Once again, next week’s Watershed Council meeting will have two parts. The first part will run from 8:30 to 9:50 am and will focus on water quality. We’ll debrief from the algae/nutrient TMDL CEQA scoping meeting, and start talking about the pumping/diversion impairment on the river. This impairment is on Reach 3 (Weldon Canyon to the confluence with Coyote Creek) and Reach 4 (Coyote Creek to Camino Cielo Road), and is apparently on the same ambitious timeline as the TMDL (!!). This later discussion will include a primer on water rights.
The second part of the meeting (again in a different room) is largely focused on our update to the countywide Integrated Regional Water Management Plan (IRWMP), including a very important discussion about climate change. Ann Hewitt, the consultant working on the climate change section of the IRWMP, will provide the group with some watershed-specific projections, and then lead a discussion about our specific vulnerabilities and concerns. I encourage you to take a look at some of the background information provided below and come prepared to weigh in on this (once again) very important topic.
At the meeting will also be addressing the overlap of the IRWMP update process with the development of our Ventura River watershed management plan; and we will start planning for the next round of Prop 84 implementation grant funding. And we’ll hear the latest from our two land conservancies.
See you there! Here is part of the agenda packet (more to come next week):
– Agenda
– Climate change background materials – how to get local projections from Cal-Adapt, IRWMP climate change requirements, recent local climate change workshop materials, The state’s climate change handbook for regional water planning.
Here is an example of data available from the Cal-Adapt climate change website:
