Minutes of September
7, 2006 Meeting
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1. CALLED TO ORDER: The
2. INTRODUCTIONS: Vice-Chairman Springer requested that the
Taskforce members and public participants introduce themselves and sign-in. There were approximately 10 Taskforce
members, two staff members and approximately 14 public participants and
government officials. (The sign-in sheet
is attached to the original minutes and included by this reference.)
3. MINUTES: The minutes
for the
4. LOGO CONTEST WINNER: Mr. Cook introduced
Julie Puzey. Mrs. Puzey was the winner
of the Taskforce logo contest.
5. WEB PAGE COMMITTEE: Mr. Cook
reported that the webpage will be updated to include maps, a single page
informational document about the Taskforce and they will also update the contact
information link, which is currently not working. The Association of Oregon Counties is coming
to
6. GRANT
WRITING AND PROJECT REVENUE COMMITTEE: Mr. Cook introduced Kate Ely who gave
information on a grant to help with funding to establish and monitor site
specific projects. Ms. Ely reported that
four years ago a group of people got together with the first announcement of a
watershed initiative from EPA. This
multi-agency group came up with some projects that they could pull together to
apply for this funding source. It was a
watershed wide interest project. At that
time it was a $1.3 million grant from EPA with a 25% non-federal cost share
match. Altogether they applied for a
$2.5 million project to do a ground water surface water interaction study. The purpose of the grant is the clean water
act and improving stream flow conditions for whatever plan you have the basin. They had the watershed wide TMDL plan that
was developed in 2000. They were fourth
in the approval process and did not get forwarded to the national level.
The
2006-2007 opportunity is the last year to apply. It is a $600,000 to $900,000 grant watershed
wide and recharge projects would be great to follow up on what was proposed in
2002. This is a multi-interest and
multi-agency project. The partners at
the time were CTUIR, SWCD, OWRD, OSU, USGS, USFS and the Watershed Council.
Ms.
Ely sent out an e-mail to all of the past interested parties asking to meet to
talk and brain storm project ideas, one of which is recharge.
This
is multi-year funding. One of the other
aspects of their study was that the funding in 2002 was for a 2 to 3 year study
and they were a start-up project. EPA
did not think that they could see measurable improvements and results in 2 to 3
years. Perhaps they could in 2 to 5
years. This year they have changed the
criteria to have a measured outcome improvement of 3 to 5 years. They had a very strong proposal in 2002. Ms. Ely would like Taskforce members
interested in exploring a watershed based project to join them at the
meeting.
Mr.
Cook added that the reason why he thinks this would fit well is that when the
projects committee was looking at some of these recharge projects in the basin
they were talking about stream health in terms of mitigation for surface water
storage or anything of that nature. He
thinks that this would be a good chance for some large funding to establish the
argument that these are good mitigation projects.
Ms. Ely added that Echo Meadows project, Kent
Madison’s AR/ASR project,
It takes a lot of time and effort to put together a
proposal to nominate and it requires letter from a Tribal leader or a Governor
and formal letters on letterhead from all of the respective participants. The
deadline to apply is
Dr. Reed and Ms. Klepper offered to assist Ms. Ely in
preparing the grant. Then there was some
discussion about what the meeting would entail.
7. NEW PROJECTS COMMITTEE: Mr. Cook said
that the committee met and identified some site specific projects. Discussion will be deferred until later in
the meeting.
8.
Mr.
Bowers has been commissioned to help in
While
on vacation, Mr. Bowers toured the Central Arizona Project. Mr. Bowers’ main items of interest were
maintenance and liability issues. The
State of
9. CTUIR REPORT: There was no
report this month.
10. RARE STUDENT: Mr. Cook
reported that in the first round, we did not get any of the three students that
were interviewed. They are having
trouble finding other students to possibly fill the position. Mr. Cook is in touch with SWCD on other
options for the grant commitment.
The Oregon Consensus Program has looked at our basin
as a chance to use their Eastern Regional Office. There has been talk about utilizing them to
conduct the surveys as well as having them come and assess our program. The other option is to hire a professional
staffer.
11. PLAN DEVELOPMENT UPDATE: Mr. Cook reported that he spoke with Mr. Colgan about
setting up a Plan Structure sub-committee meeting in September in order to have
some of the findings to the Taskforce for discussion in October.
12.
Ms. Ely mentioned that OWRD has also introduced a
ground water study in the
Charles Miller moved to approve the revised initiative
letter to Governor Kulongoski and to rewrite the first draft of the letter to
address the support of the OWRD/USGS ground water study. Lyle Smith seconded the motion and it carried
unanimously.
13.
Ms. Hayzlett handed out a draft of a document title
Umatilla County Water Rights Summary as of
Ms. Hayzlett proceeded to explain the information
contained in the document including the water rights and use codes. Mike Ladd assisted her in answering questions
and explaining things like in-stream water rights and minimum flows.
14. UMATILLA COUNTY FAIR & SALMON WALK
OUTREACH: Mr. Cook handed out a result sheet from the
questionnaires that were filled out at the county fair.
Dr. Reed and Mr. Cook attended the Salmon Walk and Mr.
Cook feels that it was a very successful outreach project.
Mr. Cook requested that the Outreach Committee put
together a venue for Todd Jarvis. He is
still very interested in presenting at local elementary schools.
Mr. Cook also mentioned scheduling presentations from
groups that have proposed bills or anything related to water being presented to
the legislature. They will look at
utilizing the Taskforce both for our Plan and to get in on this legislative
session. After the Taskforce has heard
the presentations, it will put together a packet of bills that they are in
support of.
15. 2050
PROJECTS SUBCOMMITTEE-MAPPING AND THE NEXT STEPS: Mr. Cook gave a presentation using a Google earth map
to show areas that could lend themselves to potential projects. They have looked into or discussed the
details of some of the projects. Mr.
Cook gave a brief overview of some of the potential project sites listed on the
map.
Finally,
Mr. Cook mentioned that the next steps will be getting a hold of the
Stakeholders, looking at project benefits, determining project priorities,
economic assessments, etc. He also asked
the Taskforce members to share any ideas or comments that they may have with
the Projects Committee.
16. CONCEPT
PAPER: Dr. Reed again reminded the Taskforce about
the need for a concept paper. He says
that we need that paper by November for the legislature.
17. PUBLIC
COMMENT/OPEN DISCUSSION: There were
no public comments.
18. ADJOURNMENT: There being no further business to discuss, the
meeting was adjourned by Vice-Chairman Springer at
Signed for the
_______________________________ _______________________________
JR Cook Annette
Rambel
Taskforce
Hand-outs
1. OWRD’s
Umatilla County Water Rights Summary as of 5/23/2006 Document
2.