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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWater Board - Minutes - 10/23/1997WATER UTILITIES BOARD MINUTES October 23,1997 3:05 - 4:05 p.m. Light and Power Training Room 700 Wood Street Paul Clopper, Chairman; Alison Adams, Vice Chair, David Lauer, John Morris, Joe Bergquist, Howard Goldman, Tom Brown, Robert Ward, Bob Havis (last meeting as member) STAFF Mike Smith, Wendy Williams, Gale McGaha Miller, Dennis Bode, Bob Smith, Molly Nortier GUEST John Bigham, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District MEMBERS ABSENT George Reed, Tom Sanders, Dave Frick, Dave Rau (all excused) Chairman Paul Clapper opened the meeting. The following items were discussed: M[NUTES Alison Adams moved that the minutes of September 25, 1997 be approved as distributed with the following corrections: Alison Adams pointed out on page 12, last paragraph, second to last line, Mr. should be Ms. and laughed changed to stated. Paul Clopper noted on p. 17, first para., line 6 that "pining" should be "pinning." After a second from Joe Bergquist, the corrected minutes were approved unanimously. Mr. Clopper announced, for those who had not been present at the September meeting, that the Board agreed to combine the November and December meetings on Thursday, December 4th since the November meeting date falls on Thanksgiving and in December it is on Christmas. Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 2 John Bigham reported that there continues to be plenty of water in the system Granby has stayed within half a foot of spilling since his last report. "Whenever we get down a bit, we have another stomp" he said. The number three pump that was damaged in the explosion at Flatiron last year was repaired and running. Then the cooling system went down, and for the last month or so, it hasn't been operational. They anticipate that it will be back in service within the next week or so. "Other than that we are in great shape," he concluded. The draft work.plan was the same one that the Board approved in January 1997; the first one as a combined board. The City Clerk's Office requires that each board and commission prepare a work plan, due each year at the end of November. All the plans are forwarded to the City Council. The boards and commissions annual reports, required by the end of January, are based on the work plan. The Water Utilities Board work plan relates directly to standing committee work assignments. Chairman Paul Clopper suggested that Board members offer changes as they proceed through each section of the work plan. Under Water Supply, an item "F" was added: "Review and Update the City's Water Supply Policy." Under Water Conservation and Public Education, Legislative and Finance and Engineering, no new items were added. Under Liaison Issues, item "A," `which adopt" was changed to "regarding." No changes were made in the Water Quality section. Under Stormwater, item `S (1)" , "trends of was changed to 'TEMA." Three of the items under Other Items were deleted because they have been implemented. One inclusive sentence, "Review and consider, as needed, such items as may come before the Board," was added rather than listing a number of specific items. Considering the last three items, since there is no committee involvement, John Morris wondered who would be taking the lead on them Mr. Clopper said that he didn't want the Board to think that even the first five items would be limited to a committee function. "I think John Morris' comment echos how I perceive this to play in 1998 for items 6, 7 and 8. There will be broader involvement by the Board; for example, in the way the "white paper" item has been approached," Mr. Clopper remarked. The Water Supply and Liaison Issues Committees have both been involved in the "white paper" discussions and that includes a major portion of the Board. ACTION: Motion and Vote Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 3 David Lauer moved that the Board adopt the 1998 Water Utilities Board Work Plan as revised. Tom Brown seconded the motion; the vote to approve the plan was unanimous. Dennis Bode prepared a brief outline of the process for revising the Water Supply Policy. He said that the first step is to define "what we want to do." Water Supply/Liaison Issues Committees and Staff meet to discuss: a. Desired contents of revised Water Supply Policy (WSP) report b Issues to be addressed in report (try to capture some of the issues brought out in the "White Paper.") C. Depth of analyses and amount of detail (more definition from the Committees) 2. Committee meets periodically to review information, discuss issues, develop strategies and provide input to Staff. 3. Staff updates and revises report concurrently with discussion of identified issues. 4. Full Water Utilities Board receives updates and discusses issues as needed. 5. Draft Water Supply Policy Report is presented to Water Utilities Board for review and adoption of recommendations for consideration by City Council. 6. Water Supply Policy recommendations are discussed with City Council at a work session. 7. Water Supply Policy Report and recommendations are revised and reviewed as needed following work session. 8. Water Supply Policy Report resolution is considered at regular City Council meeting. Mr. Bode noted that it is expected that this process will take from 6 months to a year to complete depending on the level of detail desired, the amount of interaction with others, and other staff work priorities. Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 4 Paul Clopper and Robert Ward said that the process looks straight forward to them. Mr. Ward added that it provides a process by which the Board can begin to discuss a number of those issues and focus on trying to articulate them in some way. "It may be that we can interface what we are doing here with a number of others. He asked if someone knows at what phase the Metropolitan Water Supply Investigation study is. Mr. Bigham heard yesterday that it is in the final draft. "It will probably be after the first of the year before we get it," he said. Ms. Adams said she had heard that last year at this time. Mr. Bigham responded that he isn't sure what the problem is: whether they are having trouble drafting it, or whether they are just cautious about releasing it. Mr. Clopper noted that no action is needed on this today. He advised the Water Supply and Liaison Issues committee chairs to contact staff and committee members to set up a meeting. Dennis Bode suggested that the Committees discuss how much detail and analysis is needed and come up with a time frame. "Will we consider this a process that continues annually or every two years, etc.?" Joe Bergquist asked. Mr. Bode hopes that the Board and Staff will come up with something that is flexible enough to last several years before it needs a major revision. Mr. Clopper commented that some of the new items the Board has been discussing "are still amorphous; recreational uses vs. environmental uses, for example. It will be interesting to see how that will come out at the end of this process." "Ibe Metropolitan Water Supply investigation, whatever that report says, will have a large impact on how we see our future water supply," Robert Ward said. He also mentioned the pending three -state agreement. How that falls out will also have some implications. He agrees with Mr. Bode that `%ve should try to realize that those kinds of changes are occurring in our society, and we need to have a policy that incorporates some flexibility." Treated Water Production Summary Dennis Bode reported that for September, the City used 2,764 ac-ft of treated water which was 91% of the projected average use. "Also, for the year, we are at 91% of average use," he said. The precipitation is over 23 inches for the year. He looked back at precipitation records and found that only one year, 1961, was greater than that for the annual total. In 1961 the total was 28 inches. "How many years back did you look?" Mr. Clopper asked. "I began with 1960," he said. Tom Brown asked the location of the gauge where the precip. was measured. "At the CSU main campus," Mr. Bode replied. Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 5 Update on Post Flood Activities "Not much has changed since our last meeting," Mike Smith began. The City continues to wait for decisions on funding options. "We may hear something by the end of November from HUD," he said, "and a decision from FEMA may be after the first of the year." He and Bob Smith are still meeting with some neighborhoods to work out certain issues. The big issue is waiting on the funding options. Then we can begin looking at new development plans." "Is the City holding out some hope that it will get some funding?" David Lauer asked."Yes, but we don't anticipate much money. HUD is the best option for a larger sum of money to actually do some improvements," he added. If any money is provided from FEMA, it might be for an early warning system or flood proofing, or something similar. `But not arty money for mitigating where the damage started?" Mr. Clopper asked. "We may get some money from HUD for that but primarily for the Canal Importation Basin and Old Town," Mr. Smith replied."Is there still a lot of clamoring for an early warning system?" Howard Goldman asked. "Opinions vary on that," Mr. Smith said. "It will be hard to please everyone," he predicts. "Realistically, how affective would that be in the same scenario that occurred that night where the concentration was in the area of Spring Creek?" David Lauer wondered. "The only thing that could have happened differently is a warning system involving flow information from various spots," Mr. Smith responded. 'There is the potential that with that flow information, we could have warned the people in the trailer park, but that's just hindsight," he acknowledged. "An early warning system doesn't have anything to do with that; that's just data," Ms. Adams contends. Bob Havis wondered if there has been some thought given to a central source where citizens with rain gauges could call in from various parts of the City. 'There has been some discussion of that," Mr. Smith replied. Paul Clopper related that recently he met Glenn Levy, the Battalion Commander for the Poudre Fire Authority. Mr. Clopper thought that if we have a meeting with a light agenda, we might ask him to discuss the emergency response issues that night. "Mr. Levy said he would be happy to do that." Regional 201 Study Gale McGaha Miller reported that the consultant has generated a list of alternatives for capacity needs for all the entities during the initial planning period until the year 2020. The complete planning period is until the year 2040. "They looked at a variety of things. Many alternatives involved each entity expanding its own land. Other alternatives included cooperating in smaller regional subsets and a full regional facility," she explained. The consultant looked at all of those from an economic and non- economic point of view and a timing and logistics point of view. "The bottom line is that nobody needs capacity at the same time, and the City of Fort Collins is one of the last ones to need capacity," she said. "If our growth projections are right and if they follow previous long term trends, we won't Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 6 need any additional capacity until the year 2019, whereas the South Fort Collins Sanitation District is going to need capacity in 2002," she pointed out. She remarked that it certainly wouldn't make sense for Fort Collins to go to a regional facility in 2002 for their sake. "Some of these alternatives begin to shake out a little bit. It looks like the most reasonable economic, synchronized kind of approach would be for each entity to do its own expansion. One possible exception would be for South Fort Collins Sanitation District to send some of its additional flows to Windsor because Windsor has extra capacity. Everyone has sufficient land to expand, but the preliminary economic analysis shows that a regional facility is too expensive an approach." She said that the group has not finished screening the alternatives, and that they need to complete a couple of other tasks, "but that's the way it's looking right now." The entire report is due to be finished in December with one last round of public presentations after the holidays. "That will be on the agenda after the first of the year," Mike Smith added. David Lauer asked if there was any factoring in of what that scenario might look like and how it might change if there were other partners added; e.g. Loveland. "We asked Loveland to participate early on and they were not interested, so our hands are somewhat tied that way," Ms. McGaha Miller responded. On the other hand, that might be a good issue for an entity like South Fort Collins to look into, as well as Windsor because their service areas logically could be connected. "It's completely outside of the City's service area," she said. "Are there any significant players out there who aren't partners to this study right now who night conceivably change their minds between now and the year 20199" Mr. Lauer continued. "Over that period of time, as growth takes place, it would be possible for Wellington, Severance, Eaton, or someone else like that to get involved," she surmised. "We didn't anticipate that all of those different communities would grow together over that period of time." She said that the other community they tried to keep involved, which was difficult, was the Town of Timnath. "All of those folks are on septic systems, and none of them are interested," she stressed. Paul Clopper asked about the potential regional site the City purchased a few years ago near Ptarmigan "We aren't doing anything with that other than to continue to lease it, are we?" "That's right," Mr. Smith answered. Ms. McGaha Miller said a lot of that land is not developable at the bottom because it is in the floodplain. "There are some great ecological features. Open space money could be used for portions of it. We haven't moved that far down the road to determine what we will do with the land," she said. The site is 160 acres. Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 7 None ofthe Committees had met since the last Board meeting. Because of the full agenda at the last meeting, David Lauer did not give a report on the Conservation and Public Education Committee meeting. His report follows: Mr. Lauer said that the Committee mainly discussed mandatory metering and what they can do to help that process along. The Utilities will begin installations on the west side of the City and move east across town. There is still a backlog of volunteers that the Utilities are currently working on. The Committee also talked about their work plan and came up with two items that they will discuss at their next meeting scheduled at 2:00 on December 4th They invited Marsha Mimes, the Floodplain Administrator, to the meeting to talk about stormwater management and how the Committee can be involved in terms of public education. They decided to invite Kevin McBride, the Senior Stormwater Quality Engineer, to do a tandem presentation with Ms. Mimes. The Committee briefly discussed ways to improve the efficiency of automatic sprinkler systems, including continuing the daily lawn watering guide in the Coloradoan. Staff is working on a brochure on efficient lawn watering. Paul Clopper mentioned the Committee's discussion of the problem with the installation of meters in duplexes. He also recalled that they talked about the use of different media for public outreach. Staff is hoping to get the Coloradoan to do an article. The Liaison Issues Committee didn't meet but its chair Alison Adams brought the Board up to date on the Norther Colorado Regional Coalition of which she is a member. She said that the last meeting they bad was in August. She briefed the Board on that meeting in September and provided minutes. The next meeting should coincide with the NCWCD Fall Water Users meeting on Wednesday, November 19th. Mr. Bigham announced that the District meeting will be in Longmont at the Raintree Inn. After lunch the Coalition meeting will be held. Ms. Adams said that three of the Coalition members will be making presentations at that meeting. Robert Ward updated the Board on the Mayor's regional water group of which he is a member. He announced two upcoming meetings: Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 8 November 20 Jim Sullivan, County Commissioner from Douglas County, will speak about some of the conflicts between land use and water, looking at how some of the lessons they are learning may impact land use and water in northern Colorado; a major goal is to protect agriculture. December 5 Senator Ament will summarize the results of the interim legislative committee on land and water, and what type of legislative thrusts he might be seeing in this next legislative session. The November 20th date appears to be firm. Senator Ament needs to be confirmed. Mr. Ward said that these are opportunities to talk about some of the broader issues that we need to explore, and "having these people here in our community can be very helpful." Mr. Ward mentioned that at the last meeting the group reviewed a number of studies that had been done in this area. "I thought it was interesting to go back and look at what is characterized as a $2.5 million study on water in northern Colorado that was done between 1985 and 1987. He pointed out that there is a huge amount of information in those reports that quite often is not recognized. The point was that we as taxpayers have $2.5 million invested in that data. Recently he saw the Senate Bill 74 study that just came out. The state engineer and the manager of the Water Conservation Board just compiled a large book ofwater information relevant to the South Platte Basin. The water supply investigation is not yet out. "The point is that there is considerable information being pulled together, and it would be good if we could somehow capture the essence of that information and bring it into some of our thinking, especially as we begin to revise our Water Supply Policy," he concluded. Mr. Ward announced that on November 6th there will be an all day meeting at CSU on the flood. It will be held in the North Ballroom of the Lory Student Center. "The purpose of the meeting is to try to synthesize the information that is available at this time." Farewell to Bob Havis Bob Havis was a member of the former Storm Drainage Board and the current Water Utilities Board for a total of three years. He recently moved to Laporte which is out of the Urban Growth Area. Board and commission members must live within the UGA, so Mr. Havis submitted his resignation Water Utilities Board Minutes October 23, 1997 Page 9 from the WUB. Chairman Clopper read a letter of recognition (attached to the minutes) presented to Mr. Havis. He was also given a gift certificate for dinner for two at a local restaurant. Mr. Havis said he really enjoyed working with the Storm Drainage Board and the Water Utilities Board. "I feel that I have learned more and gained more by the experience than I was able to contribute," he said. He thanked everyone for making it such a positive experience. A reception for Mr. Havis followed. Since there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:05 p.m Water Utilities'Board Secretary WateWities • Water Utilities Board City of Fort Collins In Grateful Recognition To ROBERT HAVIS For His Dedicated Service to the Fort Collins Storm Drainage Board and theWater Utilities Board July 1, 1994 - September 1, 1997 The City of Fort Collins and the Fort Collins Water Utilities Board sincerely appreciate your 3 years of service to the Storm Drainage Board and Water Utilities Board. Although your tenure on the Boards was relatively short , your impact was significant. You obviously earned the respect of your peers on the Storm Drainage Board, when they elected you as their vice chairman. You also served in that capacity for a short time on the Water Utilities Board. You routinely attended extra meetings and participated in field trips and social events. You demonstrated a commitment to the purpose and functions of both Boards. The Water Utilities staff and other Board members thank you for volunteering your services. We regret that moving out of the Urban Growth Area resulted in your having to resign from the Water Utilities Board. We enjoyed working with you! City of Fort Collins Water Utilities th• .Michael B. Smith, §eZne&rakl Manager Fo Collins Water Utilities Board Paul E. Clopper, Presid P.O. Box 580 • Fort Collins, CO 80522-0580 • (970) 221-6681