7:10 Announcements
7:15 Water Quality Monitoring Update: Members on the water quality monitoring team have made a goal of getting the Mary's River removed from the 303D listing. The river was given that listing as the result of river temperatures, high bacterial counts, and flow modifications. The monitoring team will be seeking grant money to monitor for temperature, bacterial counts, turbidity, and nutrients. They would like to do some fish monitoring as well to determine where the critical habitats are. For example, they would like to determine where the fish go during the summer months when water temperatures are their highest. The monitoring team currently are investigating sampling methods and consulting labs to do this monitoring.
7:25 Benton County Emergency Management (BCEM)
is seeking MRWC support to install a new stream gauge in the Mary's River which
would replace the one the Army Corps of Engineers plans to remove because: 1)
the current gauge is obsolete, 2) there has been a mission change within the
Corps, and 3) they believe that information on Mary's River flow conditions can
adequately be inferred from models. Mike Bamberger, from BCEM expressed doubts
about the ability to infer Mary's River flow conditions from models. Data from
the current gauge is accessed regularly by rural residents and emergency
management crews. It will cost $10,000 to install a new gauge and $10,000 per
year to maintain it. Mike hopes to obtain $8,000 from OWEB for the initial
installation and $5,000 annually from the USGS for the maintenance. Other funds
he hopes to obtain from other agencies.
The council agreed to lend its support to this process through
consensus, and in the discussion that followed it was suggested that Mike
investigate obtaining stream gauges that could also monitor temperatures.
7:40 Coordinator's Report: Sandra is learning
how to update the web site. She is helping to develop an agenda for the
bi-annual watershed council coordinator's meeting. The outreach and education
committee is setting priorities, needs council input. Todd Kesterson is working
on the newsletter.
7:50 Discussion on forming a Memorandum of
Understanding (MOU) with the Benton Soil and Water Conservation District. A
draft version of the MOU was presented to the council. This MOU is intended to
establish the relationship between the Mary's River Watershed Council and the
SWCD. The intent is to help distinguish between the two organizations and to
help obtain certain funding sources. In the MOU, mutual responsibilities are
outlined as well as differences in the strengths and missions of the two
organizations. In the discussion it was noted that this MOU only determines our
activities with respect to areas where we have mutual interests with the SWCD,
but does not preclude us from participating in other activities. No serious
objections were raised to the MOU as it currently reads , but it was noted that
since the SWCD had already reviewed the MOU and had approved it with minor
revisions, we needed to see the revisions before we could approve the MOU.
8:35 Steering Committee Report: The steering
committee met in February and in March and finalized some recommended changes
in the bylaws. These will be circulated before the May meeting and voted on at
that time. Two members of the steering committee have resigned and there now are
openings for a small woodland owner and a federal agency representative.
8:40 Corvallis Parks and Trails Plan: Members of
the council were urged to become involved with the Corvallis Parks and Trails
plan. This plan includes a paved trail, which will circle the airport and run
along Muddy Creek. It was argued that this stretch of Muddy Creek currently is
in a relatively pristine state, and that such a path would be detrimental to
the riparian area.
8:50 Adjourn.