Wenatchee World Article : PUD looks to raise fish in Lake Wenatchee pens

Hi again-
Below is a copy of an email I sent this morning to our Chelan County
Commissioners and the Chelan PUD Commissioners. I encourage you to send
your comments to them and please post your comments on this website also.
This is an important issue for all of us here at the lake.

If you have not posted a comment on the website before you must do a brief
registration which is designed to keep anyone else from posting comments
using your name. Just read down or scroll down to the bottom of this article to where it says "comments".  Click on "Comments". That will bring up a screen showing any comments that have been posted thus far. At the bottom of those comments or screen there will be a place to click that says something like "Post a Comment". Click on there. That will bring up a screen that has a place for you to insert a username and a password. You can use any user name you wish and any password you wish.. Once you
enter those there will be something down there to click on to submit the user name and password. You have to do this only once- then whenever you want to post a comment you are already "registered".

George

Chelan County PUD Commissioners:
Randy Smith r.smith@chelanpud.org
Werner Janssen: werner.janssen@chelanpud.org
Dennis Bolz: dennis.bolz@chelanpud.org
Ann Congdon ann.congdon@chelanpud.org
Norm Gutzwilere norm.gutzwiler@chelanpud.org

Chelan County Commissioners:
Keith Goehner Keith.Goehner@co.chelan.wa.us
Buell Hawkins Buell.Hawkins@co.chelan.wa.us
Ron Walter Ron.Walter@co.chelan.wa.us

Good morning-

I was surprised to read in the Wenatchee World of Feb 21 of a hearing held
on Feb 20 concerning Grant County PUD’s use of Chelan PUD’s fish pens in

Lake Wenatchee.

I have received some calls already from other residents at the lake that
feel we were blindsided on this hearing and I agree with them. I have
attended every one of the meetings held to discuss the Grant County projects
on the White River and Nason Creek and have always received notification of
meetings from their "facilitator" so am obviously on their email
distribution for these matters. I heard nothing. If there was any public
announcement of this hearing it was woefully inadequate. The comment in the
World article that no one spoke against the PUD use of these pens is
particularly offensive to me because it creates the impression that there is
no opposition. I assure you that is not the case.

There are so many questions concerning this issue and process that I really
don’t know where to begin.

1. Mr Langshaw of Grant PUD is quoted in the article as saying that
this project would dump only 15 pounds of phosphorous into the lake over a
six-to-eight week period but that an estimated 45 pounds of phosphorous is
put into the lake from elsewhere on a daily basis. If they have that kind of
data available we would surely like to see it and ask them where that
phosphorous is coming from since they seem to know much about it. Is there
not fish excrement going into the lake to consider in addition to
phosphorous?

2. Why is the Chelan County Building Department alone passing on this
project? Are the Departments of Ecology or Fisheries or the Chelan/Douglas
Health District not involved where water quality is at risk? Many homes on
this lake still draw their drinking water from the lake which does not seem
to be a concern to anyone reviewing these projects. The agencies that should
be involved all seem to take a hands-off "it’s someone else’s job" attitude
when dealing with projects like this that can affect the whole lake but a
citizen cannot build a simple little floating dock up here without a myriad
of expensive permits and stipulations as to grated decks, white finishings,
etc. Docks do not put one once of phosphorous into the lake but it is
Fisheries that reviews those dock applications. How do we reconcile the lack
of consistency in the attitudes taken by these different agencies?

3. Has our own Chelan County PUD approved this expanded use of their
pens without any public process? We were aware that Grant PUD had used the
pens one year but I assume that if this is going through a permitting
process that it is anticipated this will be a continuing program. Our PUD is
certainly aware of the water quality issue at Lake Wenatchee and to sign off
on this wish list of Grant County PUD without input from their own
ratepayers and area residents is insulting. I had contacted PUD about
participating in a water-quality testing program here after I was contacted
by Department of Ecology and frankly got pretty much a cold shoulder until
DOE informed our PUD of some issues then all of a sudden PUD was all for
additional water quality monitoring. So let’s have that done before this
expanded fish pen program is imposed on us. A number of residents at the
lake have volunteered to assist in a DOE-sponsored water-quality testing
program.

4. When the PUD wanted to build the wastewater system at Lake Wenatchee
they had all kinds of data showing the lake to be deteriorating. Since then
the cost of this system to users has increased far beyond what we were told
it would be and now when we question if the system is cleaning up the lake
like it was supposed to we are told PUD has no data one way or the other.
Again, let’s find out why the lake is deteriorating before expanded use of
the fish pens is permitted. To do otherwise in my thinking would be
foolishness.

I was not initially opposed to the White River project by Grant County until
I went to the meetings they held and became increasingly and adamantly
convinced that the project could not succeed and yet the advocates of the
project repeatedly and absolutely refused to approve an independent
scientific review of the project to determine it’s merit. This was a project
that Grant County had to do in it’s re-licensing process and I truly believe
they knew it couldn’t work but really didn’t care- they had to spend a
gazillion dollars so they could say "we tried" on their re-permitting
application. That project was being pushed down our throats and I believe
this fish pen project is also.

Why in the world would Chelan County or our Chelan PUD approve this expanded
use of the Lake Wenatchee fish pens before the water quality issues are
resolved? Everyone says they don’t know where the pollutants in this lake
are coming from so why approve a project like this before you know? There is
a lot at stake here, and I can assure you that Lake residents are going to
be very attentive to the course taken here. I ask each of you to come up
here and take a look at this lake after the ice moves out. The crud on the
lakebottom rocks looks like beards growing on them. We used to look at the
lakebottom and see a beautiful pattern of multi-colored rocks. All we see
now is green slime. Please don’t abandon your role as our defenders in this
issue by allowing this project to go forward without first resolving the
question of where this stuff is coming from.

Respectfully submitted,

George Wilson

Lake Wenatchee

There will be another public information meeting this Thursday evening to discuss the Grant County PUD proposal to place hatcheries on Nason Creek and the White River in their effort to promote the recovery of spring chinook.

The meeting will takeplace at 6:30 PM Thursday, May 17th, at the Lake Wenatchee Rec Club at the airstrip, 14400 Chiwawa Loop Road.

Please try to attend if you can- this proposal has a worthy goal but has many people concerned also for the impact on the River and Nason Creek.

George

Hi George:

Wondered if you, and all of your emailees, are aware of the meeting arranged by the Department of Ecology regarding the proposed Wenatchee River Basin instream flow rule amendment. It will be held at 7 p.m. tonight (Tuesday) at the Plain church. They encourage comments from the public.

Maybe see you there??

Take care,

Rachel

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