[This transcript was generated automatically from audio using AI and hasn't been reviewed by a person -- it can contain mistakes, including plausible-sounding sentences that were never actually said. Treat it as a starting point, not a verbatim record.]

[0:01] I'll do my best.
[0:04] You got this.
[0:05] Yes.
[0:06] Are we good to go, Susan?
[0:08] We are ready.
[0:09] Yeah.
[0:10] Welcome, everybody, to August 20th.
[0:12] I hope everybody's had an enjoyable summer so far and looking forward to a nice fall.
[0:20] I will start off with public comment here in this meeting and see if anybody from the
[0:27] public has any interesting things to discuss.
[0:36] Okay, sounds like not. Susan, was it my understanding that Ethan wasn't going to be available for this meeting today?
[0:44] Yes, that's correct. And then just so everybody else is on the same page, Jessica Hudson, who has been filling in for Kendra is also not going to be here today.
[0:52] She is on vacation for the week. And then Jane will also not be making it. So we'll be a little short on some of the staff here.
[1:01] Okay, very good. And then the first item of business is approval of the August agenda.
[1:12] Is there any anything additions or subtractions for that today?
[1:20] Yeah, actually, I forgot to mention because it's been a few months that our new members were accepted in June.
[1:27] So it might be kind of fun to get some intros for those two.
[1:31] Well, there were three, but we can kind of update you on that as we go here.
[1:36] So maybe just adding that kind of next agenda.
[1:41] Okay.
[1:42] The business question I have for you on that, Susan, is with new members and the agenda
[1:51] And approving the minutes from the previous meeting, is there a problem for them voting
[1:57] without having been here?
[1:59] Do you know?
[2:01] I don't think, I mean.
[2:04] I would probably abstain from voting for the previous minutes as there were in attendance.
[2:09] Yeah, and I guess there's still a forum technically, so they wouldn't be, yeah,
[2:15] they would abstain and then the rest could still fill in the votes.
[2:18] Yeah.
[2:18] Okay.
[2:19] to approve it. Okay. Cool. So, well, let's go ahead and do a bit of a round table and then we'll do
[2:28] the approval of minutes if that's okay.
[2:36] Yeah, I can start. So, introductions. I'm Jason Bradshaw.
[2:43] I live on Orcas. I've been here for almost five years now. I'm the general manager of the
[2:49] East Sound Sewer and Water District here on Orcas.
[2:54] I'm also right now the chair of the EPRC.
[2:57] My background is in water.
[3:00] When I say water, I'm a water professional,
[3:01] lumpy, clear, and gray.
[3:04] So I've kind of done it all.
[3:06] Been over a lot of large projects throughout my career,
[3:09] over a large project here in East Sound right now.
[3:12] We're doing a five-year, $25 million upgrade
[3:16] to our Central Life Treatment Facility here in E-Sound, so if you're ever over,
[3:21] look me up, I'm on Cessna Road, I can give you a tour, other than that, that's about me.
[3:29] Oh, also, I have a beautiful wife and two kids, a senior and a sophomore this year, so
[3:37] busy, busy, busy, but looking forward to seeing what all we can do with CWAP.
[3:46] Thank you Jason.
[3:52] Is Roy on with us?
[3:57] Yes I am. Hi Roy. Morning.
[4:04] So if you're looking
[4:05] for intro Roy Stanton been on the island for coming up on 40 years. 20 years of
[4:11] water, spring point, Rosario, smattering of Doe Bay and Olga, retired four years
[4:20] ago. And here I is.
[4:24] Great. Thank you.
[4:31] Okay. So with that said, I think we can move into the approval of the
[4:36] minutes. Does anybody have any changes or alterations there before we entertain a motion?
[4:44] I have none.
[4:49] Okay. I entertain a motion.
[4:57] So I'll move. We approve the minutes from our last meeting.
[5:02] I second that.
[5:05] Moved and seconded. All those in favor?
[5:10] I
[5:13] so moved. Okay. It
[5:19] looks like next on the agenda then is LIO liaison for Kaye.
[5:31] Yeah, Kaye is actually part of our team and she wanted to come on to speak a
[5:36] little bit today. We spoke about this a little bit in our last regular meeting
[5:39] but it was sort of at the end and of course June was pretty busy so we wanted
[5:43] to give her some time. So she technically works with us and with the Marine Department
[5:48] and Environmental Stewardship as the grants and program coordinator. So I'll give it to Katie.
[5:55] Thanks Susan and thanks for having me this morning. Good morning Clean Water folks.
[5:59] My name is Katie Johnson. I'm a Marine Project Coordinator here with San Juan County
[6:03] and I serve as our LIO coordinator. I just want to take a few minutes to talk to you about
[6:09] what the LIO or local integrating
[6:11] organization is and why I think
[6:14] it would be great to have
[6:15] somebody from clean water help
[6:17] fill in on that committee.
[6:19] So at its simplest our local
[6:20] integrating organization is
[6:22] San Juan county's
[6:23] connection to the larger Puget
[6:25] sound recovery effort.
[6:27] It brings together local
[6:28] partners to identify
[6:29] environmental issues that are
[6:31] most important to our
[6:32] community and then to
[6:33] coordinate action around them.
[6:35] And our local integrating
[6:37] organization is a nice
[6:38] cross-section of community and
[6:40] government employees and includes
[6:42] local government, local tribal
[6:44] government, nonprofits,
[6:46] community organizations,
[6:48] community members, support and
[6:50] other representatives.
[6:52] We look at all issues that are
[6:53] impacting the ecosystem, like
[6:56] healthy shorelines, water
[6:57] quality, habitat, protecting
[6:59] marine resources and resilience
[7:01] for the future.
[7:04] Something about our LIO is
[7:06] that it's not just another
[7:07] meeting to kind of sit around and talk about problems, but really intended to move these
[7:11] priorities into action. We developed these action plans, which are kind of a snapshot
[7:15] planning effort based on different topics in the action agenda, which is kind of the overarching
[7:22] document or guide for Puget Sound Recovery. And the Clean Water Advisory Committee has a
[7:27] really important and valuable perspective on water quality and watershed issues. In each
[7:32] LIO, there are 10 throughout the Puget Sound region, they're watershed-based, and so it'd
[7:38] be great to have representation from clean water on that committee, and the benefit goes
[7:44] both ways. So the liaison can bring the priorities of clean water to the LIO, but they can also
[7:51] bring information back here about what's happening regionally, about different funding
[7:55] opportunities, new initiatives, and opportunities to partner with organizations.
[7:59] So the LIO is all about kind of breaking down different silos and convening people together to make sure the right people are in the room to have conversations about these different environmental topics.
[8:11] And so I don't see this as like someone taking on a whole new environmental program, but it really is a bridge between the two groups that are already working towards some similar goals.
[8:19] And I know we all have limited time and resources, so finding those connections are really important to help coordinate our efforts to help share information, to identify opportunities that we can work together and accomplish more than any just like individual one group could do on its own.
[8:36] And I know that Kim Boll has served on our LIO
[8:40] for the last few years, and it's been a really valuable
[8:41] member of the group.
[8:42] And so, Kim, I don't know if you want to speak to anything
[8:45] about what it's been like to serve on the LIO.
[8:47] It's the clean water member.
[8:49] But yeah, that's what I got.
[8:53] Yeah.
[8:54] Oh, it's just torturous working with you, Katie.
[8:57] No, Katie, just Katie.
[8:59] No, it's a good group of people.
[9:01] They meet regularly.
[9:03] There's definitely an agenda focused on
[9:07] getting things done. It cuts across not only the county but also the state and the tribes and
[9:18] so yeah some of the past accomplishments have been getting
[9:24] really important vessel traffic study done for Herald Strait and Boundary Strait about
[9:31] the impacts of oil and cargo transportation and those straits and the
[9:42] perils to the San Juan Islands if there's an oil spill or an accident that
[9:46] occurs in those and it's affected decisions by ecology. We wish it would
[9:54] affect more decisions by ecology but we definitely have a good basis for making
[9:59] an argument that the San Juan's are, you know, in a very vulnerable position as far as Canadian
[10:06] cargo traffic, and that's going to be really ramping up with their new oil terminal proposal
[10:11] for the Fraser River Delta.
[10:15] Some other projects have involved, you know, getting funding for, I think, the septic
[10:20] system evaluation was really important to figure out which septic systems were vulnerable
[10:27] in the shoreline to leaching into the water and also with sea level rise, which
[10:34] ones will be vulnerable and it's gotten a grant program for helping people who
[10:40] don't have the economic means to revamp their septic systems to make them some
[10:45] funding available to help them with updating their shoreline septic systems.
[10:52] Yeah, so a lot of policy issues, but it's being translated into action, which is kind
[10:59] of like what I like to be involved in, rather than just sort of job owning stuff.
[11:05] And also, there's a regional, help me with the name, but it's the regional action group,
[11:15] which is made up of a lot of decision makers from Olympia and from Down Sound that have actually
[11:22] come to the San Juan's and put on their two-day workshop with San Juan folks and become very
[11:31] aware of the issues in the San Juan's and how we're different from the other counties. And
[11:36] that's translated into legislation and into governor, you know, attention to action. And
[11:43] And so that's really important to have that kind of focus too.
[11:49] Yeah.
[11:50] Thank you, Kim.
[11:51] That's the Ecosystem Coordination Board at the state level.
[11:55] It's been really nice to have participation.
[11:58] So we're looking for somebody to take over Kim's role as liaison with the LIO and you
[12:02] don't have to be an expert in all things LIO but just like furious, ready to get
[12:09] engaged and willing to bring this committee's perspective into the conversation and to
[12:14] that information back and forth. So I'll drop my email in the chat. I'm happy to
[12:19] answer any questions people have or discuss this further or give you more
[12:24] information about all of what it entails. So any
[12:30] questions?
[12:36] I don't know if you
[12:36] mentioned when you meet usually. Oh I did not. So our LIO meets in
[12:42] conjunction with our Marine Resource Committee and our citizens group for
[12:46] same-in recovery. They meet the first Thursday of the month. The typical meetings are 9 to
[12:52] noon. The LAO portion is usually towards the end. So it's kind of like roughly one hour for each of
[12:58] those groups. But typically our LAO meetings are pretty brief and abbreviated since a lot more
[13:06] happens within the Marine Resource Committee and with same-in recovery efforts. But the
[13:12] first Thursday of the month, nine to noon is when the LAO meets.
[13:20] Great. Thank you, Katie. Anybody else have any questions regarding that?
[13:28] Okay. Moving
[13:30] along then, it looks like without, that we move to Tyler for an update from the
[13:38] environmental stewardship. Sure. Thanks, Bob. Morning, everybody. Yeah. Tyler is
[13:44] standing in for Kendra, give a little update on where things are in the
[13:48] department. Firstly, I'll just say the fare was a success. I saw some of you there.
[13:55] Those have been makes you missed out. It's always a good time. Great weather,
[13:59] wasn't too hot this year, and our booth looked great. We had a swir in the
[14:04] Green Village. The booth looked really good this year. Thanks to, thanks to
[14:08] Kitty Johnson and Frankie and Angela for putting things up and getting it
[14:12] set up and yeah we had some good traffic I don't during my shifts it felt a
[14:19] little slower than past years I think that's actually because we're in a
[14:21] shaded area and when it's really hot and past years people come to the shaded
[14:25] Green Village area to seek little refuge and being cooler this year it was
[14:29] didn't drive as many people that way but it's all about quality over
[14:33] quantity anyway so we had a lot of good conversations with the folks that
[14:36] did come our our way and shared some of the work that we're doing in
[14:41] water, but then also, you know, the nexus within our department with other divisions. So like how
[14:47] Angela Broderick is spearheading the climate action plan, and yeah, just a good amount of exposure
[14:54] to folks that decided to stop by. Related
[15:00] The Great Islands Cleanup, next big event, Great Islands Cleanup is coming up on September 26th, Saturday, September 26th, so if you have an opportunity to take it out and clean up along your roadside or local beach or your local stream, trash can get washed down streams, please do that and help us clean up the islands on September 26th.
[15:29] Let's see, the last time we met, we discussed the capital improvement plan. That's all progressing.
[15:37] Our next step is calculating the service fee, the clean water utility service fee,
[15:42] which has a number of moving parts, one of which is determining the equivalent service
[15:48] units or ESUs, which our GIS team is working on now with Susan's help. So once we have
[15:56] of those numbers, the ESUs, you can plug them into the equation and hopefully get an idea
[16:03] of what our service fees will be by island for next year and that will then be taken
[16:09] to council on September 8th, that's the Tuesday after Memorial Day weekend, we'll keep mixing
[16:17] that up this later night, but anyway, that first day after Memorial Day weekend is
[16:22] when we'll go in front of council to discuss
[16:25] the couple improvement plan and hopefully get it approved
[16:31] by county council.
[16:34] Let's see.
[16:36] Bob, you asked about Kendra and her status.
[16:39] Yep, she's still on leave.
[16:42] That's about all we know at this stage.
[16:45] So yeah, we don't have any other information.
[16:49] unfortunately we don't know if she win or if she's returning at this stage. So
[16:55] we're just all proceeding forward and sorry that she's not here of course we
[17:01] miss her but she seems from what we've heard she's her time off has been good
[17:07] for her she's doing quite well and and yeah don't don't know when or if she'll
[17:13] be back though unfortunately. A couple other staffing updates which I'll
[17:18] actually turn over to my colleagues to provide on their behalf.
[17:25] You want to go first, May?
[17:28] Sure.
[17:28] I think me and Susan have similar updates, but I have put in my notice of resignation
[17:35] for environmental stewardship.
[17:37] So in early September will be my last day with the department.
[17:41] So I've been working on some clean water capital improvement projects, and so I'm
[17:47] open to package these up with the time I have left and hopefully be able to handle or hand
[17:53] them off so that we can continue working on them.
[17:57] And so, yeah, I just wanted to say that I've really enjoyed my time here and I've really
[18:01] enjoyed these meetings as well.
[18:04] They've been a really eye-opening look into clean water here in the county.
[18:10] And so, yeah, I just encourage you all to keep doing this great work and thank
[18:15] you for all the effort you've put in and are continuing to put in for these important projects.
[18:25] And well, similar news for me. I actually just put in my six weeks, so I'll be finishing at
[18:31] the end of September. And very similar things that I'm going to say is you guys are really
[18:38] amazing and wonderful and we're really grateful to have you. I've learned so much from this
[18:43] group. I've been here for a little over three years now, so it's going to be really hard to leave.
[18:48] I don't really have a plan after this. I just sort of need to break, I think, from government at
[18:53] this point, if I'm being honest. So we're going to slow down and switch it up. I don't know what
[18:57] that's going to look like yet, but I still am passionate about the work that we're doing.
[19:02] I just don't know exactly how I'm going to get involved in it in the future.
[19:06] But yeah, I'm looking forward to seeing everybody around and about. I'll be here for the
[19:11] September subcommittee meeting but then I'll be passing over my role as a facilitator to
[19:18] either Tyler or whoever we get to replace our positions because it's such a strange transition
[19:24] that's happening right now with our department. We're not exactly sure what that's going to
[19:29] look like specifically whether or not our specific positions will be replaced or not
[19:34] but we will let you guys know as that kind of goes along here.
[19:39] But yeah, thanks.
[19:41] Yeah. Thank you, Susan. Thanks, Nick.
[19:42] And I think I hope I speak for everybody when I say thank you to both of you for all your help with Clean Water.
[19:49] I really appreciate it. We're really sorry to see you guys go, but you have our full support in your next steps in our next chapters.
[19:57] And yeah, as far as the roles go, obviously with the county in a budget crunch.
[20:04] There hasn't been a hiring freeze formally imposed by council.
[20:09] And even if there was, I think that there would be some wiggle room here because these
[20:13] are roles that are funded by utility, not by county current.
[20:18] So it doesn't have an impact on the county general fund.
[20:21] And as far as I know, we will have the opportunity to refill these positions in due course.
[20:29] And with Susan being here for another six weeks,
[20:34] there might be an opportunity to have a little overlap
[20:36] and transition, which could be beneficial as well.
[20:40] But that's, yeah, to be determined at this stage.
[20:43] And I see your hand up.
[20:44] Is that related to this?
[20:46] Yeah, I have a couple of questions.
[20:50] One is who is the first person
[20:52] who is offering his resignation?
[20:54] I didn't catch the name.
[20:55] Oh, it was Nick.
[20:56] Nick who?
[20:59] Nick Walsh, Environmental Engineering Tech with the Department.
[21:04] Somehow, my phone doesn't have a great speaker. Would you spell your last name?
[21:09] Yeah, it's Walsh, W-A-L-S-H.
[21:12] Okay. The S-H's don't come clear over my phone.
[21:16] The other question I had was the service fee.
[21:21] Is that charged per individual property or how is that service fee?
[21:28] And what is it and how is it paid out?
[21:32] So it's determined based on equivalent service units or ESU,
[21:37] which is a measure of impervious surface on a property where one ESU is 10,000 square feet or less.
[21:46] And then on properties with more than 10,000 square feet of impervious surface, it's then a ratio.
[21:54] So, you know, if you have another thousand square feet, then it's 1.1 ESUs for that parcel.
[22:03] And so that's how ESUs are determined, and that is then how the fee is applied to a parcel that's based on that ESU.
[22:14] So it's a parcel fee.
[22:17] Yeah, it's bipartisan.
[22:18] All right, thank you.
[22:26] Any other questions?
[22:32] Yeah, Bob.
[22:35] Tyler, has there been any discussion between you and
[22:39] Ethan regarding Cascade Creek and the setting up the monitoring?
[22:45] Has that gone anywhere yet or are we still?
[22:48] No, not yet.
[22:49] I think we need to kind of maybe discuss, we can discuss now, but yeah, some sort of formalization of that.
[22:58] I don't know if we call a sub, it's not really a subcommittee since it would involve some members who aren't active CWAC members, including Vicki and Kim,
[23:10] of everybody else. I think Kim also wanted to be a part of that, but so maybe it's like
[23:15] a working group, not sure we technically call it, but if we can get that formalized, then
[23:19] we have this little working group that can help direct that program. It's not really
[23:27] a project, more a program. It's going to be more programmatic. On my side, I've been
[23:32] just looking into the budget and kind of the CIP as we've approved it. I think
[23:37] it's fairly simple to work this into it and then to also have make sure that I'm operating
[23:43] side of our budget. We have the funds to continue the program because obviously there's staff
[23:49] time involved and we need to make sure we've got the funds moving forward for that. But
[23:55] we're sitting pretty well with the utility so that shouldn't be a problem. I don't
[24:01] think this is going to be too financially onerous to pick this up and get it going.
[24:04] We just need direction from the experts in the room on monitoring how to set it up.
[24:12] And I think that we just need to get that group all together in the same room,
[24:18] in a meeting and chart our way forward.
[24:23] And that would be Vicki, who I see is here in the meeting.
[24:27] Vicki, if you want to speak to that, I think this is something that initially came up
[24:32] that you brought to attention of the CWAC a couple of meetings ago.
[24:35] So, if you want to give anything you want to add, please invite you to chime in and Kim was interested.
[24:41] I think Jenny, the group was interested in being part of that as well and just be a small working group kind of, yeah, guiding, guiding stream and monitoring.
[24:56] Yeah, I hope you guys can hear me. I'm on the beach right now. Yeah, I look forward to working with that group and putting that program together. Thanks a lot.
[25:05] All right.
[25:09] I think our next step will just be maybe what I'll do where Susan will reach out to the
[25:15] folks who showed interest in that and we'll get a kind of a formalized structure on the
[25:22] books, a meeting, and then by next, our next CWAC meeting we'll have something a little
[25:29] more substantive to share.
[25:32] Okay, thank you, Tyler.
[25:39] Any more questions for Tyler?
[25:43] Ethan's gone. Next up is Krista Chavez. How are you Krista?
[25:50] Hello. Thanks for having me. Hi all. Krista Chavez and Planner at the Office of Drinking Water at the State Health Department.
[25:57] I guess a few updates. One, Office of Drinking Water is undertaking the needs assessment, which happens every four years by the EPA.
[26:09] So what happens is we interview small, medium and large water systems, we go through, we find what projects we need to have, just so we can understand the monetary need, financial need for infrastructure updates.
[26:29] There's currently no systems that are in the San Juan Islands that are going to be part of this process this time around.
[26:37] but it is a kind of a big undertaking for our office.
[26:42] So if we seem a little busy,
[26:43] it's because we are working hard to complete this.
[26:46] I think we're gonna try and get it all done by February,
[26:49] but this should hopefully, if we do it right,
[26:52] we can access more federal money
[26:56] for our Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
[26:59] and other parts of our program.
[27:01] time.
[27:04] Another update is we have, we just finished three community meetings or just informational
[27:12] meetings that EPA found I think in 2021 that our definition of public water system doesn't
[27:19] totally align with theirs. And while this also doesn't impact San Juan area as much,
[27:26] it's impacting the Yakima Valley because the portion that's going to get updated
[27:31] is really focusing on the same farm worker exemption piece where we've allowed farms with
[27:39] four or fewer residential structures serving that same farm to not be regulated as public
[27:44] water system. But I guess we have not, we have a number of farms that actually should be public
[27:50] water systems. So we are starting the process to update our WAC and in the future you'll see
[27:57] the biggest change to that table one in fact 246,290,020.
[28:04] And
[28:09] we lost her.
[28:14] And
[28:43] everybody else, yeah, mute themselves up and great. Thanks.
[28:54] We lost her.
[29:09] Maybe lost Krista, Bob, so we can probably
[29:12] move ahead in the agenda until she comes back. Okay. Is there a representative? I don't see
[29:20] Kelly on board unless I'm missing her. Is somebody else on board for Department of Ecology?
[29:28] I also invited Jeff Cedarbaum but I'm not seeing him either so I'll go ahead and just kind of do
[29:33] a little reminder email just saying that we would still want to have them present or and if they
[29:38] can't attend then maybe they can just give us an email updates either way that would be great
[29:43] to have more contact with them
[29:48] the only thing I'll put out there I heard that
[29:53] there was official approval of the Hanna Heights well and that
[30:00] They're able to move forward with their project as far as transferring water from Baylor Hill
[30:10] Road up to their location. I think that they're moving forward with the pipeline and hopefully
[30:17] will be pumping water into their tank soon. Clean water.
[30:23] It was a long, long arduous trip
[30:25] there as far as through the source water approval and monitoring and such.
[30:36] Hi, sorry about that, everybody. My phone died and then I couldn't access my audio. I'm back.
[30:45] Confirming what Bob Eakin said, we did get confirmation from Ecology. They sent us the
[30:50] water rate permit for that new well. So it appears things are going forward, which is great
[30:54] And if anyone has any questions on the two pieces I mentioned before, please feel to reach out. I also wanted to mention.
[31:05] San Juan County was able to access some of our grant funding for source water protection, which is awesome.
[31:12] And we also have seen a push from water systems reaching out to access this grant money too.
[31:21] We have money available, it's very easy relative to our other funding to access and can be used
[31:29] for modeling of your source water, time of travel areas and others, but I can put some
[31:36] information in our website if you know any water systems that are looking for help.
[31:42] In that area, this money is still around for now, and it is grant and not alone. So that's great. I'll put it in the chat.
[31:52] That's all. Excuse me, for what area? For what? What's the general focus of this grant money?
[32:00] Yeah, it's source water protection. So it can be hydrogeological assessments, water quality assessments like watershed protection.
[32:09] And yeah, the county is going to access it to do some of the groundwater monitoring on Lopez and with another area I'm blanking on, but yeah, it's, it can be pretty open.
[32:25] There are what we can funds, but there's very specific things we can't fund like land purchase to protect the water, etc.
[32:35] but so feel free to read through the guidelines that I'll put in the chat and
[32:41] then if you know of any area that can really use this forward it along.
[32:47] May I ask your name if you don't mind please?
[32:50] Yeah, Krista Shah is at the State Health Department.
[32:55] Okay, thank you.
[33:12] Anything further Krista?
[33:16] Nope, that was it.
[33:17] Any other questions?
[33:21] Okay. And so no representatives from ecology, it sounds like.
[33:26] That's right.
[33:29] Cool. Alrighty. Subcommittee updates.
[33:35] I'll just chime in here and say that since there wasn't a subcommittee in July, there's not a ton of updates for that.
[33:41] but as far as just subcommittees in general,
[33:46] because we had a large turnover at the moment,
[33:50] we'll just go ahead and have our new joining members
[33:53] join the surface water subcommittee now,
[33:55] just because a large amount of members
[33:57] who left were part of that.
[33:59] So just kind of fill in that subcommittee for now.
[34:02] And then we met with Ethan Schmidt of the health department
[34:09] And he had sort of mentioned before that since there was a large turnover in the health department, there were some inconsistent roles with how the subcommittees were being handled.
[34:22] And I know that in the past, I believe Vicki here has been helping him facilitate the groundwater subcommittee.
[34:29] And so we just had a meeting and made sure to clarify all of that.
[34:32] So he is happy to take on facilitating the groundwater subcommittee.
[34:37] So you'll hear more specifically from him in the coming months.
[34:43] So for September, he'll be reaching out to those subcommittee members to schedule meetings
[34:47] with them.
[34:47] And I believe it should still be on the same day and time.
[34:51] He did send out an email to those respected people to make sure that that was okay
[34:56] with everyone.
[34:57] So, yeah.
[34:59] Great.
[35:03] Thank you.
[35:04] Thank you, Susan.
[35:08] So any other new business then?
[35:10] I
[35:19] think the new business is probably that grant availability and trying to get the word
[35:25] out to group domestic systems.
[35:29] I've gone through that grant process for the Grange Hall over here, and we're going
[35:32] to be testing that well and monitoring wells in that area in September.
[35:39] And that well is challenged because of the landfill over here, so it'll be quite
[35:46] interesting to see how that transpires once the work is completed. We should have reports
[35:52] for it sometime, I would guess, in October, November or something like that. But it's
[35:59] nice that Grange Hall certainly doesn't have the money to do that kind of work and the
[36:04] grant was about the only way for them to move forward as far as trying to get their
[36:10] well in a clean source and approval. So yeah.
[36:24] So any housekeeping information updates that way?
[36:31] I think just the big one is that since our third newer member Kenneth Blair has decided not to join
[36:38] us to the health reasons. We're a little low on members specifically on Lopez. So if anyone
[36:45] is going to keep an eye out that would be great. I've got another potential person from Sanlon that's
[36:52] looking into applying at the end of this summer. So in the next couple of months here hopefully
[36:57] we've reached out and have been chatting a little bit but if anybody has any contacts
[37:01] from Lopez that would be great. I did get a few contacts that I'll be reaching out
[37:05] to for rainwater collection through Canada. So I'll keep you updated on that.
[37:10] All
[37:28] right. Any other public comment or information we need to go over?
[37:40] Kimmel? Yeah, Bob, I just wanted
[37:44] to ask you about Hannah Heights, whether you knew that, whether there was going to be any more
[37:52] monitoring done on the contaminated well over there, including any migration of that PFOS
[37:59] off the site to other other well wells in the area I don't I think that there
[38:09] is but it hasn't been in my poor view as far as that goes I think it's from a
[38:14] different department in ecology and I'm not even quite sure Paul if you get
[38:22] Paul's last name is probably the one to communicate with from Hannah Heights
[38:30] As far as what's going on in that department, they've been so focused on trying to get this
[38:37] well approved that trying to figure out the migration and the cleanup has not been on their
[38:45] radar.
[38:46] But I think it certainly is with ecology, but I'm not sure who at ecology is even
[38:54] taken that bull by the horns, if you will, because it hasn't been the sourcewater approval
[39:00] people. It's been from a different department, as I understand it.
[39:06] Would that migration or study, monitoring study be possibly funded by this grant program
[39:13] that Krista was talking about?
[39:15] I don't think so. I mean, it'd be worth looking into, but I don't think so because
[39:21] because I think that's more on the cleanup side.
[39:24] Yeah.
[39:25] And do they have liability, the property owners for the cleanup, or has that all been taken
[39:30] over by the state?
[39:32] I don't honestly know that either.
[39:34] I mean, they weren't the ones that dumped the contaminant, so it seems like it would
[39:39] be difficult to put the onus on them as far as their well-being contaminated
[39:45] by the, you know, it was essentially the fire district, as I understand it.
[39:51] It sounds like it's in ecology's wheelhouse, as far as how that eventually gets resolved, including plugging the well and, you know,
[40:04] all the decommissioning and everything that would go on there.
[40:07] Yeah.
[40:09] Okay.
[40:11] Jason?
[40:14] Yeah. New guy in the room. They found the source. You said it was something with the fire
[40:23] storage or something? I'm just curious if they found the source.
[40:25] There's a fire hall. Jason, a little background here. There's a fire hall that's there at
[40:31] Hannah Heights right next to where their water well source is. And a number of years
[40:37] years ago somebody had been instructed to dump a gallon bucket of firefighting foam
[40:45] and in those days there wasn't any concern of it being a contaminant, you know, it was
[40:51] clearly something that they mixed and poured and used and did on a regular basis so pouring
[40:56] it over in the bushes didn't really seem to be a problem but clearly it was and
[41:01] clearly it is.
[41:02] over a few decades. Yeah, that'll do it. Yeah, and the feeling I've got through
[41:10] the process that I've been involved with is that the HOA to date has not, you
[41:18] know, tried to hold anybody accountable. But certainly they've been been
[41:23] assisted by state and county agencies to fix the problem, if you will, and
[41:30] And, you know, they're making headway on that.
[41:33] So they were assisted in hauling water to them and, you know, that kind of thing.
[41:39] So how that transpires going into the future for sealing and contaminant.
[41:45] So, all another Bailiwick.
[41:47] I did hear that the other Hannah Heights well was starting to show PFAS and elevated numbers,
[41:56] but not anywhere near that level.
[42:01] thank you for that yeah
[42:06] is it let me just ask this question I'm sure we all
[42:10] have what's the proper way to get rid of this stuff is there a never put it in
[42:15] there to begin with I got it but where do you could put it where do you put
[42:19] hazardous is that is there a is that question been addressed in orcas or for
[42:26] any of the island?
[42:29] You mean of the of the materials that are out there? Yeah, I mean just yeah even
[42:36] most any gasoline, oil, what all these things that tend to get poured off into the bushes even
[42:43] to this day.
[42:46] How do responsible people dispose of these things? Well hazardous waste roundup
[42:52] this is really the thing. Yeah, that's a once a year again, isn't it? Once or twice, yeah.
[43:01] I don't know. It seems like we're pretty vulnerable. I'm just saying. It sure seems that that's
[43:10] something that requires being addressed. I'm just saying. So, Lynn? Yeah, I just wanted to say
[43:19] And back, I think maybe two years ago, we got a report from a professor at the University
[43:26] of British Columbia exploring ways of de, I don't even know what the right word is,
[43:34] but ways of treating PFAS.
[43:36] And it's not a simple process.
[43:39] It's apparently very complicated.
[43:41] But they're pioneering a method of cleaning up water that has been contaminated with
[43:47] it.
[43:47] And that document is in our committee file somewhere.
[43:54] And I've got it.
[43:54] I'll try to find it, too.
[43:56] But it was pretty exciting.
[43:57] And I don't know what's happened since then.
[44:01] Hmm.
[44:04] Yeah.
[44:13] Okay.
[44:18] Anybody else?
[44:23] Okay.
[44:24] Well, big news with the changing people here.
[44:31] It's, oh, Kimball.
[44:34] Sorry.
[44:34] I
[44:37] just had another question about the SharePoint.
[44:43] I've been remiss because I've been gone, but getting those documents uploaded.
[44:48] Are we still doing that, Susan and Tyler?
[44:52] Absolutely, yep.
[44:54] Okay.
[44:56] Yeah, if you had a follow-up question, you can ask it.
[44:58] but I have the SharePoint.
[45:00] Already I sent everybody the link. If you can't access it, let me know. I'll just send
[45:04] everybody the specific folder again so that you know where you can upload any documents
[45:09] if you do have them. Just to kind of fill in any new people that haven't gotten this information.
[45:16] In the past, we've kind of been, there's been information just that's been because
[45:22] of turnover and things, just data for the county related to water management that's
[45:27] been scattered and we're sort of working in the future to kind of gather that all together
[45:32] in an effort to start working in a more integrated water management plan that we're going to
[45:40] need to be working on in the future.
[45:42] So that's sort of the first step here is just gathering all of that data and putting
[45:47] it in the SharePoint file right now.
[45:52] Did you have a question of can you access that folder even because I think you still
[45:58] have access to that.
[46:02] Back buried in my email somewhere but um I mean if you don't mind resharing it again
[46:08] at least it's yeah I'll send it again. Top of mind for me and I'll try to get it all done
[46:13] within the next month or so.
[46:41] Great, Ron did you have anything else that you wanted to add before
[46:45] we head out today?
[46:53] I'll be around and mute them.
[46:57] I'm sorry thank you um yeah good good summer
[47:01] meeting good to get out and weed the garden thanks everyone we're take we're
[47:09] signing off I guess right yes sir all right thank you pray pray pray for rain
[47:16] now coming soon thanks everyone thanks everybody take care I need a motion to
[47:28] I don't know why I stopped the recording from here, I
[47:40] did it while I was meeting.