HomeMy WebLinkAboutNatural Resources Advisory Board - Minutes - 04/20/2016MINUTES
CITY OF FORT COLLINS
NATURAL RESOURCES ADVISORY BOARD
Date: Wednesday, April 20, 2016
Location: 215 N. Mason Conference Room 1A
Time: 6:00–8:30pm
For Reference
Bob Overbeck, Council Liaison 970-988-9337
Katy Bigner, Staff Liaison 970-221-6317
Board Members Present Board Members Absent
John Bartholow, chair
Katherine de Leon
Bob Mann
Jay Adams
Luke Caldwell
Nancy DuTeau
Elizabeth Hudetz
Harry Edwards
Drew Derderian
Staff Present
Katy Bigner, Staff Liaison, Environmental Services
Dianne Tjalkens, Admin/Board Support, Social Sustainability
Donnie Dustin, Water Resources Manager, Utilities
Cassie Archuleta, Environmental Planner, Environmental Services
Susie Gordon, Sr. Environmental Planner, Environmental Services
Guests: None
Call meeting to order: John called the meeting to order at 6:00pm
Staff Comment: None
Public Comments: None.
Approval of Minutes:
Harry moved and Nancy seconded a motion to approve the March minutes as presented.
Motion passed unanimously, 9-0-0.
AGENDA ITEM 1— Water Supply Reliability and Storage
Donnie Dustin, Water Resources Manager, presented on Utilities Water Supply Reliability and
Storage Update, as well as potential Regional Water Supply Collaboration in the Growth
Management Areas.
Department administers water rights, develops them for future use, and does planning. Current
topics: water supply reliability, storage projects, water supply planning and management for GMA,
water efficiency plan, water development fees, and interaction with ditch companies.
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Fort Collins area water districts—planning is focused on Fort Collins Utilities water service area.
Water supply sources are Poudre River and Horsetooth Reservoir. Use about 50/50 from two sources.
Deliver 28K acre feet of water per year. Administer raw water that goes to parks and gold courses.
Have seen significant decline in water use over last few decades. Per capita have seen 25% reduction
in use since early 2000s drought. A lot of variables in water supply. Majority of runoff on Poudre an
into CBT system occurs in two month period. Current water supplies—have adequate supplies in
most years—policy is to provide reliability through 1 in 50 year type drought. Firm yield right now is
31K acre feet per year. Use a six year long drought for modelling. Guiding doc is Water Supply and
Demand Management Policy. Have a water supply shortage response plan for longer droughts which
includes mandatory restrictions. Have storage reserve factor of 20% of annual demand. Fire was
during significant drought. Have planning demand level for future. Council decided to plan for
current levels despite conservation plan goal of 130 GPCD (gallons per capita per day). Supply can
be affected by climate change, CBT project curtailment, changes in river administration, competition
for water rights, etc. Conservation can help balance diminished yields we may see. Concern around
reliance on CBT storage. Compared to other communities have lower controlled storage per capita.
Don’t have control over operation of most storage, which is embedded in the CBT storage. City only
owns one reservoir: Joe Wright. Would like to diversify supply. Future is dependent on population
and commercial growth. Recently updated projections for 2065 is 178K people in the service area.
The GMA will get to about 255K. Large contractual uses (LCU) are not included in the GPCD
values. Projecting 500 acre feet additional LCU over what we have contracts for today, so don’t
anticipate having another large user coming to town. The small breweries are incorporated into
GPCD number. Projected demand of 38,400 acre feet annually, about 7,000 acre feet over existing
firm yield. Acquiring supply to meet demand—have raw water requirements for developments.
Focused on getting cash-in-lieu in order to acquire storage. Two types of storage focusing on: 1.
Operational—when change water right from agricultural to municipal use have to meet return flow
requirements through small scale storage. 2. Carry-Over and Vulnerability Protection Storage—for
drought protection. Rigden Reservoir was completed last year in conjunction with Natural Areas
(1900 acre feet). Natural Areas is acquiring water for in-stream flow and augmentation. Rigden is
adjacent to Arapahoe Bends natural area. Halligan Reservoir is an existing reservoir on north fork.
Plan is to expand it from 6,500 to 14,500 acre feet—8100 acre feet for Fort Collins. Reasons to
enlarge Halligan: existing, gravity system (no pumping required—no GHG emissions), opportunities
to improve flows below Halligan, cost effective, etc. Adverse impacts: alter flow and sediment, loss
of wetlands, stream channel and wildlife habitat. Permitting process will address environmental
concerns for avoidance and/or mitigation. Have been in process for ten years. Recently updated
purpose and need for the project. Army Corp of Engineers will do environmental and alternatives
analysis to find least environmentally damaging project. Alternatives include Glade Reservoir
enlargement, local gravel pits, re-operating Joe Wright, using existing irrigation company storage,
and no action. Total cost $45M: have spent $15M to date, about $5M in from partners, total utilities
share $40M. Have half in bank. Advocate conservation coupled with storage for sustainable water
future.
Regional Water Supply in GMA
In ‘50s and ‘60s people were asking for water service outside of town. Districts formed to support
that water use. As city has grown into the districts, due to differences in portfolios, there is a disparity
in costs. Council has requested staff discuss planning efforts with districts to talk about collaboration
to address concerns and issues. Districts base fees on price of CBT, which has skyrocketed in the last
4 years. Barriers: districts, potential loss of control, varying interests, cost-benefit inequities,
workforce impacts. Workshop May 31 with City Council, district managers, board members, etc. to
discuss key questions. Have similar sources, similar challenges, and potential opportunities. Open to
the public.
Discussion/Q & A:
• Significant drops in water use attributed to?
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o State wide drought—people learned didn’t need to irrigate lawns as much. Also
enacted tiered and seasonal rate structures to incentivize use reduction. Water
conservation program.
o Finished metering?
In 2003.
o How did flood affect?
Impacted split of water use supplies. Fire impacted water supplies more—
water quality could change with rain events for a long period of time, making
river unusable. Began to re-think future planning. Had restrictions in 2013
until got additional sources through CBT. Flood kept us from using river for
some time, but actually helped by flushing ash and debris.
o Per capita water use is 150 gallons per day. What are top 2 uses? Toilets?
Dishwashers? Lawns?
Liesel Hans and Rene Davis are more familiar with water efficiency plan.
Toilets are still top indoor use. 35% of use is outdoors in our utility. 150
gallons includes businesses, with exception of large contractual uses.
• How do we get more storage control? Or more water rights?
o Storage owned and controlled comes with many benefits. All water providers have
different mixes of water rights, storage and CBT. We’re in good position but
vulnerable due to this issue.
o Measuring storage, not water rights.
Correct. Have senior water rights that have good yield most of the year,
which allows us to need less storage.
Is amount of water for CBT determined annually?
• Yes. CBT is supplemental supply for this region. Unit holders get a
quota each year. 1 unit=1 acre foot at 100%. If not using it, rent to
local agriculture.
• Water gates off the River, and gravel quarries owned by Greeley full of water next to the
river.
o CO is a prior appropriation state. All water belongs to the state. You have to apply to
use it and show beneficial use. Operates on first come first serve basis. Direct flow
rights are more senior than storage rights. City has many senior direct flow rights and
good ownership of CBT. Ditches you see along the river all have separate
ownerships. Very complicated.
Fort Collins has low storage because of senior water rights.
Can rent water from agriculture as well. Don’t always have to have storage.
Alternative transfer methods are in infancy. Rented water in 2003 from
Thornton, but they are moving toward using that water. May not be available
in the future. Senior direct flow rights cannot be rented.
• Considering extending Seaman Reservoir?
o Were teamed with Greeley in enlarging Seaman. They are on different timeline, so
separated. Hope to do joint operations in the future for positive in-stream flow
impacts.
• Will be stopping flow from Poudre with Halligan?
o Effect will be mostly above Fort Collins. Would be storing rights from ditches. In
summer would be reducing flow between diversions and Halligan.
o Rivers are like bloodstream. If holding it back, reduce the life.
o Halligan is 1/20th the impact of what NISP would do. But will be reducing flows in
the summer. Want to avoid dry-ups.
o Because other people want to move here?
Yes. Want to be as good to environmental as we can. Have done separate
permitting with Greeley. North Fork between two reservoirs. Conditions will
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be imposed to avoid dry-ups. Environmental impacts analysis will talk about
mitigation.
• Not considering impacts of climate change?
o The Corps is taking qualitative look at impacts of climate change. Many variations.
Did same with NISP project.
• New motivation for regional collaboration and shared treatment is state board (CWCB).
Approved study group to look at potable reuse. In discussion with Fort Collins water, that
would involve changes in water treatment. Right now reusable water is contracted to
Rawhide for cooling. Denver water is looking at purple water for toilet flushing and
landscaping.
o Legislation was passed two years ago to allow limited use of grey water.
This refers to water that comes out of waste water treatment plant that instead
of being returned to river is piped for other uses. No regulations right now.
• Have limited ability to reuse between our water rights and contract
with Platte River Power Authority. Denver has a lot of reusable
sources of water. If not reusable, can only use once and have to return
to the river for downstream use.
• Standards for water for potable reuse would be different and change
long range planning and design at water treatment facility. If Rawhide
goes offline, that water would be freed up.
• Interconnecting all the ponds at Arapahoe could create one large storage facility.
o Water quality concerns, different from at mouth of canyon. To get it usable to us,
without building new treatment plant, would have to pump to plant. Ability to trade is
limited. City manages those, but unsure ownership of water.
o City ponds are all over. If connected would have one big one. Enough ponds that city
is in control of to interconnect.
Also about money. Must be lined for use as water supply storage. They are
old gravel pits. If tried to use for that purpose would get very complicated.
One of Halligan alternatives is lining/expanding existing gravel pits. Not all
are owned by the City.
AGENDA ITEM 2— Sustainability Assessment Tool
Cassie Archuleta, Environmental Planner, provided an update on the pilot year for the Sustainability
Assessment Tool and the process for updating this tool and its application.
Finished pilot year of the SAT in December. Have been conducting assessment. Sustainability is
overarching value, related to triple bottom line approach (economic, social and environmental).
Integrating these concepts into all thinking, all projects. SAT purpose is to identify at the beginning
of a project and mitigate. Tool also contributes to transparency as public can see how projects are
assessed. Tool is evolution of TBLAM tool, had outreach and training, and was piloted in 2015.
Once determine that need SAT, there are resources to identify an interdisciplinary team, the team
goes through prompts on tool, determine if the project has positive or negative impacts in each area,
identify mitigation, and complete summary for submission to Council. Looking into a web form to
collect all of the SATs. Staff survey said tool helped identify key issues. Interdisciplinary team was
one of favorite aspects—facilitated bringing diverse groups together. Staff was unsure of the end
result, though they appreciated the process. Staff also did not care for the quantitative rating for
qualitative ideas. Big question was about when it is appropriate to do SAT. Convening a steering
committee to refine the tool. Will create a decision tree, basic tool to identify key issues, tiered
response to allow deeper dive if identify negative impacts. Stakeholder team will review and refine
questions to target City programs/goals/strategies, and will have team that can help project managers
implement the tool. Want to develop a feedback loop so stakeholders can look at responses in
specific areas of concern. Will have revised tool by end of 2016.
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Discussion/Q & A:
• TBLAM was quantitative and when this was developed heard it would be qualitative and
more of a brainstorming tool.
o When Utilities developed TBLAM, was concern about whether it was effective as a
quantitative tool. Advance Planning developed more quantitative TBL tool for City
Plan that wasn’t really used. Easier to do quantitative analysis in areas that have
strong numbers, but harder in areas like social sustainability. Purpose is to make sure
considering implications across the TBL across the breadth of City practices.
Looking to create a process that staff can use easily at the beginning of project
considerations, when have time to mitigate.
• Ratings for bus stop design—the concept was to have standard design features or criteria, or
were you looking at a specific design plan?
o They were looking at enhancements such as ADA accessibility. Staff rarely reported
negative numbers—may be aspect of positive bias.
o Utilities TBLAM had a green/yellow/red stoplight rating system, but took it out
because staff did not want to move forward on projects that got a yellow rating. Staff
is unlikely to bring forward projects that have fatal flaws—this is to help mitigate
potential blind spots.
Seems there would be some politicking involved in rating.
• Have not had that experience.
• Spent time with sustainability coordinators from across the state on this subject and realized
most important thing is to ask the right questions, not a rating scale. Discover trouble spots,
what is really good about a project, what are negatives, so not missing blind spots. When
project manager looks at the analysis, hard to avoid addressing trouble places.
o Discussed importance of multidisciplinary team to walk through it.
Yes, that is critical.
o Ex: transportation projects will have specific aspects. This tool is designed as one-
size fits all. Seeing if there is a way to input type of project and have it filter the
questions to those that apply.
o Want to avoid unintended consequences.
• Regarding feedback loop, might be useful to come back after project is done to see if tool
was accurate.
o Can review what thought would happen and what actually happened.
o Reflect on how effective tool was in discovering impacts.
o Accountability and transparency—having a central collection point would be
beneficial.
Also offers knowledge transfer.
• How does Council treat this?
o Utilities interviewed city of Olympia team that developed this. They never provided
to Council because it had too much detail and got them into the weeds. Staff used as
part of process for vetting projects.
• How long does this take?
o Varied, but generally one to two hours. Sometimes a project manager would complete
first, then send out for comment/review.
o Once a negative impact is identified, someone else explores in more detail?
Hoping for this type of follow up.
AGENDA ITEM 3— Community Recycling Construction (CRC)
Susie Gordon, Sr. Environmental Planner, provided an update on the status of the new CRC.
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Opening date August 22. Inserts in Utility bills provide information to customers. Household
Hazardous Waste (HHW) event in May. Paint stewardship program. New recycling center will be a
drop off site. Located at Prospect and Timberline. Substation to the north, industrial center to the
south. Adjacent plot of land is rented by railroad for storage. Due to stormwater regulations had to
install a large detention pond, which takes up a large part of property and was very costly. There
were a number of trees that were transplanted last fall. Broke ground March 7. Nearby are Jessup
Farms, EPIC, and a “Proving Up” house stored by Parks Department—homesteaders had to have a
house on property for one year. This house was built on skids and moved from property to property.
It was salvaged 20 years ago from near Horsetooth Reservoir. It will be moved, likely to Lee
Martinez Park. Recent change to City’s dust mitigation policy—implementing best practices at this
site. Waste Not Recycling will be site operator. There will be two people on site during business
hours. For standard recyclables, open during daylight hours, free, and simply loop through. For hard-
to-recycle and hazardous waste items, pass through gate into secured area. $5 to visit this area. Green
waste and wood waste will have a per-yard cost and electronics will have per-item charge.
Deliberately priced a little higher than Hageman’s and Weitzel’s to encourage people to continue to
use these businesses. The CRC is meant for less common recyclables. Anticipating traffic issues with
many road projects on Prospect and remodel of Timberline and Prospect. Will only be able to make
right turn out of center. Rivendell will close when CRC opens and its operations will move to CRC.
Waste Management will continue to manage the contract for these items. Considering asking people
to sort HDPE (thicker plastic) separately to optimize the rebate on these items. Asking for
$235K/year in 2017/18 BFO process for operating expenses. Waste Not Recycling is very
experienced and has great connections/efficiencies. Will have different hours summer vs. winter and
will be closed on Sundays and Mondays. Website: fcgov.com/timberlinerecycling. Open house event
last week to explain road construction to neighbors. Can provide tours and come speak to community
groups upon request.
Discussion/Q & A:
• Last year seemed like the project was getting tabled, and now it is moving forward. How did
that happen?
o Last June Work Session Council asked for more specific information on cost to run
the facility. Staff has estimated $80K/year. Finance Department stepped in to help.
Determined it would cost much more to operate and City Manager recommended to
Council to not move forward. Restarted project after November budget hearing.
Working with interdepartmental team has been great—traffic, publicity, contract
management, etc.
• Packets that go home with kids in the first few weeks of school. Maybe opportunity to get
information to the public.
o Having a lot of the flyers printed to have on-hand at events and at visitor center. Will
check in with PSD. HHW events have become nomadic—site at CSU is being
redeveloped. May event is at Streets facility. September event will be at new CRC.
Excited to see CRC provide year-round opportunity to recycle paint, oil, and
antifreeze.
Concerned that having the event at CRC will create confusion that can bring
all HHW to the site year round.
Anticipate some confusion. Also, considering holding other special events
such as collecting Styrofoam once a month. Marketing is a challenge. Will
attend lagoon concert series at CSU all summer with an outreach booth.
AGENDA ITEM 4—Other Business
Open Board Discussion
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• Colorado Prairie Initiative is collecting money—have bison, prairie dogs, etc. on their
website. Are they a legitimate group?
o If it is a 501c3 they have to be registered with the state.
o Talk to Daylan Figgs or Mark Sears in Natural Areas.
• Need to appointment new liaison to Bicycle Advisory Board.
o Luke will find out more and consider being liaison.
o Tessa Greegor is staff liaison.
• Invite Gary Wockner, ED of Save the Poudre, to speak at board meeting about alternative
storage. Katherine will extend invitation.
• Jay will learn more about the Water Efficiency Plan.
• Board agreed would like to learn more about Dark Skies Initiative. Katy will add to
unscheduled agenda items.
• Community Recycling Ordinance—no recent updates. June 28 Work Session. Katy will ask
Caroline to return to board for update.
• Transportation is on annual work plan, but haven’t done much around this topic.
o Need to improve bus system—grid, cycles, etc. Pick up and drop off within
neighborhoods. High speed rail system would be ideal. Was proposed many years
ago, but deemed too expensive. Fort Collins was recently designated #10 for worst
ozone in the U.S.
Denver #6.
o Part is elevation and beyond our control—impacted by geography in addition to
pollution.
o Invite someone from Transportation, Transfort, Planning and/or Streets.
o Have AQAB and Transportation Board. What is role of NRAB?
Street widening takes away from natural resources.
Find out how Transfort is adjusting to new developments/subdivisions.
• Affordable Housing Superboard Meeting had diagram of in- and out-commuting.
Transportation needs as they relate to affordable housing and creating a commuting
community.
o 50% of carbon emissions are from electric power generation. 24% are from
transportation emissions. Concern around meeting CAP goals.
ACTION ITEMS: Request presentations on Dark Skies Initiative, Community Recycling Ordinance,
and alternative water storage with Gary Wockner.
Review City Council’s 6-Month Planning Calendar & NRAB Action Items
• April 26 WS: Refreshing Our Parks
o Luke attended meeting on revamping City Park. Great plans. Available on Parks
website. Have four proposals and Parks is requesting feedback. At beginning stages,
may not be prepared to speak to board yet.
o Katy can request presentation that talks about the Work Session.
• July: Dark Skies Initiative
• Light and Power Reliability Report
• Regional Water Collaboration Workshop
• June: Community Recycling Ordinance
• June: Wildlife Management Guidelines Review
ACTION ITEMS: Request presentation on Refreshing Our Parks.
Meeting Adjourned: 8:30pm
Next Meeting: May 18
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