PressRelease:
PBWC REGULAR MEETING MINUTES
03 August 2011


Meeting was called to order at 5:30pm by Tim Bliss, Chairman

Recognition of Guests / Commissioners Comment / Unscheduled Public Input
No guests present.

Approval of Minutes: 07/06/11
• Re: Burnt River Sub basin: Jerry corrects the following 2 statement:
April & May Unity Dam retained 25K cfs and spilled > 85K to read: retained 25K acre feet and spilled 85K acre feet.
Clark’s creek 10 cfs water available for mining to read: Clark’s Creek has 10 cfs available for all mining.
• The July minutes were approved as revised by Council consensus.


Watershed Status Reports:

Powder Basin:
- Small Grant Program- There will be a ruling regarding small grants to be given out in September.
- Basin Municipalities- Marion Crow reported that a meeting of the Farm Bureau Federation is scheduled in October. At this time Halfway has a 20% decrease in population with a depressed economy. The Bureau is hoping to assist with both growth and better use of available water.
- WASH Committee - It was reported that a SOR Grant (USBR Water Smart Program) was obtained in the amount of $102,000 PVWCD will be the administrators, but there is a 100% match required. The committee is contacting OWEB and CTUIR (tribes) for the matching funds. The grant is for measuring & gauging stations in 4 watersheds (irrigation districts) looking at system efficiency
- Appraisal Study- the contested Appraisal Study is still holding with no communication from USBR.
- DEQ-TMDL Process – No Report.
Brownlee Subbasins:
- Eagle Valley SWCD- Bruce stated there is not much to report but everyone is watering up.
- Brownlee Assessment – Tim Bliss and the work group will be meeting on August 16th to discuss the Assessment and the Floodplain Plan contract with Demeter.
Burnt River Subbasin:
- Burnt River Irrigation District – No report

- North Fork – Jerry reported not much going on except the fencing project the Forest Service is doing on Gimlet Creek.
- Aspen Restoration Project- Agency report re: North Fork Burnt River, materials are being delivered and in August the first of 6 fences will be installed on Gimlet Creek to protect the aspen from cattle and elk. Payment of supplies ordered will be coordinated with Vicki. Barney Creek is not part of the OWEB aspen project but portions of the 1986 burn will be fenced this season by USFS.
- South Fork – Water has been delivered at 30% of authorized use, regulated as of 2 weeks ago.
- Main Stem – Unity Reservoir is higher than has been in the past, 3000 extra acre feet as of today (Aug. 3, 2011).

Powder River Subbasin:
- Powder River – Baker Valley Kirkway Project – The project is moving forward. A conference call with Bureau of Reclamation, Chas Hutchens, Tim Bliss, Vicki and Kathi was held July 27th , the survey was scheduled to begin the week of September 12th with the rock to begin being staged on September 19th. There will be a pre-construction meeting is scheduled on August 18th. Letters/cooperative agreements to the landowners will be sent out soon.
- Powder River / Powder Valley – Aaron Umpleby reported: Wolf Creek Reservoir is at 77% capacity & Pilcher Creek Reservoir is at 92%, live flows are 50% higher than last year.
Discussion started on Bureau of Reclamation, S.O. Review what they can and cannot do. They can only study irrigation, they are not allowed to deal with hydro projects or recreational uses.


Water Quality Monitoring
- Basin Monitoring Program (319 & OWEB) – 319 ODEQ program came through with Basin Monitoring Coordinator grant – 10 hours per week for 1 year. Vicki will be writing the job description and have a draft by the end of August. We will be applying for a matching grant through OWEB to add additional hours to the job. There will be a meeting at the PBWC office, August 30, at 3 p.m. with Vicki, Denine Schmitz and John Dadoly to discuss where ODEQ would like to see site solutions.
- Youth Program – We have won a $350 mini grant from OWEB to provide youth &/or landowners with disposable cameras for monitoring. Discussion began with how to kick off the program and who to furnish with the cameras, High School kids, for a school or ranch project, 4 H projects, Boy Scouts etc.
- Coordinated Effort with Agencies - Discussion opened up regarding the Councils idea of seeing the project monitoring position needing to coordinate with the SWCD’s.

Partnership & Collaborations Vicki opened the discussion with the following 2 questions.
- How to inform partners? – SWCD’s – keep in contact, go to other agencies meetings, and communicate with each other. There are people on both the Watershed Council and SWCD they could act as go-betweens. Jerry Franke goes to most of both meetings and will pass information on both sides. – Minutes being passes between the organizations with pertinent information hi-lited so each group has knowledge of what the other is doing. Discussion continued with Susanne talking about agency cooperation. Maybe a map showing what each agency and/or group is doing where – then everyone can see where the gaps are and jobs can be scheduled to finish an area. Some thought this was a good idea and others thought there was to much distrust between agencies for this type of sharing of information.

- How to encourage landowner participation in restoration planning and implementations? Personal interest, newsletters, blogs, information pipelines, Mini Grants to landowners for plants and plantings etc. Education of what the watersheds do. Susanne will start a news blog between the SWCD and Watershed.

PBWC Strategic Plan –
- Strategic Plan: Goal 4 “Council Development and Management” – Discussion opened on “sub-councils”, Jim Young thinks he could set one up in Pine Creek. If 3 sub-councils were established then OWEB will fund an additional $20,000 to the $89,000 biennial budget = $109,000. Jerry and Marion both think the sub-councils are worth looking into, the local participation would be a big plus in getting things accomplished. The sub-councils, there would have to be 3 one for each sub-basin, would be under the umbrella of Powder Basin Watershed Council.
PBWC Board of Directors Report - Tabled due to time constraints.

The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 pm.

Council Attendance: 8 members [Quorum = 6]
Tim Bliss, Chair Eric Schoenfeld
Marion Crow Aaron Umpleby
Jerry Franke Bruce Lindley
Jim Young
Vicki Wares, Coordinator Suzanne Fouty
Kathi Vinson, Assistant Coordinator

Non-member Attendance

Karen Leiendecker, OWEB Eastern Region Representative

Attachments: Copy of EPA – Northeast Oregon Mercury Sampling, newsletter


Next Monthly Meeting
September 7, 2011
5J District Supervisor’s Office; North Conference Room
4th and Broadway 5:30 p.m.
Meetings of the PBWC are open to the public. All are welcome