- About the Watershed
ABOUT THE WATERSHED
Residents of Whatcom County are faced with an increasing number of challenges related to water resources, despite what at times appears to be a seemingly abundant resource. These challenges include limited water supplies to meet current and future development needs, water quality degradation and the listing of Chinook salmon and bull trout as “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). Left unresolved, these issues will have a broad and far reaching affect on the economic and environmental health of the community.
Many of these problems are not all unique to Whatcom County and are faced by numerous other communities in Washington State. In recognition of the need to find solutions to these problems, and the limited success of the legislature to do so alone, in 1998 the State Legislature passed Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2514 codified as RCW 90.82. The legislation is known as the Watershed Management Act. The Act provides the framework for local communities to better understand the nature and extent of water resource management issues and to plan and implement solutions to identified and potential problems while recognizing existing state and federal laws while recognizing existing state and federal laws, including those associated with federally recognized tribal treaty obligations. The Act lays out general requirements that must be followed including geographic areas that must be covered, technical issues to be considered, who must participate, and time frames that must be met. The specific geographic area that must be covered is referred to as a Water Resource Inventory Area or WRIA (sounds like “why-ruh”). There are 62 WRIAs throughout the State, the majority of Whatcom County is in WRIA 1. In general the WRIA covers most of Whatcom County with a portion extending into Canada and Skagit County. Formal participants in the project include the Initiating Governments (IG), Planning Unit (PU), and Joint Board (JB). The IG are defined by the RCW and include the City of Bellingham, Lummi Nation, Nooksack Tribe, Public Utility District No. 1, and Whatcom County. The IG was charged with establishing a PU. The PU is composed of representatives from governments and water resource interests. The PU provides recommendations to the JB. The JB was established in recognition of the importance of respecting the government-to-government relationship with the tribes. The JB is composed of the Bellingham Mayor, County Executive, Manager of the PUD, and Tribal Leaders.
The scope of issues to addressed under the Act must include water quantity, but may also include water quality, instream flows, and habitat. All four elements are being addressed in WRIA 1 because they are inseparable. All of these elements are physically, chemically, and biologically interconnected throughout the WRIA and any successful management plan needs to address all of them. In general the requirements for participation, technical issues, and plan development are broken into three phases; Phase I – Organizational, Phase II – Technical assessment, and Phase III – Plan Development and implementation. The Organizational phase includes establishing a process and general scope of work for who will participate and what topics will be included. Refer to the March 27, 2000 Adopted Scope of Work (Reference 1) for details. The Scope of Work can be found at the project website at www.wria1project.edu. Actions are underway for Phases II and III with a current emphasis on technical assessment work needed for each of the four topics addressed through this process: water quantity, water quality, habitat, and instream flows. Contracts have been established with the United States Geological Survey (USGS), Utah State University (USU), and the Public Utility District No. 1 (PUD) to complete various tasks. Such tasks include water rights analysis (PUD), estimating water use (PUD), sub-basin delineation (PUD and USGS), overview of existing water quantity information (USGS), instream flow studies (USU), compilation and evaluation of water quality/quantity information (USU), and development of a decision support system (USU). The assessment work will be used to develop the plan required under the Watershed Management Act. The Plan must be completed by June 2003. It is anticipated that regular updates of the Plan will be needed. This Watershed Characterization project was developed as part of the work being undertaken for Phase II and III.