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FOR
IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Nov. 1,
2004
Contact:
Jim Bachmeier, water resources program manager, Thurston County
Department of Water and Waste Management, 357-2491
Official
WRIA 13 planning process ends
OLYMPIA – A
5-year effort to complete a water-resources management plan for the Deschutes
River Watershed came to an end Oct. 29 when the Squaxin Island Tribe voted
against the plan. The plan focused
on Water Resource Inventory Area (WRIA 13), which embraces the Eld, Budd/Deschutes,
and Henderson Inlet watersheds.
The 150-page
document contained dozens of recommendations for WRIA 13, ranging from water
rights to water quality and habitat protection.
Although the plan failed to win approval by the Squaxin Island Tribe,
county officials said the process was nevertheless worthwhile.
“The written
words of this plan are part of a much bigger picture,” said Jim Bachmeier,
water resource program manager for the Thurston County Department of Water and
Waste Management. “We’re
walking away with new scientific information and a broader knowledge of water
supplies and future demographic trends. We’re
disappointed that the plan wasn’t approved, but the research and dialogue
that went into it are invaluable.”
The WRIA 13
plan was written by a 16-member planning committee whose members represented
state, tribal and local governments, as well as business and environmental
interests. Also represented on the
committee were the sport fishing, building, forestry and aquaculture
interests.
State law
required the WRIA 13 plan to win approval by every participating government
committee member, and a majority of non-government members, by Oct. 29.
The Squaxin Island Tribe’s “no” vote on the Oct. 29 deadline
ended the plan’s adoption. The
plan won approval by all the remaining government representatives, and all of
the non-government representatives in attendance.
Thurston
County staff will submit a final report on the plan to the state Department of
Ecology, which provided $360,000 in grant funds for the project.
Residents can learn more about the draft plan by selecting the “WRIA
13” button of www.co.thurston.wa.us/wwm.
Of the 16 members on the WRIA 13 Planning Committee:
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Eight of nine government committee representatives voted in
favor of the plan. (The Squaxin
Island Tribe being the exception.)
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Six out of seven non-government committee members voted in favor
of the plan. (One member was
absent.)
A representative of Olympia
Master Builders registered a statement of formal disagreement to one specific
recommendation of the WRIA 13 plan, however, the representative voted to
approve the plan as a whole.
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