Marion Soil and Water
Ballot Title:
Marion Soil And Water Conservation District Permanent Rate Limit
Question:
Summary: This permanent rate limit will enable the Marion Soil and Water Conservation District to provide water quality improvement technical assistance to District residents, cities, special districts, and watershed councils within the District. Requests for this assistance have increased due to mandates of the Federal Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, but the District does not have staff to provide the assistance and has decided to ask the voters for a permanent rate limit.
The permanent rate limit would cost the owner of a $100,000 home $5.00 a year and would yield approximately $590,000 a year to the District. With this money the District would hire technicians to help individuals and groups with planning, design, construction and monitoring of projects to prevent and reduce soil erosion and other pollutants entering waterways.
Explanatory Statement:
Since the Dust Bowl days of the 1930s, farmers in the District have been able to get help on soil erosion and water conservation problems from the federally-funded Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). The District provided administrative services to the local NRCS staff. The Federal government has reduced staff to the point the present staff has no time for landowners not in a federal program. The District has attempted to fill the void with employees funded by the state and county.
In the past two years requests to the District for technical assistance have multiplied. Feeling the pressure exerted by the Federal Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act, not only farmers, but cities, special districts and watershed councils are all requesting technical assistance from the District. Unfortunately, these requests come at a time when funding is limited from existing sources. Grants are available only for projects, not for ongoing technical assistance. County budget, affected by property tax limitations, are strained to provide financing for the District. Funding from State of Oregon has been cut almost 30% over the last two years. As a consequence, the District finds itself with funding for only 2 1/2 employees to provide the technical assistance once provided by 21 federal employees.
To deal with its lack of stable funding, the District has decided to proceed with the development of its own permanent rate limit. If voters approve the permanent rate limit, the District will hire additional employees to provide soil and water conservation technical assistance for the Oregon Plan, Senate Bill 1010 Plan, Endangered Species Act, Watershed Health, and Water Quality Monitoring expertise, as well as, administrative and coordination of support services.
The Marion Soil and Water Conservation District Board stress their commitment to offer technical assistance to all residents of the district. Pollution clean up by urban and rural residents will be required by the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act. Most cities and special districts do not have the expertise to deal with soil and water conservation matters such as identifying soil types, controlling soil erosion, managing fertilizers and pesticides, designing efficient irrigation systems, designing vegetative strips to catch pollutants before they reach streams, and designing vegetation restoration along streams and flood plains. These are the services the District could provide to all its residents.
Submitted by:
Jeanne Fromm, District Chair
Marion Soil and Water Conservation District
No arguments in favor of or opposed to this measure were filed.
MEASURE NO. 24-63
Conservation District
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