Montana Drought Management Plan Update (MDMP): Working Group

MDMP Working Group

May 17, 2017

10:00 am

Mission: To help the State of Montana create a Drought Management Plan that reflects the interests and concerns of all water users.

MEETING MINUTES

  1. Attended: Stephen Begley (FWP), Eric Urban (DEQ).
  1. Welcome back and brief update. (10 minutes)
  2. Beglely indicated that he is in touch with Ryan Lee about the Vulnerability Assessment he also said that FWP things were looking up in terms of snowpack and stream flow forecasts.
  1. Discussion on Drought Mitigation (20 minutes)
  2. Dick Gooby did not attend so the discussion of drought mitigation measures for agriculture was tabled.
  1. Discussion on THIRA and Vulnerability Assessment (15 minutes)
  2. Begley indicated that he will add some Probable Impacts to the list started
  3. Tough to get numbers on big game economic impactsand outfitter fishing losses.
  4. Some ideas included license sales, costs per trip, how much of that percentage would be a loss without a real survey?
  5. FWP has some economic data on the econ impacts and may be able to offer some meaningful insights based on fishing closures.
  6. Some statements need to be corrected in the current THIRA – it may not be that wildlife hunting/feeding is a concern.
  7. Animals will concentrate on limited food and water sources.
  8. Ada will do more research on insurance claims for drought in Montana.
  9. Urban weighed in on water quality concerns. He explained that less water could lead to things like higher concentrations of arsenic (natural or otherwise) as well as salinity for example.
  10. Complicated to make an accurate statement for a specific area, though like the Upper Clark Fork, for example.
  11. Hard to make sweeping statements that cover the whole state too!
  12. Effluent discharges from municipalities – low flow scenarios are taken into account in permitting.
  13. 7Q10 – 7 day low flow that occurs on average every 10 years.
  14. Rolling average – tracks climate change an results in the same probability of occurring every year. But it is a compromise in terms of certainty. When and if rare events occur, there will be more algea and impacts to wildlife.
  15. Critical need is to define drought.
  1. Review feedback on Funding Strategies Research (15 minutes)
  2. Questions that came up after looking through the funding research provided included:
  3. Any other funding sources at the federal level?
  4. At the state level the following were identified:
  5. DEQ: SRF, WMP,
  6. Dept. of Commerce: Treasure State Endowment Program
  7. DNRC: RRGL, WMG
  8. FWP: Future Fisheries
  9. DES: FEMA
  10. Ag?
  11. Livestock?
  1. Discussion on Impact Report Survey. (10 minutes)
  2. Overview of survey and its purpose was provided
  3. No questions were raised. When the survey goes to a broader audience it will be further scrutinized.
  1. Closing remarks/suggestions/feedback from Working Group members (4 minutes)
  2. None

AS ALWAYS, THANK YOU VERY MUCH!