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HomeMy WebLinkAboutWater Board - Minutes - 05/19/1989C, Water Board Minutes May 19, 1989 Members Present Henry Caulfield, President, Tom Sanders, Vice President, Neil Grigg, Tom Moore, Mary Lou Smith, Terry Podmore, Dave Stewart, Tim Dow, Chester Watson (alt.), Mark Casey (alt.) Staff Mike Smith, Dennis Bode, Linda Burger, Andy Pineda, Molly Nortier Guests John Bigham, Agency Coordinator, Northern Colorado Water Conservancy Dist Debby Browne, Prospective Water Board Member Member Absent Ray Herrmann President Henry Caulfield opened the meeting. The following items were discussed: Mr. Caulfield introduced Debbie Brown from Timnath, an applicant for a vacant Water Board position. She thought it would be good for her to observe a Water Board meeting. Minutes The minutes of April 21, 1989 were approved as distributed. Update: Northern Colorado Water Conservancy District John Bigham distributed the spring issue of "WaterNews." He also provided the latest information on East and West slope stream flows, project deli- veries and project reservoir storage as of May 18th. Mr. Bigham began by saying that unfortunately the snowpack situation hasn't improved. "At this time we anticipate about a 50% snowpack and the stream - flow may be slightly above that on a percentage basis." The storage on the east slope is approximately 85% while on the west slope it's 54% at Granby. It appears that it is going to be a very dry year. The District Board made a 70% quota determination, he said. "They are watching it very carefully. As a matter of fact, they have given the manager the authority to call an immediate phone meeting for raising that quota if necessary," he assured the Board. Water Board Minutes May 19, 1989 Page 2 Two of the driest areas are the St. Vrain and Boulder Creek. "Basically the only good news for this year is that we have good storage. We'll get through this year okay but next year may be another story," he concluded. Mike Smith asked if the recent rains helped. "It probably took the pressure off for a week or so, "Mr. Bigham replied, "but with more warm, dry weather, it won't take long to be back in the same situation." Mr. Caulfield asked that staff follow up Mr. Bigham's report with the impact the low snowpack will have on Fort Collins. Mr. Caulfield, Mike Smith and Dennis Bode attended a District meeting a few days earlier in which they learned of the possibility of a telephone meeting to up the quota if neces- sary. They anticipate having a meeting next week, he said. "I expect that the quota will go up to between 85-100% in the next 10 days," he added. As far as the impact on the City, he asked Dennis Bode to comment. "As we look at the water supply and the demand," Mr. Bode began, "we try to reserve enough supply to meet a dry year demand." For this year, the City is using around 34-35,000 acre feet that is being reserved. "We are also projecting supplies that we get, so there is a little judgement involved in that." We reserve the amount that we need for our demands, he continued. Then we try to make available any excess or surplus to the farmers. Andy Pineda explained the status of the irrigation water by ditch company as of May 16, 1989 from a summary sheet that was handed out. "Some of them have gone up somewhat since the 16th," he pointed out. The total rental shares requested is what farmers who need additional water have asked for. The demand for rental water this year is quite high. Mr. Bode added that part of this is from leaseback agreements made in previous years. "Most of the water that we are in the process of buying now is not reflected in this, but most of that is being leased back as part of the agreement when we purchased it," he explained. Neil Grigg asked if CBT water can be put in almost any of the ditch compa- nies and run into the Poudre or run down the St. Vrain system. Mr. Bigham replied: "If we can get it in there and accommodate them, we will." Mr. Caulfield asked if we can conclude that even with a severe drought, Fort Collins would have enough water this year without having to impose restric- tions. "That's true based on the projections we made," Mr. Bode replied.' "If it turned completely dry with no precipitation, we could get into a grey area." He added that they are "trying to spilt hairs a little" so they can make some of the surplus water available to the farmers. Tom Sanders asked about the use last year and if that included Anheuser- Busch. The use last year was a little under 30,000 AF, Mr. Bode explained, and that included the 10 months A-B was on. "When we do our planning we plan for a 1 in 20 dry year," he said. Water Board Minutes May 19, 1989 Page 3 Mr. Caulfield reported that 2 things happened last Friday when he, Mike Smith and Dennis Bode met with the District. 1) The District Board approved the legal transfer of 1800 AF of water to the City out of the purchases we have made. "Of course we have bought more than that, but that's all that came before the District," he clarified. 2) We also presented a plan to them of the City's water supply through the year 2035. The District has delayed any official comment on that. Within the material that Water Board members had received, there was a copy of a letter from the mayor of Boulder in which she basically says, as paraphrased by Mr. Caulfield: "We are not going to hold you up in your purchase of CBT, but we will trust that you will back us up in our sale of Windy Gap water." That letter, Mr. Caulfield surmised, was one of the reasons that the Board decided not to take action, because the letter had just arrived that morning; and they could have been anticipating that something might also arrive from Longmont. Moreover, this might formulate a policy for any kind of endorsement the District Board may want to give the City on its plan. Mr. Caulfield directed the Board's attention to a letter in the packets from W.D. Farr, sent to the Governor. "I heard about this letter a few weeks ago and I asked Mr. Farr to send me a copy," he began. Mr. Farr, as you know, is president of the Greeley Water Board and also a member of the Sub- district board. Mr. Caulfield believes that the substance of the letter is the point he makes of the great importance of having a Denver metropolitan water dis- trict, so there is a combined system of water there. In this way, whatever happens, "they don't go running all over the place for water." This is important from an environmentalist point of view, and a more considered way of going about acquiring water elsewhere. It could be argued from Northern Colorado's point of view, that it's not so good to have these people com- bined, to become a powerful water authority. "However, I suspect from Colo- rado's point of view in general, it is a good thing. Furthermore, we can defend ourselves even better against a combined Denver area group than a hit or miss type of approach which Thornton made," he contends. Neil Grigg reported that he and several others from Fort Collins were at a Thornton water meeting that morning where they were discussing Two Forks and what the metro area's response was going to be. There were two panels; one was composed of news media people. They had produced a videotape of a group of private citizens to show what they thought of Two Forks and water manag- ers in general. There was a focus group that didn't know they were being videotaped. "None of their opinions matched with what we would think, Dr. Grigg asserted. For example, one of them said that it's a well-known fact that Denver sells 60% of it's water to southern California!" Dr. Grigg went on to say that after that the three media people, representatives from the Denver Post and the Rocky Mountain News, and a former press secretary to Governor Lamm, now a journalism professor at CU, concluded from what they heard of the focus group, the media had obviously failed in explaining Two Forks. Water Board MinuteL May 19, 1989 Page 4 The media people observed that in the past, water supply issues had been covered by the government section of the newspaper, but Two Forks had been covered by the environmental sections. Consequently, the coverage was com- pletely different from what it would have been otherwise. "I think all of us learned from that focus group how the public sees all of these issues," Dr. Grigg stated. In addition, he said, these questions were asked: "Are our decisions for the future going to be made on the basis of 30 second TV spots? Are the people really going to study issues like this and make deci- sions?" Chester Watson asked if the people were at the meeting who threw tea bags in Horsetooth Reservoir. Mr. Caulfield replied that the tea bag episode was related to another issue, not to Two Forks. That issue involves how the members of the Board of the Northern District are selected; in other words, "the taxation without representation" charge. Dr. Watson believes it would be a mistake to have popular elections for the Board positions of the Dis- trict. Mr. Caulfield said if that ever becomes an issue he has an alterna- tive to the popular election. "Incidentally," he explained, anyone who wants to be elected to the District Board can try for it now under the law." There are three seats currently up for appointment, one of them is from this area. Nancy Gray's term will be up in September. The judge who makes the appointment in this County is John David Sullivan. Staff Reports Water Acquisitions Dennis Bode reported that since the last meeting staff took another item to Council, at which time they approved 4 more water purchases: 50 units of CBT water; 25 shares of North Poudre; and 1/4 share New Mercer with those pur- chases that brings the total to 7335 acre feet. "We have just 65 AF left to complete the purchase," he said. Committee Reports Legislative and Finance Chairman Tim Dow said that Staff has prepared a final summary for the Board. Henry Caulfield commented on an item that came up at the Northern District meeting. Former president of the Senate Anderson publicly complimented Linda Burger for her involvement in negotiating a compromise on section 3 of SB 181. Ms. Burger explained that Section 3 of SB 181 deals with the new EPA requi- rements for controls for toxic organic pollutants in wastewater discharges. EPA is now requiring that states adopt programs for including numeric stan- dards for toxic organics. There is a list of more than 80 in section 307 of the Federal Act. "We became concerned about the prospect of having an addi- tional 83 parameters in our discharge permit," she explained. 1) The costs of monitoring those pollutants is quite high. For example if the City were required to monitor for that series on a monthly basis, it would cost at least $24,000 a year. That would be regardless of whether there were any sources of those pollutants in our system. 2) Also we already have in place, a regulation requiring bio-monitoring which is for the purpose of Water Board Mites • May 19, 1989 Page 5 monitoring toxic organics. So we would be in a position of having to moni- tor twice for basically very similar compounds. 3) Finally, the way the program was being proposed, it took the impact of toxic pollution and places it on the municipalities instead of keeping it on the industries where it belongs. In effect, what would have happened is that in addition to regu- lating industries through the industrial pretreatment program, they would also be regulating toxic pollution through the discharge permit. Because of the double regulations, it would increase costs and it would put the City in a far greater liability than it is now. It would open up the possibility of having to do exotic kinds of treatment for organic compounds that should be controlled through industrial pretreatment. Ms. Burger went on to say that what they did was work on language that allows the reliance on monitoring of industrial discharges, rather than end of pipe type monitoring that is normally required through a discharge per- mit. "We were able to include restrictions on when limitations for toxic compounds can be placed in discharge permits. In other words, there has to be some reason for believing those compounds are present before they can be regulated." In addition, there is another provision that states if exce- dances of standards occur as a result of some source other than industry - for example, releases from individual households - rather than enforcing on a municipality, the WQCC would hold a hearing and try to determine the source and make recommendations through the governor and the legislature as to how those sources should be dealt with. Thus, you could look at the pos- sibility of a state-wide product ban rather than going to individual munici- palities and saying "build exotic treatment to resolve this problem." Mr. Caulfield asked what would happen if a citizen put something hazardous in the system. Ms. Burger replied that City ordinance prohibits people from discharging anything down the sewer that would interfere with the operation of the treatment plant or cause a violation of the permit conditions. "Obviously there is no way to enforce that," she acknowledged. Moreover, we don't have much information on how large an impact combined households could have." Ms. Burger said all of this was a part of the very lengthy negotiations regarding SB 181. Ms. Burger continued by saying that staff prepared a description of the bills relating to water that the City was following this year. The summary gives the final dispensation of those bills. There are basically no sur- prises with any of them except the bill setting up the fee program for industrial pretreatment (HB 1086). The pretreatment program is being trans- ferred to the State; now it is operated by the EPA. EPA is requiring states to take over industrial pretreatment implementation as part of their NPDES permit delegation. The State has a period of 5 years following the passage of the 1987 amendments in which to get that done and they needed a fee pro- gram put in place in order to fund the operation of that program. "We thought the bill was all set to go since there was general support for it. Basically what happened was there was a long list of bills to be considered on the final day of the legislative session. The clock struck midnight and Water Board Minute May 19, 1989 Page 6 they had to adjourn just as that bill was coming up. However, I expect that it will go through next year," she added. There are bills still sitting on the governor's desks that have not been signed. "I'm not expecting any surprises there," she said. There has been an interim committee established again on water issues. Ms. Burger has not heard what the membership of that committee is. It is simi- lar to the one last year in that they will be looking at basin of origin bills, water quality -water quantity inter -relations and drought control; issues that were looked at last year by the interim committee. They will probably begin meeting in June and on through December, she said. She added that the Water Utilities Council, an organization of drinking water utili- ties throughout the state, has convened a committee to look at basin of ori- gin legislation also. Ms. Burger will be working with that committee. Larry Simpson made it clear, Henry Caulfield related, that the NCWCD is not pushing basin of origin bills unless it comes up as a specific matter as it has in the past. They are interested in a generic bill covering basin trans- fers. They will follow it, and be party to any discussion of it, but as such they are not pushing it. John Bigham agreed with Mr. Caulfield's interpre- tation of the District's involvement. Ms. Burger reported that the Senate confirmed the appointment by the Gover- nor of Michael B. Smith to the Water Resources and Power Development Author- ity. Molly Nortier pointed out that there was an article about his appoint- ment in the Coloradoan and an article in the Water & Wastewater Newsletter, "Pipelines." Conservation and Public Education Chairperson Marylou Smith said that the committee is making good progress and will have a report at the next meeting. National Recreation Area Report Chairman Tom Sanders reported that all committee members have received the preliminary report and they will meet as soon as everyone has had a chance to read the report. Linda Burger said that the City Council will be making a decision in July on whether or not to endorse the report. Other Business Henry Caulfield reminded the Board of the discussion at the last meeting about the Districts and particularly the Fort Collins -Loveland Water Dis- trict. The steering committee, set up by agreement with the district, is meeting to negotiate a new 5-year agreement. Mr. Caulfield pointed out the memo from Rich Shannon, referred to at the last meeting, and included in the packets. A second memo, recently prepared by Mr. Caulfield, directed to Council members Horak and Maxey, was distributed with the extra materials passed out at today's meeting. • Water Board Mites • May 19, 1989 Page 7 The memo set forth some ideas about the general posture that the City ought to take. One of those ideas, also spelled out by Mr. Shannon in his memo, is that we need a long term game plan regarding future relationships, etc. Mr. Caulfield noted the City's water supply report estimates that by the year 2035, 1/3 of the citizens of Fort Collins will receive their water from Dis- tricts,"given the present institutional arrangements we have with the three Districts; particularly ELCO and Fort Collins -Loveland." In Mr. Caulfield's memo he indicates that if this occurs, unless there are common policies, some of the citizens of Fort Collins will be disadvantaged in terms of the degree of drought protection they have, their water quality, the rates, developer's contributions and water pressure. Rich Shannon, Mike Smith and Mr. Caulfield met with Councilman Gerry Horak on Thursday to discuss the agreement. Mr. Maxey was not able to meet with them. Mr. Caulfield went on to say that presumably the City will argue that the policies we have already established are good, (e.g. water quality, drought planning, etc.), but that the most basic principle is uniformity. He then asked for reactions to his memo. He stressed that the memo was his own pro- posal and not that of the Water Board as a whole. He wrote it to get some ideas and general guidelines "on the table." Currently Fort Collins citizens that are served by the District are less than 5%, so there is no great urgency to act at this point. There is not a matter of discrimination or disadvantage of any substantial degree yet. But if 1/3 of the people will be served by the District, that is another story. On the other hand, the difficulty of implementing these ideas is obvious. "Geographically speaking, we are dealing with territories that are much larger than we are. However, I still think I was right to state in my memo, some ideas that give us some posture for which to approach the negotiations with these three districts," he concluded. Tom Sanders said he agrees wholeheartedly with Mr. Caulfield's approach. "I am worried about financing as well as the water quality issue. We should start planning ahead," he emphasized. Dave Stewart asked if we have ever explored wholesaling to them rather than their upgrading their plant. Mike Smith replied "yes, we have approached it. Their reaction is they are thinking about it, but not very seriously. We have suggested that perhaps we could treat all of their water for them." Mr. Stewart asked their cost per 1,000 gallons. "It's less than ours," Mr. Smith answered, "because their treatment isn't as extensive and they don't run their plant all the time." He added that the District's concern is that someday the majority of their customers will be City residents and those residents could have a lot of power." Neil Grigg asked about the steering committee. Mr. Caulfield admitted that it was news to him until not too long ago, also. The committee was estab- lished in the agreement between the Fort Collins -Loveland Water District, and the City Council. It is made up of two members of the Council and a member of the Water Board. Norm Evans the former Water Board president, had Water Board Minute. - May 19, 1989 Page 8 been the Water Board representative. Currently Mr. Caulfield is considered as a member. Dr. Grigg asked if the points in the memo are already being discussed with the District. Mr. Caulfield explained that Rich Shannon's memo has already gone to Mike DiTullio and presumably the Board of the Fort Collins -Loveland Water District. A meeting has been arranged for the evening of May 31st for the steering committee to meet with Mr. DiTullio and the Board of Directors of the FC-Loveland Water District. "In other words, we are just beginning the process," he said. The old agreement will expire next February. As the Urban Growth Area fills out, and we presumably expand into those areas and they become incorporated into the City, do we have some projec- tions by the year 2010 what percent would be served by the Districts, Mary Lou Smith asked. Dennis Bode replied that there is a table in the Water Supply Policy Report that spells out projected utility service area popula- tion and total City population. "We were projecting 1/3 in the year 2035," he said. What about the Districts, Chester Watson asked. Mike Smith explained that much of the south district doesn't have anywhere to go. They will either be absorbed by Fort Collins or Loveland, They can't go too far east because of Windsor and Timnath to the northeast. ELCO can still reach out in the rural areas. "If you have further questions about this, Mr. Caulfield said, "get in touch with Mike Smith or me. We would appreciate input from the Board," he stressed. Mr. Caulfield pointed out a notice in the Triangle Review about a display at No. 15 Old Town Square depicting the old Fort Collins Water Works in recog- nition of Historic Preservation Month. Molly Nortier explained that the Historical Society borrowed the Utility's original drawings done by Dale Crawford for our centennial celebration. Mike Smith related that the Historical Society has a keen interest in the old building and they are trying to raise money to be used for its preservation. Tom Sanders brought up a possible personal conflict of interest. The City of Thornton, he said, has negotiated a contract with a former student and a professor who works with him to take a look at Thornton's water quality monitoring network. "It has nothing to do with their purchase of water up here," he stressed. They want to streamline and cut down on the costs relat- ing to water quality monitoring. "Thornton asked me if I would be interested in doing it as a project with one of my students." Dr. Sanders tentatively said he would accept it but informed them that it would be necessary to check first with City staff since he is a member of the Water Board. Mike Smith told him he didn't think it would be a conflict. "I wouldn't be making any money personally, he said, "only what would cover a graduate student for a period of approximately 3-4 months. If any Board member thinks this would be harmful in any way to the reputation of the Water Board, I would gladly transfer it out of my hands to a colleague," he assured the Board. + Water Board Mies i May 19, 1989 Page 9 MaryLou Smith said that the manner in which Dr. Sanders brought this up is in keeping with her understanding of the conflict of interest policy. Mr. Caulfield added that, "you can't have boards like this without having knowledgeable people involved somehow." Tim Dow suggested that Paul Eckman get a copy of the minutes with the request that he look at the discussion of the potential conflict to deter- mine if he has any questions about it. If he does, he can inform the Board. Mike Smith suggested that Tom Sanders may also want to talk to Paul Eckman and get his reaction. There were no adverse comments from any member of the Board about Tom Sander's involvement in the Thornton project. Tim Dow mentioned that Thornton's litigation on their water rights applica- tion is getting fired up again, perhaps in light of the Two Forks issue. "Thornton is actively shopping for people to come along from the metro area to share their burden. They are looking for partners in a raw water ven- ture." Since there was no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 4:15 p.m. Water Boar Secretary