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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWater Board - Minutes - 12/09/1999FORT COLLINS WATER BOARD MINUTES Regular Meeting - December 9, 1999 3:10 — 4:50 p.m. Fort Collins Utilities Poudre Conference Room 700 Wood Street CITY COUNCIL LIAISON Chuck Wanner (not present) WATER BOARD Vice Chair Tom Sanders — 491-5448 WATER BOARD CHAIRMAN Paul Clopper — 223-5556 STAFF LIAISON Molly Nortier — 221-6681 MEMBERS PRESENT Paul Clopper, Chair; Tom Sanders, Vice Chair, David Lauer, George Reed, Dave Frick, John Morris, Tom Brown, Bill Fischer, Robert Ward, Joe Bergquist MEMBER ABSENT Dave Rau STAFF PRESENT Mike Smith, Wendy Williams, Gale McGaha Miller, Dennis Bode, Paul Weiss, Susan Smolnik, Jeff Hill, Molly Nortier GUESTS None Chair Paul Clopper opened the regular meeting of the Water Board at 3:10 p.m. after a quorum was present. The following items were discussed: MINUTES John Morris moved that the minutes of October 28, 1999 be approved as distributed. David Lauer seconded the motion. Bill Fischer noted two corrections: p. 9 under Possible Conflict of Interest, second sentence, Meadow Springs Ranch should be changed to "Northern Colorado Water Association (NCWA)," and p. 13 under Action, the third sentence should read: "Mr. Fischer suspected that he did not have a conflict, but chose to abstain nonetheless." With those corrections, the minutes were approved unanimously. UPDATE: NORTHERN COLORADO WATER CONSERVANCY DISTRICT (NCWCD) There was no update because Gene Schleiger was not able to attend the meeting. Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 2 CACHE LA POUDRE BASIN MODELING APPROACHES Dennis Bode introduced Paul Weiss, one of the Utilities Water Resources Engineers. Mr. Bode related that Mr. Weiss has worked on this modeling for several years. "I think this is a very powerful tool that will help us as we plan for the future," he stressed. Other parties involved in the Poudre, and contributing to the process, were the City of Greeley and NCWCD. There has been some interest expressed recently to see what the model does, so Paul Weiss was asked to give a presentation to the Board. Mr. Bode explained that the presentation is oriented towards the tool itself and the methods, and not the results at this point. Mr. Weiss then gave a Power Point presentation on Cache La Poudre Basin Modeling Approaches. The presentation illustrated the modeling approaches being used by the Water Resources Dept. to assess the City's present and future water supplies. Two separate models, a system model and a basin model, were described. The system model is basically an update of an earlier drought investigation performed in 1985. The basin model is a larger effort, for which a DSS structure had been incorporated. This consists of relational databases, the basin water rights model, and a graphical user interface. The City of Greeley and Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD) have contributed to the development of the DSS. A brief overview of the basin network model and underlying databases was presented. Paul Weiss explained the calibration process and presented results for some of the key locations. To show the capabilities of the basin model, a simple scenario was simulated, depicting a reduction in irrigated agriculture and the resulting changes in -monthly river flows. Mr. Weiss finished the presentation by demonstrating other applications for the DSS and databases. Board's Questions and Comments Tom Brown asked if staff has been using the models to look at water supply issues. Dennis Bode answered that they used the City system model part of it to do some of the work that staff shared with the Water Supply Committee on the safe yield analyses. "We are getting to the point where we need to start using the basin model and working with some things along with the Northern District." Paul Clopper said the Water Supply Committee came up with some questions and water use scenarios that the Board would like to look at. "How did it compare with the information that has to do with capacity?" Joe Bergquist asked. "It was very close," Mr. Weiss replied. "We looked at some of the same scenarios, and we were within one or two thousand acre feet for total yields for our system." Tom Sanders asked Mr. Weiss if they have run a scenario that plugs in a municipal demand that starts taking the 60,000 ac-ft. Mr. Weiss said they haven't actually done it, but they are planning to look at it. "Will you eventually be able to put quality on this?" Dr. Sanders asked. "At CSU they are working on a new version of Modsim called ModQ. That was a spin-off of the Arkansas Valley work they have been doing. It is a very basic model that doesn't have the user interface, but they Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 3 do have several parameters for water quality included," Mr. Weiss explained. "They have plans to bring it all together soon," he added. "Do you model the return flows separately?" Mr. Brown asked. Mr. Weiss said the return flows are handled internally each iteration. We specify a return flow percent based on the system efficiencies. Then we distribute the return flows throughout the basin. Some goes directly to the lower systems; a fraction that makes its way to the River, and some goes to a kind of mass balance aquifer which provides seasonal base flows. For a lot of that we are using Ross Bethel's results. He modeled the basin for the Platte River Power Authority project. Mr. Weiss referred to a graph that showed the return flow patterns. We are actually between the point flow results predicted by NCWCD's model and Ross Bethel's results. The return flows aren't hardwired; it's all a function of diversions. Robert Ward asked if the Legislature is going to consider funding a South Platte Decisions and Support Systems study this next session. How does this fit into what the State may be doing? Mr. Weiss answered that he is aware that the State is considering a South Platte model. He talked with Lee Rozaklis from Hydrosphere, and he was interested in some of the information from the model. "I think he is aware that we have this model." He wasn't sure that Hydrosphere is the firm that will do the modeling. "Hopefully they will come to us and we could help them." Mr. Weiss has a feeling, however, that they will be doing their own thing, because they have their own system and their own model. "I envision that they will create a separate basin network." David Lauer pointed out that Mr. Weiss' example of a 30% ag. decrease was interesting. He wondered if Mr. Weiss did anything with the percentage in M&I. "No, we didn't. We held everything constant and reduced ag. demand. To get a realistic view, you would have to consider things such as decrees and you would expect CBT water to be sold off and magnitudes of changes in demands," Mr. Weiss responded. "But is the model capable of doing that if you were to input the right set of variables?" Mr. Lauer asked. "Yes, there are a lot of assumptions to be made, but rather than the 30% reduction of land, we could have done that and increased M&I demands proportionally, and could shift decrees at different points," Mr. Weiss replied. "Could you start integrating the State with this?" Mr. Lauer continued. "We need to understand what they're doing in case we want to look at their model," Mr. Weiss concluded. Mr. Clopper thanked Mr. Weiss for his excellent presentation. WATER BOARD 2000 WORK PLAN A draft of the 2000 Work Plan was included in the Board packets. Chairman Clopper suggested that the Board approach the Work Plan as they had last year. Each committee chair presented his section of the plan, and suggested changes or additions. After considerable discussion, the final draft follows: Water Supply (Standing Committee) Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 4 A. Review and update the City's Water Supply Policy including issues related to: (1) Supply for municipal use and associated facilities (2) Regional cooperation (3) Agricultural economy and open space (4) Quality of water sources (5) City's position on its responsibility to protect the health of riverine ecosystems affected by City water use, and the relation of that responsibility to traditional water supply goals (6) Recreational/aesthetic flows B. Review opportunities to purchase water rights. C. Review proposed Halligan Reservoir project. D. Monitor protection of basin water supplies. 2. Water Conservation and Public Education (Standing Committee) A. Monitor the mandatory metering program. B. Help promote public education projects. C. Promote awareness of stormwater quality and flood hazards. D. Help promote integration of Stormwater management with community issues and needs. E. Review procedures for informing citizens about the quality of their drinking water. Le¢islative and Finance (Standing Committee) A. Review and make recommendations on Water, Wastewater and Stormwater related legislation and policies. B. Review and make recommendations regarding Water, Stormwater and Wastewater rate increases. C. Continue to develop Poudre River Drainageway Plan — Funding policies and implementation. D. Review and make recommendations regarding budget exception process. 4. En¢ineerin¢ (Standing Committee) A. Review Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD) Regional Water Demand Study. B. Review planning and designing phases of construction projects as needed. C. Review Water Treatment, Stormwater and Wastewater Treatment Master Plans. D. Review engineering aspect of Halligan Project. E. Review design criteria. F. Review joint City/County Drainage Projects G. Review habitat protection and restoration criteria in master plans. 5. Liaison Issues (Standing Committee) Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 5 A. Review Utilities' staff concerns regarding policies related to regional solutions to current and future water problems. B. Review Utilities' staff participation in Larimer-Weld Water Issues Associations' steps to develop a regional vision for the management of water, such as water banks. C. Meet with regional water boards and related City boards to discuss issues of common interest, i.e. annual inter -city meetings. D. Monitor efforts by basin forums to protect sources of drinking water (e.g., Poudre River watershed, Horsetooth Reservoir) from contamination. E. Review Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District (NCWCD) Regional Water Demand Study. 6. Stormwater (Committee of the Whole) A. Variance consideration a. Floodplain Management b. Design Criteria Construction Standards c. Stormwater fees B. Review FEMA Community Rating System C. Support efforts associated with the implementation of FEMA's "Project Impact" designation. D. Review and make recommendations on revisions to Floodplain Regulations. 7. Other Items Review and consider, as needed, such items as may come before the Board. It should be noted that the 1999 Work Plan included a committee of the whole called Water Quality. The Board decided that this part of the Work Plan be distributed, where appropriate, to other standing committees. The Stormwater section will remain as a committee of the whole. Questions about the rising price of water during Water Supply Discussion Some Board members asked about the price of CBT water and why it has increased significantly in price within the last few months. Dennis Bode said that within the last few weeks, there have been reports of sales around $7,000 per unit. Joe Bergquist asked about Windy Gap water. Mike Smith replied that the City does not own any Windy Gap. "Our use of Windy Gap water is through the Platte River Power Authority Reuse Agreement," Mr. Bode explained. "Is the City's agreement with them going to changer' Tom Sanders wondered. Mr. Bode said that Platte River would like to get some different water in their reservoir to address some water quality issues up there. "There are some alternatives that are being looked at" He added that he doesn't anticipate that the City's agreement with them would be unraveled. Robert Ward asked what is driving up the price of water. Bill Fischer pointed out that whenever the front range cities within the Northern District's boundaries annex a piece of land, they want Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 6 some water with it. CBT water is, or at least was at one time, reasonably easy to get and so freely transferable that the cities wanted to purchase it. Someone asked if a lot of it was small municipalities getting water from the pipeline. Mr. Bode said a large portion of it is going through the southern pipeline to Broomfield, Fort Lupton, Fort Morgan, and numerous small towns that are really starting to grow. David Lauer observed that the rate of increase seems to have gone up dramatically after the southern pipeline began operating. "I think to some extent that's true," Mr. Bode said. "Has North Poudre been following the price?" Tom Brown asked. "Yes," Mr. Bode replied. He has heard of sales of around $24-25,000 per share. They have been trying to catch up to CBT prices. Paul Clopper asked what the current cash -in -lieu -of rate is. "It's $2700 now. You may remember that the Board had recommended $3500, which has been adopted by City Council. That will become effective on January 1, 2000. Mr. Brown recalls that the Board was discussing a high of $5,000 on that when they were making the decision. Mr. Bode said the other piece is that most of our water is not coming from CBT water, so there may not be justification to match those prices; and to match something a little more local. Mr. Brown observed that North Poudre is keeping track with this catch-up route. Mr. Bode responded that it may reduce the amount of North Poudre water we can get. Mr. Brown commented that if it is rising as quickly as the CBT price, then our local situation may be changing significantly as well. "The North Poudre water is tracking the CBT water right now," Mr. Bode pointed out. "The local water like Arthur, New Mercer, Larimer No. 2 is still somewhat independent of that, and it probably follows the cash in - lieu -of prices," he added. Tom Sanders suggested that it may be time to look at buying water again. "All the water is eventually going to be moving up in price," he predicted. He asked how much money is in the water account. " Mr. Bode said he thought there was 4 to 5 million dollars in the water rights reserve fund. George Reed thinks that one of the things that is happening up north is the switch from commercial farmers to gentlemen farmers who don't seem to care what they pay for a couple of shares (or 3 or 4 shares) of North Poudre. "Is that just a perception, or is there some truth to that theory?" "I think that's true and probably the trend will continue in that part of the basin," Mr. Bode responded. REPORT ON WATERSHED MANAGEMENT AND WATER QUALITY FORUM Paul Clopper reported that two weeks ago there was a joint meeting between the Larimer County Natural Resources Board and the City's Natural Resources Advisory Board. Members of the Water Board were invited to attend. Robert Ward, David Lauer and Mr. Clopper attended. The group briefly discussed regional planning and the relationships of various entities and the Big Thompson Watershed Forum, which is a group that has been meeting for a couple of years. Ben Alexander and Gale McGaha Miller gave a very good presentation on watershed monitoring Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 7 efforts that City staff has been involved with. He asked Mr. Lauer and Mr. Ward to add their observations. Mr. Ward said that there were some interesting items presented at the meeting. Apparently EPA is coming out with some nutrient guidelines. "I don't know how that's going to affect the Poudre," he said. He pointed out that our wastewater goes into Fossil Creek Reservoir. "If EPA comes out with new nutrient guidelines, does that mean we are going to have nutrient standards for the Poudre?" He pointed out that some states don't have standards for nutrients. "They have individual standards for ammonia, nitrate, nitrite, etc.," Ms. McGaha Miller replied. "That's coming out of the treatment plants," Mr. Ward said. "We have individual water quality standards that are applied to river segments for those as well," Ms. McGaha Miller responded. "What you don't see very often are phosphorous standards, and that could impact our wastewater treatment plants. In this part of the country the eutrophication of lakes tends to be phosphorous limited rather than nitrogen limited. Although there are some river segments around the state that have phosphorous standards applied to them, you don't see it very often. What you also don't see is a total nitrogen standard. The other item Mr. Ward found interesting was the Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) process. In the drainages that we deal with —they are creating the list, of course. As you are aware, once you are on the list, you are into the process of having a TMDL analysis done. "As I understand it, the lower Big Thompson, the lower Little Thompson and the North Fork of the Poudre, because of Halligan Reservoir, are the three segments that are listed on the 303-D list." Ms. McGaha Miller explained the way it works. "If it has been established that a segment of a river reach is not meeting existing water quality standards, that puts it on a `hit list.' Once they are on that list, the state's approach is to rank those, and decide which one of them needs help, and which is rather a low priority. In the case of Halligan, we know exactly why it's on the list. Doing a TMDL wouldn't accomplish anything. You know what the problem is, and there aren't any other sources of that problem. That would have a different kind of rating than something like Clear Creek, which has all kinds of mine drainage coming into it and other problems. If you get bumped up to a level of priority where you need a TMDL, that's kind of like another watershed project, where you look at all the different sources of pollution; point source and non -point source, and try to come up with ways to mitigate that. With point sources, you do waste load allocation. You might say, this river can take only so much phosphorous, for example. Your piece of the pie is only X amount. You can see that in action at Cherry Creek Reservoir, Lake Dillon and Chatfield." She continued by saying that it has come to the point where wastewater treatment plants are doing a very good job. They have achieved so much technical advancement over the last couple of decades that they are only going to get a very small improvement compared to a big increase in capital improvement from them. EPA is trying to shift the focus to other kinds of sources, and certainly non -point sources. That's why the whole TMDL system is in flux right now. EPA rewrote the whole rule, and it was just published this fall. In the case of the three segments Mr. Ward listed, they are well below where we divert our CBT water. It doesn't really affect us, and Halligan is a fairly low priority. There are some pretty high priority stream segments up in the mountains with acid mine drainage, etc. Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 8 David Lauer pointed out that there are some fairly high priority areas in the plain sections of the River too, where problems like standards are developed based on what the use is. If the use is not drinking water, and all it is is ag./ recreation 2 where nobody recreates in the water with full body contact, like, for example, stretches of the River around Kodak; there aren't any established standards set for heavy metals or organic chemicals. The system is set up for different kinds of uses, Ms. McGaha Miller explained. You look at how the river is being used, and here "designated uses" is a slightly different term of art than the way people use it for water rights. It's true, if it's not being used as drinking water, then drinking water standards don't apply, but usually the more stringent water quality standards are for aquatic life protection anyway. "That's not really an excuse for not establishing standards for those things that might become problems 20 years in the future," Mr. Lauer insisted. Ms. McGaha Miller explained that there are metals limits for aquatic life protection, there are metals limits for ag. use protection and there are various types of limits for recreational 1 and 2. Whether or not they get applied toward a particular river segment, and whether they get cranked into discharge permits, is a matter of staff work at the state and the Water Quality Control Commission. Mr. Clopper mentioned that, at the joint meeting, when the group talked about eutrophication, and Ms. McGaha Miller mentioned the phosphorous being the constraining nutrient, the discussion centered around land disturbance issues, i.e. controlling erosions and sedimentation from construction sites, roads, culvert wash -outs, etc. Regarding the watershed management issues, much of the discussion centered on controlling erosion. Disturbed lands was a major topic of the meeting. "And the relationship of that disturbance to the quality of Horsetooth water," Mr. Ward added. Mr. Ward thought it was a very good meeting. "It brought a lot of diverse interest up to a level of common understanding about what the problems are and the connections between land use and drinking water quality for the people of Fort Collins," he stated. From that we will see ideas being taken back to the County, which has a lot of control of the land. This may make them start thinking about the connection of land disturbance to the quality of the water. "Whether any action comes from that, I don't know, but there will be thought and discussion," he concluded. STAFF REPORTS Treated Water Production Summary Dennis Bode referred to the summary included in Board packets. He reported that for November water use was 1,684 ac-ft. That was about 13% above the projected average because of the warm weather and low precip. It looks like we will finish the year at just below 90% of average projected use. "Year to date, we are just over 20 inches of precipitation," Mr. Clopper pointed out. COMMITTEE REPORTS The only committee that met was the Liaison Issues Committee. There were no reports from any of the committees. 0 • Water Board Minutes December 9, 1999 Page 9 OTHER BUSINESS Greeley Water & Sewer Dept. Open House Mr. Clopper reported that he and David Lauer attended the Greeley Water & Sewer Dept. open house on Friday evening. (It took place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.) He said they had some interesting displays in their new office building. He mentioned that they are quite interested in the Utilities' mandatory metering program, and asked how that was going. They told Mr. Lauer and Mr. Clopper about their meter reading device, which uses a short range radio signal that you read from a truck. It adds about $100 to the cost of a meter. Mike Smith said that kind of device would not make sense for Fort Collins because the meter reader has to read the electric meter too, and the cost of doing it that way, would be more than the cost of our current system. Year End Comments from Paul Clopper Along with his best wishes for the Holidays, Mr. Clopper thanked Water Board members and staff for an exceptional year of service. He cited the considerable number of additional activities and meetings this year. Board members and staff have been involved in time consuming ad hoc task forces, and joint meetings and activities with other boards, other cities and County staff. He also mentioned the participation of staff and Board members in the Children's Water Festival. Everyone has served the community and given time and effort above and beyond the call of duty, he said. ADJOURNMENT Tom Sanders moved to adjourn. After a second from Robert Ward, the meeting was adjourned at 4:50 p.m. e Q,&, Water Boar Secretary