Stormwater Meetings to begin Week of September 15

Two Open Houses on Orcas Island, Tuesday, Sept. 16 from 11:30 to 1 p.m. and from 4 to 6 p.m.

— from San Juan County —

Public Works and the Citizen Stormwater Advisory Committee will be holding open house style meetings during the week of September 15th on Lopez, Orcas and San Juan Islands. The open house will feature the unveiling of updated capital project plans for five focus basins in the County. The Citizen Stormwater Advisory Committee and Public Works are interested in your opinions regarding which projects are the most important to pursue first. [See  orcasissues.com/guest-opinion-shape-stormwater-projects ]

With fall approaching San Juan County once again looks toward the rainy season. Last year the season started with a shockingly large storm event that overwhelmed our Eastsound storm sewer system. With that memory almost one year behind us the Stormwater Utility is moving into the final phase of County wide stormwater management planning.

The County’s Stormwater project has completed Volume 1 of the County Stormwater plan which describes the nature of 37 drainage basins in terms of the geology, hydrology, current land use and potential development. Based on that information Volume 1 makes some broad suggestion for how to manage stormwater.

These range from developing more detailed plans in focus basins including Eastsound and Lopez Village to utilizing the treatment capacity available in existing ecological system such as wetlands, ponds and ditches. More specifics regarding these and other recommendations are presented in the recommendations section of Volume 1.

What does that mean for you and the planning process? Take a look at report and recommendations on the County web site (https://sanjuanco.com/publicworks/swu_DataAndReports.aspx ) and then come to one or more of the open house events scheduled during the week of September 15th. You will have an opportunity to ask questions of and suggest favorable options to the managers, scientists, citizens and engineers that are working on this plan.

Stormwater planners will also be unveiling the top 20 list of capital projects. These are the projects that will be presented to the Citizens Stormwater Advisory Committee for final ranking and eventual construction. This list was developed based on the results of volume 1, existing drainage plans, and issues reported through the stormwater issue website that was available to citizens earlier this year.

The preliminary project list will be based on data that was compiled from existing sources, ongoing stormwater monitoring, and public input from the stormwater issues reporting web-site that was active this spring. This data is available in Volume 1 of the County Stormwater Basin Plan. The most important parts of Volume 1 are the executive summary and the recommendations section on pages 139 through 145. Individuals may also be interested in the individual basin assessments that pertain to where they live.

After the open houses are complete the Citizens Stormwater Advisory Committee will prioritize the projects and make a recommendation to the County Council.

Update Sept. 15 at 1 p.m.

SJI Council Attending Open Houses:

Sep 15, 2014 – Monday – 4:30- – 6:30 PM at Public Works Building, Spring Street, Friday Harbor. The SJI Council will be attending a Storm Water Open House in two sessions

Sep 16, 2014 – Tuesday – 11:30 AM until 5:00 PM at Eastsound Fire Station, Lavender Lane, Orcas Island. The SJC Council will be attending a Storm Water Open House in two sessions – 11:30 AM and 4:00 PM.

Sep 18, 2014 – Thursday – 4:00 PM until 6:00 P.M. at Woodmen Hall, Fisherman Bay Road, Lopez Island. Description: The SJC Council will be attending a Storm Water Open House from 4 to 6 PM