City Council Minutes- 11/08/2010 Special with Lake Oswego Agenda Item No. 3b.1
Meeting of
CITY COUNCIL SPECIAL MEETING
MINUTES
November 8, 2010
Mayor Jack Hoffman called the special City Council meeting to order at 7:06 p.m. on
November 8, 2010, in the Willamette Room, West End Building, 4010 Kruse Way.
Present: Mayor Hoffman, Councilors Hennagin, Jordan, Tierney, Vizzini, Olson, and
Moncrieff; Councilors Elect Gudman and Kehoe
Tigard: Mayor Dirksen, Councilors Wilson, Webb, Buehner, and Henderson;
Councilor Elect Woodward
Staff Present: Alex McIntyre, City Manager; David Powell, City Attorney; Robyn Christie,
City Recorder; Joel Komarek, Project Director; Jane Heisler,
Communications Director; Christine Kirk, Public Affairs Manager; Kari
Duncan, Water Treatment Plant Manager; Jon Holland, Brown & Caldwell;
Dave Prock, Deputy Project Director; Clark Worth, Barney &Worth; Vaughn
Brown, Kristen Kibler MGS Engineers; Guy Graham, Public Works Director
Tigard: Craig Prosser, City Manager; Dennis Koellermeier, Public Works Director;
Kent Wyatt, Senior Management Analyst; Liz Newton, Asst City Manager;
John Goodrich, Utility Division Manager; Rob Murchison, Senior Project
Engineer
3. STUDY SESSION
3.1 Mayors' Updates
Mayor Hoffman welcomed the Tigard City Council and staff.
Mayor Dirksen presented an update for the City of Tigard. He pointed out that Tigard's Urban
Renewal District (URD), begun in 2006, did not have a lot of increment yet, but it still formed the
basis of revenue for bonding for projects. He explained that the City was currently loaning funds to
the District in order to move forward with some projects, including the rebuilding of Burnham Street.
He described the $4 million plus URD improvement project to turn Burnham Street into a green
street, noting that it solved the pollution problems of its proximity to Fanno Creek. He indicated
that their next proposed project was the south end of Main Street, which should cost half as much
as the Burnham Street project. He mentioned that the City was re-adjusting its codes for the
downtown area to encourage the pedestrian-friendly and transit-friendly development, as well as
more residential development.
He discussed transit in Tigard. He mentioned the WES commuter rail service that tied in with the
MAX system in Beaverton. He observed that, even though WES got off to a slow start because
they started it in winter in the same year that the economy tanked, the ridership was up 23% today.
He commented that he expected that number to increase as people discovered the convenience of
WES.
He mentioned that Tigard was chosen as part of the Southwest Corridor Study, the next high
capacity transit corridor for the Portland area, which would run from downtown Portland to
Sherwood along the Barbur Blvd/99W corridor. He observed that with that line and WES crossing
on Tigard's Main Street, Tigard was poised to become a transit hub. Tigard saw a real opportunity
for transit-oriented development and mixed use development.
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He discussed the provisions of the Tigard open space and parks bond measure that passed last
Tuesday, which split up to $17 million between property purchases (80%) and park improvements
(20%). He mentioned that the City was ready to move forward with sales agreements on two or
three properties already. He spoke of the possibility of purchasing up to 100 acres of land within
the city to add to the City's park system for protection and preservation.
Mayor Hoffman presented an update for the City of Lake Oswego. He reviewed the history of
Lake Oswego's URD, created in 1979. He explained that the base froze at $46 million in 1986 with
the adoption of the East End plan. At today's value of$240 million, the increment was now around
$200 million and yielded approximately $3 million a year in tax increment revenue. He pointed out
that the $193 million of private investment and $50 million in public investment provided a classic
example of how urban renewal would work in mature districts. He mentioned the 12 amendments
made to the plan since 1986 and the pay off of all bonds in 35 years.
He noted that Lake Oswego's transit project was right ahead of the Portland-Tigard project in terms
of regional priority. He observed that Lake Oswego, having started its alternatives analysis in
2004/2005 and having now reached the draft environmental impact analysis (DEIS), was five to six
years ahead of Tigard. He explained that the DEIS belonged to the Federal Transit Administration,
which determined the publication date, currently scheduled for November 19.
He reviewed the remaining process, which included a public comment period and the Metro
decision on the locally preferred alternative. He indicated that the alternatives were no-build, bus
or rapid transit, and some sort of fixed rail. He observed that the fixed rail technology was
changing so fast that transit planners focused more on how to move people along the corridor than
the type of fixed rail.
3.2 Water
Mr. Komarek mentioned that he was one of a number of dedicated professional staff charged by
Lake Oswego as the managing partner with bringing this project to fruition by 2016. He noted that
Mr. Koellermeier from Tigard was joining him in giving this PowerPoint presentation.
He presented a map showing the location of the supply facilities (p.13, Slide1). He indicated that
Lake Oswego constructed the bulk of these facilities in the mid to late 1960s, following its
acquisition of water rights in the Clackamas River in 1967 as its preferred water source alternative.
He described the water supply system physical structure and pipeline routes, which crossed
multiple jurisdictions. He mentioned that Lake Oswego constructed the water treatment plant in
what was then unincorporated Clackamas County, and that the system already connected to
Tigard to provide water to that city at the Bonita Road pump station.
He indicated that the Lake Oswego-Tigard partnership began with a study in 2005 on the
possibility of a partnership. He reviewed Lake Oswego's several objectives in looking for a water
partner (p.13, Slide 2). He explained that HB 3038 passed by the State legislature in 2005 shifted
the paradigm in terms of how the State reviewed and approved municipal water rights extensions,
which left Lake Oswego needing to preserve and protect its water rights. He observed that, as part
of providing their residents with safe and reliable drinking water, Lake Oswego needed to address
capacity and aging facility issues as well as explore regional interconnections.
Mr. Koellermeier mentioned that, due to Tigard not incorporating as a city until relatively late for
the area, it was not until the mid-1990s that the City took over the water supply business from the
several water districts that had historically provided water to the area, including King City and
Durham. Without its own water source, Tigard became predominantly dependent on buying water
on the spot market from Lake Oswego and Portland.
He reviewed Tigard's goals in pursuing the partnership (p.14, Slide 1). He discussed the
advantages of ownership, which provided certainty of supply and rate setting. He explained that
Oregon State law did not allow communities to use SDCs unless they owned the infrastructure,
which put the entire financial load on the ratepayer and did not allow Tigard to spread those costs
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to the development community. He mentioned that Tigard had to give notice to the City of Portland
next year if it did not intend to renew their 10-year contract in 2016.
He discussed the partnership study objectives (p.14, Slide 2), which looked at the long-term needs
and how a partnership would work. He indicated that the study conclusions (2007) were promising
(p.15, Slide.1). He mentioned that partnership with Lake Oswego was clearly the best of the four
potential supply scenarios Tigard had been exploring. He noted that this option was local, and
that the two communities understood each other, were roughly the same size, and had similar
issues. He noted the benefits of making substantial improvements to the system, including
capacity, reliability, and long-term security. He pointed out that the partnership was also the least
expensive option for community.
He discussed the intergovernmental agreement (IGA) signed by both cities in 2008 (p.15, Slide 2).
He explained that the work since then has been staff filling in the holes of information that had not
been available in 2008. He noted that the IGA dealt with the technical and organizational aspects
and identified the political structure and Lake Oswego as the managing partner (p.16, Slide 1). He
commented that Lake Oswego was the managing partner because it needed a surety of supply
from the same system that the process would overhaul. He mentioned the proportional system
ownership as an end result. He reviewed the decisions that each Council would have to make.
Mr. Komarek presented a route and facilities location map (p.16, Slide 2). He indicated that the
project definition, launched in February 2010, refined and reaffirmed the 2007 engineering study
work, as well as developing new information to fill in any gaps. He discussed the findings relative
to the water treatment plant (p.17, Slide 1). He noted that an expanded plant would not meet lot
coverage requirements because the existing plant covered a large part of the City's property
already. He explained that the finished water clearwell was too small to meet regulatory
requirements.
He explained that the need to reduce the footprint of the water treatment plant drove the need to
look at alternate treatment technologies. He referenced the joint Councils' direction in March to
conduct a business case evaluation of water treatment technologies in order to match up the high
quality resource of Clackamas River water with the appropriate treatment technology. He
described the evaluation process, which involved an expert panel and a citizen sounding board.
He presented the conclusion of both groups to include ozone as an additional treatment technology
(p.17, Slide 2).
He explained that an emerging concern (p.18, Slide 1) for water regulators and the drinking water
community was pharmaceuticals and personal care products finding their way into the nation's
water supplies. Another concern was the interaction of chlorine with biological matter creating
disinfection byproducts (DBPs), which had potential carcinogenic properties. He indicated that the
proven technology of ozone addressed those concerns as well as taste and odor issues.
He referenced other concerns identified by the project definition (p.18, Slide 2), including seismic
vulnerability in the system. He summarized the point of the slide as Lake Oswego's facilities were
40 plus years old and in need of upgrades, replacements, and renewals in order to provide a more
reliable water system for both now and in the future.
He noted the updated estimate of$230 million based on the project definition (p.19, Slide 1). He
explained that the bulk of that update represented the $18 million for the ozone treatment. It also
included a slightly larger reservoir at the Waluga site. He reviewed the shift in the proportional
allocations. He mentioned the program team's commitment to work hard to find ways to reduce the
costs. He discussed the value engineering/value planning phase beginning in 2011, which would
engage an independent third party to review the work done so far to help identify further
economies and cost savings. He expressed their hope to take advantage of market conditions to
reduce program costs similarly to what happened with the LOIS project ($125 million reduced to
$90 million).
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He discussed the concept of net present value (p.19, Slide 2). He presented Lake Oswego's net
present value (p.20, Slide 1) for three options over 25 years: ozone/no ozone, going it alone, and
a 25% reduction in overall water demand.
He reviewed the effect of the new estimates on Lake Oswego's water rates (p.20, Slide 2). He
pointed out that the updated program costs required a slight upward adjustment, but it was very
close to the original December 2008 financial plan. He noted that a single-family homeowner in
Lake Oswego would pay $4.22 extra each month for the ozone treatment, which worked out to less
than 17 cents a day. He observed that the cost was even less for Tigard with its larger rate base.
Mr. Koellermeier indicated that the Tigard Council would consider its financial plan tomorrow
night. He reviewed the proposed Tigard rate package based around the $118 million (p.21, Slide
2). He explained that Tigard had been far enough long in its planning effort that staff decided not
to change over to the revised $123 million estimate; if that estimate held true at the end of this very
long project, staff would then deal with it. He mentioned that Tigard had some coverage issues
with the lending institutions that required raising rates more on the front end in order to allow
flattening them out on the back end.
He discussed the Supply Facilities Capital Improvement Plan (p.22, Slide 1). He reviewed the
recommendation that the Technical Committee made to the Oversight Committee two weeks ago.
He indicated that this recommendation would become an attachment to the original IGA.
Mr. Komarek indicated that the Oversight Committee members were Tigard Councilors Sydney
Webb and Gretchen Buehner and Lake Oswego Councilors Bill Tierney and Mary Olson. The
Technical Committee members were Joel Komarek, Dennis Koellermeier, Kari Duncan, and Rob
Murchison.
COUNCIL QUESTIONS
Mayor Hoffman noted that the Lake Oswego Council was scheduled to approve the Supply
Facilities CIP on December 7 and the Tigard Council on December 14.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor-elect Kehoe that there were other communities in Oregon
currently using the ozone system. These included Wilsonville and the Medford Water Commission.
He noted that Tacoma and Seattle also used ozone. Ms. Duncan said that there was another
small community in Oregon using ozone.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor-elect Kehoe that Lake Oswego largely decommissioned its
wells after developing the Clackamas River source, and no longer used even the one remaining
well as a backup water source. He mentioned that the City started looking for another water
source because its well water had a high iron and mineral content that caused taste and
operational issues in the distribution system.
Mayor Hoffman asked for the latest information on Portland and its reservoirs and Washington
County and Scoggins Dam. Mr. Komarek reported that the Portland residential water rates went
up at least 17% last year. He said that he expected them to continue to rise in order to pay for
Portland's large capital improvement projects, such as another 50 million gallon reservoir to work in
parallel with its Powell Butte system and an ultra-violet (UV) system for its Bull Run system.
Mr. Koellermeier said that Tigard, as a wholesale water customer of Portland, has experienced
double-digit wholesale rate increases for the last several years, which he expected to continue. He
commented that, of the four water supply options investigated by Tigard, Portland became the
most expensive option over time.
He reported that the Scoggins Dam (TVWD project) has run into permitting problems. He
explained that it was a federal facility, which meant that the agency had to get the federal dollars
necessary to make the project affordable and it had to get the federal government to allow the
project to happen. He mentioned that that supply option doubled Tigard's investment compared to
the Lake Oswego partnership.
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Mr. Komarek confirmed to Councilor Jordan that the Technical Committee recommended
building to the 32mgd size with the opportunity to expand to 38mgd when needed. He clarified that
the costs reflected the Technical Committee's recommendation to build the easily expandable
facilities to the 32mgd size. However, other facilities, such as the pipeline and the river intake, the
Committee recommended building to the 38mgd size in order to do the expensive environmental
permitting and disruption only once. He pointed out that it also eliminated the uncertainty that they
might not be able to expand again in the future.
Councilor Jordan asked if using the ozone system and less chlorine and other chemicals meant
that they could size the storage area smaller. Mr. Komarek indicated that, in determining the
storage area size, they would consider the amount of chemicals, the neighborhood disruption
caused by more frequent deliveries if they stored less, and the short shelf life of some chemicals.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Jordan that either party to the IGA could trigger the long-
term expansion; it depended on who reached their capacity portion of the 32mgd first. He
explained that the parties would work through the specifics of any expansion at the time of the
request.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Olson that the less than 17 cents a day cost of the ozone
treatment included capital and operating costs, since staff based that figure on the net present
value. He clarified that certain portions of the water treatment plant, such as the ozone system,
would be sized for 38mgd. He noted that they would size the pump station structure to
accommodate additional pumps and equipment but only install enough for the 32mgd. He said
that filters and sedimentation tanks were other modular components.
Councilor Tierney asked for more detail on the paradigm shift on the allocation of water rights
occasioned by State law. Mr. Komarek explained that, prior to the passage of that law, the State
effectively `rubber-stamped'jurisdictions' requests for time extensions for developing their water
rights. However, because of the Coos Bay/North Bend lawsuit that went to the State Supreme
Court in the late 1990s, the State no longer allowed municipalities to bank water without using it
but instead imposed a fixed time frame on the permit extensions. In addition, the State raised the
bar on the due diligence standards it required municipalities to meet in order to get a permit
extension. He mentioned another new rule addressing endangered fish concerns.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Tierney that in 2000 the City applied to extend its water
rights to 38mgd to meet the anticipated demand in 2045. He reported that the State Water
Department recommended approval of the City's' request, having found it reasonable and showing
due diligence, with the condition that further development not harm fish.
Councilor Tierney asked what the difference in capital costs would be if they built the system
entirely to 32mdg, instead of the combination of 32mgd and 38mgd sized pieces estimated at $230
million. Mr. Komarek indicated that the figure, on a program level, was $6 million. He noted that,
on the partner level, that figure was different for each partner because of the allocation formula.
He explained that the formula committed Lake Oswego either to finding another supply source if it
went beyond its 18mgd portion or to another increment of expansion at significant additional cost.
Councilor Hennagin commented that he has had no complaints about the quality of Lake Oswego
water during the 40 years he has lived here. He asked why the experts recommended adding
ozone to the existing chlorine treatment process, given that the existing process consistently met
the water quality standards. He wondered whether they could delay adding the ozone treatment.
Mr. Komarek confirmed that ozone reduced the amount of chlorine used. He confirmed that
moving to ozone was in anticipation of stricter federal and state regulations regarding disinfectant
byproducts and emerging contaminants. He described ozone as an appropriate additional public
health barrier to include in any expansion of the plant. He indicated that the staff exploration of
when to add the ozone treatment found that it was more cost effective to do it now than later.
Ms. Duncan explained that the potential DBP stricter regulations would likely change the current
practice of averaging test results over a year to determine if the water met the regulatory standards
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to using a single occurrence test to determine those levels. She indicated that the levels changed
over the seasons, and staff had a concern of possible seasonal violations.
Mr. Komarek recalled hearing Ms. Duncan say that she might get three to four calls a month from
people complaining about taste and odor issue, but that number increased to 30 or 40 during
seasonal incidents. He commented that staff did not want to spend this amount of money on a
system expansion and continue to get those calls; ozone proactively addressed taste and odor
before they became a problem.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Wilson that the staff was trying to route both pipelines along
the existing right-of-ways and also avoid sensitive environmental zones as much as possible, given
the 50,000 plus linear feet of pipeline. He mentioned that they have hired a team of environmental
experts to assist the project team with the permitting effort and included right-of-way specialists
and land-use attorneys on the project team to help with those issues.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Olson that staff did look at UV technologies. Ms. Duncan
explained that UV alone served as a disinfectant and would help reduce the amount of chlorine but
it did not address the pharmaceuticals and other toxins that ozone did. She indicated that a
combination of UV and another oxidant was a more expensive and energy-intensive process than
ozone.
Councilor-elect Gudman asked what the new piping would do to decrease the percentage of
water loss in the system. Mr. Komarek cited the 16% system water loss suggested by the last
Water Conservation Management Plan update. He mentioned the industry standard of 9% to 10%.
He reported that the extensive leak detection investigation of the pipelines conducted as part of the
project definition found tight connections and little leakage in the pipes themselves. He indicated
that he expected the improved materials and construction standards to improve the system.
Mr. Komarek concurred with Councilor-elect Gudman that the 16% leakage would not be
occurring in the new pieces of the system. He mentioned the water audit that the City was
currently conducting and staff's thought that they did not have a physical water loss but rather a
reporting and information collection `apparent' water loss. He indicated that staff was working hard
to understand where those water losses were and how they might tighten up the City's business
practices beyond the best industry practices that the City already used.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor-elect Gudman that the 10% represented 6 to 8mgd. Mr.
Koellermeier said that Tigard's water loss was at 3% to 4%.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor-elect Gudman that the City had a performance standard of
50 to 100 years for the pipelines. He explained that they had the same standard on the concrete
structures at the water treatment plant but not on motors and electrical equipment, which typically
had a 20 to 30 year life span.
Councilor-elect Gudman asked what assumptions staff made in terms of the service territory
currently served versus the service territory projected to be served over the next 50 years. He
wondered whether the system would pick up currently unserved areas and the smaller water
systems. Mr. Komarek indicated that, for long-term water planning purposes, staff did look at the
potential requirements for service outside the USBs of both cities. He noted that the IGA included
small portions of Bull Mountain outside of Tigard and a small portion of the Stafford area outside
Lake Oswego's USB.
Councilor-elect Gudman asked if staff had an estimate of the approximate number of mgd that
the areas currently not served would take from each of the city's allocations. Mr. Komarek
mentioned about 2mgd for the Lake Oswego side. Mr. Koellermeier indicated that he did not
have that information for Tigard but it would be a small number.
Councilor-elect Gudman asked whether the assumption was that this partnership would take over
all the other independently operating water districts. Mr. Komarek indicated that Lake Oswego's
planning and water demand forecasts assumed that the special districts currently operating within
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its USB would disappear around 2030 and become retail customers of the City. He clarified that
the 2 to 2.5mgd figure included those districts.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Vizzini that staff did consider SDCs as a source of
reimbursement for increased capacity, particularly for new development areas. He mentioned that
Lake Oswego's SDC methodology updated last year included services potentially available to
Stafford. He confirmed that the user fee rate projections assumed the SDCs bearing a certain
percentage of the project costs.
Mr. Koellermeier indicated that theoretically SDCs could pay for 40% of the $118 million of
Tigard's share. He pointed out that in order to generate SDCs, a city must have growth, and
Tigard's growth projections in its rate model were very small. He said that they did expect things to
turn around.
Councilor Vizzini spoke to thinking of what new ways that the cities could devise to make the
projected rate increases manageable for the ratepayers. Mr. Komarek concurred. He commented
that one way to manage those rate increases was to share the cost of the infrastructure and the
long-term operating and maintenance costs, just as the partnership was doing. He mentioned
water conservation as another tool that could delay the expansion of the next increment beyond
the 32mgd expansion. He spoke of the possibility of other communities in the region wanting to
join the partnership or form other regional partnerships that would expand the rate base for water.
Mr. Koellermeier mentioned that tomorrow night the Tigard Council would discuss going from a
bimonthly to a monthly billing system, as well as automated meter reading and other emerging
technologies that allowed the consumer to better manage his/her water purchase.
Councilor-elect Woodward asked if Lake Oswego used variable frequency drives at the water
treatment plant pump station. Mr. Komarek indicated that they had one variable frequency drive
pump at the river intake pump station; all the pumps at the water treatment plant were constant
speed pumps. He concurred with the Councilor-elect that there were great efficiencies gained
with variable frequency drives. He pointed out that, unless they upgraded all their pumps to
variable speed, trying to match the variable speed with the constant speed presented many
challenges.
Councilor-elect Woodward asked if Lake Oswego intended to leave the existing raw water
pipeline in place to serve as a back up or to remove it. Mr. Komarek confirmed that the project
planned to remove the existing intake and replace it with a new and larger intake. While the
project also proposed replacing the existing raw water pipeline with a new one, staff has not yet
decided on the disposition of the existing pipeline, although they would leave it in place. He
indicated that the raw water line from the intake to the water treatment plant was 14,000 feet long,
with the river crossing at 2500 feet.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor-elect Woodward that using the existing raw water line as a
redundant system was a possibility. He agreed that, even if they capped it, they would want to
continue operations and maintenance on the pipeline in order to keep it available for use some
day. He indicated that he did not know what the cost would be, although the operations and
maintenance budget for the water treatment plant was around $2.5 million.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor-elect Gudman that the cost of service analysis that Lake
Oswego used for the current financial plan included an expectation of a 5% to 10% reduction in
revenues due to people conserving water more because of the increased rates. He confirmed that
it did not include decreased water usage. He clarified that staff based the 38mgd sizing on the
best reasonable estimates of population and demand forecasting, assuming only the water
conservation program in place today.
Councilor Vizzini observed that allowing the staging of the increased capacity in modular
increases from 32 to 38mgd provided an incentive for future Councils to try to defer those
incremental increases as much as possible through water conservation. Mr. Komarek concurred.
Councilor Vizzini mentioned Portland's experience in seeing a small reduction every year in
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household demand on the wastewater side due to the price increases. He conjectured that that
could help provide the safety margin they needed in the system beyond water conservation.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Henderson that the only major part of the existing system
that the new system would utilize was a portion of the finished water pipeline between the north
side of Lakewood Bay to the City's River reservoir. He said that everything else was in bad
enough shape to need replacing with an upgrade to a larger system.
Mr. Komarek indicated to Councilor Olson that the scope of work for the independent review so
far called for engaging an expert in value engineering and value planning. He mentioned that
Brown & Caldwell, the program manager, was already in discussions with the proposed firm. He
described the work as conducting a comprehensive review of the project definition information and
helping the partners find ways to reduce costs through more refined design or performance goals.
He recalled doing something similar with the LOIS project with Barnard Construction.
Councilor-elect Gudman asked if the Bull Mountain and Stafford areas and the independent
water agencies had any other alternative available to them besides Lake Oswego. Mr. Komarek
reviewed the relationship between Lake Oswego and the River Grove Water District, the Lake
Grove Water District, the Glenmorrie Water Cooperative and the Skylands Water Company. He
noted that River Grove had wells and has never purchased water from Lake Oswego, while Lake
Grove purchased half of its annual volume from Lake Oswego. He indicated that both Glenmorrie
and Skylands peaked off Lake Oswego's system in the summer.
Mr. Komarek indicated that if Lake Oswego refused to sell water, Lake Grove could switch over to
Portland completely, but he was not sure where Glenmorrie or Skylands would go for an additional
source of water because there was no other water provider within an affordable distance. He
speculated that economics and the best interests of the community would determine the course of
action chosen.
Mr. Koellermeier pointed out that Tigard already worked as a cooperative with its Water
Consortium of five different governments. He indicated that Tigard represented about 70% of the
Consortium's consumption. The other governments wanting to do something else would impact
about 30% of Tigard's volume needs on a regular basis. He commented that, financially, Tigard
had no other alternatives.
Mayor Dirksen said that the estimated cost to extend Tigard's system into the West Bull Mountain
area was $8 million and the estimate for it to hook up with the Tualatin Valley Water District was
around $25 million.
Councilor Jordan commented that an important aspect of the partnership that they have not
discussed was the possibility of Lake Oswego, in case of a low water event on the Clackamas
River, purchasing water from another source and routing it through its partner Tigard. Mr.
Komarek discussed the opportunities for leveraging regional interconnections with other systems
and sources of supply. He mentioned the potential of connections to other systems, particularly
near the Bonita Road pump station, such as the Bull Run system.
Mr. Komarek mentioned that Lake Oswego did have an existing connection to the Bull Run
system, but it has not been used in decades; still, the City could reactivate it. He commented that
Portland might be interested in having a connection to the Clackamas system, particularly in the
winter. He noted that both Lake Oswego and Tigard have been members of the Regional Water
Providers Consortium since its inception in the mid-1990s. He referenced the long-term supply
viewpoint of interconnecting all these sources and having the ability to move water around between
sources to optimize environmental benefits, costs, reliability, and certainty of supply. He described
this partnership as the best example of the way in which communities were moving with regards to
supplying water.
Mr. Koellermeier explained that, out of necessity, Tigard became a pioneer in Aquifer Storage
Recovery (ASR). This system pumped water into the ground during the abundant winter water
season and took it out of the ground during the drier summer season. He indicated that Tigard
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could store 4.5 million gallons per day (gpd) in the ground for summer peak, and hoped to expand
that storage capacity to 6 million gpd. The City had the infrastructure in place to take 8 to 9 million
gpd of inexpensive winter water from Portland. He said that they would leave that infrastructure in
place as Tigard transitioned from a take and pay contract to an emergency contract with Portland.
He mentioned that Tigard also had a 2.5 million gpd connection to the Trask/Tualatin system. He
described Tigard as a regional hub of water sources.
Mr. Komarek described to Councilor-elect Woodward the methodology that staff used to
determine the 46.5% and 53.5% proportional allocations for the two cities. He explained that Lake
Oswego's ratio was 24mgd (forecasted peak day needs)/38mgd (maximum available) and Tigard's
was 14 mgd/38mgd.
Mr. Komarek indicated that, unless he heard differently tonight, the Technical Committee would
bring back to the Councils in December the recommendation it made to the Oversight Committee.
3.3 Upcoming Legislative Issues
Mr. Wyatt discussed the three major issues of interest to the Tigard City Council in the upcoming
legislative session. He mentioned the Transportation Planning Rule and its surrounding issues,
the state-shared revenues, and the telecommunications pre-emption. He indicated that the Tigard
Mayor and City Manager made monthly trips to Salem to present updates to the City's legislative
group on the City's positions on various issues. He noted that staff sent weekly updates to Salem
as well.
He explained that a major issue surrounding the Transportation Planning Rule was the lack of
provision in the transportation corridors in the Tigard Triangle for alternate means of transportation,
such as buses and bikes. He indicated that the Council felt that the Rule as currently worded
encouraged spreading out to the suburbs. With some minor tweaks, the Rule could do a better job
of encouraging density within the city.
Mayor Hoffman observed that Lake Oswego had the same issue in the Foothills area. He
described the challenge as not being able to densify to an urban standard along a state highway
corridor because ODOT's mission and regulation focus was throughput and moving people from
one area to another. He noted the tension between access and throughput, in that mayors wanted
access to the highways in order to make great cities and to honor the 2040 concept of a great
urban environment within a compact UGB.
Mayor Dirksen pointed out that this was a statewide problem. He mentioned Hillsboro running up
against the same roadblock with development in the Tanasbourne area, as well as Eugene and
Medford having similar problems.
Mr. Wyatt mentioned that Tigard also tracked the West Bull Mountain area potential development
in Washington County and kept its representatives informed on its stance regarding that issue. He
distributed a handout laying out the four main legislative priorities for the Tigard City Council this
session.
Ms. Kirk pointed out that Lake Oswego was just entering the realm of intergovernmental relations
and determining its level of commitment and involvement in this area. She pointed out that the
City's investment in its infrastructure involved significant financing and regulations with many
attendant questions. She mentioned how helpful Mr. Wyatt has been as a resource on how things
worked in Oregon, and thanked the Tigard Council for that resource.
She mentioned that issues that have come up from the Council had to do with defining local
priorities and how the State taxing structure might impact the community's support of the school
district. She spoke of the City weighing in in support of the things that the community valued and
things that it would like to see changed in Salem. She indicated that the first question posed by the
Council was how to approach intergovernmental relations as a city in light of the community
values, the impacts to property values, and the community's ability to define its future.
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 9 of 10
November 8, 2010
4. ADJOURNMENT
Mayor Hoffman adjourned the meeting at 8:59 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Robyn Christie
City Recorder
APPROVED BY THE CITY COUNCIL:
ON
Jack D. Hoffman, Mayor
City Council Special Meeting Minutes Page 10 of 10
November 8, 2010