Port of Illahee Distribution Letter - 3/6/09

Port of Illahee Letter. We received the attached Port of Illahee letter ( page 1 - page 2 ) a few days ago and forwarded the accompanying "Executive Summary" in an earlier Update. The Port's letter distributes a major report on the Illahee Creek Watershed to a number of recipients and to our website person, Laurie Jones, who is trying to figure out how to put the 500 plus page report on the community website.

Excellent Summary. We found the Port letter to be an excellent, but very brief, summary of the deteriorating conditions of the creek, the culvert, and the bay that prompted the Port to apply for the Department of Ecology grant.

Next Steps. Now that the Port and the community have scientific data that backs up their claims that Illahee Creek has some major issues that need to be dealt with they will need to determine what the next steps will be. We quote one of their closing statements:

"The Port of Illahee requests report recipients utilize the information contained herein to assist the Port, the Illahee Community, and Kitsap County to correct past mistakes and to promote the protection of Puget Sound, Illahee Creek, the Illahee Creek watershed, and the underlying aquifers for the present and future generations."

Report Information. We will begin to share information in the report periodically in future updates. We understand Kitsap County is already looking at areas where efforts can begin.

Please Read the Port Letter. The Port of Illahee needs to be commended for their interests and concerns for Illahee Creek that resulted in their efforts to secure the Department of Ecology grant that funded a major scientific study of the watershed. The next steps will be up to everyone to help with the necessary fixes. We ask each Illahee resident to read the letter and to become aware of what is needed to "correct past mistakes."

Jim Aho

Information On Upcoming Updates - 2/26/09

Update Frequency. It has been awhile since the last update and the inquiries as to why are continuing. We have been busy with other things and also there has not been any email inputs received that could be passed on, except for some photos and a verbal report on some owl activity. That situation is changing as you will note below.

Grant Report Distributed. The Port of Illahee has distributed the "Illahee Creek Watershed Surface Water Management Plan" that was prepared by Parametrix and funded primarily by the Department of Ecology. We have received a copy of Port distribution letter, and the report itself, and will try to get them to you and on the website soon.

Illahee Outfall Settlement. We also found out the Illahee Community Club has completed a "Settlement Support Statement" letter that describes the benefits of the outfall settlement to the community and to the developer. Once it is signed we will obtain a copy and send it out to all our our email list, which was one of the stipulations of the settlement.

Puget Sound Partnership Reps in Illahee. We have received information that several representatives from the Puget Sound Partnership will be looking at various sites in Kitsap County on Sunday (3/1/09) and one of those sites will be Illahee. They will be meeting at the Illahee Preserve for a quick tour of Illahee and are evidently interested in what is happening with Illahee Creek and the impact of the creek on the Sound.

Missed Meeting Reports. We have been asked to keep up with reporting on recent Illahee meetings as many have advised us they have other obligations and can't make all the meetings. We understand and will try to get reports out on the January and February meetings.

Short Update. Look for more information on each of these items soon. We will likely send a separate Update out on each one with a link to the actual document so you can comment on them if you want.

Illahee Information. Please send us any information you think the community should be aware of and we will pass it on.

Jim Aho

ps The photos are of the new Preserve parking lot being installed and are from John Lind.

Miscellaneous Items - 3/17/08

Miscellaneous Items:

Scientific Experts Briefing. Last week (Tuesday 3/11/08) there was a very informative briefing at the Norm Dicks Center. We brought a small video camera and the results were good so we are working on formatting and hopefully making DVD's available, or possibly putting on our website, illaheecommunity.com. More information to follow on the meeting and the results.

The Kitsap Sun covered the meeting with a report on 3/13/08.

3/18/08 Sale of Tax Title Strips. This is an ongoing item that is currently scheduled for sale on 3/18/08 unless someone intervenes. We reported some time ago (2/2/08) that the public was not given an opportunity to speak regarding these properties as was required by county directives. Members of the community have been in contact with Public Works and the Treasures Office. The response from the county has been interesting and up to the point of this writing, the properties are still on the list for sale at 11 a.m. in the lobby of the County Administration Building.

Illahee Community Plan Meetings. The meetings are held every other Monday through June 2, 2008 and are facilitated by Kitsap County. The second meeting is tonight, Monday 3/17/08 from 6-8 pm at the KUUF Church on Perry Avenue. Illahee residents are encouraged to come and be part of the group.

Gilberton Creek Culvert Replacement. We have requested a public meeting of the Gilberton Creek washout to discuss the county's plan to put in a 10 foot diameter culvert. We will report back when we hear more. We have attached an email from John Sledd, who lives at the mouth of Gilberton Creek which provides much additional information on the creek.

Sorry to be slow getting back to you. I really appreciate your interest in the aftermath of the culvert blow-out and flash flood in December that took out Illahee Road and nearly half a mile of stream. That stream and the lagoon at its mouth were a big part of the reason we bought our place twenty years ago. It hurts to see it trashed, and you can imagine what our neighbors the Grahns feel like -- they've had most of this neck of Gilberton in their family since the late 1800's.

Based on what I've learned in my job (I'm an attorney and I've done a fair amount of fish habitat-related work), Mr. Bear's explanation of why a fish-passable culvert is needed is correct. The State relies on physical characteristics for its initial determination of fish-bearing status when enforcing the Hydraulics Code, which requires permits and protection of fish life for any in-water work in fish habitat. There are also state fish passage laws -- they are actually the oldest laws in Washington, dating back to the Oregon Territory Organic Act of 1849 -- which prohibit the building of culverts that are not fish passable. As I said when we spoke on the phone the other night there is finally some effort to comply with those laws.

In this case the fish-bearing determination based on physical criteria is confirmed by history. Pete and Karl Grahn fished for cutthroat in that creek as kids and the Phifers, who had our place from the early 60's until 1989, still saw cutts when they owned it. The trout probably would have been up past the Road originally. I never saw salmon up that far , but I have seen coho adults and salmonid fry lower down. If the channel were in better shape there could be juvenile coho up to or past the road. They use a lot of small and even seasonal streams, and I had one biologist tell me that they'd spawn in our kitchen sinks if we all made our drain pipes a bit fatter. Probably a slight exaggeration. There may have been chum in there originally, too. They head for shallow saltwater as soon as they hatch , so they don't need much summer flow. The "pocket estuary" at the creek mouth here is pretty prime habitat for juvenile chum , too -- or it was before December filled it with mud and broken trees. We tend not to think of these small creeks as salmon streams, but that's partly because we've beaten them up so bad the fish are gone. To me, the fact that we've already wiped out the runs in a stream is a pretty lame excuse for allowing the degradation to continue.

I'd be interested to see the cost estimates for the different culvert and bridge options, but I'd be surprised if the cost of a fish-passable pipe on Illahee Road is a lot more than sticking another little 18 inch straw through the road and hoping it never rains hard again. The biggest costs in fish passage projects are usually not in the pipe, but in removing and rebuilding the road prism. The flood did the removing here, and made certain that the rebuilding costs will be high no matter what option the county chose.

Of course, as you suggested when you called, a fish-friendly culvert makes no sense if the creek channel downstream stays silted up and braided like it is after the flood -- the fish would need legs and breathing apparatus to anywhere. It is certainly feasible to rebuild the channel, and putting all those downed logs from the flood into the creekbed for habitat would be a lot easier than hauling them out of the ravine. Based on my research, I think there are good arguments why the County and possibly some of the upstream developers are legally required to either restore the creek, lagoon and beach or pay affected landowners enough to restore it. In any case it's clear that if it wasn't for Illahee Road and its dinky old culvert, that flash flood would never have happened, and we'd still own a creek in a forest and a beach, rather than a big, naked gravel bar and a stinking mudflat full of dead clams. It just does not seem fair to trash folks' property that way and then walk off with a shrug.

Commissioner Brown and the Public Works engineers were good enough to come down and see the mess for themselves, and they expressed some sympathy, but I haven't seen concrete evidence yet that the County plans to do more than lug out a few chunks of pipe and asphalt. We wouldn't even have known the County plans to do that much if we hadn't learned about it through you.

My wife (Elaine Thomas) and I and the Grahns gave Commissioner Brown a consistent message when we met with him last month. The County has the opportunity here to do right by the landowners, by the salmon, and by the community. With some coordinated effort and community support we could get funds to restore the beach, estuary and creek, or better yet to take advantage of the Grahn's interest to acquire the ravine and lagoon for the public. The Greater Peninsula Conservancy already owns a couple of acres between our place and Illahee Road. There is a chance to add to that and to preserve a nice public greenbelt and fish and wildlife corridor as the neighborhood grows, and a place with a lot of Native and early non-Native history as well. I'm probably a nut for thinking like this, but crazier things have been done.

You folks in Illahee have the reputation for community organization and caring about your neighborhood -- what do you think?

Sorry to be so wordy but this situation gets me riled up. I hope we can get a meeting together and kick some of this around.

I copied this to the folks on your cc list whom I know, and to the Grahns, and I sent a pretty similar email to Roy Barton. You are free to share this with whomever you please.

Best and thanks again, John Sledd

Additional Items? If you have additional items you would like us to report on, please let us know.

Jim Aho

Press Release - 3/5/08

The following 'Press Release' was sent to local newspapers today and is provided for your information. This was our first time so we are waiting now to see what the papers do with it.

Please note that all of the residents in Illahee will want to attend this meeting. Dr. Booth and Dr. Massmann are both former UW professors and really are renowned in their fields of geology and hydrology. One of the questions we will be asking Dr. Booth is - Where does the Blakely Harbor Fault line (that was identified following the 2001 Seattle earthquake) comes through in Illahee?

The Norm Dicks center is a great place for this type of presentation. By having it during the early evening time there should be readily available parking.

=====

Port of Illahee
Surface Water Management Plan Grant Office

ILLAHEE PROJECTS BRIEFING
A Briefing of Illahee Creek and the Illahee Watershed by Scientific Experts


A mid-project briefing by renowned scientists working in Illahee will be held at the Norm Dicks Government Center on the evening of March 11, 2008 from 6-8 pm.

Speakers include: Fisheries biologist Pete Lawson of Paramentrix; Geologist Derek Booth, PhD of Stillwater Sciences; Hydrologist Joel Massmann, PhD of Keta Waters; and Stormwater Engineer, Erin Nelson of Paramentrix.

Dr. Booth will discuss the general geology of the Illahee area and in particular the relationship with groundwater and surface water hydrology, along with his thoughts regarding whether Illahee lies within a seismic fault zone. Dr. Joel Massmann will discuss the underlying aquifers in Illahee and their relationship to Illahee Creek and low base flows. Pete Lawson will present his biological assessment of Illahee Creek and fish habitat recommendations. Erin Nelson will discuss their progress in identifying solutions to the storm water surges plaguing Illahee Creek. There will also be brief overview of the results of the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation grant. A question and answer session will follow the presentation.

These projects are funded by grants from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the Washington State Department of Ecology, and by the Port of Illahee, the Illahee Forest Preserve, and the Illahee Community. Water quality testing programs and stormwater planning are supported by Kitsap County Department of Health and Kitsap County Public Works.

# # #

If you’d like more information about this topic, or would like to schedule an interview with one of the speakers, please call Jim Aho @ (360) 479-1049, or email Jim @ jimaho@gmail.com.

Recent Meetings - 2/26/08

This is a quick summary of recent meetings.

Community Plan Open House Meeting Monday (2/25/08). The highlight of this meeting for many of us was to see the printed up copy of the draft of the Illahee Community Plan. It looked like a professionally produced document, and it also reads like one. We wish more of the original and subsequent members of the CAG were there to pick up a copy and look through it. You have another chance next week.

Next Monday (3/3/08) the first working CAG meeting begins at the KUUF Church @ 6 pm to review Vision statements and the Illahee Community Borders, and we presume other issues, so we hope to see those of you who missed the open house meeting. The meeting schedule is every other Monday beginning on 3/3/08 from 6-8 pm, with all meeting at the church, except for 4/14/08 which meets at the Library. The county will be bringing in experts to answer questions as they go through the Plan chapter by chapter. The complete schedule will be on the KC website and we will put it on the illaheecommunity.com website calendar.

Our planners, Katrina, and her assistant Jonathan, will probably put out a press release on the Open House meeting so we won't elaborate anymore here.

Illahee Community Club (ICC) Meeting Saturday (2/23/08). This was a serious ICC meeting as they looked at a number of Illahee issues including the Hearing Examiner's recent decision to deny the Club's appeal and approve the Illahee Outfall Replacement project. The community is having a hard time understanding how another outfall can be installed at a public beach and swimming area.

A group of members had met earlier to see if there wasn't a possible alternative solution to the outfall issue that would be satisfactory to everyone. They presented their proposal and asked the Club to support it, which after some discussion they voted to proceed with the proposal. The first requirement of the proposal is to have a storm water engineer verify the plan is a sound one. The second requirement is to make sure the county will support it. The third is to see if the developer would be willing to develop to the existing zoning instead of using legacy lot options. The timeline is to start working on this right away and try to get it done before the BOCC appeal begins. They are doing this because Mr. Harowitz said he wanted to work with the community, which he has never approached, so we want to see if he really is serious.

The other issue was Timbers Edge and the fact that it is located in a critical aquifer recharge area. The Illahee Forest Preserve sent a letter to the BOCC and DCD regarding the complex land issues associated with aquifers, base flows, and salmon streams. They requested the Fir Drive Aquifer Recharge Area be exempted from the mandatory sewer requirement for urban areas based on the results of previous studies conducted in the area. They noted they have had no response from the county since that letter went in, and are hopeful it is receiving consideration.

An Extremely Important Upcoming Meeting on Tuesday (3-11-08). A major meeting of great importance to Illahee residents is a Port of Illahee / Department of Ecology Grant Mid-Project briefing scheduled for March 11, 2008 at the Norm Dicks Center. Presenters will be Dr. Derek Booth, Dr. Joel Massmann, and Erin Nelson. They will talk about the geology, the hydrology and storm water issues affecting Illahee. These are highly respected scientists who will help us better understand some of the underlying natural features of this area. Keep this date open on your calendars. We will provide more information later.

Jim Aho