Drafter
Clerk 04/03/2013
title
A MOTION transmitting a report on the agricultural drainage assistance program required by Ordinance 17476.
body
WHEREAS, the King County agricultural drainage assistance program ("the ADAP") has provided assistance to farmers in unincorporated King County since the late 1990s, and
WHEREAS, the ADAP helps owners of agricultural lands maintain and improve the drainage on their property, and
WHEREAS, improved drainage can extend the growing season by allowing fields to be planted earlier in the year and harvested later in the season, can extend the season during which livestock can use fields for forage and pasture and can put fields back into production that have become too wet to work due to formerly cumbersome drainage maintenance permitting requirements, and
WHEREAS, in Ordinance 17476, passed on November 13, 2012, the council requested that the executive transmit by April 1, 2013, a report that identifies how the ADAP addresses the following:
1. The compiled annual number of requests for stream and drainage ditch cleaning for 2008-2012;
2. The average duration of time between request for stream and drainage ditch cleaning and completion of the work for 2008-2012;
3. The actions that the county is taking to assist those requesting assistance with cleaning and drainage ditch cleaning;
4. The estimated acreage of agricultural lands that is not farmable because of poor drainage;
5. A plan for how the county can facilitate or assist in locating, repairing or replacing drainage tiles; and
6. A detailing of any regulatory impediments to more quickly providing stream cleaning and repair or replacement of drainage tiles, and
WHEREAS, the executive has transmitted a report that addresses each of these elements;
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT MOVED by the Council of King County:
The report on the agricultural drainage assistance program in response to Ordinance 17476, Attachment A to this motion, has been received.