East Canyon Watershed Committee
July 12, 2007
East Canyon Resort
Minutes
Attendees:
Dave Tripp – Committee Chair
Brendan Waterman – Watershed Coordinator
Steve Noyes – US Bureau of Reclamation
Derrick Radke – Summit County
Mike Luers – Snyderville Basin Water Reclamation District
Shannon Herstein – Bio-West
Kari Lundeen – Utah Department of Environmental Quality/Water Quality
Jack Wilbur – Utah Department of Agriculture and Food
Mary Perry – Friends of East Canyon Creek/ High Country Fly Fishers
Barbara Carey – Uinta Headwaters RC&D/ NRCS
Paul Dremann – Trout Unlimited
Scott Peterson – Weber Basin Water Conservancy District
Tom Kendrick – The Canyons Resort
Erin Spear – Swaner Nature Preserve
Kerry Goodrich – Natural Resources Conservation Service
Ann Price – Utah Department of Natural Resources/Forestry Fire and State Lands
Barbara Gardner - Utah Department of Natural Resources/Forestry Fire and State Lands
Brian Suhadole – Park City Mountain Resort
Lee Broadbent – East Canyon Watershed Committee/ MAOG
Lew Stringer – The Canyons Resort
Julie Howe – Stantec Consulting
Bruce Sanders – Morgan County
Tim Hagan – The Canyons Resort
Jeff Salt – Great Salt Lakekeeper
Kent Sorenson – Utah Department of Natural Resources/Wildlife Resources
Paul Burnett – Utah Department of Natural Resources/Wildlife Resources
Ray Loveless – Mountainland Association of Governments
-Dave Tripp called the meeting to order, thanked all for attending, and asked if there were any corrections or additions that needed to be made to the minutes from the April 12, 2007 meeting. The minutes were approved by the committee.
-Shannon Herstein updated the committee on the ongoing phosphorus monitoring project that Bio-West is completing for Summit County. The project involves sampling tributaries in the upper East Canyon watershed for total phosphorus and total suspended sediments. Bi-weekly sampling has been ongoing since March of 2007, with additional samples being collected during rain events. Automated sampling began in June and will continue throughout the summer. A final report should be available by the end of the year.
-Julie Howe from Stantec Consulting provided updates on both the congressional earmark funded NEPA analysis and the Phosphoric soils mapping project. The NEPA analysis is well underway. To date, the most time consuming component has been the cultural resource survey, which involves assessing any cultural resources located within the stream corridor. This survey must be completed on all parcels in order for them to become eligible for earmark funded restoration projects. Currently the survey work is approximately 1/3 completed with an anticipated completion date sometime in August. The full NEPA analysis should be completed by the end of the year at which point it will be made available for public comment. The phosphoric soils mapping is being conducted in order to determine background levels of phosphorus found in the Park City Formation. A final report with maps and GIS layers will be available by the end of the summer.
-Erin Spear updated the committee on current projects taking place at the Swaner Nature Preserve. A volunteer workforce planted approximately 1200 willow cuttings this spring, bringing the project total to 3000 cuttings planted in the last three years. In an effort to protect the restoration area, Swaner will be rerouting trails that currently lie within the riparian corridor. The new trails will have fencing installed to help discourage unauthorized access to the restoration area.
-Brendan Waterman provided an update on the education sub committee and the current information and education campaign. The education sub committee is following up on the findings of the 2006 survey of residents. Three areas have been identified for additional research and message testing before the committee launches a behavior change campaign in the watershed. The committee is looking at general NPS outreach, a dog owner behavior change campaign, and contractor BMP education. Focus group studies have been conducted for the dog owners and various print and radio media have been selected for use in the campaign. The respondents also indicated a need for additional “mutt mitt” disposal stations located on the East Canyon trail network. The full report from the study is available upon request. The education sub committee will be conducting two more focus group studies for the remaining targeted groups.
-Kari Lundeen further explained the current East Canyon Creek TMDL revision study. DWQ has been sampling the creek since 2000 and has found that water quality below the East Canyon Water Reclamation Facility has significantly improved. These improvements are believed to be the result of improved phosphorus treatment at the reclamation facility. Utah State University is conducting a nutrient cycling study in the watershed. The findings from this study along with water quantity and macrophyte growth will be incorporated into the revised TMDL document.
-Brendan Waterman informed the committee of other NPS projects not already mentioned during the meeting. Park City Municipal Corporation has continued their stream restoration efforts on McLeod Creek. A Conservation Corps work crew planted 400 riparian shrubs, installed 90 feet of brush revetment, and seeded 23 acres of riparian habitat at Park City’s CRP property on McLeod Creek.
-Dave Tripp expressed concern about the current state of stream flows in the upper watershed. A group discussion about the low flows followed. The USGS are currently recording stream flows that are 16-45% of historical flows. This is the result of a 200% over appropriation of the basin’s water and a severe drought this summer. The group discussed possible ways to help encourage water conservation and raise awareness to the current situation. One possible outreach tool suggested was the implementation of low-flow notification system that could be based off of the already established wild land fire danger system, assigning different color codes when stream flows were reach critical levels.
-The next watershed committee meeting was set for Thursday October 18, 2007. The meeting location will be determined in the coming months.
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