Title
AN ORDINANCE authorizing the county executive to enter into a project cooperative agreement with the United States Army Corps of Engineers and the State of Washington Department of Natural Resources for the construction of North Wind's Weir, also known as Duwamish Site 1, Ecosystem Restoration Project.
Body
BE IT ORDAINED BY THE COUNCIL OF KING COUNTY:
SECTION 1. Findings:
A. The Duwamish/Green river watershed ("watershed") in King County is an invaluable natural resource that is home to many fish and wildlife species, including Chinook salmon and bull trout, recently listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. Degradation of the watershed, due to urbanization, physical alterations, and other factors, is of concern to citizens, interest groups and governments sharing jurisdiction in or with a major interest in the watershed. B. In recent years, governments with jurisdiction or interests in the watershed, with input and participation from other interested parties, have initiated significant cooperative efforts to evaluate habitat restoration needs in the watershed. In 2000, through an interlocal agreement, seventeen jurisdictions of Water Resources Inventory Area (WRIA) 9 formalized their cooperative efforts by forming the WRIA 9 Forum in order to jointly fund, plan, prioritize, and conduct watershed planning and protection over a five-year period.
C. Previously, in 1997, Duwamish/Green watershed jurisdictions had executed an interlocal agreement to share local sponsorship responsibilities for the feasibility phase of the Duwamish/Green Ecosystem Restoration Project, (D/G ERP). The D/G ERP is a large-scale, multiphase project conducted jointly with the United States Army Corps of Engineers ("USACE") to restore the ecosystem of the watershed through planning and construction of significant habitat restoration projects. Under a federal requirement, the feasibility phase was cost shared equally, between the federal ...

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