Torn between two situations that significantly affect the city of Austin, the Cedar River Watershed District delayed the submission of its rules to the state for another 60 days.

On one hand, the city of Austin wants more time to discuss a rule that will change its snow dumping sites and cost taxpayers. On the other, it’s been eager for rules to pass so it can see how its north Main flood mitigation project will be affected.

With the immediate concern being the snow removal issue, Jon Erichson, Austin public works director, pushed for the delay. He wants to compromise with the CRWD. Two of the city’s snow storages lie within 300 feet of public waterways, but a rule could prohibit that.

“You’re looking at placing a significant financial burden on the city of Austin,” Erichson said.

Erichson doesn’t think the rule is necessary. He said the city is willing to put in more management practices, like buffer strips and concrete barriers. However, he wants proof that the snow piles are causing a significant amount of pollution. “The science of that decision is really unknown,” he added.

CRWD manager Harlan Peck said the main issue is salt from the snow piles. But he and others acknowledged there hasn’t been a pollution study. The CRWD was trying to employ rules similar to other districts’. A meeting that CRWD members attended gave them a chance to look at other districts’ rules, which Peck said are more restrictive than CRWD’s.

Several board members and city officials agree the delay is a good idea because the city needs clarifications. Farmers also want to know how much some rules will change farming practices and how much they will cost them.

The extra 60 days delays a major flood reduction project, though.

The city wants to see what the final rules state before it puts up walls and removes land from Main Street. Right now, Erichson and the CRWD does not fully understand how the rules might affect the project.

However, CRWD Administrator Bev Nordby said the flood mitigation is in everyone’s best interest, and they don’t want to get in the way of its completion.

CRWD President Mike Jones added, “I don’t think there’s anybody on this board that wants to blow that project down or interfere with that project.”

Now, the city and the CRWD realize they need to work more closely on the rules.

Attorney Matt Benda didn’t see any major problems by delaying the draft again, but he predicts a likely scenario. Because there’s no legal deadline, opponents to the draft may keep raising questions every time it is ready for state review.

Jim Gebhardt of the CRWD realizes that possibility.

“These rains keep coming and coming, and they’re not going to hold up for us,” he said about Austin missing the chance to prevent another flood.

Instead of setting the rules into motion in March, the board will have to wait until May.