SAN JOAQUIN RIVER Dissolved Oxygen Total Maximum Daily Load Stakeholder Process

San Joaquin River Dissolved Oxygen TMDL 
Steering Committee Meeting Notes - Draft 1
November 17, 1999

Attending: Doug Brewer (JSA), Chris Barker (Stockton Public Works), Al
Brizard (Farm Bureau),  Doug Caulkins (Stockton MUD), Carl Chen (Systech),
John Fleming (technical advisor to Western United Dairymen), Chris Foe
(CVRWQCB), John Herrick (SDWA), Mary Hildebrand (SJFB), Jay Jahangiri (Port
of Stockton), Vance Kennedy (Farm Bureau), G. Fred Lee (advisor to
DeltaKeeper), Peggy Lehman (DWR), Dan Madden (City of Turlock), Paul Martin
(Western United Dairymen), Frank Motzkus (Tracy), Bob Murdoch (Stockton),
Garner Reynolds (Modesto), Mike Schafer (Lodi), Wayne Smith (Stockton
Public Works), Jeanette Thomas (SEWD ), Alice Tulloch (citizen), Walt Ward
(Modesto ID), Kevin Wolf (facilitation and notes), Wayne Zipser (Farm Bureau) 

Next Meetings:
Executive Committee - December 1, 1999  1:30 - 3:30 pm,  2500 Navy Drive,
Stockton

Steering Committee  - December 15, 1999, 9 am - 12:30 pm,  2500 Navy Drive,
Stockton 

Technical Committee - November 30,  9 am  - 12:00 pm,  2600 V Street.
Sacramento
- December 13, 9 am - 4 pm, 2600 V Street, Sacramento

Funding Committee - To be decided at December 1 Executive Committee meeting

Central Valley RWQCB Review of Stakeholder Progress - December 10,  901 P
Street Sacramento (The specific time the Board will discuss this issue will
be available when the Board finalizes its agenda in November. Note:  It is
still unsure whether this meeting will occur because of a possible lack of
a quorum.)

A. Agricultural Outreach Update
1. On November 8, a meeting was held in Modesto to update the agricultural
community on the stakeholder process.  About 15 people attended.  Doug
Brewer and Chris Foe provided technical expertise.  Ronda Lucas and the
Farm Bureau assisted in hosting the meeting.  Many of the questions
participants raised, will be better answered after the rough-cut analysis
is complete.   

2. The Steering Committee decided to host at least two meetings in early
February to inform farmers, dairy owners and others in the agricultural
industry about the results of the rough-cut loading analysis.  The Steering
Committee will discuss the analysis at their January 19 meeting and will
provide direction on how to explain it to the public. It was suggested that
one ag meeting be on the east side of the San Joaquin River and the other
be on the west side.   The Farm Bureau representatives will decide exact
dates.  They will also select the locations for the briefings, and organize
the outreach effort.

3. Informational articles and educational material will be needed to help
explain the TMDL process to a broad agricultural audience.  Articles should
be written for the lay person to understand and could be published in
various farm-related magazines, newspapers and newsletters.   Good graphics
will help.  The Executive Committee will help determine who writes the
articles and organizes the other material needed for agricultural outreach
(and urban and industrial efforts as well).  Some sources of information
include:
a. The Executive Summary that Jones and Stokes wrote for their report for
the City of Stockton.
b. The article that G. Fred Lee is writing for the IEP newsletter.  (This
will likely be more technical than is desired, but will provide a good
synopsis of the work.)

4. Other agricultural groups should also be briefed after the rough-cut is
available.  Each group has its own unique concerns and issues and should be
prepared for accordingly. Ideally, an issues briefing should be provided to
the group before they hear about the rough-cut loading analysis in
February..  The groups that were identified include:
a. The League of California Food Processors
b. The California Dairy Creamery Operators

5. John Fleming reported that the dairy industry is proactively educating
their members about the importance of this TMDL process and ensuring that
their operations are environmentally sound.  There are other serious, more
pressing issuesthat are competing for the industry's attention so it is
unlikely that they will give the D.O. process the time they would like.

B. Urban Outreach
1. Phase II of the EPA Stormwater Rules is now published on the Web and
will begin to affect smaller communities soon.  For more information about
this, contact G. Fred Lee (gfredlee@aol.com) who publishes updates on this
type of information. The importance of outreach to this sector of the urban
community will be easier to assess after the impact of stormwater (and dry
season) urban runoff is more clearly understood. 

2. Chris Foe reported that the Regional Board is slowing down and holding
up permit requests for adding load to the system and will likely continue
to do so until after this stakeholder process is complete and the load
allocation and implementation plan prepared.  The Regional Board wants to
empower the stakeholder process.  (Chris, is this the correct way to state
this?)

3. Layperson oriented material also needs to be developed for the urban
community.  Many of the issues with agricultural outreach apply here, as do
the solutions.  These include the need for good graphical representations
of the issues, information packets organized for specific urban audiences,
help from JSA in developing this material, and more.  One of the questions
that this material should answer is "What is happening with the science?
What does the science tell us and how confident can we be in it?  What are
the areas of agreement and what is still debated?"  The Executive Committee
will address how to advance this at a future meeting.

4. The Urban Outreach effort should include educating others including:
a. Industrial associations
b. Manufacturers councils including the San Joaquin County Manufacturing
and Industrial Roundtable
c. Port of Stockton associations

5. The City of Stockton has hired consultant Judith Buethe to assist in
developing and implementing the outreach program to urban and industrial
stakeholders and the general public.  Judith will be part of Kevin Wolf's
contract as stakeholder facilitator and coordinator.

6. Steering Committee members who represent cities should contact Bob
Murdoch about how they would like assistance in presenting information
about the stakeholder process to their city councils and managers.  A key
objective in this outreach effort is to gain their financial and in-kind
support for different aspects of the TMDL.  Many cities are developing
their 2000-2001 budgets now. All city representatives reported progress
being made in gaining support for the TMDL process. 

7. Outreach to the industrial community is a subset of Urban Outreach.
Educational material will build off of this base but provide more
specialized information of interest to these stakeholders.  Judith will be
assisting in this area.   

8. The Port of Stockton has invited the stakeholders to provide a one-hour
presentation at their next multimedia workshops on December 2 and 3.
(Note: Jay Jahangiri has sent an invitation with more information to the
sjr-tmdl list.)  It is not clear who will be there from the stakeholders.
Jay will work with Bob Murdoch on this.
 
C. Environmental Outreach
1. Kevin Wolf provided an update on the environmental community's
discussions on the Dissolved Oxygen TMDL stakeholder process.  A number of
EWC groups have signed on to a letter to the Regional Board that "opposes
any Regional Board proposals that would, in effect, consign the technical
portion of TMDL development to a stakeholder group  The letter stated their
support for involving stakeholders in   "determining a fair allocation and
implementation scheme for the technically-derived allowable load." ."
(This letter was sent to the sjr-tmdl list. If you would like a copy,
please contact Kevin.)

2. Kevin reported that Bill Jennings told him that DeltaKeeper is still
willing to participate in the stakeholder process but will not be able to
do so without financial help.  Bill reads the email and keeps up with the
technical process through the email and Dr. Lee. 

3.  Stakeholders reviewed a list of environmental organizations that would
be added to the mailing list for sending agendas and meeting notes.  A
number of participants noted that local environmental groups (e.g. local
Audubon chapter) were missing.  Bob Murdoch asked anyone with local
environmental groups contacts to pass them on to him.  He will add them to
the mailing list.  

4. Environmental groups might be willing to write letters of support to
help find the funding needed for the science involved in developing the
load allocation and implementation plan even though they oppose stakeholder
involvement with the scientific process.  It was suggested that a request
along this line be included in the outgoing letter to the environmental
groups.  

D. Funding Committee
1. Nominations for membership on the Funding Committee include:
a. John Pulver - San Joaquin County
b. Farm Bureau - ask Ronda Lucas for a recommendation
c. Paul Marshall - CalFed
d. Bill Jennings - Delta Keeper
e. Additional nominations are being sought.  The committee members do not
have to be skilled at writing proposals nor have the time to do this work.
They should have connections, political sense and a willingness to help. 

2. The Funding Committee would be tasked with the following:
a. Clarifying the budget including expenses for different projects and line
items including additional scientific research for the load allocation and
for the implementation plan.
b. Identifying and prioritizing possible income sources
c. Creating planning documents and proposals needed to pursue the funding
options
d. Working with a consultant or in-kind stakeholder staff to help
accomplish this. 

E. CalFed Grant Funding Issues
1. The Interior Secretary has signed to release the federal portion of the
grant but the USBR is backlogged with end of the fiscal year projects and
has not processed the material so that it can be sent to DWR for their
approval and signature.   This is expected to happen soon. 

2. Once DWR has the work plans and subcontractor contracts in hand, it
takes them 3-4 months to fully process this information and for work to
begin.  Since some work will need to start in June, the Technical Committee
hopes to have the contractor work plans and budgets completed in February
or by mid-March at the latest. 

3. The CalFed grant includes a requirement that an outside Peer Review of
the work plans and overall strategy be completed before the project begins
which means peer review must occur no later than early March.  Chris Foe
will collect nominations for experts who could be on the peer review panel.
Nominations will be reviewed by the technical and steering committee.
(Implementation studies and Year 2 monitoring and research for the loading
analysis will also go through a peer review process.) 

4. The Steering Committee approved the following allocations of funds from
the Reimbursable Budget:
a. Peer Review - $10,000
b. Literature and Data Review (JSA) - $22,000
c. DWR Assistant - $12,000

5. The Technical Committee still is debating whether to allocate funds to
pay for Ed Dammel to help with a temperature analysis.  It will make this
decision at the November 30 Technical Committee meeting.  

6. The Steering Committee approved allocating funds out of the Reimbursable
Budget to be spent on computer modeling work that needs to be completed
before the next meeting on December 15.  The Steering Committee voted to
allow a subcommittee made up of Peggy Lehman, Fred Lee, Chris Foe and Carl
Chen to determine how much this should be.  (The meeting occurred
immediately after the Steering Committee meeting and all participants were
invited to participate.)  Additional computer modeling costs that can wait
until after December 15 should be presented at that time to the Steering
Committee for approval. The Technical Committee will evaluate any
additional funding proposals on their November 30 meeting and will make a
recommendation to the Steering Committee in a timely manner.  

7. Cal Fed (and other potential funders) needs support letters from a broad
alliance of urban, agricultural and environmental organizations.  The more
support, the more likely our project will be funded.  

F. Miscellaneous Issues
1. The CalFed Drinking Water work group has significant areas of overlap
with us in the monitoring and research they need for their efforts.  Dr.
Lee attended one of their recent meetings and provided information about
the monitoring and research we were pursuing.  There are a variety of
opportunities for synergy and coordination between the two groups.
Additional communication should occur between the two groups. 

2. The Regional Board would allow pollutant trading program to be
considered as part of the implementation plan.  It would be analyzed as
part of the comprehensive cost/benefit analysis of all implementation options.

3. The Steering Committee directed committees to send them detailed budgets
and work plans for consideration before a meeting is held to make final
decisions on these proposals.  The Steering Committee makes final decisions
on spending and policy issues and can halt a decision from a committee such
as the Technical Committee from being implemented.