March 16, 2005

Chair: Walt Edelen, Spokane County Conservation District (SCCD)

Present: Keith Holliday, Department of Ecology

Dee Bailey, Coeur d’Alene Tribe

Bill Rickard, City of Spokane, Environmental Programs

Shallan Dawson, Spokane County Conservation District

Rob Lindsay, Spokane County

Rick Noll, Spokane County Conservation District

Peter Grunte, Landowner

Garry Ostheller, Landowner

Steve Bortfeld, Hangman Hills Water District

AGENDA/Minutes

The meeting was called to order at 9:00 a.m. Two sets of minutes were discussed.

The February 3rd minutes were approved with the following change. The plan approval schedule for the City of Spokane is currently unclear. The minutes should reflect the uncertainty in the timeline and not state any tentative schedule.

The February 23^rd minutes were approved with the following changes. Steve Bortfeld was in attendance at this meeting and should be added to the Members Present list. Lloyd Brewer was in attendance for Bill Rickard. This should be reflected in the minutes. On page one, the third paragraph under the instream flow section should be changed to state that the Skagit instream flow ruling was not approved. An amendment has been developed and is currently out for review.

Water Resources Management Program Recommendation (Instream Flow Discussions)

Keith Holliday explained his recent discussions with the City of Spokane staff and the potential for continuing work on an instream flow recommendation for Hangman Creek. The conclusion between Ecology and the City of Spokane was to continue working towards the management of instream flow in the basin. This recommendation may be put forward by the PU as a recommendation (yet to be worded).

Plan Approval Schedule

The Watershed Plan has been distributed to the City Council. A workshop will be conducted on March 31^st to review the plan and answer questions. Rick, Walt, Keith, Bill, and Lloyd will be in attendance. Bill reiterated that the schedule for plan approval through the Council is unknown at this time. However, he will acknowledge progress as it occurs.

The next step will be to have a Planning Unit Meeting to approve the plan. Once it is formally approved by the Planning Unit, we will pursue approval by the Spokane and Whitman County Commissioners. Walt has submitted the document to the Whitman County Commissioners for review. Reanette has submitted the document to the Spokane County Commissioners for review. Rob Lindsay stated that both the 55/57 and 56 watershed plans are moving along through the approval process together and that it may be better to run them by the commissioners separately to avoid confusion of watershed issues and recommendations. He further stated that the process would be as follows: plan is reviewed by commissioners (a joint meeting between Whitman and Spokane); a public hearing is scheduled (each county does their own). After that, it is up to the commissioners to act on it.

Keith Holliday mentioned that Ecology would conduct an internal review of the plan. He anticipates a couple of weeks between the City of Spokane workshop and the PU approval process.

Tekoa Golf Course Update

Keith Stouffel, from Ecology, has been working with Walt and the golf course representatives to develop options for the short and long term. The Golf Course is still trying to find valid documentation of a surface water right and may have some new leads on where to find it. They need approximately 100-acre feet/per year. Otherwise, the current options are as follows:

Find an existing surface water right in the vicinity of the golf course. They could purchase or lease it if the owner is willing.
Tie into the City of Tekoa’s water main. They could possibly purchase and transfer water rights from City. There is existing concern over the capacity of the City’s wells and whether or not the requirements of the golf course would cause a problem for the current needs of the residents.
Pump and dump. The golf course could continue pumping from the creek as long as the City will mitigate (drop per drop) at a location downstream. This option is contingent on several factors and approval from Ecology.
There may be other options to follow. Recent discussions indicated that the golf course is located on municipal ground. If that is the case, then the City of Tekoa could exercise their rights (inchoate) and drill an additional well to serve their municipality. If this is true, then the City of Tekoa does not need to apply for additional water rights. On paper, they have more than enough water (excess of 400 acre feet/year) to irrigate the golf course. However, it is not known if the water is actually available.

Discussion ensued regarding the Planning Unit’s role in assisting the golf course. The Planning Unit has funding available for discretionary use, but the funds are contingent on final plan approval by the County Commissioners, consensus of planning unit members, and approval by Ecology financial staff.

The planning unit members did not agree on all aspects of assisting the golf course, but did agree that additional discussion and research needs to occur before final decisions could be made. In effort to facilitate assistance, the planning unit further discussed other potential “early action items” that may possibly be funded by the available funding.

Early Action Items

The planning unit discussed the following items for implementation. Wording may be modified at a later date.

The following Early Action Items have been developed by the WRIA 56 Planning Unit. These actions are not prioritized and will be implemented as funding and opportunities provide.

The Planning Unit will pursue negotiations with the City of Tekoa, WA to pump additional water into Hangman Creek to augment flows during the critical summer period (July – September).
The Planning Unit will investigate and implement a series of long-term monitoring wells to evaluate the ground-water level status in the Hangman Creek basin.
The Planning Unit will assist (possible level of funding) the Tekoa Golf Course with transferring its use of surface water from Hangman Creek to an efficient alternate source.
The Planning Unit will pursue the reservation of a portion of the Conservation Futures Program to fund the acquisition of high priority riparian shorelines.
The Planning Unit will implement a water quality-monitoring program to provide a baseline condition to help indicate potential long-term improvements within the basin.

Next Meeting

The following meeting is tentatively set for April 28^th to approve the plan from 10 am to 12 noon. Confirmation will be sent at a later date.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:40 a.m.