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03/29/1999 - Minutes TIGARD WATER DISTRICT BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS MEETING MARCH 29, 1999 Members Present: David Strauss, Gretchen Buehner, John Haunsperger, Beverly Froude, Norm Penner Staff Members Present: Mike Miller and Ed Wegner Visitors Present: 40 1. Call to order: Commissioner Norm Penner called the Meeting of the Tigard Water Board of Commissioners to order at 7:02 p.m. on March 29, 1999. 2. Roll Call/Introductions All members present. 3. Approval of minutes Commissioner Buehner moved to accept the January 25, 1999 and February 22, 1999, regular minute meetings as written. Commissioner Strauss seconded the motion. All members present voting AYE, the motion passed unanimously. 4. Public Hearing Commissioner Penner went into lengthy discussion regarding the Willamette River Long-Term issues. • Two sources of water: Surface Water and Ground Water. • State controls both sources and is regulated through the Water Resources Commission. • Oregon waters laws are based upon the principal of prior appropriation. • Tigard, Durham, King City have no water rights. • Brief history of water usage from Lake Oswego. • Tigard has had contract with Portland Water System and Tualatin Valley Water District for several years, purchasing surplus water. • After extensive study only 2 options left for Tigard Water System. Continue to purchase Portland surplus water. Build its own water treatment plant on the Willamette River. Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 1 • Water Task Force are meeting weekly to view these options. • Tigard needs the most dependable long-term water supply at the most economical price and the best quality. Meeting was then opened to questions from the audience. Q: Is there a chance to buy in to the Bull Run? A: Ed Wegner—You may not buy into the Bull Run. The contract now states you can buy into the infrastructure,the water you purchase through the City of Portland. There is talk if they were to raise any of the existing dams or build a third dam or a filtration plant, if you were under contract with them you could buy in a portion of those new facilities. If we went with the Willamette we would actually buy into a partnership, which we would own water as well as infrastructure to deliver water to the Tigard area. Q: Would the contracts have limits on the amount of water that would be made available by the Bull Run System, so that a possible restriction of the Bull Run option is a reality that at any given point in time the water available to the Tigard Water System would not be available to serve the needs of the District? A: Ed Wegner—Yes. We now have connections to only purchase 8 million gallons of water a day from the Portland Water System, which is Bull Run and Columbia South Shore Well Field. It is in their proposal that at certain times during the year, as recently as December of this last year, when we do purchase Portland water we get well water from the Columbia South Shore Well Field. It is blended water of both and will be throughout the new contract. The City of Portland serves approximately 12 other cities. The contract with Portland would not be just for the City of Tigard; it would include all the other cities. Q: Dale Johnson, Bull Mountain Resident—Would someone speak to the feasibility and costs relating to both contracts? A: Commissioner Haunsperger—There is a company under contract to research, test the raw water in the Willamette River, to design a filtration plant and the delivery system needed to meet the needs of Tigard and other communities. Portland was also asked to submit a proposal. Financial Officers from Tigard, Sherwood, Wilsonville, Tualatin, and Tualatin Valley Water District have received both proposals, which have been reviewed in the same way. The handout is an overview of the costs. Commissioner Buehner explained the cost comparison of both proposals. Willamette River—City of Tigard's share - $42.7 million dollars City of Portland - City of Tigard's share - $66.5 million dollars Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 2 Commission Buehner also gave an explanation of what the cost would be over the lifetime, approximately 50 years, of both Willamette River and City of Portland proposals. Q: Does the cost comparison include Wilsonville, Tualatin, and Sherwood? A: Ed Wegner—The cost comparison is just for Tigard's share of the total bill. Wilsonville and Sherwood have their own cost comparison. Q: Could you explain the purpose of tonight's meeting and the relationship to your agenda for the next 60 days. Is this meeting just public input? What decisions have already been made? Is it going to be a vote of the people? A: Commissioner Penner—The talk of"the vote" is just the City of Tigard speaking. Our board represents the residents of the unincorporated area. We need to make a decision whether to go to the Willamette or City of Portland, and give our decision to the Intergovernmental Water Board to make the final decision. This meeting is held for input from the citizen's of the unincorporated area to help in our decision making. Q: What are the 2 options? A: Commissioner Penner— Our 2 option are as follow: Continue to buy surplus water from City of Portland. Join the other communities and build a Water Treatment Filtration Plant to take water from the Willamette River. Q: How do you feel about the quality of water that comes out of the Willamette? A: Commissioner Penner- The Willamette River is not a bad water source and the treatment plant would produce water as pure or purer than water today. Also, a series of tests have been done on the middle and upper Willamette River. Today the water is drinkable—not that polluted. All pollutants are removable through the treatment plant. Q: Steve D'Angelo - Tigard Business Owner and lives in the unincorporated area- Has the pollution growth figures been considered into our cost comparison figures for the years to come and are we only looking at the cost vs. quality? A: Commissioner Haunsperger -We are looking at cost, quality and availability of water. Q: Steve D'Angelo- Are we getting any help from Metro in our decision making? Have there been any studies made? . Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 3 A: Ed Wegner-In the early 1990's Metro was involved with setting up a Regional Supply Agency which did studies of water resources. Although at this time, Metro has not been involved with our decision making. Q: Don Williams, Bull Mountain Resident- The weather reports state that we are in a 20 year increase wet cycle. With the combine sewer, what about the overflow to the Willamette? A: Ed Wegner-The major combine sewer overflow is in the City of Portland, at Portland Harbor and Riverfront Park area. This would not have an impact here. Q: Why are we doing this now? Are we running out of water now? A: Commissioner Penner-We are reaching the end of our contract and a decision has to be made. Q: Are fish deformities a serious concern and what are the causes of these fish deformities? A: Commissioner Penner- There are several reasons for fish deformities. There are studies in the literature handout explaining the different causes of fish deformities all over the world. In the Willamette River only Squawfish, which are bottom-feeders, have shown any deformities. The State has not funded a BioAssay test to find out the causes for these deformities. If the appropriate scientific test can be done we should be able to identify the unknown chemicals that are causing the deformities. No other species in the river have shown deformities. Commissioner Buehner—20% of the water we would be drinking if we go with Portland would be from the Columbia South Shore Well Fields and their has been a real problem with contamination of those well. According to DEQ within the next 20 years they will come up with a system to keep the contamination from seeping into the wells. The other issue is up on Mount Hood. There has been a problem with deformed salamanders. Both water systems will need a lot of planning and testing. There are issues for each water source. Q: Would you discuss the issue of the water supply? A: Ed Wegner—One main concern is that we do have enough water for the Tigard Water Service Area. Our only supply now is surplus water. Our projections are if we do not develop other sources of water and start conserving, we will not have enough water for the region much less the Tigard Service Area. If Portland had an emergency they could cut off our water supply, as we are one of the last agencies to enter their contract. Tigard's Wells can only supply 1.3 million gallons of water a day. Our community ism using over 6 million gallons a day. It is critical to find our own water supply. Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 4 Q: Why can't we have testing done to find out the causes of the deformities and what is the cost for the BioAssay testing? A: Commissioner Penner—We do not have the cost at this time. If we go with the Willamette there will be continual testing for causes of deformities. At some point there should be an identified cause for the deformities. Q: Why does a decision have to be made today? Why can't we stay with Portland and in 15 years see how the City of Wilsonville is doing and then buy in at that time. A: Ed Wegner—We now have 10 million gallons capacity per day. Our needs in the summer are 13 million gallons a day. It will take many years to develop a new water system. We need to make a decision so we can move on to the next phase of development. Our contract expires in the year 2007. It will be at least five to seven years before the treatment plant would be usable. We will always keep two contracts on board for the service area so that we have certainty of water. We would continue to keep Portland as our second contract. Q: Who would handle the development and conservation issues? Is the state involved with these issues? A: Ed Wegner—Introduction of Kevin Hanway and his position regarding the Willamette Proposal. Kevin is involved with state agencies regarding these issues. We have asked DEQ for more testing on the deformities of fish. We are doing raw water monitoring. We know more about the raw water in the Willamette than Portland knows about the raw water in Bull Run. We have been asked to compare our raw water monitoring reports to others. We can not find anyone that uses a major river or in the Portland Metropolitan area that has the extensive raw water monitoring that Tualatin Valley Water District and the City of Tigard have done for the last three years on this project. We have increased our Conservation program since 1992. This year we have a full time staff member that will start working with schools, the general public, and landscaping ordinances. Since 1992, we have had a growth of about 22 percent. Yet we have reduced water consumption of about 17 percent. Jack Craforth, Co-chairman of the Association for Safe Water—We have been testing the Willamette River for years. The studies are being made by Montgomery—Watson, which are a very fine engineering firm have been supported by the EPA, DEQ, by every agency in this Government as being sufficient and they say that the Willamette River will produce 99.9 percent pure drinking water. The Portland Water System has 26 percent Columbia Well Water and its Bull Run water, so it is polluted. The studies and factsare that the Willamette River will produce better drinking water than the Portland Water System. Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 5 Q: What about new development in the area and surrounding areas, how are they effected? A: Ed Wegner- We only service what is called the Tigard Water Service Area Boundary. The new developments within this area will pay a"Systems Development Charge" for being a part of our system. Q: Has anyone done a study on what it would do to property values for people who live in Tigard and unincorporated Tigard? A: Ed Wegner- Yes, we went to Portland Metropolitan Board of Realtors Million Dollar Club in September of this year. We had brought both scenarios before them and there was no mention regarding the price of properties going down. Q: Is there three thousand homes now using the Willamette? A: Commissioner Penner- There is an unknown number of people who live along the Willamette River who get there drinking water from wells. Once the water is pump from wells, it is replaced with water from the Willamette River. Aquifers around the Willamette are all open Aquifers. Which means that water percolates down from the river into the Aquifers and feeds them. Q: Wilsonville is going to be the place for the prison. Is the State going to contribute to the water system? A: Ed Wegner- At that time, when Wilsonville was in consideration, the City of Wilsonville could not supply the water. State funds were put aside to help fund a long- term water supply to guarantee either Portland or the Willamette proposals. This money is not figured into the cost comparison of Portland's proposal. Q: The listing of fish runs may reduce the amount of water storage in Bull Run. Will that have an impact on the availability of water? A: Commissioner Penner- Yes, streams can run dry and it would have a significant impact on our water supply. Q: Have studies been made on the Columbia River? A: Kevin Hanway - There is a restriction on obtaining water from the Columbia River. It goes back 80 years to the"Issue of Rights". So there has not been a study on the Columbia River. Q: What other options are the City of Willsonville and the City of Sherwood researching? Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 6 A: Commissioner Penner- The same two options as the City of Tigard. Q: Judith Anderson, King City Resident - Can we be insured that there will be no additional industrial development added to the Willamette River and is there a possibility that the filtration plant may not have the capacity to remove certain sources of pollution? A: Commissioner Haunsperger-We do have an active committee looking at this issue. Commissioner Penner-We have discussed this issue with the Environmental Science Department at Portland State University. Their suggestion would be to put more pressure on DEQ to put more testing upstream. Also to keep us informed as to what is going on around the river. They also suggested that all of us, Tigard, Wilsonville, and Sherwood residents put pressure on DEQ and the State for clean up of the Willamette River. Q: Are we the first to use the Willamette? A: Commissioner Penner-No, Corvallis has used the Willamette River for 30 years. Q: What is the next stop in this process for this board? A: Commissioner Buehner- On April 7, 1999, we will vote on the two options. The vote will go to the Intergovernmental Water Board and then to the Tigard City Council. There will be one more public hearing on April 13, 1999 before the City Council. The process will end on April 27, 1999, if everyone keeps their time line, that will be the vote by the City Council. Commissioner Buehner-At first I was Pro Bull Run bias. When Murray, Smith and Associates came in, there was concern and I was skeptical. I had asked several questions and come to a conclusion that the Willamette River can be a safe water supply. I had tried to deal with the City of Portland on certain issues and could not get a straight answer, this became very frustrating. Q: Can we pump from the Clackamas? A: Ed Wegner-We have no water rights. The city of West Linn will not let the city of Lake Oswego expand their treatment plant. As we grew and Lake Oswego grew,they could not supply us water in the peak summer times. Q: Steve D'Angelo -Requested a vote. The majority are on the fence due to the discussion of this meeting. Commissioner Buehner-Requested volunteers for the Budget Committee., . Steve D'Angelo volunteered for the Budget Committee. Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 7 Commissioner Haunsperger- There is an on going committee of 37 people who have a meeting on every Thursday at City Hall. The meeting is open to the public. Q: Once the treatment plant is up and going would we sell any or our surplus water to other agencies? A: Ed Wegner—No, not at this time. We may in the future have an Emergency Contract Water Supply set up for other agencies. An informal vote of those in attendance indicated that the majority of citizens favor the Willamette option. 5. Intergovernmental Water Board Update The next meeting will be held on April 7, 1999. 6. Utility Manager's Report Mike Miller, Utility Manager, handed out a packet of information and discussed the following: • Elections Results—Position#4 vacant. Had several 2 vote write ins. • Wilsonville Paper—Two newspapers • Cityscape—Water report • Quarterly Sample Report—With narrative test result. • Budget Meeting— Suggested to hold Budget Meeting in April as Wayne Lowry is leaving the end of April. Commissioner Haunsperger requested Commissioner Buehner to head up the Budget Committee. Commissioner Buehner accepted. Steve D'Angelo has signed up to be on the Budget Committee. Commissioner Strauss moved to discuss the water supply option. Commissioner Buehner seconded the motion. 7. Non-Agenda Items The report on legal fees were not available at this time. Commissioner Strauss requested that all Districts and Boards be informed of meeting times and of any changes. Discussion was held on the process of voting on the 2 options. Commissioner Froude requested clarification on the voting process. She requested that an attorney look at how the voting will take place. Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 8 Commissioner Penner moved for a vote to approve the Willamette River as a water source. Commissioner Buehner seconded the motion. All members present voting AYE, the motion passed unanimously. S. Visitors Comments None. 9. Set next meeting date The next meeting is scheduled for April 26, 1999. 10. Adjournment Commissioner Haunsperger adjourned the regular meeting to Executive Session at 9:45 p.m. Executive Session The Tigard Water District Board went into Executive Session at 9:45 p.m. under the provisions of ORS 192.660(1)(d), (e), & (h)to discuss labor relations, real property transactions, and current and pending litigation issues. Executive Session adjourned at 10:00 p.m. Tigard Water District Board—July 23, 1999 Page 9