Meeting Notes for April 2nd, 2003

7:00 pm: Chuck Lane facilitated the meeting. Welcome and introductions

7:05 Committee Reports:

Steering C: Met 3/25, a quorum. We have a tech assistance grant, $28k, to design 5 grant proposals for submission. A contractor in Eugene will be doing the work, has extensive experience in designing restoration projects.

OWEB funding is reduced, and OWEB has categorized watershed councils to help decide how to prioritize scarce funding. Category 1= 100% funding, Cat 2= 80%, Cat 3=60%. We were placed in Cat 3. We hope to move to Cat 2 by presenting info at appeals hearing. The process did not use information requested from WSC’s to actually categorize – we can point out relevant info. SC will enumerate specific core duties that are essential to perform, if funding is reduced, so that we can appropriately narrow our focus.

Land &Water Use: 2 Water Quality committee members and Liz Dent joined the group, which was very useful. Reviewed action planning process.

WQ Monitoring: Met with L&WU committee. WQ needs an action plan. Amy has begun work on it. Proposed that we monitor flow rates on Marys River and tribs. @ low flow (303d - flow modification), and for residual pesticide and other pollutants. Dept. of Ag. May help.

Fish Passage Committee: Met at County offices. Discussed notation on culverts on 2 different versions of maps – will obtain information that allows a cross-reference. Priorities are two barriers on Blakesley Creek, and a dam on Marys R.

Outreach & Ed: Finalizing action plan, making it more concise and realistic. Website – we need to post notices at least 7 days ahead of events. Each committee needs to make sure they have a scribe that will record meeting minutes for inclusion in website. “Friends of Artemis” group meets quarterly to discuss ongoing conservation/land use/ environmental ed topics, and all are welcome to join. Contact Mark Taratoot for info.

Special Topic: Light Pollution in the Watershed: how to control it! This special topic was requested by several watershed council members as relevant to quality of life in the watershed.

Ken Bronstein

In Summary: The night sky is a natural resource affected by light pollution. International dark sky organization of advocates, website is darksky.org. However, there is no inherent trade-off between proper outdoor lighting and night sky. Solutions are to deflect light down – full cut-off lights. Correct lighting design is very important: deflect light down, diffuse light, reduce contrast, direct where needed. 100 watt mercury vapor lights are inexpensive and widely used – slowly dim over time but continue to use same electricity – wasteful and inefficient. Some municipalities enacting light ordinances: Sandy, Oregon for example. Ken plans to propose an ordinance to City of Corvallis.