MOSES LAKE — With the Moses Lake Planning Commission beginning to review its shoreline management plan, one of the first steps involves updating the city’s shoreline map.

Speaking remotely to the planning commission last Thursday, Pradeep Mugunthan, a principal engineer with the Wenatchee-based consultancy Four Peaks Environmental overseeing the map updates, said the review gives the city the opportunity to compare its 2014 shoreline maps to the latest satellite images and make any needed changes.

Mugunthan told commission members and city staff that the maps, which should be complete by the end of March, would use the mean high water level of the lake — an average computed using 19 years of observed data — as opposed to the “ordinary high water level” — the level at which non-aquatic vegetation starts to grow — and that any changes in the shoreline maps would be minor.

“No development or particular piece of property will be any different because of these maps,” he said.

“The older maps do not line up with the shoreline well,” added Leah Nagel, an aquatic scientist with Four Peaks Environmental. “These will align better with the shoreline. The resolution (of satellite imagery) gets better and more accurate.”

The city last reviewed its shoreline master plan in 2017. The plan is required as part of Washington state’s Shoreline Management Act for all marine waters, lakes bigger than 20 acres and streams and rivers with an annual flow of 20 or more cubic feet per second, as well as associated wetlands and even some flood plains.

Once approved by the city, the revised shoreline master plan must be submitted to the Department of Ecology for review and approval.

Moses Lake has a surface area of roughly 6,800 acres and around 120 miles of shoreline, though not all of it is in the city limits. The plan covers all shoreline areas within the city limits and the first 200 feet up from the shoreline.

Updated maps are only the beginning of a process of reviewing the lake plan, however.

Commission member and local real estate agent Gary Mann said he hopes the city will examine the current buffers and setbacks for lakeshore development, given that there is no specific scientific research on the buffers needed between the lakeshore and residential development in deserts like the Columbia Basin.

“It’s time to talk about different buffers,” Mann said. “Ten feet away from the lake, nothing grows.”

It’s time to look at different buffers, Mann added, because the current required setbacks do not. According to city Planning Manager Vivian Ramsey, the buffers vary depending on the location from 25 feet to 200 feet.

Jeremy Siles, a senior shoreline planner with the Washington State Department of Ecology, said new buffers would require a new study, and it would be better to “get more mileage” out of getting the shoreline master plan to function better.

“Setbacks are really important to protect water from disturbance and pollution,” Siles said. “You really need that physical space.”

Concerns were also expressed about wind and wave erosion and the problems with portions of the lakeshore. Mann said he appreciated that Ecology would never approve a retaining wall, but there are parts of the lakeshore that need it.

“We need to find something that works,” Mann said.

Moses Lake City Manager Allison Williams said the city is working with the Moses Lake Watershed Council, founded to address the problem of blue-green algae blooms in the lake, to coordinate on the development of a Moses Lake Watershed Plan, and will also review its stormwater and sewer plans in concert with the shoreline management plan.

“Both will help the shoreline,” Williams said. “It’s all very complimentary to improve the lake health.”

The planning commission is set to meet again to discuss the shoreline plan on March 10, said Commission member Charles Hepburn, and will not be taking any public comments about the revision until commissioners have some data to look at.

“Comments are irrelevant until that date, and not based on anything factual,” Hepburn said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached at [email protected].