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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06/01/2004 Business Meeting 2 2 4.9 • BUSINESS MEETING JUNE 1, 2004 - 7:00 P.M. YAKIMA CONVENTION CENTER -10 NORTH 8 STREET 1. Roll Call City Council: Mayor Paul George, presiding, Ron Bonlender, Neil McClure, Mary Place, Bernard Sims, and Susan Whitman. Absent: Dave Edler (excused) Staff: City Manager Zais; City Clerk Roberts; Chris Waarvick, Director of Public Works; and Linda Watkins, Records Clerk Yakima County Commissioners: Ron Gamache, Jim Lewis, and Jesse Palacios Staff: John Knutson, Surface Water Manager; Carla Ward, Clerk Union Gap City Council: Mayor Aubrey Reeves, Council Members Kim Owens, Pat McDonald, and Toni Webb 2. Joint Public Hearing with Yakima County and City of Union Gap on legislation creating a stormwater utility Yakima Mayor Paul George welcomed everyone with a round of introductions. Also in attendance were: Bill Moore, Olympia Department of Ecology (DOE) Tom Tebb, Yakima Department of Ecology Misha Vakoc, Seattle Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Chris Waarvick, City Public Works Director, introduced the subject by providing . background information. He noted that the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Phase 11, affecting the smaller communities of under 100,000 census and a density of 1,000 people per square mile, is here. This means that the'City of Yakima, the urbanized areas of Yakima County, the City of Union Gap because of its proximity, and the City of Selah, are all part of the federal register and will be required to comply with NPDES Phase II. He then spoke about their efforts to mitigate the requirements, i.e., notifying DOE that the Washington Guidance Document would not work for us. The Eastern Washington group created an Eastern Washington Guidance document and a model permit program. John Knutson, County Surface Water Manager, also gave background information on the project. He took this opportunity to request the County's Public Hearing be extended to June 29 The cities and the county have been working together. since 2002 under an interlocal agreement to share in the cost of the project. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) components of stormwater recommend the County implement the stormwater program but at a very reduced intensity • 250 JOINT PUBLIC HEARING - STORMWATER JUNE 1, 2004 compared to the urban area. The County proposal also takes the regulations in the Watershed Management Plan into consideration. By implementing NPDES and ESA components, stormwater recommendations will be taken care of. Mr. Knutson also spoke about carrying out a program for educating and involving the public to seek out and eliminate illicit pollutant discharges as part of our permit. He went into detail on construction site erosion, development and redevelopment, identification of practices that impact stormwater, e.g. park maintenance, ground and road maintenance, and looking into how we deal with drywells. He then spoke about budgets, legal support, permit fees, etc. Mr. Waarvick said that many people were asking under what authority are we doing this and what would happen if we didn't comply. He related the results of Phase I communities that challenged compliance and lost. Phase I communities were those entities that had populations in excess of 100,000 and had to apply for NPDES permits in 1995. In response to questions, Mr. Knutson described how fees will be determined once the utilities are established. It is generally based on the amount of impervious surface. They have also proposed using acreage for agricultural type uses, less impervious surface but intensive land use. They have developed the ERU (Equivalent Residential Unit) which is the average amount of impervious surface on a typical residential lot (3600 sq ft) or a rural lot (7200 sq ft). There will be credits for management of stormwater on site and there may be discounts for seniors, disabled, and low income families. They will divide the budget by the number of ERUs in the jurisdiction to figure out a cost per ERU. At full implementation they expect it will be $4.00 to $4.50 per month. They are trying to get cost information out now for people to use for budgeting purposes until the bills are sent out, ideally next year as a line item on property tax. Union Gap Council Member Pat McDonald asked about discounts for individuals who have basically no runoff due to their own efforts. Mr. Knutson responded that if we have folks with no runoff, there would be a 20% reduction. He explained that the majority of our costs are for regional implementation of pollutant management along our roads and implementing regional education programs and that every time there is a discount someone else is burdened because program costs are not reduced. Misha Vakoc, EPA, responded to Commissioner Lewis' question on what would be the impact if the three groups refused compliance. She said the Clean Water Act has penalties for non - compliance. Bill Moore of DOE explained that in the late 1990's Clark County did not apply for the NPDES permit and were sued by a third party. The courts found in favor of the third party, and Clark County had to obtain a permit. It was noted that Phase II does recognize the differences in climate across the country although Phase I did not. Mr. Waarvick described the City of Yakima's program. It has a cost of about $2.4 million. The proposal uses no new facilities and uses existing staff although they are recommending, within the first five years, to increase staff by 10.5 new full time 2 25 1 JOINT PUBLIC HEARING - STORMWATER JUNE 1,'2004 equivalents (FTE). Staff had,,at one time, recommended adding a 10% tax to this utility that would be dedicated for basic street maintenance. After reviewing the current deficit of the Street Division's annual budget, approximately $2.8 million, it was determined that a more robust and comprehensive funding solution would be required. An important element of the new stormwater management program will be the development of a waste site for the disposal of pollutants removed from the catch basins. Members of the City's Wastewater, Streets, and Stormwater Divisions are working with the County and the Department of Transportation to develop and maintain a site that could be used by all three governmental agencies. Council Member Bonlender started a discussion on the potential of people being deterred from putting in driveways and sidewalks for fear of getting another ERU. Mr. Waarvick said those things have been thought about and we have a Surface Water Engineer, Brett Sheffield, to help people with a strategy to keep their costs down. • Mayor George opened the public hearing. Mike Leita, 4802 Avalanche Avenue, provided written comments prepared after reviewing the draft ordinance. He highlighted a number of areas of the ordinance, e.g. civil penalties, definitions, education, and discounts. He summarized by saying he believes the.fee schedules are excessive and cannot be justified. Mark Barrett, President of the Yakima County Farm Bureau, claimed the information has not been distributed in a timely manner. He referred to the flood control tax on our property taxes and how, as a result, he doesn't understand the need for the stormwater policy too. He recognizes it is mandated but pointed out that we are only required to have a policy, not to create a bureaucracy. He questioned whether there really is a problem in Eastern Washington and stated that agriculture does not have impervious land. Jim Morrison, Gleed, questioned the need for this and suggested Yakima County treat their stormwater as Selah is doing now. He suggested a simple solution would be sedimentation ponds. He too suggested using the existing flood tax rather than applying a new tax. Sandra Swanson, West Valley, emphasized that existing costs for work currently being done, e.g. street cleaning, should not be put under this utility fee. She expressed concern about flat fees and about agricultural land. She didn't agree that compacted gravel should be considered impervious. She also spoke against having the schools, or any government entity, pay the fee; since the same taxpayers pay for it anyway. Walt George, told about his dealings with water quality in the Yakima County Conservation Program and how the farmers in the lower valley have already stepped up to meet water quality standards. 3 252 JOINT PUBLIC HEARING - STORMWATER JUNE 1, 2004 Frank Hendrix, 433 Ames Road, said he is an educator and scientist for Washington State University in the area of water quality. He suggested removing ESA from the County's proposal as there are already 20 agencies working on it. In that way, agriculture would not be mandated to be included in this. He pointed out that the County's proposal does not include the state lands, the firing center, and the forest service, noting that if it is rurally mandated, those lands have to help bear the cost. He then commented about whether the proposal was a tax or a fee. Tom Bass, Yakima County Cattlemen President, questioned why dry range land has to be under this program. He discounted the federal mandate and asked where "our" mandate is. David Taylor, Moxee, provided written testimony to the Commissioners on behalf of the County Cattlemen's Association. He said that in his reading of the statutory citations outlined within the draft ordinance he found direct ties to the GMA. Before a tax is in place a plan should be in place and that plan should be in agreement with the Comprehensive Plan, was it? He quoted a number of RCWs questioning whether they were adhered to when creating this proposal. Steve George, representing the Yakima County Dairy Association and the Hop Growers of Washington, commented that they feel like they were left out of the process. He said until they are involved they cannot understand it nor have time to provide input. They wouldn't support the County adopting this on a short time frame and would like time to interact. Joe Walsh, Central Washington Homebuilders Association, commented that both the City's and County's implementation plans include expenditures to develop a program to train staff engineers and contractors to properly design, build, and maintain the various best management practices. He suggests that much of that could be eliminated and thereby reduce the fee structure. Our local professionals have adequate knowledge and resources to determine best management practices. Secondly, it is essential that the stormwater utility not become a clearinghouse for functions such as endangered species recovery. Leave that with the Yakima Sub Basin Fish and Wildlife Group as they have a substantial plan already in place. By removing the ESA costs from the County stormwater utility, the taxpayers fees in years four and five would be reduced by as much as 20 %. Craig Rath, 314 North 73 Avenue, owner of Rath Construction, said that this is troubling to builders and part of what we're setting out to do is just to shield ourselves from litigation. The potential for erosion control measures would do nothing more than add another layer of bureaucracy. More dirt and topsoil is lost due to wind than to rainwater. He asked this group to take the opportunity to lead the community and look at innovative solutions to this problem and the ramifications it has on our community. 4 2.53 JOINT PUBLIC HEARING - STORMWATER JUNE 1; 2004 Bill Lover made remarks about government taking advantage of this mandate to generate up to 20 new positions. He recommended taking advantage of the talent already in place through training, lateral transfers and promotions rather than hire additional employees. Peter Dell, 700 Firing Center Road, said he understands the need to spread costs to keep the fees as low as possible, but retail business has the option of raising prices and the final consumer'pays the costs. Unfortunately, the agricultural base does not have that option. He questioned how can our farmers afford to pay additional fees for something they probably have nothing to do with. He doesn't find any basis for this proposed act and asked how can we enact a fee (tax) to fix a "so called" problem for which the source is yet to be identified. He finds it hard to believe that the water collected on his property that goes into his city- approved drywell affects any river, stream, or any aquifer. It is his belief that the water evaporates. He then spoke about how there could have been alternatives to curbs and gutters that would have dissipated the rainwater thus alleviating the problem in the first place. He asked this group of government leaders to consider the financial impact on all taxpayers, identify the source of the problem, and do what is right for the citizens and taxpayers. Judy Boekholder, Toppenish, agreed with some of the points and noted that there are a number of agencies, even at the federal level, that have forgotten common sense and that one size doesn't fit all. She suggested that if we are really concerned, we could devise a system to test the water on the way in and on the way out to find out if there really is a problem. If we are going to be forced into doing it, we have to find the most economical method and not go overboard. Wes Hazen, upper Wenas, is a farmer entomologist that supports the endangered species act and the water quality act. He described several storm events in the area of Wenas Cemetery and the lake where he observed the method the County uses to clean out the ditches afterwards. He claimed that each time there is a storm we end up with more siltation due to the cleaning method. He also spoke about lack of controls for the Wenas area. Frank Wesselius, 442 Naches Highway, related a past flooding problem in his area and how long it took to get fixed. He asked Misha Vakoc, ESA, what the standard was for putting NPDES in rural areas. Ms. Vakoc responded that there is no strict obligation to include rural areas in the Stormwater NPDES. He questioned why the money in the Flood Control program couldn't be used to determine if there really is a problem. Commissioner Lewis continued the County's hearing to June 29 at 1:30 p.m. in the basement Hearing Room. He instructed staff to take the public comments into consideration when preparing material for the public hearing. 5 254 JOINT PUBLIC HEARING - STORMWATER JUNE 1, 2004 • ' Union Gap Mayor Reeves said they will hold their own hearing but a date hasn't been set yet • Yakima Mayor George continued the City's Public hearing but did not announce a date and time. 3. Adjournment The meeting adjourned at 9:00 p.m. READ AND CERTIFIED ACCURATE BY A %#4: / CO N IL MEM: Pr DATE c/ COU o 'r MEMBER DATE ATTEST: 2 � 1 CITY CLERK AUL G. GEORGE, MAYOR Minutes prepared by Linda Watkins. An audio and videotape of this meeting is available in the City Clerk's Office 1 6