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HomeMy WebLinkAbout20190509_CWDACminutesAlways working for a safer and healthier community 615 Sheridan Street Port Townsend, WA 98368 www.JeffersonCountyPublicHealth.org Community Health Environmental Health Developmental Disabilities Water Quality 360-385-9400 360-385-9444 360-385-9401 (f) (f) 360-379-4487 Jefferson County Clean Water District Advisory Council Jefferson County Public Health, Pacific Room 615 Sheridan St, Port Townsend, WA 98368 Thursday, May 9, 2019, 3:00 to 4:30 pm Attending: Michael Dawson, Wendy Clark-Getzin, David Steele, Kara Cardinal, Richard Hull Absent: David Sullivan, Deborah Stinson, Richard Wojt, Al Cairns Staff: Lara Gaasland-Tatro The meeting was called to order at 3:05 pm by Mike Dawson. AGENDA AND MINUTES APPROVAL David Steele moved to approve the meeting agenda. David Sullivan seconded the motion. No further discussion. The motion was unanimously approved. David Steele moved to approve the meeting minutes for March 14, 2019. Kara Cardinal seconded the motion. No further discussion. The motion was unanimously approved. DISCOVERY BAY- STRAIT PRIORITY PROJECT Mike Dawson shared the results of the latest DOH Early Warning report. Station 196 in South Discovery Bay has been on the threatened list for several years, and was one of the reasons for creating the Strait Priority Areas project to attempt to prevent a shellfish downgrade. He gave a summary of recent findings and continuing work in the area of sampling and door to door Sanitary Surveys to check nearby Septic Systems. David Sullivan asked about Fish and Wildlife trying to purchase property in this area and possibly some on the other side along with NOSC. David Steele asked if there was any commercial shellfishing in the area. Mike Dawson said that this station was outside the approved commercial growing area. Kara Cardinal asked which bacterial indicator lasts longer in salt water. Mike Dawson- Enterococcus lasts longer in salt and it is what JCPH uses to sample, but DOH has to use Fecal Coliform due to shellfish sanitation requirements. HOOD CANAL- Mike Dawson stated that Hood Canal #3 was not on the threatened list this year, which is an improvement over last year. Anna Bachmann is still doing a lot of work down there. Due to slightly improving systems it dropped off the early closure but we have a long way to go. It will still likely close with the seasonal closures. PUGET SOUND PARTNERSHIP NON-COMMERCIAL SHELLFISH INDICATOR RECOMMENDATION Mike Dawson was invited to join a Puget Sound Partnership (PSP) work group on Healthy Human Population and Local Foods. He gave a summary of PSP vital signs and explained the recommendation to PSP to use some of the metrics that WDFW already keeps track of too see changes. Another recommendation was to include questions about shellfish in the PSP yearly survey. Kara asked how population changes, environmental conditions and closures would be looked at with this vital sign. Mike Dawson answered that some factors are out of our control such as biotoxins and that population growth would be factored in. David Steele asked about public involvement, then answered that from the document it looked like it was internal process. Page 2 of 3 JEFFERSON COUNTY CONSERVATION DISTRICT Al Cairns was unable to attend, but sent an email about a recent agreement with Washington Conservation Commission to use Livestock Technical Assistance grant monies to use water quality data to inform areas in the county where best management practices should be applied. Previously the Washington Conservation Corps did a limited survey to identify and map sites. The plan is to do more mapping, and working with livestock operators as JCEPH and JCCD have seen correlation between some of the livestock areas and water quality. The Kelp Farming feasibility study grant was not funded. JCCD will be field trialing a non-herbicide restoration site preparation process this summer by smothering reed canary grass with 60,000 sq feet of recycled vinyl billboards. OAK BAY MATS MATS PROJECT In Oak Bay Mats Mats- Little Goose Creek has been a hot spot for many years. Though we have worked on the area we have not shown clear change. This water quality concern was part of how we got this project. Now there is new repair to a septic system in the area and water quality samples are showing less bacteria. Monitoring will continue at this site. Other sites have had high hits and we have enough high resamples to show that two of the areas are confirmed hot Spots. One is MM121. It is a small drainage so probably not impacting large area. But it a problem locally. David Steele asked about high hits or hotspots. MD explained that over 100mpn it failed state standards, if geomean is over 320 then it is a confirmed hotspot and we address it first. Sometimes resamples come back low or the area drys up. All hotspots have either a high geomean or has a high hit of over 1,000 MPN/100mL. The next step is researching land use in the area, pulling septic permit and going door to door with sanitary surveys. Next is a round of dry season sampling, though we get much less water we do get higher hits and sometimes problems especially with seasonally used areas. The second hot spot in Oak Bay was viewed on the map. NORTHERN HOOD CANAL PROJECT The early stages of the N Hood Canal project had many high hits near Port Ludlow, many of the sites dried up before they could become confirmed hot spots. David Steele wondered how much of the high hits were pet waste. Mike Dawson said that we had suspected that in the previous project in this area and it might be the case. Cooper creek, the main stream in Paradise Bay has a geomean is just under our high priority level but we will continue to monitor it. Shine Creek which has the biggest water flow into the area is at 117 MPN geomean. This site is brackish due to tidal influence so Enterococcus is used as the indicator, one sample came back in the 1000s which is very high. This is also a shellfishing area. At Thorndyke creek as couple of samples came back high and Jaquelyn Stenman is doing resamples. David Steele mentioned that there was a large shellfishing company in this area and he and Wendy Clark-Getzin recommended people to contact for closer access. Mike Dawson noted that once a hot spot is confirmed we share the information with the state DOH and it may result in shellfish closures. David Steele asked if we wait to identify the source and Mike Dawson clarified that we let the DOH know as soon as possible that there is a problem. QUESTIONS Kara Cardinal asked about high hits in downtown Port Townsend. Mike Dawson said that there is little flow in summer and when it doesn’t flow we can’t sample, but might flow with rain. JCPH will continue Page 3 of 3 to sample in town as able. Wendy asked if public health checked flooded basements in downtown area. MD- this has been a problem in the past but bacteria haven’t been present recently. Some have sump pumps, but have not been flooding lately. Wendy Clark-Getzin asked about the current water quality at Linger Longer. Mike Dawson replied that sampling will begin there with the BEACH program on May 22nd. ANNOUNCEMENTS Mike Dawson announced that Anderson Lake is over the safe toxin level, and JCPH just released a press release about it. The state parks have decided to close it. The next meeting will be on August 8th 2019 at Public Health in the regular location at the regular time. PUBLIC COMMENT: There was no public comment. ADJOURN: The meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m. by Mike Dawson.