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10/26/1998 - Minutes TIGARD WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING OCTOBER 26, 1998 Members Present: Gretchen Buehner, Beverly Froude, Norm Penner Members Absent: John Haunsperger, David Strauss Staff Members Present: Mike Miller 1. Call to order: Commissioner Norm Penner called the meeting of the Tigard Water Board of Commissioners to order at 7:05 p.m. on October 26, 1998. 2. Roll Call/Introductions All members except John Haunsperger and David Strauss were present. There were no visitors. 3. Approval of minutes Commissioner Buehner moved to accept the August 31, 1998, regular meeting minutes as corrected. Commissioner Froude seconded the motion. All members present voting AYE, the motion passed unanimously. 4. Designation of Special District Registered Agent Mike Miller, Utility Manager, reported that the Secretary of State's office was updating its records on the special districts. The Board needed to select one of its members to be the registered agent. Commissioner Buehner volunteered. The Board agreed by consensus to designate Commissioner Buehner as their registered agent. 5. Water Supply Update Mr. Miller said that they were still waiting on the WWSA and Portland reports due December 15. He mentioned that staff had met with Portland to discuss Tigard's short term water needs and various transmission scenarios. He mentioned the possibility of another connection up by Haines and I-5 as well as modifying the meter connection at Bradley Corners (Greenburg/Olson/Hall) without tearing up the street. He said that Portland appeared to be able to meet their needs through at least next summer. Commissioner Penner reported on the Council's review of the evaluation criteria at their last Council meeting. He commented that he had understood that Council would be weighting the criteria but instead they simply reviewed them for inclusion, modification or exclusion. He said that they did decide to place the highest emphasis on water quality, certainty of supply and price. Tigard Water District Board - October 26, 1998 -Page 1 Commissioner Penner mentioned that Mr. Wegner reported the Board's rankings. He said that he explained his reasoning in listing water quality below certainty of supply and price. Given the availability of the technology needed to clean the Willamette River water to the same purity level or higher as the Bull Run water, water quality became a moot point, and the critical issues became certainty of water supply in the long run and at what price. Commissioner Penner stated that he had been infuriated at the Tigard Times reporting of that meeting which contained a great deal of inaccurate information, although it was fairly accurate about what the Council did. He noted that the Tigard Times reporter had left the meeting immediately after the presentation and before any comments were made from the floor. Commissioner Penner presented a letter which he intended to send to the Times(as a citizen) regarding their inaccurate reporting and lack of research into the facts. Commissioner Buehner pointed out that the Times has not talked to the people interested in the issue, such as the Board. She suggested including Portland's announcement of its intent to blend Bull Run water with well water for four months next year. Mr. Miller commented that the use of the wellfields involved Portland internal politics. The operations people wanted to use the wellfields throughout the summer to help maintain good levels at the reservoirs and prevent the water discoloration problems that accompanied drawing the reservoirs down too low. He mentioned that throughout the entire system they were seeing discoloration problems six weeks before they normally saw such problems (which were normally caused by leaf drop in the fall). Commissioner Penner mentioned several points he made to Phil Smith of Murray Smith& Associates during a conversation following the Council meeting. If the Willamette River water was so dangerous, where were the health reports showing the negative effects on people boating on or swimming in the Willamette River? Or documenting the effects on the farmers with wells along the river? Where was the evidence that people were damaged by consuming Willamette River water? Commissioner Penner commented that in other areas people drank treated water from worse raw water sources than the Willamette. He contended that the opponents were mistakenly making a big issue out of water quality. He held that the central concern should be obtaining the certainty of a long term water supply for 60 plus years. Mr. Miller confirmed that staff did inform those who complained about the water that it was Portland water. He said that the amount of water discoloration this year was far in excess of what normally got through in other years, as indicated by the 30 phone calls received last week alone (compared to the normal half a dozen). He stated that staff did record the number of calls received. The Board continued to discuss Commissioner Penner's letter. Commissioner Froude confirmed that Portland Commissioner Sten did say at the IWB meeting that a filtration plant and treatment plant would be part of the package because of the Safe Drinking Water laws. Commissioner Penner commented that the question was did Tigard want to pay for its own treatment and filtration plant or did they want to help Portland pay for theirs. Tigard Water District Board - October 26, 1998 -Page 2 6. Intergovernmental Water Board Update Commissioner Froude reported that the IWB received the same presentation as the Council. She presented a variety of informational documents she has received. She mentioned that the Citizens for Safe Water wanted a Portland representative at the meeting that Kevin Hanaway offered to hold with them to discuss water quality issues. Commissioner Buehner asked Mr. Miller to check on the status of the City Attorney's investigation into whether or not congressional action was required for Portland to change its Bull Run charter to include other entities. Commissioner Froude noted the Cascade Water Alliance document. Mr. Miller explained that the wholesale customers of the City of Seattle got together and formed an alliance to develop a contract. He said that the regional water managers group was looking at model contracts in anticipation of the Portland contracts running out from 2004 to 2008. 7. Utility Manager's Report Mr. Miller reported that they were running about normal for October as compared to last year. He said that there was plenty of water. Their wells were off-line and they have not purchased any Lake Oswego water. He mentioned that usage was up about 1 million gallons over September last year. Commissioner Froude asked if there was any way that the City could encourage commercial properties to turn off their sprinkler systems when it was raining. Mr. Miller said that staff did try to educate their customers to be waterwise, mentioning the Water Conservation/Water Quality specialist recently hired to do exactly that. He said that staff was working with Planning to develop guidelines for less water dependent landscaping for new businesses. He mentioned that staff intended to expand their residential outdoor water audit program to include commercial and multifamily accounts. Mr. Miller distributed the USA Today article. He reported that staff was working on developing the annual consumer confidence reports(CCRs) required of all water providers by October 1999 in accordance with the 1996 Safe Drinking Water Amendment Act. He commented that, due to lack ` of space in the CCRs, they might be limited to reporting only those five to ten elements which they found, out of the 86 items they tested for, and not include the 70 items that they did not find. He referenced Portland's trial CCR. He said that the water industry professional organization, AWWA, strongly recommended educating customers on what those reports meant. Mr. Miller mentioned several reasons why Portland would have to begin filtering its water. These included turbidity in the fall, maintaining adequate stream flow for fish and wildlife, and serving a potentially greater number of customers (such as Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville, and the Stafford Area). He commented that no one disagreed that there was sufficient water in the Bull Run to meet the region's needs; it was a question of having to filter it in order to use it. Tigard Water District Board - October 26, 1998 -Page 3 Commissioner Buehner asked for the dates of future Council meetings at which they would discuss the water issue. Mr. Miller said that he would get those for her. 8. Non-Agenda Items Commissioner Froude reported that, according to Liz Newton, Assistant to the City Manager, Ms. Newton and Mr. Wegner would not be meeting with homeowners associations to discuss the water issue, rather they would meet with the neighborhood watch groups. She pointed out that the County neighborhood watch groups were registered with the County, not the City. Commissioner Froude reported that she discussed with Ms. Newton her idea of distributing a flyer at the polls on Election Day that contained information about the public information and education program and how to contact the appropriate staff people to set up a neighborhood meeting. She said that Ms. Newton told her that staff was identifying areas in the city and in the unincorporated area where they could hold neighborhood meetings, and that she would have the list to Commissioner Froude before Election Day. Commissioner Buehner volunteered to take flyers to her polling place. Commissioner Froude spoke to finding an effective and efficient way to get basic factual information out to the people in the unincorporated areas so that they could be informed listeners and/or participants at the public hearings next year. The Board discussed various ways to distribute information. Commissioner Buehner spoke to establishing a joint committee of staff and elected officials to meet with the managing editor of the Oregonian Southwest office regarding the Oregonian's unimpressive reporting of this very important community issue. The Board discussed also inviting the managing editor to a CIT or Board meeting. Commissioner Froude commented on the vital importance of the Oregonian and the Tigard Times(or any other publication) printing correct factual information, instead of the misinformation currently printed in the newspapers. The Board discussed the issue of bias resulting from printing only one side of the issue or publishing incorrect information. They continued their discussion of the critical importance of getting basic background information out to the people now, so that the people could make an informed decision by April, especially if they ended up with some type of a vote. Commissioner Buehner suggested approaching the newspapers now because with the election almost over, they would have more space available. She commented that they might end up having to go to the editorial board. Commissioner Froude noted the complexity of this issue, in as much as it dealt with a regional water supply system, not simply a transmission system to Tigard. Commissioner Buehner reported that, based on a conversation she had with the North Clackamas Water District Manager, Portland was not giving out the same information to other jurisdictions that it was giving to Tigard. 9. Adjournment Commissioner Penner adjourned the meeting at 8:18 p.m. Tigard Water District Board - October 26, 1998 -Page 4