Alan Fujishin via selfsupplied
Greetings Coordinating Committee Members,
A proposal is being developed this week to secure a grant from Oregon Health Authority's (OHA) Drinking Water Services Domestic Well Safety Program. Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District (LSWCD) and Lincoln County Environmental Health (LCEH) are partnering to submit the proposal. The broad purpose of the grant is to enhance domestic well stewardship through public engagement, education and outreach, and stakeholder collaboration.
The Self-Supplied Work Group has identified rural domestic water quality as a top priority for water planning in the area, and is pursuing a Learning and Action Plan around it. Work Group members have offered advisory perspectives during the pre-proposal. They would like to support this proposal with a Letter of Support to OHA (attached). This letter does not obligate the Self-Supplied Work Group or the Mid-Coast Water Planning Partnership, but rather states that the proposal is consistent with the Mission and Goals of the Work Group and MCWPP.
In order to associate this letter with the MCWPP letterhead, we would like the Coordinating Committe to review the Letter before making it available to OHA. In the spirit of consensus, if there are no objections or concerns I will allow the letter to be appended to the grant proposal.
Please respond by EOB Thursday, Nov. 29th so that we can present a timely determination to our Partners. I've attached a copy of the RFP and Proposal Draft for context. Questions welcome.
Many Thanks,
--Alan
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: According to the Oregon Water Resources Department, there are over 2,400 domestic water wells in Lincoln County and close to 5,000 across the MidCoast region. However, reliable information measuring drinking water quality is almost non-existent. What data exists for Lincoln County’s domestic wells is from required real estate transaction reports, which includes only 132 well reports from 1989-2017. This number reflects a mere 5% of all the wells local residents collect drinking water from. To fill this knowledge gap, Lincoln Soil and Water Conservation District (LSWCD) and Lincoln County Environmental Health (LCEH) will conduct extensive outreach throughout 2019, hosting a number of public events to teach workshops and collect water samples for further analysis by the District at no cost to the community. At these events, residents will learn about important best practices around well maintenance, health issues related to clean water, ask questions of local experts, and - later - receive laboratory results in digestible, plain language. Moreover these events are an excellent opportunity to connect residents to additional services based on local needs, overlapping partner programs, and available resources. LSWCD and LCEH will test domestic well water for the presence of arsenic, E.coli, coliform, and nitrates in order to build up a body of baseline data recording domestic well water quality for current and future use. These four common variables are commonly used to measure drinkability, impacts to human health, and provide insight if continued exploration of environmental pollutants is necessary.
With most domestic wells occurring outside of urbanized areas, this initiative works to educate the public, collect data, and understand drinking water quality for Lincoln County’s rural residents. All parties involved in this effort have a strong dedication to protecting the health and wellness of vulnerable people - particularly seniors, people with compromised immune systems, expecting mothers, young children, and traditionally marginalized populations. As compared to the State of Oregon as a whole, Lincoln County is home to an older average population with a higher percent of residents living below the poverty line, as well as lower median household incomes overall. This effort will positively impact the wellbeing of current and future County residents, opening up opportunities for inter-agency cooperation to engage and empower rural communities understand something important to us all - clean drinking water.
Adam Denlinger via selfsupplied
Greetings Alan,
The purpose of the Drinking Water Services Domestic Well Safety Program seems to align with the mission of the WPP and provides a component of public outreach and education centered around water.
For this reason I would like to extend my vote in favor of providing the support letter as presented.
Thanks for your leadership and taking the lead on this item.
Cheers
Adam
Adam Denlinger, General Manager, Seal Rock Water District
PO Box 190
|
1037 NW Grebe Street
|Seal Rock OR. 97376
O: 541.563.3529
| F: 541.563.4246
| M: 541.270.0183
adenl...@srwd.org
|
www.srwd.org
|
www.midcoastwaterpartners.com
Seal Rock Water District strives to be a high performance organization that provides exceptional customer service,
promoting healthy lifestyles, enriching Seal Rocks unique character at responsible rates.
PUBLIC RECORDS LAW DISCLOSURE: This e-mail is subject to the State Records Retention Schedule and may be made available to the public. CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE: This message is intended solely for the use of the individual and entity to whom it is addressed,
and may contain information that is privileged, confidential, and exempt from disclosure under applicable state and federal laws. If you are not the addressee, or are not authorized to receive information for the intended addressee, you are hereby notified
that you may not use, copy, distribute, or disclose to anyone this message or the information contained herein. If you have received this message in error, please advise the sender immediately by reply email and expunge this message.
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
Alan Fujishin via selfsupplied
Emily-Bell Dinan via selfsupplied
penelope kaczmarek via selfsupplied
_______________________________________________
selfsupplied mailing list
selfsu...@midcoastwaterpartners.com
http://midcoastwaterpartners.com/mailman/listinfo/selfsupplied_midcoastwaterpartners.com