{"id":3663,"date":"2019-09-19T17:22:33","date_gmt":"2019-09-19T17:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/?page_id=3663"},"modified":"2019-10-22T21:02:47","modified_gmt":"2019-10-22T21:02:47","slug":"drought-contingency-plan","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/resource-management\/drought-contingency-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"Drought Contingency Plan"},"content":{"rendered":"

Whatcom County Drought Contingency Plan \u2013
\nBureau of Reclamation<\/strong><\/h4>\n

On behalf of water resource stakeholders, such as farmers, cities, Whatcom County government, water districts and associations, and others who wish to build resiliency to drought and climate change in Whatcom County, the PUD submitted an application for funding from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR) to assist in developing a Drought Contingency Plan for Whatcom County.\u00a0 Matching funds from the PUD was also used to support the grant.\u00a0 (Scroll down to view the Plan.)<\/p>\n

The\u00a0Bureau of Reclamation\u2019s Drought Response Program<\/a>,<\/strong>\u00a0provides assistance to states, local governments, and tribes to prepare for and address drought in advance of a crisis. \u00a0The Drought Response Program supports a proactive approach to drought by providing financial assistance to water managers to:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Develop and update comprehensive drought plans (Drought Contingency Planning);<\/li>\n
  2. Implement projects that will build long-term resiliency to drought (Drought Resiliency Projects); and,<\/li>\n
  3. Implement emergency response actions.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The project received local support from various entities including the Ag Water Board, Birch Bay Water and Sewer District, the City of Bellingham, the City of Lynden, the Lummi Nation, Washington State University Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Natural Resources, and the Whatcom County Executive Office.<\/p>\n

    To ensure broad involvement of local stakeholders, the PUD created the Drought Contingency Plan Task Force, comprised of representatives of various stakeholder groups covering the broad sectors of water uses and water users in the County.\u00a0 The Task Force met periodically and provided information to the PUD\u2019s consultant, RH2 Engineering, Inc., who was selected to assist the PUD with the plan.<\/p>\n

    As the DCP developed, the Task Force involved stakeholders with interests in both in-stream and out-of-stream water uses to ensure that the mitigation and response actions that are developed will address the broad range of anticipated drought impacts in the County.<\/p>\n

    Local Stakeholders invited to participate in the Task Force:
    \n<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

    Ag Water Board
    \nBirch Bay Water and Sewer District
    \nCity of Bellingham
    \nCity of Blaine
    \nCity of Ferndale
    \nCity of Lynden
    \nEnvironmental Caucus<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

    Forestry Caucus
    \nNooksack Indian Tribe
    \nLummi Indian Tribe
    \nPUD No. 1 of Whatcom County
    \nWA State Dept. of Fish and Wildlife
    \nWA State Dept. of Ecology
    \nWSU Extension<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

    Water Systems, Inc.
    \nWhatcom Conservation District
    \nWhatcom County Executive\u2019s Office
    \nWhatcom County Planning & Dev. Services
    \nWhatcom County Public Works<\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n

    The Bureau of Reclamation accepted the\u00a0Whatcom County Drought Contingency Plan<\/em> in September, 2019.\u00a0 By clicking on the PDF link below, the final, approved plan can be viewed or downloaded.<\/p>\n

    Whatcom County Drought Contingency Plan<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div><\/section><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":607,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3663"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3663"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/3663\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pudwhatcom.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3663"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}