BILL REQ. #:  S-0759.1 

Read first time 01/21/2003.   Referred to Committee on Natural Resources, Energy & Water.

     AN ACT Relating to watershed health monitoring; adding a new section to chapter 77.85 RCW; and creating a new section.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 1   (1) The legislature finds that:
     (a) The state's independent science panel made several recommendations for improving the state's programs for monitoring salmonid recovery in a December 2000 report to the governor and the legislature;
     (b) Acting upon this report and other recommendations, the 2001 legislature created the monitoring oversight committee to develop recommendations for a comprehensive statewide strategy for monitoring watershed health, with a focus upon salmon recovery;
     (c) The 2001 legislation also directed the monitoring oversight committee to prepare an action plan to achieve implementation of a comprehensive strategy by 2007;
     (d) The monitoring oversight committee has carried out this work and delivered its report to the 2003 legislature, entitled The Washington Comprehensive Monitoring Strategy and Action Plan for Watershed Health and Salmon Recovery;
     (e) The monitoring oversight committee surveyed current state agency watershed health-related monitoring expenditures and found that approximately sixty-eight million dollars are expended on a biennial basis;
     (f) The state's current budget crisis will severely constrain the ability to make substantial progress in implementing some elements of the action plan to achieve a comprehensive statewide monitoring strategy, but that many elements of the action plan may be implemented by changing priorities in some existing monitoring expenditures in order to better achieve the greatest benefits for programs and activities for protecting and restoring watershed health and fish recovery, combined with allocating new resources to the key elements of the action plan; and
     (g) There is a need to continue the work of the monitoring oversight committee and to assign responsibility for overall coordination in implementation of the action plan.
     (2) Therefore, it is the purpose of this act to adopt the monitoring strategy and action plan referenced in subsection (1)(d) of this section and to charge the salmon recovery funding board with the ongoing responsibility to implement the strategy and action plan in cooperation with state agencies with monitoring responsibilities.

NEW SECTION.  Sec. 2   A new section is added to chapter 77.85 RCW to read as follows:
     (1) The salmon recovery funding board shall provide coordination among and oversight of state agencies in the implementation of the comprehensive statewide watershed health monitoring strategy and action plan developed under the authority of chapter 298, Laws of 2001. The salmon recovery funding board may periodically revise the strategy and action plan to reflect changes in funding availability, monitoring activities by state or nonstate agencies or entities, and other considerations relevant to achieving a comprehensive strategy. In implementing as well as revising the plan, the board shall periodically consult broadly with watershed health monitoring agencies and entities.
     (2) In carrying out its duties under this section, both the appointed and ex officio members of the salmon recovery funding board shall fully participate in board deliberations and decisions, including the right to vote on any matter that the chair determines should be decided by a vote of the board.
     (3) The salmon recovery funding board shall allocate funds appropriated by the legislature to the board for grants or other distribution to state agencies or other entities for the purposes of monitoring activities. In making such allocations, the board shall be generally guided by the action plan in The Washington Comprehensive Monitoring Strategy and Action Plan for Watershed Health and Salmon Recovery.
     (4) In addition to funding decisions regarding funds appropriated to the board, the board may make recommendations to state agencies for carrying out monitoring activities consistent with the strategy and action plan. Where the state agency declines to implement the recommendation wholly or substantially, the director of the agency shall explain such refusal in writing, including an identification of the funding, legal, or other constraints upon the agency to fully implement the recommendation.
     (5) At the end of each even-numbered year, the salmon recovery funding board shall report to the governor and the appropriate committees of the senate and house of representatives on its activities under this section and the progress of state agencies and other entities in implementing the monitoring strategy and action plan.