Puget Sound Partnership and Watersheds

Written by Jane Roush | 02 September 2010

It appears the buzzwords for the environment this year are "water quality."

Water is the essence of Mason County life. It is the rain in the forest, the water in the Canal and Puget Sound for commercial and sport fisherman. It is the life of our shellfish. It is what lures tourists to Mason County and allows my husband to have a summer garden.

It is very confusing when governmental programs, policies and services overlap. Who is in charge often comes to mind? What are the differences in what agencies are saying and who is responsible?

In 1998 the Washington's State Legislature passed the Watershed Planning Act. The legislation was supposed to develop a framework for local solutions to watershed issues. Local citizens in a watershed could join together to assesses the status of water resources and determine best how to use them.

Twelve state agencies were responsible for implementation of the act but in the end the Dept of Ecology was the lead agency. The state eventually was divided into 62 WRIA's (Watershed Resource Inventory Area). (If you put Puget Sound Partnership's map over the western part of Washington State, you can see that PSP divided the area into large groups, where the watersheds are many small areas.) The remainder of the state has the Columbia Basin watersheds and many small watersheds on the coast.

Department of Ecology web page states: "A "watershed" is an area draining into a river, lake, or other water body." Another definition of a WRIA is "where you stand on a piece of ground and the water under your left foot goes one way and under the right foot goes another way." That is how the boundaries of WRIA's were established.

DOE goes on to state that the WRIA's would prepare plans balancing the competing demands for water, in other words whether it be the economic needs of the area such as forest, fishing, tourism, or the private needs of citizens, all groups should be represented in the plan. The WRIA's were also required to address the amount of water available and the use of that water. The plans would also consider minimum in-stream flows and future out-of stream requirements. Other options the WRIA could address included habitat.

There were 4 phases of planning that were funded by the state:

• Organizational – Which included $50,000 per WRIA;
• Assessment–Up to $200,000 for each assessment of the watershed;
• Planning—Up to $250,000 for a plan to be developed, getting approval and county board adoption; and
• Implementation—Up to $100,000 per WRIA for getting the plan up and running.

Mason County has the luck (?) to encompass four different WRIA's.The southwest corner of Mason County was included in WRIA 22. WRIA 22 and 23 are combined and called the Chehalis Basin Partnership. The planning group for these WRIA's organized, performed their assessments and submitted a plan to the Board of Commissioners for Grays Harbor, Lewis, Mason and Thurston counties in 2004. All four counties accepted the plan. The implementation work was started in October 2005 and the detailed implementation plan was approved in Oct 2006. The key recommendations were a water data management system, compliance towards illegal water users, and incentives for water conservation and reclamation. The Legislature has provided funds for expanded water qualified monitoring program. This WRIA is exceptionally successful in its planning and implementation of its program. The old saying the early bird gets the worm is true since their program received full funding.

The Tahuyha Peninsula of Mason County is included in WRIA 15. One problem with the Kitsap Watershed Planning (WRIA 15) in my opinion is that there are too many government entities involved in the process. There are 4 counties, 1 city, 1 water district and 2 tribes. The group completed phase 1 and 2 of the planning phases, however in June 2005 after they had competed their draft watershed plan, everything came to a standstill. At that point they were unable to reach consensus and the Squaxin Island Tribe voted against the plan approval.

Mason County is the lead for two WRIA's, 14 and 16.

The Skokomish/Dosewallips WRIA (#16) starts at the Rocky Branch of the Dosewallips River and comes down the Hood Canal. It includes the Duckabush River and Fulton Creek in Jefferson County. Coming south it includes the Hamma Hamma River, Lake Cushman, the north and south Fork of the Skokomish River. The towns included are Brinnon, Duckabush, Eldon, Lilliwaup, Hoodsport and the Skokomish Tribe.

WRIA 16 is charging forward. The planning group approved the watershed plan in May 2006 and the Mason and Jefferson County Boards of Commissioners adopted the plan in July 2006. The planning group received a grant in July 2007 and they completed their detailed implementation plan in June 2008. They are now working with the Puget Sound Partnership to develop an agenda for the Hood Canal.

Recently a program called Legacy Roads and Trails Remediation awarded $2.7 million to this watershed for repair and restoration of old logging trails. The project will improve water quality in this WRIA and enhance salmon runs. Another primary benefit is to stop the annual flooding downstream.

WRIA 14 is commonly referred to as the Kennedy/ Goldsborough WRIA but actually includes part of Thurston County along 101 to Mud Bay. To the north WRIA 14 includes Union and the canal up to where Hwy 3 and Hwy 106 come together. It then come down the Puget Sound water passed Harstene Island and then cuts over toward Mud Bay. On the East side it includes Dayton, Matlock and the areas of Skookum Creek, Gosnell Creek, Kennedy Creek and Perry Creek, and Summit Lake although this county is Thurston County. This was the original setup of WRIA 14.

In 2002 WRIA 14 issued a report, which identified and detailed what is known about water issues in the WRIA. The main finding was that water resources were in short supply in the summertime although only 1% of the water available is used. Grants were received for further study and outlining a final plan. In May 2006 the draft watershed plan was completed but the Squaxin Island Tribe voted against the approval of plan.

In 2008 the Washington State Legislature passed a bill splitting WRIA 14 into two parts. The portion of the Kennedy/ Goldsborough WRIA (14(b)) that drains into the lower Hood Canal is now included in with Skokomish/Dosewallips WRIA (16).

Apparently WRIA 14 has done no further planning at this point from 2006.

Next month I will try to discuss the differences in the proposed Puget Sound Partnership water quality and the WRIA's water quality programs, if there is a difference. I will also try to sort out the funding of various programs.

Sources: DOE web pages at www.ecy.wa.gov; Mason County Planning Advisory Commission Minutes May 8,2006; Associated Press Story, Seattle Times, 8/25/10, "Repairing aging roads to aid forest restoration"; Washington News Service, Chris Thomas, 8/24/10, "Skokomish Watershed Cleanup Puts Locals to Work."