State water plan manager asks Watershed Council for basin input, survey and volunteers for basin chapter

Stephanie McGinnis, State Water Plan Manager at the Division of Water Resources, told the Watershed Council on Tuesday, May 13, that the state must publish an updated State Water Plan by December 2026 and asked council members to help shape the basin chapter by completing a 20‑minute survey and by volunteering for small subcommittees.

McGinnis said the code now requires the State Water Plan to be updated no less frequently than every 10 years and that the division’s internal goal is to move toward five‑year updates. “The code now calls for the state water plan to be updated no less frequently than every 10 years,” she said. She described previous plan iterations in 1990 and 2021 and said the upcoming plan will be a strategic framework with chapters on constraints, law and policy, and basin‑level perspectives.

The state will solicit basin‑level input to populate a basin “perspective” chapter (referred to in the presentation as chapter 8) that highlights local challenges, needs and local successes. McGinnis said the plan outline stretches across roughly nine chapters and the office is targeting an overall length near 150 pages (she later referenced a different chapter count in discussion, which the division said it will reconcile in draft materials). The Division also intends to reference project lists submitted through the state’s infrastructure submission process in the plan.

McGinnis asked every Watershed Council member to complete a forthcoming online survey (estimated 20 minutes) and said staff will follow up by email with slide materials and a link to the survey. “Please don’t leave it in my hands to decide what’s important here in this basin,” she said, asking council members to forward the survey to knowledgeable local contacts but not to share it broadly on social media.

To turn survey results into basin text, the division asked groups of council volunteers to form short subcommittees to review and synthesize responses and to provide an initial review of draft basin material. McGinnis said the division will also hold one public scoping meeting per basin, targeted for July through September, and she asked that council members help publicize the meeting and, where possible, attend so local representatives are present.

Council members raised a technical problem with infrastructure project submissions. William Markley reported that he and another submitter did not receive clear confirmation after submitting projects to the state’s unified infrastructure submission portal; Markley said one submission showed an online confirmation page but no email receipt. McGinnis acknowledged the issue and said staff would follow up to confirm receipt and to request clearer confirmation feedback for submitters.

McGinnis described next steps: the division will email the survey and slide deck the next day, collect survey responses (giving about a week and a half for responses), form subcommittees, synthesize results into the basin chapter draft, and circulate draft language for council review before public scoping. She said the division hopes to produce a full plan draft by the end of the year and to circulate more complete drafts for review in early 2026.

Council members and staff also discussed coordination with water conservancy districts, watershed councils and other state and local agencies; McGinnis said the 2024 legislative changes (House Bill 280) call out increased collaboration with specified entities and that the division is working across the Department of Natural Resources and Department of Environmental Quality.

The presentation ended with McGinnis offering contact options: a State Water Plan email address the division will monitor and direct contact information for staff. She said staff would follow up on the project submission confirmation issue and on scheduling for the public scoping meeting.

Next steps: watch for the division’s email with the survey link and slides, respond to the survey, volunteer for a subcommittee if able, and help publicize and, if possible, attend the basin public scoping meeting planned for July–September.