WRIA 14 PLANNING UNIT MEETING

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.

Shelton Civic Center

Shelton, WA

Meeting Summary

Attendance:

Government Members Present:
Dick Wilson, Mason County PUD # 1	Pam Bennett-Cumming, Mason County
Dave Wells, City of Shelton	John Konovsky, Squaxin Island Tribe
Al Frey, Port of Shelton	Phil Wiatrak, Dept. of Ecology
Government Members Absent:
Thurston County

Other Planning Unit Members Present:
Terri Jeffreys, Realtors/Homebuilders	Drew Noble, Water Purveyors
Warren Dawes, SWPSWC	Emily Sanford, WSU Extension
Chad Stussy, WDFW

Others Present:
Stephanie Kinney, Mason County	Susan Gulick, Technical Project Mgr/Facilitator

1. Prioritize Projects for Ecology Consideration

q The Planning Unit prioritized four projects for Ecology to consider while preparing its upcoming budget request:

1) Groundwater model for John’s Creek;

2) Water quality monitoring plan implementation;

3) Model water conservation plan; and

4) Changing behaviors to improve water resources.

q Planning Unit members volunteered to prepare these requests and give them to Phil. If he does not receive one, he will submit those received according to the above order of priority.

2. Watershed Plan

q Mason County and the Tribe have been unable to schedule a meeting to discuss possible compromises on the watershed plan.

q John informed the Planning Unit that the Squaxin Island Tribe requests that a final vote on the plan be scheduled for May 10^th (as originally planned). The Squaxin Island Tribe will not approve the plan and believes the owners of the water (Tribal, State and Federal governments) need to address issues related to water separately. They do not believe watershed planning units are the appropriate forum. The Tribe also has concerns with some of the vague statutory language related to plan implementation.

q The Squaxin Island Tribe will also not approve a plan that is limited to the recommendations for which there is agreement (such as the monitoring recommendation).

q At the next meeting, the Planning Unit will vote first on the supplemental recommendations proposed by the Tribe and the Homebuilders/Realtors. The second vote will be on the Watershed Plan (as amended, if any of the proposed amendments passed). Finally, it is expected that there will be motion to either continue or dissolve the Planning Unit.

q The City of Shelton suggested that each Planning Unit entity could adopt the plan on its own (e.g. the City and/or the Counties could adopt the plan and commit to implementing their responsibilities). However, John stated that this would most likely set back the relationship between these governments and the Tribe.

3. Next Planning Unit Meeting

q The next Planning Unit will be on Wednesday, May 10th from 10-12 at the Shelton Civic Center. It is anticipated that this will be the final Planning Unit meeting for WRIA 14.