Sandy's notes on the 10/15/2003 Watershed planning meeting.

I attended on my own behalf, not representing OWU. These notes are not intended to replace the minutes. The following ramblings only paraphrase some of the highlights from my personal biased perspective.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are not those of Olga Water Users Inc., in fact, they may not even be my own.

The communication problems related to the earlier meeting (OWU missed) were discussed.
The OWU board's written response to the first meeting was based on hearsay, since no one from the board knew about the meeting; and therefore, did not attend. I think there was committee agreement that communication would help, and it could be improved. I volunteered to support a public email forwarding service through OWU's web site.

Vicki Heater provided the great news that there was no plan to force a merger of the water systems on Orcas Island, and that a vote of 60% of the membership was required, even if the situation was critical. The rules would be different if the state declared an emergency. It was stated that this is unlikely to occur.

Jim Nelson questioned if it was wise to even call the Eastsound area a "critical area" and referred back to the early days of GMA. I wonder how big a step it is from "critical" to emergency. There may be more funding available from the state if we call the area critical, but I think we should heed Jim's caution about the strings that might be attached to accepting money for crying "critical".

I expressed several concerns about the lack of representation for fish, wildlife and the environment. It was not clear  how the documented priorities of the conflicting interests compared with the direction of the meeting.

There were several references to "surplus flow" or "surplus water". This concerns me since it implies that if it is not consumed that many people consider it surplus.

I am concerned to see the poor communication and coordination between the state, the county, and the community. For example the state funded $441,719 to the county in 2002, they did not directly involve the county or the community in water right modifications during this time. I expect that proper legal notices were published for the March 2002 change that affects Cascade Lake, Cascade Creek, and Mountain Lake. But the county was not aware of it until after the fact. I contacted Paul Fabiniac (sp?) with Wa State DOE, he says the county was informed. I am not sure exactly who was informed, or how. With this much of our tax money being funded from the state to the county I would like to see better coordination and cooperation.


Sandy Taylor