DOE officials again explain letters

Ranchers, farmers and landowners again crowded the county’s Public Service Building auditorium in Colfax last Thursday for a second meeting with officials from the state’s Department of Ecology. The session lasted more than two hours.

Three state Department of Ecology staff members from Spokane who attended were Chad Atkins, Mike Kuttels and David Knight. Atkins and Kuttels were at the December meeting. Because there were so many unanswered questions in December, DOE officials were invited to the second meeting by the Whitman Conservation District.

Ray Ledgerwood, program coordinator for the state Conservation Commission, lead the afternoon session.

Whitman Conservation District initially invited DOE staff in December to explain letters sent last fall to landowners who came to CD officials with concerns. The first meeting also packed the auditorium. So many questions were raised that a second meeting was arranged.

“We all have the same goal here, healthy streams and rivers,” Atkins said. “There’s a lot of common ground we share.”

Atkins displayed a photo of his children, saying that it might make the audience go easier with him. He was met with silence.

Atkins explained DOE rarely uses its enforcement authority referring to four formal actions in the entire state, all of them on the west side. For the people who weren’t at the December meeting, Atkins explained DOE’s role in water quality standards.

Atkins explained the process of notifying landowners of potential pollution problems. He also said there are 111 sites in Whitman County with 56 of them in the Whitman Conservation District.

Atkins also said DOE staff tried to contact and work with all conservation districts, but he could not meet with the Whitman district because of conflicting schedules. After the letters were sent in August, DOE staff realized that month was not a good time to contact farmers because of harvest.

He said DOE spent 10 days in the field and took about 1,000 photos. From that tour, DOE sent about 30 letters in the Whitman Conservation District offering technical and financial assistance.

“We haven’t heard from about half of them,” Atkins said.

Atkins said they worked with conservation districts throughout the eastern region of the state to help producers correct water quality problems voluntarily.

He said they met with Whitman Conservation District Director Nancy Hoobler one to two weeks before letters were sent. However at the December meeting WCD board members told DOE they were frustrated because they were notified by DOE only three days before letters were sent.

“There was no collaboration and there wasn’t any work with the CDs,” WCD board member Jan Turney said at that time.

Atkins said DOE staff is determined to work more closely with CDs.

Also in December, when producers questioned recommendations of certain types of trees along creeks that run through desert areas in the southern end of the district, they were rebuffed by Kuttels.

Several at the meeting in December mentioned using common sense as DOE recommends rebuilding native plants.

“I know what it should look like, what vegetation is or is not there,” Kuttels said in the December meeting.

During last week’s session, Kuttels said if a wooded riparian wasn’t in an area before, he would not recommend it now.

“We don’t require woody vegetation,” Atkins said.

The last slide explained landowners’ choices that included fencing, pasture managements, riparian fencing and rotate grazing for weed control.

“It looks like there’s really only three choices,” WCD Chairman Walter Riley said. “Livestock fencing, off-stream water and crossings.”

Atkins also announced that state Department of Fish and Wildlife documented presence of rainbow trout in a stream above Dusty.

Dennis Moore of Hay said WDFW put traps in Big Alkali Creek in 2003 and no fish were found above the falls near the mouth of the creek.

“If fish get up those falls, they don’t come back,” Moore said.

All three men encouraged people with questions or concerns to contact them. “We don’t want to be fighting back and forth,” Atkins said. “We want to be professional.”