Recently, I attended the North Coast Integrated Regional
Water Management Planning (NCIRWMP) group meeting. I serve on this group with Ric Costales
and two representatives from each of seven northern counties:
Del Norte, Humboldt, Mendocino, Modoc, Siskiyou, Sonoma and Trinity. Marilyn
Seward and Amy Hoss serve on the project technical review committee. http://www.northcoastirwmp.net/
The group was organized to take advantage of Proposition 50 funds. Regionally, $25
million in projects have been funded including: Araujo dam; fish screens and changes to
the City of Etna’s water diversion; the Scott Valley Water Trust; and work on the
programmatic incidental take permit (ITP) for the Scott and Shasta Valleys.
More than $30 million in new project implementation funds are
expected to be available to the region under Propositions 1E and 84. As with Prop. 50,
projects will be reviewed, ranked and selected and will be submitted under one regional
application. Projects submitted for these funds will have to meet some of the 30 or so
goals of the new California Water Plan. The State is also rolling out its strategic and
implantation plans for flood control. So water management will have to be regionally
integrated with flood management. There will be money made available for flood planning.
In addition, there are statewide strategies for climate change, drought planning and other
areas that will come into play. http://www.waterplan.water.ca.gov/strategies/ (Comments about the proposed update to the Water
Plan may be sent to cwp@water.ca.gov)
Draft guidelines for new Prop. 84 projects are anticipated by summer,
with finalization in the fall. Regional applications might be possible by early 2009.
At this point, south county lacks the integrated planning to be
included in the Sacramento region. The Department of Water Resources has indicated that
they would come to Siskiyou County and assist interested organizations and citizens in
working on an integrated plan that could be incorporated into their region’s. The
north coast, (Klamath River system,) portion of the county will also receive information
on how to expand its integrated plan (currently based on fish) to include small sewer and
water systems and flood work.
The California Resources Agency Secretary has also initiated a new
statewide plan to create watershed management groups throughout the state. According to
John Lowrie, the Dept. of Conservation will work with agencies and “stakeholders”
to define a program of local assistance to communities that will improve local resource
management and produce the values and services expected by those communities and the
state. This would include working to manage water quality and quantity for downstream
interests; improving coordination and communication between agencies; implementing state
initiatives such as climate change.
Lowrie indicated the Statewide Watershed Program was still being
designed and input was invited. It is likely that the state will be flexible to
accommodate different needs, concerns and values. http://www.conservation.ca.gov/dlrp/wp/Pages/Index.aspx
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