8A | WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 21, 2019 | SIUSLAW NEWS
DUNES CITY from page 1A velopment’s plat, stating
that the stormwater man-
Final approval on the proj- agement plan the planning
ect was postponed until the commission worked off of
commission could make looked “like it would work,”
some specific recommen- but had concerns that the
dations, and concerned submitted plat for the proj-
residents took the interim ect did not reflect the envi-
period to express further ronmental regulations.
concerns with the project to
“The plat map doesn’t
the council.
have anything like that,”
“The first thing I was he said. “It actually has a
concerned about is that, stormwater gully that runs
in the event that sediment from the cul-de-sac straight
is directly deposited in a down and connects up into
wetland, stream or lake, the the lake. There is no effort,
developer shall contact the at least in the plat map, to
city engineer and coordi- collect and seep that water.”
nate actions with the city,”
Mills later told the Siu-
resident Margie Kelly said. slaw News that while the
“This concerns me largely plat map may not include
because it seems we’re put- all needed changes, the
ting the fox in charge of court order that forces the
the hen house. How would developer to adhere to en-
we know or expect them vironmental regulations su-
to actually come forward? persede the plat.
It seems that perhaps we
“It’s not on the plat be-
could use an independent cause it’s on the court order,
inspector for oversight and we’re not going to sign
rather than relying on the off on the map until we’re
developer to just ‘do the satisfied that everything has
right thing.’”
been met. It doesn’t need
The council asked if to be on the plat map. The
Dunes City could test Little court order is referenced on
Woahink for quality; how- the plat map, that they have
ever, it is a privately-owned to do it in compliance,”
Mills said.
reservoir.
Finally, there were con-
“We would have to get
permission from the owner, cerns about the traffic that
and that’s the person who is additional homes could
building the subdivision,” bring to the area.
“We had a traffic study
Dunes City Administrator/
Recorder Jamie Mills said. that said there will be no
Mills did not rule out the significant impact other
possibility of working with than what would normally
the developer to test water occur with the growth of
quality, but also pointed out the community,” Mills told
that the health of the lake the Siuslaw News.
The Planning Commis-
should be the responsibility
of all those concerned with sion will again take up the
issue during a meeting to-
the health of the lake.
“The fact of the matter morrow night (Aug. 22) at
is, if someone sees direct 5 p.m. at Dunes City Hall.
Water issues again took
pollution, there’s a million
different avenues to report center stage later in the
that, including the Attorney meeting when discussions
General’s Office,” Mills told on how water quality for
the Siuslaw News. “They’ve Big Woahink and Siltcoos
got to remember that the Lakes are tested.
Traditionally, water qual-
developer has to comply
with state and federal law. ity testing had been done by
If they’re concerned that one group, but divisions in
the drainage storm system the group has led to a sug-
will dump into a spring, gestion that two separate
they need to realize the fed- testing groups be created
eral government requires — one for Woahink and an-
that sort of thing to go into other for Siltcoos. The dif-
the water system. That’s a ferences in testing the two
requirement they have to lakes vary, including who
meet. Anybody who drives actually does the testing.
“What we discovered is
down Canary Road and
sees silt coming into the that the people who live
lake can report it and bring around Siltcoos are young
it to somebody’s attention. families with children who
Everybody’s eyes are on work and aren’t available to
do testing in the middle of
this.”
Dunes City resident Aar- the week when it’s usually
on Bowen, who has been done, unlike Woahink resi-
vocal about the city’s need dents, who are mostly retir-
to regulate the water quality ees,” Mills said. “So, they’re
of the project, also brought finding that Siltcoos testing
up concerns about the de- should take place on the
weekend.”
Equipment is also an is-
sue, as the reading instru-
ments have to be thorough-
ly cleaned in between lake
tests to ensure that data is
not
cross-contaminated.
The process can be time
consuming.
Finally, there are differ-
ences in how thoroughly
the lakes are tested.
“Historically, we’ve tested
Woahink in about six dif-
ferent places every month,
and there’s only one place
in Siltcoos that was tested,”
Council President Sheldon
Meyer said. “And I think
that there’s probably been
some inaccuracy, because
where we’ve been testing on
Siltcoos is right where the
water from Woahink runs
into Siltcoos. So, all we’re
doing is retesting Woahink
water. And Woahink being
a much deeper lake with
more input, maybe doesn’t
need to be as thoroughly
tested as Siltcoos, which is
much shallower.”
Mills believes the city
could acquire unused
equipment from the Siuslaw
Watershed Council, which
would allow both Siltcoos
and Woahink testers to cre-
ate their own schedules.
“This might actually get
more volunteers to come
forth because they’re actu-
ally going to live on Siltcoos
Lake and want to make sure
that everything’s up to date
and tested in multiple plac-
es,” Councilor Duke Wells
said.
Water quality issues
dovetailed into the city’s
push to prevent residents
from feeding local deer.
“I received a call about a
dead deer in Woahink Lake
at the end of Woodland
Lane. I have no way to get
a deer out of the water,” said
Mills.
She had contacted state
officials, who stated that
animals dying in bodies of
water was natural, and there
was no need to remove the
deer, even though Woahink
is a drinking source. How-
ever, Woahink is not the
only place that local deer
have died recently.
“There have been several
deer deaths in the area that
cannot be attributed to mo-
tor vehicles or predators,”
reported Mills. “It’s import-
ant for residents to hear
that feeding deer carbohy-
drates such as corn or bread
can cause acidosis, which is
painful and deadly to deer.
We suspect that’s why the
one the deer in the water
died — because someone
fed it food that, quite frank-
ly, deer are not supposed to
eat.”
The city had recently
been given a photo of a man
feeding deer with a small
group of children. Soon af-
ter that incident, one of the
deer head-butted a vehicle
that was driving slowly in
an attempt to avoid hitting
the dear.
Mills stressed that Dunes
City did pass an ordinance
declaring feeding deer and
other wild animals to be a
misdemeanor.
“I want to get the word
out,” she said. “People may
think they’re helping and
being nice, but you’re likely
to cause them death.”
In other news from the
meeting, street mainte-
nance equipment issues
were at the heart of a pos-
sible
intergovernmental
agreement (IGA) that the
city could enter into with
Lane County.
“We all know we have
a wonderful public works
supervisor that does the
best he can,” Mills said.
“The equipment he has was
down and he was waiting
for parts. A lot of things
all of a sudden came up at
once. That’s how it works;
when the machine isn’t
working, you’re going to
need it. I had to do some-
thing, so I called the City of
Florence to come out and
take care of a particular is-
sue. For future issues, I talk-
ed to the county and they
have a regular IGA with a
lot of different cities in the
county. It doesn’t mean that
they will do it, or that it will
be my first place to go. It
just means that if there’s an
emergency, it’s there.”
The IGA would be on a
per-need basis and would
not cost the city an annu-
al fee. However, the rates
for help were not listed in
the IGA, and the council
postponed a decision until
actual fees could be deter-
mined.
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