Utility Advisory Committee

City Hall Meeting Minutes 601 4th Avenue E Olympia, WA 98501 Utility Advisory Committee Contact: Andy Haub 360.753.8475 Thursday, December 3, 2015 5:40 PM City Hall, Room 207 1. CALL TO ORDER Chair Curtz called the meeting to order at 5:42 p.m. 1.A ROLL CALL Present: 5 - Chair Thad Curtz, Committee member Michelle Barnett, Committee member Steve Fossum, Committee member Dever Kuni, and Committee member Roger Wilson Absent: 3 - Vice Chair Margaret Drennan, Committee member David Dunn, and Committee member Chris Ward 2. APPROVAL OF AGENDA The agenda was approved. 3. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 15-1151 Approval of November 5, 2015 UAC Meeting Minutes The minutes were approved. 4. PUBLIC COMMENT 6. ANNOUNCEMENTS FROM UAC AND STAFF Water Resources Director Andy Haub provided follow up to the February 2, 2015 UAC agenda item when Danelle MacEwen presented information on utility green power. He said the City will start investing in renewable energy certificates (RECs) from Puget Sound Energy (PSE) rather than only Water Resources investing in the PSE green power program. The REC purchases are for the entire City operations, not just the drinking water utility. This decision will have a cost savings to Water Resources of approximately $15,000 per year. Staff will now evaluate how to spend these savings, such as investing in energy efficiency projects for City facilities/buildings. The Strong Town's presentation is coming to the Olympia area on January 6. Mr. Haub will send the UAC more information. Mr. Haub reported a 300,000 gallon sewer spill into a residential stormwater pond on City of Olympia Page 1 Utility Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes December 3, 2015 Thanksgiving day in the Rossmor neighborhood off Boulevard Road. The cause of the spill was a blocked sewer pipe from a grease plug. The City plans to do an informational door hanger in this neighborhood about proper disposal of cooking grease. 6. BUSINESS ITEMS 15-1152 Organics Management Briefing Waste ReSources Senior Program Specialist Ron Jones reported on organics management. He discussed current practices and future possibilities for organics in Olympia. He presented information on the following programs: - Anaerobic Digestion - WISErg Liquid Fertilizer (The WISErg company is seeking partners to implement its technology.) - WasteLess Food (Thurston County Program to reduce food waste.) He agreed to send links to the UAC members for the program websites. The information was provided. 15-1153 Development of UAC 2016-2017 Workplan Water Resources Program Assistant Lindsay Marquez presented information on the process and timeline for the upcoming UAC work plan. The planning period for the work plan is April 2016 - March 2017. Requests for work plan items were due to her by December 1. UAC members asked if they could still submit requests after this date. Staff agreed to this and a new due date will be communicated to the UAC members. The UAC will review and finalize the work plan at the January 7, 2016 meeting. The Council's General Government Committee will review all the City advisory committees' final work plans in February with referral to the full Council for approval in March. The information was provided. 15-1154 Low Impact Development Code Revisions The following City staff attended the UAC meeting to provide information on LID: Randy Wesselman, Public Works Transportation Dave Rosen, Public Works Transportation Eric Christensen, Public Works Water Resources Laura Keehan, Public Works Water Resources Todd Stamm, Community Planning & Development The UAC was previously briefed on the LID code revisions at the January 7, City of Olympia Page 2 Utility Advisory Committee Meeting Minutes December 3, 2015 September 3, October 1 and November 5, 2015 meetings. UAC members read LID Elements #6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 16, 18, 21 and 22 in preparation for discussion at tonight's meeting. Staff and UAC discussed the Elements, with several focused on transporation. Staff and UAC discussed block spacing, road widths and sidewalks. The UAC requested information on Element 8 regarding the drawbacks of not changing residential block spacing from 1,800 to 2,200 foot block perimeter. Staff said they would gather information and provide it to the UAC. Chair Curtz asked staff: What percentage of water that is not treated right now would then infiltrate once LID is in place? (Information corrected by Eric Christensen: With the proposed bioretention street sections, depending upon the street class, 50% to 80% of sidewalks will be pervious concrete. Compared to current stormwater regulations, LID will reduce the hydrologic impacts resulting from new development. LID should result in improved water quality in runoff from new development and should help maintain stream baseflows. Results will vary, but in most cases we can expect a 50% reduction in runoff volume from new development as a result of increased infiltration. Reduced runoff will result in comparable reductions in pollutants conveyed to surface waters). The Committee discussed drafting a recommendation letter to the Planning Commission and City Council and to explain in the letter that some of the LID Elements are administrative, some Elements have minimal effects and a few Elements are policy-related and have a bigger impact. Chair Curtz moved, and the motion was seconded, to draft a LID recommenation letter to the Planning Commission and the City Council. The motion carried. 9. ADJOURNMENT Chair Curtz adjourned the meeting at 7:49 p.m. City of Olympia Page 3