At their last regular meeting on Tuesday, Aug. 6, the Kenai Peninsula Borough Assembly introduced Ordinance 2024-25, which amends borough code to address adoptions and deletions of anadromous waters within the South District of the KPB 21.18 Appendix.

The ordinance is scheduled for a public hearing on Tuesday, Sept. 3.

The KPB 21.18 Appendix is a list of anadromous waters created in 2014 and maintained by the borough. The appendix is categorized into three districts: South, West and North. According to maps provided in a laydown accompanying the ordinance, the South District includes areas located near Tustumena, Kachemak Bay, Seldovia and the Gulf of Alaska. The maps also denote where proposed — either new or re-substantiated — changes have been made.

These anadromous waters, or water bodies that are important to fish species that spend portions of their life cycles in both fresh and salt waters, like salmon — are also identified in the “Atlas and Catalog of Waters Important for Spawning, Rearing, or Migration of Anadromous Fish” published by the Alaska Department of Fish and Game.

According to an Aug. 6 memorandum from River Center Manager Samantha Lopez to the assembly, borough code requires that the River Center review ADF&G’s additions and deletions to the catalog every three years and present those changes to the assembly.

The River Center is a multi-agency permitting, outreach, and education center, according to the borough website.

Lopez wrote in the memo that, after a thorough review of the changes in the ADF&G catalog, the River Center identified most of the changes as “extensions of waterbodies already listed” in the borough appendix, with only a few new water bodies.

Should Ordinance 2024-25 pass, the additional substantiated water bodies identified in the appendix will be made subject to borough code KPB 21.18.025 beginning Oct. 1, the ordinance states.

The ordinance also notes that direct mail notice was sent to property owners impacted by the new additions to the catalog.

“We’re working very well with the community to not negatively the use of their property,” Borough Mayor Peter Micciche said during the Lands Committee meeting on Aug. 6. “This is primarily an extension of streams that you’ve already supported in the catalog.”

Lopez recollected that in a 2014 iteration of the ordinance, the borough assembly asked the River Center to review ADF&G’s work and changes to the catalog.

“We looked at everything in the South District, which is basically halfway between Skilak and Tustumena, everything down south, across the bay over to Seldovia,” Lopez said during the same meeting. “We substantiated what Fish and Game has done, made sure they’ve done everything by the book. A lot of it is extensions of streams we’re already regulating. Most of it is on vacant properties … we’re talked to two landowners so far, and those were pretty good conversations.”

Find the ordinance and supporting materials in full at kpb.legistar.com. Find more information on the River Center at www.kpb.us/river-center.