the interim synthesis report from OSU.
16. PUBLIC COMMENT: There were no comments from the public.
17. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further time the meeting was adjourned
by Chairman Madison at 5:00 p.m.
Signed for the Umatilla County Critical Groundwater
Taskforce by:
_______________________________ _______________________________
JR Cook Annette
Rambel
Taskforce County Staff Member Taskforce Recording Secretary