DRAYTON HARBOR SHELLFISH PROTECTION DISTRICT
ADVISORY COMMITTEE AGENDA

Download Zip File of All 2002 Summaries

AGENDA

MEETING ATTENDANCE

DOCUMENTS DISTRIBUTED

• Agenda
• 5/16/02 IFA Drayton Harbor Shellfish Protection District Advisory Committee (AC) Meeting Summary
• Drayton Harbor Marine Water Quality Data September 1997-January 2002
• Drayton Harbor NWIC Sample Sites (map and data by site)

MEETING CONTENTS

1. Public Comment Period

No comments from the public.

2. Review Agenda and Previous Meeting Summary

Review Agenda
Geoff Menzies reviewed the agenda. Geoff introduced Dave Warter, interim Harbor Master for the Blaine Marina.

Review Meeting Summary
The committee reviewed and approved the 5/16/02 Meeting Summary.

• Action: Distribute the 5/16/02 IFA Meeting Summary as Final.

3. Shuckin’ on the Spit Event Review

Geoff Menzies gave a recap of the Shuckin' on the Spit event. Over 605 paying customers attended the event raising $2500 for the Puget Sound Restoration Fund (PSRF). The PSRF plans to use the funds for water quality work in the harbor. The goal for next year's event is draw 1200 attendees. One of the priorities of the event is to showcase locally produced foods and produce. The event planners met to discuss how to improve the event next year.

4. DOE Update – Wastewater Exceedances/Seafood Processors

Wastewater Exceedances
NPDES permits issued by DOE stipulate that if a wastewater facility exceeds 85% of its design capacity, based on a monthly average, the DOE will send a letter requesting the municipality to provide a plan and schedule to provide adequate capacity.. Following exceedances at the Blaine Wastewater Treatment Plant in December 2001 and in January and February 2002, DOE requested that Blaine prepare a plan to maintain adequate capacity and also include in the plan an analysis of the use of a self-imposed moratorium as a tool for maintaining adequate capacity. Blaine responded promptly with letters to Mark Henderson (May 10) and to Kevin Fitzpatrick (April 30). Blaine contacted a funding group, available to them due to their high ranking in the WA CERT process, that specializes in finding funding for small rural wastewater projects. The funding group is helping Blaine work out a regional wastewater treatment agreement with Birch Bay. The first step is negotiating an interlocal agreement between the community of Birch Bay and the City of Blaine. As an interim solution, the City of Blaine has proposed installing a large diameter pipe under Marine Drive to take the place of the bladder bags. The pipe would offer several times the holding capacity of the bags.

Seafood Processors
On 5/20/02 DOE met with the City of Blaine, and the seafood processors to discuss the timing of projects to improve the outfall and to disinfect effluent. DOE required the processors to identify potential fecal sources. The processors did not identify fecal sources. Consequently, the NPDES permits issued by the DOE require the processors to disinfect their effluent.

In order to raise the funds for the disinfection system and design of a new outfall system, the processors met with DOE on 6/3/02 to ask for a 30-day extension. DOE granted the extension. At the 6/3/02, the meeting attendees discussed using freshwater as opposed to marine water to wash down the fish as they come off of the fishing boats. They have noticed that the fecal coliform concentrations in their wastewater are lower when they use freshwater as the initial wash-down rather than salt water pumped from Blaine harbor. The attendees discussed retro-fitting an existing outfall pipe.

• Action: Mark Henderson will find out the specifics of redundant pipeline and report back to the committee at a future meeting.

5. Dye Study Update

In early May, Grant Stewart and other city staff, Frank Merriwether and Don Lennartson, Ami Stillings and Geoff Menzies met to discuss the design of a dye study for the City of Blaine sanitary sewer and marina lines. Based on discussion from this meeting, the State DOH drafted an initial study design. The proposed design is similar to the 1999 study. The study would be two-pronged; the first part would be to determine if there are any problems within the marina facilities and the second part would be to determine if there were any problems within the main sewer line along Marine Drive. Dye would placed in all the target facilities and charcoal packets are placed along the shorelines. After a period of 4 to 7 days, the packets are collected and analyzed for traces of the dye.

The City of Blaine rejected the study design due to the difficulty of correlating results with specific sources. Grant Stewart proposed a “bath tub “ test, in which portions of the system are plugged and filled with water for a specified period and the loss in volume is determined. DOH staff expressed their own concerns with this testing method. The DOH requested a better definition of what would be considered a significant loss of volume. The City will probably carry out a demonstration test. The tests would likely also use a flouorosceine dye and charcoal packets in proximity to each test area.

6. Review of NWIC/POB Water Quality Data

Ami Stillings distributed data tables and graphs of the last 30 samples collected at the Northwest Indian College (NWIC) sample sites for California, Dakota and Cain Creeks. The monitoring data generally indicates that fecal coliform levels are going down at the upland sites.

The committee discussed the high fecal coliform results for Cain Creek. One member noted that Cain Creek results are following the general trend of improvement, but the values are higher. One member wondered whether bird populations are contributing to the high numbers in the creek.

The committee discussed water quality in the marina. The Port recently carried out sediment sampling in the marina. Fecal coliform is not known to reside in marine sediments for an significant length of time. As expected, the researchers confirmed the absence of fecal coliform in the marina sediment.

The State DOH believes that the flooding tide is the adverse condition for the shellfish beds. During the flood tide, surface water circulates out of the commercial marina into the harbor. The Port is currently reconstructing the mouth of the harbor. The new construction may improve circulation by way of panels, which will allow flow underneath the barrier.

7.Port Update – Status of Work with the Port/Marina

The committee has expressed interest in improving water quality in the Blaine marina. Geoff Menzies, Ami Stillings, Mike Stoner, and Port Staff met to discuss harbor issues and possibilities for cooperation. The Port has agreed to post signage that emphasizes the sensitive nature of water quality in Drayton Harbor and the marina itself. Under the direction of Dave Warter, the Blaine marina is adding a clause concerning water quality and mandatory use of pump-out stations to both the live-aboard sign-in contract and the visitor-mooring envelope. Next, Dave will focus on improved signage for the 4 pump-out stations in the marina. Judy Harvey is the Port property manager for the Blaine marina. She has set aside time at the tenants meeting (including the seafood harvesters) in August to discuss issues and concerns with water quality. The commercial dock has one pump-out station. The harbor is working with a maintenance engineer to determine the feasibility and cost of outfitting a station with different sized adapters. The Port keeps records of the pump-out stations and can easily document trends in pump-out usage. The committee requested that the Port send pump-out usage records to Ami Stillings as part of the Shellfish District's documentation efforts.

• Action: The Port will forward pump-out station use records to Ami Stillings.

The committee discussed including an article about Drayton Harbor water quality and the shellfish beds in an upcoming Port newsletter.

• Action: Ami Stillings will draft an article for the Port newsletter.

The committee thanked the Port staff for all the improvements they are making

8. Web site Update/Newsletter

The Water Resources Division is in the process of re-vamping the shellfish and marine resources Web sites to give them all a similar look. The basic front page of the site is up. Ami Stillings will continue to work on the Web site.

The committee discussed releasing a newsletter on a regular basis in hard copy or electronic format. One member felt that the community generally ignores newsletters. Members suggested producing regular reports to the news media. One member wondered what the cost of buying space in a local paper would be. The Port, the Conservation District, and the Water Resources Division all regularly produce newsletters. It was suggested that the shellfish district could contribute material to existing publications.

9. Shared Water Circulation Study Update

Quality Action Team (PSWQAT) have each pledged $5,000 dollars for the circulation study. Environment Canada has agreed to fund the rest of the $40,000 total for the project. The circulation study would be carried out in Drayton Harbor and Semiahmoo Bay. The study would consist of a 48-hour simulation based on bathymetry with an overlay of 3 sources (Dakota, California, and Little Campbell Creeks). On the American side, Llyn Doremus reviewed all the proposals. The project participants expect to have a base model that they can elaborate on in the future.

10. PSRF Projects Update

The County Water Resources Division has funded a PSRF grant to carry out various projects in Drayton Harbor. The PSRF will work with the Port of Bellingham and the City of Blaine on pollution source identification and control with a major focus on Blaine Harbor.. In addition, the PSRF will continue the volunteer shoreline monitoring program. The PSRF worked with the City to identify 5 priority drainages for monitoring. The program will monitor for 4 months in order to identify sources of fecal coliform.

Geoff discussed the difficulties that arise when dealing with urban stormwater runoff. Nation-wide, fecal coliform numbers for urban runoff are in the 40,000 CFU/100mL range. Although this far exceeds freshwater standards, the high levels are typical for urban areas. It can be difficult to motivate municipalities to identify non-point fecal sources for stormwater.

As part of the educational focus of the grant, the PSRF is inviting the County Council, Marine Resources Committee (MRC), Blaine City Council, Blaine Planning Commission, Shellfish Protection District, and the Whatcom County Planning Commission to attend tide-flat tours of Drayton Harbor. The next tours will take place on July 10th from 11:00am to 1:00 p.m. and July 13th from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.

11. New Business

WRIA 1 Process and Drayton Harbor
Geoff Menzies and Janet Hansen met with Sue Blake at the Whatcom County Water Resources Division to discuss the Watershed Resource Inventory Area (WRIA) watershed planning process and Drayton Harbor. In preparation for drafting a watershed management plan, the WRIA project participants are developing a water quantity, water quality, fish habitat, and instream flow model for the entire WRIA 1. Project participants are currently selecting focus areas for finer resolution modeling. The initial list of proposed focus areas included North Lynden, Tenmile Creek, the South Fork, Lake Whatcom and Drayton Harbor. The final list looks like it will be North Lynden, Tenmile Creek and the South Fork. This meeting involved discussion on whether there should be efforts made to have Drayton Harbor back on the table as a focus area or whether there are other options available that will allow people interested in the Drayton Harbor watershed to get the information they need without have to be involved in the long, time-intensive process of the detailed management areas. Until recently there has been no coordination between the WRIA 1 process and the shellfish districts. Geoff and Janet talked with Sue about the water quality issues that affect the shellfish growing areas in the harbor and what their concerns and interests would be in terms of water quality and land use issues.

12. Next Meeting’s Agenda

To be determined