City Council - Special Meeting

Lake Whatcom Joint Councils & Commissions Annual Meeting Wednesday, March 29, 2017 The video and meeting materials are available here: http://meetings.cob.org/sirepub/mtgviewer.aspx?meetid=839&doctype=SUMMARY Roll Call Present: John Carter Bruce Ford Todd Citron Laura Weide Todd Donovan Carl Weimer Barbara Brenner Satpal Sidhu Barry Buchanan Michael Lilliquist Dan Hammill Roxanne Murphy April Barker Pinky Vargas Terry Bornemann Excused: Gene Knutson Rud Browne Ken Mann Call to Order The meeting was called to order at 6:30 p.m. by the Presidents of the three bodies as follows: Bellingham City Council President Michael Lilliquist; Lake Whatcom Water & Sewer District President Laura Wiede; and Whatcom County Council President Barry Buchanan. Opening Remarks Opening Remarks were given by Whatcom County Executive Jack Louws and General Manager of the Lake Whatcom Water & Sewer District Patrick Sorenson. 2016 Lake Whatcom Monitoring Program Annual Report The Annual Report was presented by Dr. Robin Matthews of the Institute for Watershed Studies at Western Washington University. (Dr. Matthews’s PowerPoint is available at the link above.) The Joint Councils and Commission Lake Whatcom Management Program Annual Program Review The review was presented by a team of colleagues: Cathy Craver, Senior Planner Special Projects, Whatcom County; Ingrid Enschede BBWARM Program Specialist, Whatcom County Public Works Stormwater; Gary Stoyka, Natural Resources Manager, Whatcom County Public Works; Jason Porter, Storm and Surface Water Manager, City of Bellingham Public Works; and Eli Mackiewicz, Engineering Technician, City of Bellingham Public Works. Outreach and engagement efforts are embedded in all of the programs discussed. (This PowerPoint available at the link above.) Public Comment Nancy Alyanak: A 2015 presentation to the Bellingham City Council claimed that Basin 1 and 2 have different oxygen levels than Basin 3 and are impaired. Basin science is being erased from public view. There are no basins in the five-year work plan. The TMDL calculation doesn’t consider basins. It over estimates the amount of phosphorous. That is politics. Basin 3 is out of luck. HIP 2 ignores the large, deep basin. More science and less politics. Larry Brown: He is the President of the Sudden Valley Neighborhood Association Board. Sudden Valley has been spending money on the Lake for decades since the early-1980s. Sudden Valley has tons of parks and green space, and they want to work with the jurisdictions. Goose waste goes back into the Lake. Sudden Valley is on Basin 3, the so-called clean Basin. He was concerned by reports of degradation. Can you provide data on the run-off of Sudden Valley’s two creeks? Sudden Valley spends money on saving the Lake. Jeff Margolis: He lives in Van Zandt. He served on Advisory Committee in the early-1980s. Back then the focus of the watershed committee was medical, including Cancer, and the water required chlorination. It does not come into focus today. The universalization of cost and the voluntary, non-regulatory measures do not work. Is cost measured? Does it cost more to treat the water today? Using more chlorine? Adjournment The three bodies adjourned their meetings at 8:35 PM.