Endangered Species SPECIAL ESA & Water Coverage NEWSCLASSIFIEDSLINKS
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Methow Valley News December 23, 1999 Endangered Species Coverage Move to remake MOA underway Lawmakers want watershed planning to take lead by Lee Hicks A coalition of regional state legislators is pressing for local watershed planning to have an expanded role in endangered fish recovery efforts. The legislators, including a prime sponsor of the bill that authorized local watershed efforts, have already informally discussed the effort with the Northwest’s top National Marine Fisheries Service official. They are now preparing to take the proposal to key lawmakers in Olympia as preparations for the new session get underway. Rep. Linda Evans Parlette, R-12th District, first approached NMFS regional administrator William Stelle when both appeared on an early December panel in Wenatchee to discuss fish and water issues affecting the orchard industry. Parlette then joined other North Central Washington legislators in a Dec. 7 session with Okanogan County officials in Chelan. The effort is emerging as Okanogan County, state and federal agencies continue to digest negative public reaction to the proposed memorandum of agreement (MOA) for fish and water in the Methow basin. More than 400 people attended a Nov. 17 meeting in Twisp to hear the MOA proposal. Major objections voiced at the Nov. 17 meeting were the MOA’s link to water conservation measures that in effect could force irrigators and other water users to eventually give up water with no assurances against ESA enforcement actions. County water resources director Dennis Beich credited Parlette and Rep. Gary Chandler, R-13th District, Moses Lake, for approaching Stelle with the proposal. Chandler was a prime sponsor of House Bill 2514, which enabled local watershed planning efforts in Okanogan County. Also attending the Chelan meeting with county officials were Rep. Cathy McMorris and Sen. Bob Morton, both 7th District Republicans, and Sen. George Sellars, R-12th . Rep. Bob Sump, R-7th, has also been involved. The goal will remain development of a habitat conservation plan for endangered or threatened fish, including steelhead trout, spring-run Chinook salmon and bull trout. "If it can be worked out (with NMFS) then we’ll...go to the legislature and put together a package (for funding) that basically would be a demonstration process for the whole state to show how local plans could be a model for ESA responses in state." Beich said. Of the legislators, Beich noted, "They appreciate where the county is going, the political nature of the beast and the predicament the county is in. They feel something like the MOA should be implemented, put in place, but they have some concerns about the MOA as it is now." There are also concerns that streamflow and water use information in the Methow needs to be refined further before commitments to voluntary conservation plans are made. Meanwhile, county and state Department of Ecology officials were set to hold a telephone conference Tuesday (Dec. 21) to analyze the public reaction to the MOA. It was the first session on the MOA by the county and DOE since the Nov. 17 public meeting. County officials have said they will not take any action on the MOA until a county-wide hearing some time in January, although the timing may now depend on progress with the legislative effort to raise the priority of watershed planning. Opinion | Sports |
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