WRIA 56/HANGMAN CREEK Watershed Implementation Team Meeting Tuesday, May 1, 2007 1:30 - 3:30 p.m. Spokane County Conservation District Conference Room 210 N. Havana Spokane, WA Meeting Summary Attending: Bill Bealer, Ridge at Hangman Steve Bortfeld, Hangman Hills Water District Bruce Carmack, Watershed Resident Walt Edelen, Spokane County Conservation District Peter Grunte, Watershed Resident Susan Gulick, Sound Resolutions (Facilitator) Rob Lindsay, Spokane County Gary Ostheller, Fairfield Grange Bill Rickard, City of Spokane, Environmental Programs Jamie Short, Dept. of Ecology Ray Soltero, Ridge at Hangman 1. Approve Meeting Summary q The meeting summary was approved with no changes. 2. Review Draft DIP q The WIT would like more information on transferrable water rights (i.e. when are transfers allowed and when are they prohibited). Jamie will ask Sara to get more information on this. In particular, the WIT is interested in learning more about the option to transfer surface water rights to ground water rights. q For the statutory requirements in the DIP, Ecology suggests using the Ecology checklist. This could be attached as an appendix. q The WIT likes the idea of developing key strategies that group all the recommendations into a more manageable number of strategies. The WIT will then develop priority actions for each strategy and attempt to identify secure funding for these actions. q The WIT will review the draft DIP, which is a PRELIMINARY ROUGH DRAFT that simply includes a summary of the notes taken during WIT meetings. Details will need to be added and information will need to be corrected. q The WIT members will provide some bullets listing current implementation activities where appropriate. q WIT members are encouraged to suggest additional implementation actions. They are also encouraged to suggest which entity should be responsible for implementation activities. q WIT members should NOT worry about funding issues at this time. Once the implementation activities are listed, the WIT will review funding options and revise the implementation activities as necessary. 3. Ecology Grants q Ecology is accepting grant applications for both capital and operating funds. Grant applications are due June 11th. There are no matching requirements. q The WIT brainstormed some initial ideas, including: ü Substituting phosphorus-free soap in specific communities; ü Providing administrative support for the Water Conservation Collaboration; ü Funding additional water quality monitoring, including non-point phosphorus sampling; ü Developing a long-term water quality monitoring strategy in coordination with the TMDL work group; ü Assessing the hydro-geologic connectivity between sub-basins; ü Funding the SCCD livestock improvement program; ü Purchasing, installing and maintaining additional stream gauges; ü Funding upgrades to infrastructure in small towns, including leak detection programs and system upgrades. q The WIT will meet on Thursday, May 24th from 10-12 at the SCCD offices to select projects and determine who will prepare the grant applications. 4. Updates/Other Issues q Spangle is still planning to dredge a small portion of the stream and remove trees from the streambed. The amount of dredging is much smaller than the original plan. The housing development for Spangle appears to be on hold for now. q The site has been selected for the Stateline stream gauge. SCCD is getting equipment and permits. q Walt has received draft articles for the newsletter. He has not received Elaine’s article on the TMDL process; Jamie will check on this. Walt will publish the newsletter later in May with whatever articles he has received; additional articles can be published in the next version. q There is a potential funding opportunity with FCAP (Flood Control Assistance Program). The deadline is May 8. SCCD is looking at this to determine if it is practical to apply. q The soil sampling on Hangman Creek is complete, and the samples are currently being analyzed. 5. Upcoming Meetings q There will be an informal meeting on Thursday, May 24th from 10-12 at the SCCD office to discuss potential Ecology grant applications. q There will be WIT meeting on Tuesday, June 5th from 10-12 at the SCCD offices. q There will also be a WIT meeting on Tuesday, June 19th from 10-12 at the Harvester Restaurant in Spangle. If you have questions or comments, please contact Susan Gulick of Sound Resolutions at (206) 548-0469 or by e-mail at Susan@Soundresolutions.com.