Resolution 7629 - Laserfiche WebLink

Executive Summary In January 2018, the Washington State Legislature passed the Streamfiow Restoration law (RCW 90.94). The law clarifies how local governments issue building permits for homes intending to use a permit-exempt (PE) well for their domestic water supply and requires local watershed planning in 15 water resource inventory areas (WRIAs), including the Snohomish (WRIA 7). The law directs the Department of Ecology to lead Watershed Restoration and Enhancement Committees to develop Watershed Restoration and Enhancement Plans (watershed plans). Watershed plans must estimate the potential consumptive impacts of new permit-exempt domestic groundwater withdrawals on instream flows over 20 years (2018-2038), identify projects and actions to offset those impacts, and provide a net ecological benefit (NEB) to the WRIA. This Watershed Restoration and Enhancement Plan meets the requirements of the law. The Department of Ecology (Ecology) established the Snohomish (WRIA 7) Watershed Restoration and Enhancement Committee (Committee) in October 2018 and invited tribal governments, county governments, city governments, Department of Fish and Wildlife,the largest non- municipal water purveyor, and interest groups. The WRIA 7 Committee met for over two years to develop a watershed plan. Ecology also issued Final Guidance on Determining Net Ecological Benefit (Final NEB Guidance) (Ecology 2019)to ensure consistency, conformity with state law, and transparency in implementing RCW 90.94. The Final NEB Guidance describes the minimum planning requirements: include clear and Systematic Logic, delineate Subbasins, estimate new consumptive water use, evaluate impacts of new consumptive water use, and describe and evaluate projects and actions for their offset potential. The WRIA 7 Committee divided the watershed into 16 subbasins, as shown in Figure ES.1.The Committee projects that a total of 3,389 new PE wells will be installed within WRIA 7 during the 20-year planning horizon. The Committee used this 20-year PE well projection to estimate 797.4 acre-feet per year (AFY) (1.1 cubic feet per second) of new consumptive water use in WRIA 7 that this watershed plan must address and offset. The watershed plan includes six water rights acquisitions projects,two lake level management projects, one streamflow augmentation project, one managed aquifer recharge project, and one surface water storage project to offset consumptive use. If implemented, these 11 water offset projects will provide an estimated offset of 1,373.4 AFY. A total of 27 habitat projects are included in the plan. Ecological benefits associated with these projects vary and include floodplain restoration, wetland reconnection, availability of off-channel habitat for juvenile salmonids, reduction of peak flow during storm events, increase in groundwater levels and baseflow, and increase in channel complexity. The ecological and streamflow benefits from the project portfolio in this plan contribute to achieving NEB. WRIA 7—Snohomish Watershed Final Draft Plan Page 7 January 2021