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Department of Ecology News Release - November 20, 2007
07-344
OLYMPIA - Residents of Southwest Washington interested in understanding the process of water management are invited to attend two upcoming open house meetings.
The Washington Department of Ecology (Ecology) is proposing two water resource management rules for the Lewis and Salmon-Washougal Watershed Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs 27 and 28). The proposed rules are based on the work of the locally based watershed planning unit and will guide future water decisions in these two watersheds.
Staff from Ecology and the watershed planning unit will be on hand to make presentations about the proposed rule and answer questions from the public.
The open houses will be held at the following locations:
Tuesday, November 27 - 7 p.m.
City of Woodland
Council Chambers
230 Davidson Avenue
Woodland, WA
Wednesday, November 28 - 7 p.m.
Hazel Dell Elementary
Commons Room
511 NE Anderson Road
Vancouver, WA
Ecology is responsible for developing rules to manage existing water resources to meet the current needs of people, farms and fish while planning for future needs.
This is typically accomplished through establishing "instream flows" for rivers and tributaries in the watershed. An instream flow is the stream flows needed in the river at certain times of the year to protect and preserve wildlife, fish, scenic, aesthetic and other environmental and navigational values.
Other strategies include closing water sources to new appropriation, reserving water volumes for projected growth and designing a strategy for the development of future water supply.
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Media Contact: Kim Schmanke, 360-407-6239 or kisc461@ecy.wa.gov
For more information about WRIA 27 and 28 proposed rules: http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/instream-flows/lewis_salmon_washougal.html
Copyright © Washington State Department of Ecology. See http://www.ecy.wa.gov/copyright.html.
