Watershed Management Plan - Mason County

Addressing Cumulative or Cross-Cutting Issues
Appendix
E
Appendix E. Addressing
Cumulative or Cross-Cutting
Issues
Impacts to WRIA 16’s water resources may have increased affects over
time, as individual practices may add up to create much bigger impacts.
Collecting and documenting information over time and seeking strategies to
take a “big picture” view of water resource planning address water resource
issues can both help measure progress and manage effectively.
Accordingly, the Planning Unit assembled the following options to address
cumulative or cross-cutting issues. Please note that the inclusion of an
option in this chapter does not necessarily indicate its endorsement or
recommendation by the Planning Unit. Rather, the Planning Unit strove to
include and consider a wide variety of options. As a result, any credible
option suggested in Planning Unit meetings was included in this plan for
consideration and evaluation.
Option 87.
Develop a list of environmental indicators and
issue a periodic report card
A wide variety of water resource and other environmental data have been
and will be collected in WRIA 16. By identifying and compiling some
useful environmental indicators, local planners could track local parameters
and issues over time and communicate those data to the public. Experience
in other areas indicates that indicators can be a powerful tool to inform the
public, document changes over time, and motivate action. A variety of
resources are available on the internet on how to develop successful
indicators. One particularly helpful resource is a guide produced by the
Sustainability Institute on attributes of successful indicators (Meadows,
1998). A natural partner for an environmental indicator effort would be
Mason Matters, a local group who has already created a water resources
report for Mason County (Mason Matters, 2004).
Option 88.
Coordinate with other jurisdictions to fully
implement WRIA and Nonpoint Source Pollution
plans
During the 1990s, watershed planning in the Puget Sound basin focused
primarily on water quality and nonpoint source pollution. At that time,
watershed planning was defined under the Puget Sound Water Quality
Management Plan and a supporting state regulation (Chapter 400-12 WAC).
In the lower Hood Canal area, this process was undertaken by the Lower
Hood Canal Watershed Implementation Committee, which produced the
Lower Hood Canal Watershed Action Plan. The Plan included a number of
Final Plan for County Adoption – May 11, 2006 page 143