WHEREAS, the City of Seattle is committed to helping the region restore healthy salmon runs; and

WHEREAS, the City of Seattle is accountable for supplying water to approximately 1.3 million people in the greater Seattle metropolitan area; and

WHEREAS, as elected officials, we are accountable to our citizens to manage our fiscal and natural resources prudently; and

WHEREAS, Seattle participates in a variety of regional decisionmaking forums relating to water supply, water quality, wastewater, land use, and salmon restoration; and

WHEREAS, it will be helpful to establish guiding principles to govern our involvement in these forums; and

WHEREAS, the City has already made a number of formal policy commitments in these regional forums; and

WHEREAS, legislative proposals are being considered at the state and federal level relating to water supply, water quality, wastewater, land use and salmon restoration.

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEATTLE, THE MAYOR CONCURRING, THAT:

Section A. Values and Principles. The City of Seattle hereby affirms the following values and principles that will guide our participation in regional decision-making related to salmon recovery, water resource, and land use planning:

1) Restore fish runs. The City's goal is to restore healthy, sustainable salmon runs in Puget Sound, consistent with the policies set forth below.

2) Maintain healthy ecosystems. Salmon recovery challenges human institutions to address the health of entire ecosystems. A successful recovery effort, therefore, involves multiple objectives related to habitat quality and quantity, land use, and human infrastructure.

3) Assure water supply for people. As water supplier for a significant portion of the metropolitan area, it is essential that the City maintain its high quality, reliable water supply for people.

4) Provide certainty for water supply operations. As the region continues to grow, it will be critical to maintain or enhance the firm yield of the region's water supply system, as necessary to serve growth.

5) Use water efficiently. The City is committed to using water efficiently through conjunctive management so that water is optimally available for both fish and people. We also strongly support using water efficiently through implementation of conservation programs.

6) Use land efficiently. A key role for cities to play in salmon recovery is to absorb growth gracefully. Consistent with the Growth Management Act, the City is committed to working with our regional partners to promote an effective growth management strategy that prevents sprawl, preserves sensitive rural resource lands, and makes cities healthy, vibrant, attractive places to live.

7) Growth pays for growth. In order to implement an effective growth management strategy, we must ensure that development in new areas pays for its share of necessary infrastructure and environmental mitigation. We must also ensure that central city living remains affordable and that there are adequate incentives to promote urban infill development.

8) Support high value Endangered Species Act (ESA) investments. Given the magnitude of the salmon crisis, and other important goals of the City, we will ensure that our citizen dollars are spent on recovery actions that are science-based and provide clear benefits for salmon.

9) Preserve capacity to fund essential services. While evaluating our financial commitment to salmon recovery, we will not compromise the City's capacity to fund essential services. Seattle citizens and businesses should not have to pay more than their share of the costs of regional salmon recovery.

10) Support collaborative solutions. Successful salmon recovery will require collaborative solutions among governmental and private entities throughout the watersheds that salmon depend on for various stages of their life cycles. The City is committed to continuing to work as partners with other public and private entities to accomplish our salmon restoration goals.

11) Maintain our autonomy. While working toward collaborative solutions, we must also preserve our ability to manage the City's own assets and systems.

12) Honor our inter-jurisdictional commitments. As part of our regional decision-making processes, the City has made some significant policy commitments (see Attachment #1). As we move forward and face new decisions and challenges, the City should honor these commitments and use them as building blocks for future policy discussions.

13) Seattle is committed to leadership. Seattle will demonstrate leadership in responding to the proposed listing of Puget Sound Chinook salmon. The City should commit to a package of shortterm, concrete actions that can be undertaken while a larger, long-term regional plan is being developed.

Section B. Existing Commitments. In order to honor our interjurisdictional commitments, it is important to be explicit about the commitments the City has made to date. A document attached to this resolution summarizes the commitments that have been made related to the Regional Wastewater Services Plan, the Regional Needs Assessment, the Cascade Water Alliance, the Central Puget Sound Water Suppliers Forum, the Growth Management Planning Council, the Tri-County ESA Steering Committee and Assembly, and the Watershed Steering Committees (Attachment #1).

Section C. City Representatives to Regional Forums. A list of City representatives to the regional water, salmon restoration and growth management forums is attached (Attachment #2).

Adopted by the City Council the _____ day of _______________, 1999, and signed by me in open session in authentication of its adoption this _____ day of _______________, 1999. ________________________________________ President of the City Council

THE MAYOR CONCURRING: ________________________________________ Paul Schell, Mayor

Filed by me this _____ day of _______________, 1999. ________________________________________ City Clerk

ATTACHMENT #1

Status of City Commitments and Positions in Regional Water and Salmon Forums as of January 21, 1999

Regional Water Quality Committee- Regional Wastewater Services Plan.

Seattle supports the development of a third wastewater treatment plant. We agree to a funding strategy that charges the costs of new capacity to new development and removes the "combined sewer overflow (CSO) benefit charge" that was assessed against Seattle.

We will support efforts in Olympia to change the existing statutory restrictions on King County Metro's capacity charge. For purposes of compromise, we gave up insistence on a two-tier charge that would differentiate between the lower costs of infill development and the higher costs of system extensions. We worked to accelerate the schedule for King County Metro to complete its CSO control obligations. We agreed to completing all CSO projects by 2030, but will review the schedule when the Five-Year CSO Program Review is submitted to the Regional Water Quality Committee. We support Metro's commitment to wastewater reuse so long as Metro wholesales its water and does not become a retail supplier.

Regional Needs Assessment (RNA)

Through participation in a set of inter-governmental "forums" in the Cedar/Lake Washington watershed, the Green/Duwamish watershed and the Central Puget Sound drainage area, Seattle agreed to a set of principles for identifying and prioritizing capital projects of regional significance for flood control, fish protection, and water quality. We assisted in funding a number of such projects through interlocal agreements and/or leveraging federal dollars. The forums identified $250 million of priority projects for which we agreed to seek a funding source or sources in the first ten years. We agreed that King County would be likely manager of the fund.

The RNA process addressed prioritization and funding options for a set of capital projects. In agreeing to this list of projects and funding strategies, Seattle and the suburban cities do not support creating a new layer of government which would provide services or impose regulatory authority. Through the RNA process, Seattle and suburban cities do not favor delegation of Clean Water Act regulatory authority to King County, nor has there been any agreement on a new governance structure.

Cascade Water Alliance

Eight years ago, Seattle entered into discussions with its water purveyors designed to give them "a voice and a vote" in new water supply development. Seattle supports the outcome of that process, which was an agreement negotiated by the purveyors creating a new entity to buy water at wholesale from Seattle and develop additional sources as needed. Seattle is committed to the successful formation and autonomy of the Cascade Water Alliance (CWA) as a new water supply entity. The agreement requires CWA to implement a base conservation program and includes incentives for CWA to conserve sufficient quantities to avoid supply shortages. We encourage CWA and its members to consider including even stronger conservation measures in their water supply plans.

Seattle has negotiated an agreement with Tacoma for an intertie and a share in the Tacoma Green River supply with Lakehaven and other south King County water districts. Seattle and Cascade Water Alliance agree that this will be the next major water supply resource for our service area.

Seattle has informed purveyors that we will not renew their existing contracts in their present form when they expire in 2012. The expectation is that the individual contracts will be replaced by the CWA contract.

Central Puget Sound Water Suppliers Forum

Seattle supports the Central Puget Sound Water Partnership for Fish and People (CPS Partnership) for integrated water supply planning and management. Individual water suppliers in the greater Seattle-Everett-Tacoma metropolitan area already manage systems that move water across jurisdictional and watershed boundaries. To move forward with truly integrated water supply planning will, therefore, require a coalition of utilities not limited to one county. The Central Puget Sound Water Suppliers Forum provides for appropriate integrated water supply planning.

Flexibility to provide flows for fish as well as for the metropolitan population and economy requires changes in the state's water rights laws. We support legislation to facilitate environmentally-beneficial water transfers within the metropolitan area.

We believe collaborative planning and interlocal agreements are the best strategy for implementing a regional "grid" that makes water optimally available for fish and for people. We insist on significant commitments to conservation as a core principle of inter-jurisdictional water resource planning.

Growth Management Planning Council (GMPC)

Seattle supports managed growth and supports County Comprehensive Plan policies to control sprawl. We support policies that strengthen the core cities of the region by improving the quality of urban life, reinvesting regional dollars in urban centers, and reducing the costs of infill. Water supply and delivery development should be timed to meet the needs of growing communities within the urban growth area. Permit agencies should recognize that major water supply infrastructure serving multiple jurisdictions constitutes "capital facilities of regional significance" for growth management purposes. Seattle supports the CPS Water Partnership proposal of the Water Suppliers Forum as a means to respond efficiently to growth under the Growth Management Act. Seattle Public Utilities, Cascade Water Alliance, and other suppliers in King County will provide the GMPC with information needed to incorporate water supply data into the County Comprehensive Plan.

Tri-County ESA Steering Committee and Assembly

Seattle and King County have agreed that King County will be the lead agency for ESA response and Seattle will be the lead agency in water supply matters. King County, Pierce County and Snohomish County have convened the Tri-County Assembly to develop a Central Puget Sound response to the listing of Puget Sound Chinook. Seattle supports the Tri-County process, contributes staff resources to the multiple work groups, and is contributing funding for a public outreach program to educate citizens about the Chinook listing and how the Tri-County region is responding.

We have agreed that the Tri-County group is not a governance structure or a legal entity but is a convening forum. Local jurisdictions, property owners, port districts, etc. will ultimately be accountable. The Tri-County group negotiates work plans, shares a public outreach program, funds joint studies, and agrees on the distribution of state or federal salmon funding.

We support the Tri-County focus on habitat improvements as our primary fish recovery strategy, but we will continue to call for better fish harvest management as well.

Watershed Steering Committees

The state has organized salmon recovery and water resource planning on a watershed basis. Central Puget Sound Watershed Resource Inventory Areas (WRIAs) in which Seattle has an interest include WRIA 9 (Green/Duwamish), WRIA 8 (Cedar/Sammamish), and WRIA 7 (Snohomish/Tolt). Seattle also has a significant interest and ownership in the Skagit River system (WRIAs 3 and 4). Seattle is an active participant and contributes staff time and project funding in each of these WRIA planning efforts.

Much is known about these watersheds and the conditions that impact fish. We support identification of high value/high productivity investments that will provide real benefits for fish. We don't want our citizens' dollars diverted to unnecessary research or costly projects for marginal results. Seattle supports early commitments through interlocal agreements to fund fish improvements that have sound scientific support. The Cedar River Watershed Habitat Conservation Plan is one of our early commitments.

While stream flows for fish need to be determined in each watershed, municipal water supply decisions will be made across watersheds so that stored water can be delivered where it is needed to meet fish flows and serve urban populations.

ATTACHMENT #2

City Representatives to Regional Water, Salmon and Growth Management Forums

FISH WRIA 7 (Snohomish) Pageler WRIA 8 (Cedar/Sammamish) Pageler WRIA 9 (Green/Duwamish) Drago Tri-County ESA Executive Committee Pageler/ Schell Regional Needs Assessment (RNA) Pageler

WATER SUPPLY Central Puget Sound Water Suppliers Forum SPU Director (Diana Gale) Cascade Water Alliance No City Officials--purveyors only

FLOOD/STORMWATER Regional Needs Assessment (RNA) Pageler Regional Water Quality Committee (RWQC) Pageler/Conlin

WASTEWATER Regional Water Quality Committee (RWQC) Pageler/Conlin

GROWTH MANAGEMENT County Growth Management Planning Council Donaldson/Conlin/Schell Puget Sound Regional Council PSRC Executive Board Donaldson/ Drago/ McIver/Schell PSRC Growth Management Policy Board Pageler/Conlin 1/25/99 V # 5