Utility Advisory Committee

City Hall City of Olympia 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Contact: Andy Haub Meeting Minutes 360.570.3795 Utility Advisory Committee Thursday, May 1, 2014 5:30 PM City Hall, Room 207 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Curtz called the meeting to order at 5:40 p.m. 2. ROLL CALL Present: 7 - Chair Thad Curtz, Committee Member David Dunn, Committee Member Steve Fossum, Committee Member Carol Law, Committee Member Jennifer Sievert, Committee Member Dever Kuni, and Committee Member Carole Richmond Excused: 4 - Vice Chair Barbara Day, Committee Member Margaret Drennan, Committee Member Loralei Walker, and Committee Member Chris Ward 3. APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved. 14-0428 Approval of April 3, 2014 UAC Meeting Minutes Committee Member Law noted she was present at the April 3 meeting and the roll call will be adjusted accordingly. The April 3, 2014 meeting minutes were approved with some minor edits. 5. PUBLIC COMMENT - None 6. ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM UAC AND STAFF Olympia Planning Commission (OPC) liaison Carole Richmond attended a Joint Meeting with the Planning Commission and the Coalition of Neighborhood Associations. Staff presented information on storm and surface water and low impact development. Chair Curtz attended a meeting of the NW Ecobuild, and heard a presentation from a company that builds green roofs. Public Works Water Resources Director Andy Haub announced that Open Government Training is available for elected officials and is optional for advisory City of Olympia Page 1 Utility Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes May 1, 2014 committees. The training is scheduled for Wednesday, June 5 at the Washington Center for the Performing Arts. Time of the training to be determined and staff will notify the UAC. Mr. Haub noted that a letter of support regarding policies for onsite septic system (as it was discussed at the April 3 UAC meeting) is in the processes of being drafted. Staff would like to have Chair Curtz sign it and have it ready for staff to present to LUEC June 19. Mr. Haub noted some revisions to June UAC agenda. He informed the UAC that the Lacey, Olympia, Tumwater and Thurston (LOTT) Clean Water Alliance Capital Improvement Plan (CIP) would not be ready by the June meeting, and suggested that staff from LOTT would give a presentation on their capacity calculations . Also, the Waste ReSources master plan draft will not be ready for the June UAC meeting . Mr. Haub informed the committee that this item would be ready in the fall. 6.A. PLANNING COMMISSION UPDATE Ms. Richmond updated the Committee on the OPC’s recent activities. The OPC continued discussions on the meetings that involved a few OPC members and some developers and a property owner that would have been affected . She noted that the zoning amendment did not pass. The OPC considered another zoning amendment regarding AT&T cell phone towers where AT&T asked for more capacity to the existing cell towers and also a request to change the approval process. 7. BUSINESS OF THE EVENING 14-0426 Water System Plan Update Water Resources Senior Planner Laura Keehan and Water Resources Senior Program Specialist Donna Buxton attended the UAC meeting to present the status of the City’s update to the Water System Plan. Staff also presented the financial structure of reclaimed water due to UAC interest and recent amendments to the reclaimed water ordinance. The UAC deliverable for this item was to provide input to staff. The Water System Plan is a six-year strategic document that guides the drinking water utility. The Plan is required by the State Department of Health and has a 50-year focus. Ms. Buxton explained reclaimed water and its uses. She presented information on rates and charges for reclaimed water customers and a potential rate structure and options for financing the infrastructure into the future. The UAC provided the following questions and feedback: · Are Olympia drinking water rate payers inadvertently subsidizing LOTT? Should all reclaimed water costs be handled through LOTT so that they are City of Olympia Page 2 Utility Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes May 1, 2014 equally divided between the jurisdictions? Is the City of Olympia paying too much for reclaimed water capital costs that the other jurisdictions are not? · What are the tradeoffs of running a more ambitious water conservation program vs. the reclaimed water program? · What would it cost to just infiltrate all of the reclaimed water? o How does this compare to the cost of having the reclaimed water user program? o How does this compare to the cost of discharging to Budd Inlet? · What’s the cost for the City to provide a gallon of drinking water vs . a gallon of reclaimed water (assuming no subsidies of reclaimed water)? · How far could Olympia’s reclaimed water allotment go in supplying the City’s drinking water needs? o Is there a point where if we are using more of our allotment, then it is worth it because of the savings in drinking water source development costs? · Use of reclaimed water saves us from using drinking water for irrigation. However, retrofitting plumbing systems is very expensive. Continue to charge less for reclaimed water. · LOTT customers already pay for treating reclaimed water and then the City pays again to purvey it, which benefits LOTT so that it doesn’t discharge to Budd Inlet. Shouldn’t LOTT pay for all the reclaimed water capital infrastructure/improvements? · Any idea the scale of reclaimed water if we had the infrastructure to use it (i.e. could we use all of the reclaimed water?) If not and it’s more expensive to use it, then why invest in it? Staff said that they would provide this list of questions to the City’s consultant , HDR, who is helping City staff with updating the Water System Plan. Staff noted that guidance is needed from the consultant regarding how much to charge and subsidize reclaimed water. The discussion was completed. 14-0427 Comprehensive Plan and Action Plan Update Community Planning and Development Long Range Program and Planning SupervisorTodd Stamm attended the UAC meeting to give an update on the City’s Comprehensive Plan Update process and the Action Plan. The Action Plan is the next phase for how the City will implement the new Comprehensive Plan (Comp Plan). The UAC did not have a deliverable for this item; provided as information only. Staff has been presenting this information to all the City’s advisory committees . The OPC and the City Council are finishing their review processes of the Comp Plan. Public hearings on the Comp Plan are expected in August with adoption of the Plan by the end of the year. Mr. Stamm said the UAC can be involved by working through their City staff (Andy Haub or Debbie Sullivan). Chair Curtz suggested looking at the September UAC City of Olympia Page 3 Utility Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes May 1, 2014 schedule to review a draft of the Comp Plan. The discussion was completed. 9. ADJOURNMENT The meeting adjourned at 7:24 p.m. City of Olympia Page 4