By Lee Hicks - Methow Valley News

May 2, 2001 - A state Senate committee staffer will be featured at a special meeting of the Methow basin watershed planning unit this week to discuss progress on local watershed planning.

The session, scheduled for Wednesday from 6-8 p. m. at the Twisp Forest Services offices, comes as county officials and the planning unit assess respective roles in the watershed process.

County commissioners recently reminded the planning unit it would need to complete a work plan in four years under the state-authorized watershed process. The unit has been operating for two years.

Commissioners have expressed concerns that the Department of Ecology could step in to set instream flows for the basin if the planning unit cannot complete the work.

An Ecology spokesperson said this week the agency has no intention of stepping in to take over the process, however, state law gives the agency the authority to set streamflows to protect fish.

"We’re already in the watershed planning process," said Joe Williams, a top Ecology official in Olympia. "We’re at the table."

The county has not been represented at recent planning unit meetings since the water resources department was folded into the county planning department.

Further complicating the situation, the planning unit has been diverted by lengthy negotiations with state and federal agencies to reach a basin "memorandum of agreement" for water and fish issues. The agreement would allow efforts to determine water needed for fish and studies to proceed while fish passage, irrigation ditch screens and other improvements are made.

Also a factor has been the county’s notice to sue National Marine Fisheries Service and the Forest Service over biological opinions that limit water rights on ditches that divert from federal land. Some planning unit "citizen" members have supported the suit. But the unit has taken no official position because state and federal agency managers are also members.

The Senate staffer on the Wednesday agenda is John Stuhlmiller, a specialist on legislation establishing state watershed planning and funding for salmon recovery, known as 2514 and 2496 processes after the enabling bill numbers.

Although the commissioners had expressed concern over meeting the four-year deadline set by the 2514 legislation, Rep. Linda Parlette said Stuhlmiller’s initial opinion was that Okanogan County may be even or ahead of some other counties opting to pursue the process.

Parlette, R-12, who represents the Methow basin and Sen. Bob Morton, R-7, whose district includes the Okanogan basin, are scheduled to participate in the Wednesday meeting via conference call from Olympia.

Parlette said Monday (April 30) that she believes the county and planning unit can move ahead to complete the watershed plan while keeping the lawsuit issue "at arm’s length."

Parlette also said she was assured by top state officials that, regardless of the county’s notice to sue federal agencies, funding would continue if it made progress on watershed planning.

Williams suggested this week that the planning unit will have to have working plans in place by the end of the fiscal year before it can receive $150,000 remaining from the half million dollars already appropriated to projects in the basin.

 from www.methowvalleynews.com/tstories.htm#Senate%20sends%20envoy%20for%20watershed%20planning%20talk

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