PORT ANGELES — A draft watershed plan for western Clallam County that has been 10 years in the making may be dead in the water.
The Water Resource Inventory Area 19 planning unit has spent $750,000 in publicly funded grants over the past decade to come up with a draft watershed plan for an area that includes Neah Bay, Clallam Bay, Sekiu and Joyce.
The area encompasses 384 square miles with a total population of 4,500, stretching from Neah Bay to just west of the Elwha River and bordering the Strait of Juan de Fuca.
The WRIA 19 plan focuses on nine bodies of water including the Hoko, Clallam, and Lyre rivers and Salt Creek.
But the plan’s writers, or planning unit, have reached an impasse that could lead to the draft plan’s demise.
Unless resolved — which appears unlikely — the disagreement would lead to the state Department of Ecology playing “a much greater role” in drawing up a plan and a loss of local control over that process, Clallam County Habitat Biologist Cathy Lear said Friday.
On Wednesday, the Clallam County Public Utility District, backed by the Crescent Water Association, disagreed with other planning unit members on the flow of stream water — which Ecology calls instream flows — necessary for WRIA 19 streams and rivers to ensure there’s enough water for salmon and people.
In addition to the PUD, agencies represented Wednesday were Clallam County government and the Makah and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes.
Also participating were citizen stakeholders Josey Paul, a retired journalist and environmental activist, and Peter Vanderhoof, a Salt Creek-area organic farmer west of Port Angeles.
Planning unit participants include large and small landowners, people in forestry and agriculture, water purveyors and the watershed plan’s four “initiating governments” — Clallam County, the PUD and the Makah and Lower Elwha Klallam tribes.
PUD said it could not accept the plan with the recommended instream flows.
The tribes, Paul and Vanderhoof said they could not accept the plan without those instream flows.
“We did not want to be in a situation down the road where there was no more water for people in these areas,” PUD Board President Hugh Haffner said.
All participants must agree before the plan is referred to the three Clallam County commissioners, who would review the draft document in a public work session and at least one public hearing, then could accept, reject or remand it back to the planning unit.
Once approved locally, it would go to Ecology.
That would make WRIA 19 eligible for further funding to determine best use of the available water, Lear said.
Instream flow levels are defined as “stream flows needed to protect and preserve instream resources and values, such as fish, wildlife and recreation,” according to Ecology’s website, http://tinyurl.com/23r9xrg.
The intention is to protect creeks, streams and rivers from residential and agricultural overuse so they provide habitat and don’t go dry.
Vanderhoof on Friday accused PUD of “effectively vetoing the plan,” saying it should have been completed in 2004 under the enabling act but was extended by Ecology.
A deeper purpose of setting instream flows: to give public resources, mainly salmon, water rights, balancing those rights with human consumption.
That process “has been being effectively stalled by the timber-development interests for that long,” Vanderhoof added Saturday.
Haffner called the PUD’s and the water district’s refusal “a shot across the bow” to Ecology, which is overseeing the planning process.
PUD’s concerns were overwhelmingly echoed by citizens at public hearings on the draft plan, he said.
In a June 1 letter to Lear, PUD and the Crescent Water Association said the flows cited in the plan “far exceed historical flow levels” and are not ‘base flows’ necessary to provide for preservation of fish and wildlife.”
The flow levels also disregard “human consumption” and are based on incorrect data, PUD and the water association said.
“I feel very badly that this is not moving forward,” said Connie Beauvais, Crescent Water Association secretary-treasurer, adding that the association’s main concern was the study’s treatment of the Lyre River.
Not enough water reserve is provided for the Lyre River for future development, and the study bases its conclusions on data for the Lyre from 1917 to 1927, she said.
“They do not have current stream flow data on the Lyre,” she said.
Beauvais proposed a six-month extension on approving the draft to hire “an independent scientist” to review the plan.
Lear defended the grant-funded studies that formed the basis of the instream flow recommendations.
“They may be able to be improved on with additional work, but they are valid at this time,” she said.
Regulations have yet to be drafted for the watershed plan, so its impact on residential and agricultural use has yet to be determined, Lear said.
Lear asked planning unit members to put their opinions in writing by the end of July for distribution to the county commissioners.
“From what I could tell from [Wednesday’s] meeting, the positions are pretty firm,” Lear said in interview. “I heard firm language.”
Vanderhoof said the plan is “effectively dead.”
Without planning unit agreement, there is no plan to give the commissioners, and no plan to give to Ecology, Lear said.
“An approved an adopted plan means keeping local control of the process,” she said in an e-mail Friday.
“Should a plan not be forwarded to the commissioners and approved, Department of Ecology plays a much greater role in setting instream flows.”
Said Ecology spokeswoman Kim Schmanke: “When [the planning] process doesn’t make it all the way through and they can’t arrive with a plan, then the law is clear the responsibility comes back to Ecology to set instream flows,” she said.
The state Legislature mandated that water-use rules be written under state guidelines and that a local planning process be employed to write those rules.
The purpose of that legislation “is to empower the planning unit,” said Commissioner Steve Tharinger of Sequim, a Democrat who also is running for the 24th legislative district Position 2 seat being vacated by Democrat Lynn Kessler of Hoquiam.
The 24th District covers Clallam and Jefferson counties and part of Grays Harbor County.
“I don’t know if we’ll take this up anytime soon,” said Tharinger, who had read the June 1 letter.
But Haffner said it was PUD’s intention to get the commissioners to address the PUD’s concerns and those of citizens concerned about the draft plan.
“Ultimately, it boils down to the county commissioners,” Haffner said.
“This way, they have to really address these issues to send them back to Ecology to get these issues addressed.”
The Ecology studies on which the draft plan is based are at http://tinyurl.com/34958ey.
Here’s the status of watershed planning for other WRIAs in Clallam and Jefferson counties, Schmanke said:
• WRIA 17, Quilcene-Snow watershed: Includes eastern Jefferson County and a small portion of eastern Clallam County, the Quilcene-Snow watershed.
Planning is completed and instream flow regulations have been adopted.
• WRIA 18: Elwha-Dungeness watershed: Includes Elwha and Dungeness Rivers and includes Port Angeles and Sequim, the Elwha-Dungeness watershed.
Planning is completed. Ecology is writing proposed instream flow regulations for public review.
• WRIA 20: Includes Clallam and Jefferson counties, including the Sol Duc, Hoh, Bogachiel, Ozette and Quilayute rivers, the Forks area and some Makah tribal lands. Data is being collected for watershed planning.
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Senior Staff Writer Paul Gottlieb can be reached at 360-417-3536 or at paul.gottlieb@peninsuladailynews.com.