Background

Purpose

The Chehalis Basin Partnership (CBP) first adopted its Chehalis Basin Watershed Management Plan in April 2004.  The plan articulated the goals, objectives, and framework for water resource management in Water Resource Inventory Areas (WRIA) 22 and 23.  Goals and objectives in the plan focus on:

• Planning

• Public Involvement

• Water Quantity

• Water Quality

• Habitat

The next step in the watershed management planning process for the CBP was to begin working on the details regarding how best to bring these WMP goals to fruition.  This entails asking the essential questions of “How do we accomplish these goals, who is going to help, when do things get done, and what resources will we need?”

The CBP began the process of answering these questions by developing a 2007-2008 Detailed Implementation Plan (DIP).  The purpose of this DIP would be to outline a comprehensive approach for accomplishing the goals of the Chehalis Basin Watershed Management Plan (WMP) through prioritized strategies and interim milestones. 

RCW 90.82.043 and .048 does provide guidance to the CBP regarding DIP content and process.  The DIP must cover the following elements:

• Strategies to provide for sufficient water for: production agriculture; commercial, industrial and residential uses; and instream flows
• Timelines to achieve these strategies
• Interim milestones to measure progress
• Coordination and oversight responsibilities
• Needed interlocal agreements and administrative approvals
• Specific funding mechanisms

Furthermore, the watershed management planning entity must consult with other local and state entities to ensure that no efforts proposed in the DIP are duplicative or inconsistent with their work. 

The CBP assigned the task of developing a draft DIP to their Steering Technical Committee (STC).  The committee responded to this task by designing and embarking on a three-step DIP development process.

Step 1

The STC initiated the first step of the DIP effort by reviewing the list of 56 suggested actions in Section IV of the WMP and identifying 18 of them as distinct strategies for achieving the plan’s five goals and related objectives.  The STC then added other suggested actions from Section IV under each of the strategies as prospective tasks for completing each one.  The STC then brainstormed additional tasks to round out the complete steps necessary for implementing the strategies. 

Recognizing the need for prioritization, the STC then developed and applied criteria for ranking each strategy.  This task identified five of the eighteen strategies as being the most important for the CBP to develop into detailed work plans and begin implementation within the 2007-2008 timeframe.  As time and funding allows, the CBP intends to complete detailed work plans for the remaining thirteen after October 2006.  Appendix A contains a list of these remaining strategies.

Step 2

This raw work product then became the basis for the second step in preparing a draft DIP.  At this juncture, the STC invited the Water Quality Committee (WQC) and the Habitat Workgroup (HWG), both committees of the CBP, to join in the effort.  During this phase, the CBP through its three committees would consult with other local, state, federal, and tribal planning entities during five workshops to complete work plans for each of the top five strategies.  A complete list of participants during these workshops is in Appendix B.

At the workshops, participants reviewed each strategy, sorted tasks out into interim milestones, contributed more tasks to each interim milestone for clarification, expressed interest in participating to specific tasks, and identified the resources and schedules necessary for completing specific milestones.

Step 3

With a draft 2007-2008 DIP in hand, the document then underwent review and adoption by the CBP.  The earnest work of implementing the WMP now begins.

Organization of the DIP

This 2007-2008 DIP contains five strategies for implementing the five WMP goals that will lead to providing sufficient water for agriculture, commercial, industrial, and residential as well as meeting minimum instream flows.  Figure 1 on page 3 shows how the DIP coordinates with the CBP and the WMP.  Table 1 summarizes these strategies and their interim milestones on page 3.

Each strategy in the DIP contains a series of implementing interim milestones.  Each interim milestone in turn has complete work plan that includes the following information:

• Tasks – the individual steps needed to achieve an interim milestone

• Start Date – a beginning date to start implementing an interim milestone

• Strategy Oversight Responsibility – identifies which CBP committee is responsible for overseeing the implementation of an interim milestone

• Committed Project Participants – a list of agencies who agreed to participate in the implementation of an interim milestone

• Project Resources Needed – a list of anticipated resources needed for implementing an interim milestone

• State or Local Approvals Needed – an accounting of what agreements, laws, or other legal mechanisms necessary for completing an interim milestone

As mentioned beforehand, all of the strategies and many of the tasks under interim milestones are from the WMP.  Most of these items are taken from the suggested actions contained within the tables from Section IV.  The footnotes within each strategy work plan reference their place in the document.