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09/28/1998 - Minutes TIGARD WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING SEPTEMBER 28, 1998 • Members Present: David Strauss, Gretchen Buehner, John Haunsperger, Beverly Froude, Norm Penner Members Absent: None Staff Members Present: Ed Wegner, Mike Miller 1. Call to order: Commissioner John Haunsperger called the meeting of the Tigard Water Board of Commissioners to order at 7:00 p.m. on September 28, 1998. 2. Roll Call/Introductions All members present. Jack Polans, 16000 SW Queen Victoria Place, King City, asked if the Board had a position on the annexation of the unincorporated areas by the City of Tigard. Commissioner Haunsperger stated that, as the Tigard Water Board was primarily concerned with water, he personally felt that they should remain independent of the annexation issue. Commissioner Buehner explained that the change in the structure of the Tigard Water District in 1993 (when the voters in the City of Tigard chose to withdraw from the District) had nothing to do with the annexation issue or whether the Tigard Water District members lived in the unincorporated areas. She emphasized that the agreements between the District, and the Cities of Tigard, Durham, and King City, dealt solely with the day-to-day management of water. Mr. Polans asked if the Board had the resources to become involved in the annexation issue, would they do so? Commissioner Buehner said no, because that was not their mandate under any circumstances. She mentioned SB 122 and the intergovernmental agreement between all the local governments and special service districts in the area on where the future boundary of Tigard would be. She confirmed that the Tigard Water District would cease to exist once all the unincorporated areas were annexed. She pointed out that each city would annex whichever unincorporated areas lay within its urban growth boundary. Mike Miller, Utility Manager, mentioned that the City Councils of Tigard, King City and Durham approved the withdrawal from the Tigard Water District in 1993, not a vote of the people. Commissioner Penner agreed that the duty of the Board was to serve as a watchdog agency to protect the unincorporated areas with regards to water only. 3. Approval of Minutes Tigard Water District Board - September 28 1998 - Page 4. Water Supply Update Ed Wegner, Public Works Director, reported on the current water supply status: 10.5 mgd daily average usage, 14.9 mgd in daily average storage plus 3 mgd from the Menlor site, and a peak day demand of 11.7 mgd. He noted that the demand from August 1998 to August 1997 was up over 1 mgd. He mentioned that the 24 inch value at Tiedeman was now on line. Mr. Wegner reported on the status of the Willamette River option. Staff has begun the pre- conferencing meetings with the Corps and other interested parties. The City of Wilsonville has purchased outright the Young property as a site for a possible future water treatment plant and was selling shares in it. He said that Tigard would probably buy a portion of that property, as even if they did not go with the Willamette River option this time, they might need to consider it in 10 years. Mr. Wegner referenced a staff document that described the various kinds of water quality problems and how they related to the Clackamas, Bull Run, and other agencies. He mentioned another document that provided a snapshot explanation of the two different water treatment processes for Willamette River and Bull Run water. Mr. Wegner reported on the status of the Portland scenario. He mentioned that Portland Commissioner Sten, at the Tigard City Council meeting last Tuesday, actually stated that the Willamette River was a treatable drinking water source. He said that Commissioner Sten also said that those who needed the transmission would pay for the transmission lines while storage reservoir costs would be shared by all, as that was a system wide asset. He said that Commissioner Sten promised the Council that they would have a report to them by December 15, and indicated that his Council has approved continuing the process of looking into expanding the Bull Run system and adding new members but without any guarantees. He mentioned that Portland would also respond to Tigard's questions about certainty, reliability, and ownership. Mr. Wegner confirmed to Commissioner Haunsperger that whatever plan came forward would include complete certainty that Tigard would not be shut out, especially if they spent millions of dollars on infrastructure. He commented that they were gaining strength in the region with other consortium members wanting the same guarantees, and that Portland was now referring to "partners" as opposed to "wholesale customers." Mr. Wegner mentioned that he informed the Portland staff a couple of weeks ago that Tigard wanted any capital improvements to the Portland system that would involve their rates to come before the Tigard Council for approval before implementation. He stated that the City wanted the ability to determine how the City's share of those costs would be financed. Commissioner Buehner asked if City Attorney Ramis was following up on her information that the City of Portland may have received its ownership charter for Bull Run from the government, and therefore congressional action might be necessary to allow any changes in the ownership. Mr. Wegner said that Mr. Ramis believed that to be true and was following up on it. Tigard Water District Board - September 28, 1998 - Page 2 Commissioner Buehner noted that Commissioner Sten had stated that Portland would adopt a policy of permanently using the South Shore wellfield over the summer. She expressed concern that he did not speak to the issue of contamination from septic tank leakage and heavy metals dumped by industry. Mr. Wegner reported that he and Mr. Miller were told that the statement"there's enough water for everybody" included blended water from both the reservoirs and the wellfield, though it would be used only during the summer(June through September). Commissioner Buehner commented that, following the Council meeting, it was clear that the Citizens for Safe Water committee members did not know what the South Shore wellfield was. She mentioned another issue raised by the opponents that Enron's water rights on the Willamette(which predated everyone's) could stop that option. Mr. Wegner explained that staff talked with PGE about the matter two years ago, prior to making the Willamette River option public, and received a verbal statement that Enron would not block the combined 150 mgd water rights of Tualatin Valley Water District and Wilsonville. Commissioner Buehner spoke to getting that information out to counteract the misinformation being spread in the King City area. Mr. Wegner reported that the Council was looking into the evaluation criteria developed in 1994 to see if it was still valid. He said that staff had a phone survey done on the evaluation criteria within the Tigard water service area. He mentioned that the citizens thought that the criteria were well- thought out and still valid. The respondents listed the top three criteria as tap water quality, cost of construction/cost of delivering the water, and certainty of water. He said that they wanted long term certainty over 20 to 50 years. Staff has asked the Portland consultants to address the costs of securing a water source over the long term. Mr. Wegner noted that 44% of the respondents were unaware that there was a problem with the water supply, despite three flyers sent with the water bill. However Davis & Hibbetts, the survey firm, indicated that this was a low percentage compared to the 70% to 85% who did not know about various issues on the November ballot. He commented that 8% of the people they would never convince otherwise, and therefore they needed to concentrate on the 92% who were willing to listen. Mr. Wegner informed the Board that at their October 20 meeting, the Council would review the evaluation criteria to see if they wanted to weight them. He mentioned that the Intergovernmental Water Board would also look at weighting the criteria at their meeting. He noted the revised projected timetable which included public meetings from January to March. Mr. Wegner noted the importance of making a decision on one of the options next spring. He emphasized that with the amount of growth and building in the community, they had to find more water. Mr. Wegner advised the Board of the public information and education program staff was developing with their consultants. He said that over the next 60 days, he and Liz Newton, Assistant to the City Manager, would start educating people on water quality by meeting with homeowners associations and other small groups. Commissioner Buehner suggested that the Board set up meetings in the unincorporated areas. The Board discussed reaching the homeowners associations and neighborhood watches in the unincorporated areas. Tigard Water District Board - September 28, 1998 - Page 3 Mr. Wegner distributed a chart developed by Mr. Miller and Chris Huber of Murray Smith& Associates, depicting how much water Tigard bought from its various sources. He mentioned an argument from the Oregon Environmental Council that water conservation would extend the water supply. He agreed that that was true but pointed out that Tigard was so far behind, that even with maximum water conservation, they did not have certainty of water over the long term. He stated that he did not think that Tigard would implement a building moratorium, as Wilsonville had, but they probably would ask for water use restrictions next year. Mr. Wegner commented that they could purchase up to 8 mgd from Portland but then they paid a ridiculously high price the next year. He noted that last summer the City's request on TV and through phone calls for voluntary outdoor water conservation resulted in a tremendous drop. He confirmed that they would talk about water conservation during the meetings with citizens. Mr. Wegner mentioned that they have hired a Water Conservation Specialist to get their water conservation program going. He cited the success of Wilsonville's efforts to educate their citizens about water conservation. Commissioner Buehner asked if the City could print this sort of information directly on the water bill, rather than using the flyers that most people did not read. Mr. Wegner said that, while the City could print statements directly on the water bill, due to the different billing cycles they have found it better to use the flyers. Commissioner Strauss suggested targeting new homeowners in particular. Mr. Wegner said that Rocky Bowler would review the public information and education program concept at the October 13 City Council meeting. He commented that the City had access to more information on the Willamette River option because they were in charge of the study whereas Portland was doing its own study and only provided information upon request. Mr. Polans stated that the Bull Run proponents provided information at a recent WWSA meeting, and apparently had surveys and petitions supporting their position that Bull Run water would still surpass Willamette River water regardless of treatment. He said that they contended that 95% of the people did not want to drink Willamette River water. He noted that these same people attended the recent Tigard City Council meeting and provided the same information. He asked the Board to consider the information provided by these people in addition the information from the City. Commissioner Strauss requested that the Board receive the news releases at the same time that they were sent to the newspapers, so that they could be sufficiently informed to respond to citizens' comments. He mentioned the excellent treatment he received from City staff when he asked for help with a water problem he had. 5. Intergovernmental Water Board Update 6. Utility Manager's Report Mr. Miller reported that the Water Conservation Specialist whom they have hired had a good background in water conservation, having put on the City of Gresham's program. Tigard Water District Board - September 28, 1998 - Page 4 Mr. Miller reported that the City has received complaints about the colored water. He explained that this was related to the draw down of the Portland reservoirs, and taking in water at the lower reservoir levels. He mentioned that the operations people at Portland have been advocating use of the South Shore wellfields throughout the summer but the decision was made higher up not to do that. He said that it was getting to the point where they would have to draw on the wells because the draw down in the reservoirs was getting too low, due to a dry fall. Commissioner Strauss suggested publishing an information article in the Tigard Times explaining why the Bull Run water was discolored. Mr. Miller said that they did a public service announcement. Commissioner Buehner suggested publishing the information in the Oregonian's regional section also. Mr. Miller reviewed some problems they were having in keeping the tanks full, due to the higher than average water usage this dry fall. He said that the September aggregate was over 8 mgd, although they did drop down to 6 mgd on Saturday. He said that over the winter time the water usage fluctuated between 4 to 5 mgd. • Executive Session The Tigard Water District Board went into Executive Session under the provisions of ORS 192.660(1)(d), (e), & (h) to discuss labor relations, real property transactions, and current and pending litigation issues. 7. Non-Agenda Items The Board discussed the Citizens for Safe Water Committee. Commissioner Froude reported that they attended all the public meetings, including the regional meetings which was where one found out what was going on. Commissioner Buehner mentioned that they were getting most of their information from a scientist who worked with a Portland water group. Commissioner Froude noted that someone from the Oregon Environmental Council always accompanied the committee member who attended all the meetings. The Board agreed that the Committee members heard what they wanted to hear, regardless of what was actually said. 8. Adjournment Commissioner Haunsperger adjourned the meeting at Tigard Water District Board - September 28, 1998 - Page 5