Hangman Creek Water Quality Improvement

Planning Meeting

March 15, 2007

Chair:              Rick Noll, Spokane County Conservation District

Present:          Scott Fields, Coeur D’Alene Tribe

Elaine Snouwaert, Department of Ecology

Reanette Boese, Spokane County

Pat Kane

Gary Ostheller

William Sayres

Joe Joy, Ecology

Layne Merritt, Century West Engineering

Penny Tee

Introductions

The meeting was called to order at 6:35 p.m.  Introductions were done.  The January 18 minutes were corrected as follows, completer was misspelled and changed to complete, and it was noted that there was a quorum and these were minutes not a summary.  It was motioned by Elaine Snouwaert to approve the minutes with corrections, seconded by Gary Ostheller.  Motion passed.

Public Comment

It was brought up that the CDA Tribe casino might be planning on developing a treatment plant that would discharge into Rock Creek.  Scott Fields confirmed that the Tribe was discussing this, but nothing has been decided.  If anything is going to be done, he thinks that it won’t be for another two to three years.  Joe Joy asked that if Scott finds anything out, to let him know so he can take it into account in the model. 

Rick reviewed the results of the Spokane River TMDL meeting.  The dischargers are going to invest approximately 2 million dollars a year in non-point source phosphate reduction.  It was unclear as to when the monies would be available.  They are waiting on the results of a non-point source pollution study the county is conducting.  

Transfer of absent members to non-voting status

The problem with not getting a quorum in the past few meetings has hindered the work of the committee.  It was decided to remove members who have not participated in several of the last meetings from voting status in accordance with our bylaws.  Lon Ottosen has not been present in over a year and was removed.  Cathy McBeth asked to be taken off the committee, and she was also removed.  Micki Harnois has attended some meetings, but not many lately.  She will be contacted to determine if she is still interested in being a voting member.

Review of WARMF model results

The reference conditions and model scenarios decided on last meeting were reviewed.  Scott had some questi0ns on why the forest cover was only increased above Rockford and Tensed.  It was explained that these areas were chosen because of the existing land uses.     Joe reviewed the WARMF calibration, inputs and assumptions.  Joe reviewed the load allocations and phosphate concentrations being evaluated by the Spokane River TMDL.  It was noted that the new load allocations would be meet during most of the critical months.  Only the early months, April and May, did not generally meet the new load requirements.

The model operation and results for various scenarios were reviewed.   In general, removing all point source discharges to the system had the biggest benefit in phosphate reduction.  Various non-point source reductions reduced phosphate loads by one to two pounds per day.  It was requested that the point and non-point source reductions be shown for each month at the mouth of each major sub-watershed.  Joe said he would set up a table for each.

Joe asked for clarification on some of the model scenarios and on model inputs.  Joe is going to send Rick and Elaine a list of parameters for the direct seed land use that need values for each parameter.  Joe also asked what the value for phosphate is to be for the scenario “Idaho meets water quality standards”. 

Planning for public meetings

There was not enough time to complete this agenda item.  It was decided to

postpone this until Joe is further along with his work. 

NEXT MEETING

The next meeting was scheduled for April 19^th. 

ADJOURN

The meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.