[env-trinity] Times Standard: Supes to request Trinity River flow, consider stormwater ordinance

[Tom Stokely]

http://www.times-standard.com/general-news/20150516/supes-to-request-trinity-river-flow-consider-stormwater-ordinance?source=most_viewed
  
Supes to request Trinity River flow, consider stormwater ordinance

By Will Houston, Eureka Times-StandardPOSTED: 05/16/15, 10:12 PM PDT |0 COMMENTS

If you go:What: Board of Supervisors meetingWhen: 9 a.m. TuesdayWhere: Supervisors’ chamber, first floor, Humboldt County Courthouse, 825 Fifth St., EurekaThe full agenda can be viewed online at http://humboldtgov.org/167/Board-of-SupervisorsAnticipating another drought-parched summer, Humboldt County supervisors are set to ask Washington, D.C., on Tuesday to help prevent a potential fish-kill by setting aside long-promised Trinity River water.“We don’t want to be in a position in that we need the water and then get caught up in six weeks of legal delays,” 3rd District Supervisor Mark Lovelace said in a previous interview with the Times-Standard in April. “That could be devastating to the fish.”While the supervisors’ letter to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewel states that Humboldt County will likely use the water in the late summer when fish-kill conditions seem apparent, it also calls for even more foresight from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Reclamation, which controls the flow of dam water.“The county is further requesting to begin a dialogue in the form of a stakeholders group with Reclamation and other downstream users to establish a clear protocol for making such releases in future years, as well as ensuring that ample water is being held in reserve to provide for allocations for future years,” the letter concludes.The draft letter is the result of a collaborative effort between Lovelace, 5th District Supervisor Ryan Sundberg, and the Hoopa Valley Tribe.The county currently has the right to request up to 50,000 acre-feet of water to be released from Lewiston Dam on Trinity Lake annually, though receiving this allotment has led to legal challenges from Central Valley Project water suppliers and will likely lead to more once this newest request is approved by the board. The county’s right to the water is clearly spelled out in a 1955 Congressional act and subsequent contract between the county and the agency in 1959, which promised the county 50,000 acre-feet of water annually in addition to fish protecting flows before water can be diverted to the Central Valley Project. Up until December 2014, the U.S. Interior Department considered the fish protecting flows to count toward the 50,000 acre feet before issuing an opinion formally recognizing them as separate mandates.Fish-kill preventative flows have been released from Lewiston Dam several times over the last few years to prevent the warm water temperatures and low flows that cause salmon and other fish to become vulnerable to the deadly ich parasite and gill rot disease. Last summer, the Hoopa Valley Tribe and several other tribal and local entities were able to convince the Bureau of Reclamation to release preventive flows to protect against a fish kill like that of 2002 in which an estimated 34,000 fish died. isement
IN OTHER BUSINESS
The board is also set to consider the first reading of a state-mandated ordinance that would apply extensive new stormwater quality regulations for development projects in unincorporated urban areas. After the approval of a state permit in 2013 by the State Water Resources Control Board, local entities were called to adopt new stormwater regulations to take effect by July 1, 2015.“The principle is that stormwater flows through drains and pipes and culverts that lead to creeks and rivers,” county Deputy Public Works Director Hank Seemann said. “Those are a public resource and they have beneficial uses. So the state wants to create requirements that protect those beneficial uses.”The ordinance before the board on Tuesday is a response to this state mandate and creates two approaches to improve stormwater quality. The first part of the ordinance would give the county government authority to regulate certain types of discharges into stormwater systems. Seemann said that this does not mean that these illicit discharges were allowed beforehand.“They would be subject to other prohibitions, but this brings it under the umbrella of protecting stormwater,” he said. “It strengthens the county’s authority to require certain best management practices to minimize certain discharges of pollutants.”Communities in Humboldt County that would be affected by these regulations include the McKinleyville, Cutten, Myrtletown, Humboldt Hill, Shelter Cove, Ridgewood Heights and Pine Hill areas.The second part of the ordinance the board will consider will set new property development regulations related to stormwater for any new projects that start after July 1. Seemann said that the new low-impact development standards that developers would have to abide by would seek to reduce stormwater runoff and allow for more water to stay in the ground.“One of the effects that development has is that it replaces permeable surfaces where the water can percolate into the ground and instead creates the hardened surface where the stormwater runs off,” he said.How big the surface area of the development project is will dictate how extensive these regulations will be, Seemann said. For a project that creates or replaces between 2,500 and 5,000 square-feet of impervious surface, there is certain level of requirements developers would need to abide by and would choose at least one measure that helps promote on-site stormwater retention. “It could be as simple as tree planting or could be installing a rain barrel that collects roof runoff and directs it to a lawn,” Seemann said. “There are some other techniques that could be used.”Will Houston can be reached at 707-441-0504.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Reach the author at whouston at times-standard.com@times-standard.com or follow Will on Twitter: @Will_S_Houston.
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