City Council - Special Meeting

City of Bellingham City Council Special Meeting Minutes March 23, 2022, 6:30 PM Mayor: Seth Fleetwood Contact: (360) 778-8100, mayorsoffice@cob.org Council Members: Hannah Stone, Hollie Huthman, Contact: (360) 778-8200, ccmail@cob.org Daniel Hammill, Edwin H. “Skip” Williams, Lisa Anderson, https://cob.org/council Michael Lilliquist and Kristina Michele Martens All meetings are held in the City Hall Council Chambers at Legislative Assistant: Nalini Margaitis 210 Lottie Street, Bellingham, WA, unless otherwise noted. Call to Order The meeting was called to order by Laura Abele at 6:30 PM. Roll Call Lake Water and Sewer District: Laura Abele John Carter Lesley McRoberts Todd Citron Bruce Ford Bellingham, City Council: Hannah Stone Hollie Huthman Edwin H. Skip Williams Lisa Anderson Kristina Michele Martens County Council: Todd Donovan Carol Frazey Kaylee Galloway Barry Buchanan Committee Of The Whole Hannah Stone, Chair Hollie Huthman, Daniel Hammill, Edwin H. "Skip" Williams, Lisa Anderson, Michael Lilliquist, Kristina Michele Martens 23300 1. Lake Whatcom Management Program Joint Councils and Board of p. 3 Commissioners Annual Meeting City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 1 March 23, 2022 City of Bellingham Mayor, Seth Fleetwood, provided an introduction to the meeting. In the introduction, he discussed the accomplishments of Lake Whatcom management, including partnerships, structure programs, projects, and dedicated staff to support the funding. Part of the collective approach to adaptive management in action include the Innovative new optimized prosperous stormwater treatment media, known as POST. A soil-like substance is placed inside a stormwater treatment facility to filter out phosphorus, an effective tool to reducing phosphorus in runoff. Satpal Sidhu, Whatcom County Executive, provided opening remarks. Sidhu stated that the community wants a clean and secure source of drinking water. As part of the adaptive management approach, there have been years of water quality data. Better data modeling will help to understand where the phosphorus is coming from, restoring the Lake, and also deal with the impacts of climate change. Management of the forest and watershed to adapt to future climate challenges is critical. Sidhu has requested that the Whatcom County Parks Department to develop a Forest Management Plan called, The Reconveyance Lands. Sidhu added that the County will adopt a science-based forest management plan, to reduce any future risk of a catastrophic fire and lake management challenges. Justin Clary, General Manager of the Lake Whatcom Water and Sewer District, provided a brief introduction on the District. Public Comment Laura Abele opened the public comment session. Five members of the public provided comment. Laura Abele closed the public comment session. Lake Whatcom Monitoring Program Annual Report The Lake Whatcom Monitoring Program Annual Report was presented by Dr. Angela Strecker from Western Washington University Institute for Watershed Studies. Lake Whatcom is comprised of two small shallow basins and one large deep basin. All of the major tributaries flow into Basin 3 (the large basin). The Monitoring Program has been sampling tributaries since 2016. Overall, the results indicate depletion of oxygen at the bottom of the lake. Outliers include the month of July, where algae are present and photosynthesizing and thus producing oxygen. However, in the months of August and September there is virtually no oxygen present below 10 meters. The decline of oxygen has been accelerating over time (significant downward trends of dissolved oxygen since 1988) in all depths below 12 meters. Anything below 2mg/L (bottom threshold) is considered “anoxia” and is insufficient for organisms to live. Warm water does not hold a lot of oxygen. This was visible in the aftermath of the 2021 June heat dome. Several problems are associated with low dissolved oxygen: the loss of habitat for aquatic life, nutrients and other compounds can reemerge the sediment (dissolved metals, methylated mercury, hydrogen sulfide), and more phosphorus. Other variables include the level of chlorophyll (which has increased) and nitrogen (decreasing trend of dissolved inorganic nitrogen). Finally, tributaries were examined - Euclid is meeting most of the criteria and the other are only meeting some of the criteria (e.g. phosphorus and fecal coliforms are exceeding criteria). Overall, if the algae in the lake are reduced, the phosphorus levels will diminish. Storm City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 2 March 23, 2022 runoff also carries a lot of phosphorus and sediment into the lake. A look at the November flooding indicated increased sediment in the lake. Turbidity is a good variable that captures the sediment influx. Chlorophyll concentrations remain high. To reduce the level of chlorophyll, phosphorus must be reduced. This can be achieved through TMDLs. For more information, please visit: www.wwu.edu/iws To access the annual report, please visit: https://cedar.wwu.edu/iws_lakewhatcom Q&A was taken from Councilmembers and Commissioners Lake Whatcom Management Program Annual Report Renee LaCroix, Assistant Public Works Director, introduced the report out of the Lake Whatcom Management Program Annual Report. LaCroix outlined the Lake Whatcom Management program goals. Within the five year work plan, there are ten program areas. Cathy Craver, Senior Planner for Whatcom County, outlined the Lake Whatcom TMDL portion of the program. Ingrid Enschede, Program Specialist for the Whatcom County Public Works Natural Resources, provided 2021-2022 updates in education and engagement. Clare Fogelsong, Natural Resources Policy Manager for the City of Bellingham, provided 2021-2022 updates on land preservation and aquatic invasive species, including the Anderson Creek Project and the Secrist Restoration Project. Jason Porter, Surface and Stormwater Manager for the City of Bellingham, provided an overview of stormwater highlights from 2021, including: stormwater facility construction, homeowner incentive program, street sweeping, Phosphorus Optimized Stormwater Treatment (POST), modular wetland system (Silver Beach Creek phase 1), and the Park Place Project (using the POST system – 155 acres treated, removing 35 pounds of phosphorus per year). Previews for Stormwater in 2022 include: Donald Ave facility retrofit, water quality vault retrofits, phosphorus and bacteria optimized operations and maintenance, marigold Dr facility, silver beach creek phase 1, and geneva bioretention soil study. For more information, please visit: http://www.lakewhatcom.whatcomcounty.org/ Adjournment There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 3 March 23, 2022