ADMINISTRTIVE COMMITTEE
2.	CONSIDER APPROVAL OF MEMORANDUM OF AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE MONTEREY PENINSULA WATER MANAGEMENT DISTRICT AND THE CARMEL RIVER STEELHEAD ASSOCIATION
Meeting Date:		July 7, 2005	Budgeted:	N/A
From:		David A. Berger,	Program/	N/A
		General Manager	Line Item No.:
Prepared By:		Dave Dettman/	Cost Estimate:	N/A
		Beverly Chaney
General Counsel Approval: Yes
CEQA Compliance: N/A
State & Federal Agency Review: Consistent with the Annual Memorandum of Agreement between California Department of Fish and Game and the District for operations at Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility and the District’s License Agreement with California American Water

SUMMARY: The Board will consider approval of a proposed Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the Carmel River Steelhead Association (CRSA) to deliver juvenile steelhead that are rescued from tributaries and the mainstem of the Carmel River and to rear these fish at the District’s Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility (Facility) (Exhibit 2-A). Minor operational revisions have been made to Sections #9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 19 of the Terms and Conditions of the proposed MOA from the 2003 MOA, in addition to updating the effective date and duration through May 31, 2006. Following the Administrative Committee Meeting on June 9, 2005, the proposed MOA was sent to California American Water and CRSA for their review.

This item was continued from the June 20, 2005 Board Meeting at the request of General Manager Berger, due to concerns about the MOA expressed by the Carmel River Steelhead Association. District staff will meet with the CRSA on July 6, 2005. Staff will report on the outcome of the meeting at the July 7 Administrative Committee meeting.

RECOMMENDATION: District staff recommends approval of the proposed MOA (Exhibit 2-A), and authorization for the General Manager to enter into the MOA.

IMPACT TO STAFF/RESOURCES: Additional staff time may be needed to comply with the proposed 2005-06 MOA with CRSA. This depends primarily on the frequency of times when staff will be needed to pick up fish from CRSA after weekday rescues. While the frequency cannot be predicted with certainty, the total additional time should not exceed 24 hours, based on an assumption of six weekday rescues at 4 hours per day. No additional cost would be incurred for task, as the staff positions for this activity receive compensation time instead of overtime payment.

BACKGROUND: In 2000, the CRSA requested that the District accept and rear juvenile steelhead rescued by CRSA. In response to this request, staff assembled a proposed protocol for this

operation, and negotiated with CRSA representatives to implement the request, subject to approval of a MOA and review and approval by CDFG and NOAA-Fisheries.

Two key issues were (1) whether the additional tributary and mainstem fish would impact existing operations at the Facility, which is funded by the Cal-Am user fee and specifically designed to mitigate for existing Cal-Am pumping along the mainstem of the Carmel River in Carmel Valley. Staff reviewed this situation and believes that the anticipated increased costs are minor, including small amounts of additional food, limited additional time on Saturdays to accept the fish, and some additional time to process and treat the fish during the rearing season; and (2) that the Association needed to add the District to its general insurance liability policy as an “additional insured”. In addition, CRSA was willing to hold the District, its employees, and agents harmless in the event that CRSA members were injured at the Facility.

A one-year MOA between the District and the CRSA was signed in July 2003. The CRSA delivered one batch of fish to the Facility in June 2004.

For the 2005-2006 MOA staff made the following revisions with the goal of improving security at the Facility and continuing the practice of receiving fish from CRSA rescues:

Section 9:       added a sentence, “Under no circumstances will any member of the Association be at the Facility unless District staff is there.

Section 10:     Reference to capacity of rearing channel as 64,000 young-of-the-year has been removed.

Section 11:     added a sentence, “A maximum of three people and one vehicle are allowed at the Facility to deliver fish.  Additional vehicles will be refused access, unless prior approval has been granted.

Section 12:     Names of CRSA contacts were changed.

Section 13:     Date for submittal of a complete report on CRSA rescues changed from August 1 to September 30.

Section 14:     Terms for entrance to property were changed by adding sentence, “District staff shall meet Association at the Cal-Am gate to allow access for fish delivery and escort Association back out through gate after delivery.  Association shall not be given gate keys or lock combinations.  Alternately and subject to prior arrangement, District may pick up fish rescued by the Association and bring the fish back to Facility.

Section 19 (added):  “Failure to follow any of the preceding requirements may lead to termination of this MOA”.

EXHIBITS

2-A Proposed Memorandum of Agreement between MPWMD and the Carmel River Steelhead Association: Limited Access and Use of Sleepy Hollow Steelhead Rearing Facility

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