GRAYS HARBOR COUNTY WATER DISTRICT #2
Newsletter for November/December 2020
The mission statement for the district is “Provide safe and reliable drinking water to the residences and businesses of Central Park”. The “safe” part is absolutely bottom line. The district is completely up to date on all water testing and all tests have returned satisfactory.
Well, almost. Over the past ten years we have been required to take four coliform samples per month. We have always taken five as a little extra sampling is not a bad idea. Beginning in July the state Office of Drinking Water changed the requirement to six samples based on the increased population served. It caught us on the hop and we only took our normal five samples in July. This does not represent a health risk. There is no action you need to take. In August we took the required six. Starting in September we will be taking seven. You will receive formal notification, as required by the regulations, along with next year’s Consumer Confidence Report.
The “reliable” part is an ongoing endeavor as we maintain, repair and replace the millions of dollars worth of equipment and facilities that deliver water to each service connection.
Web Site
The Newsletters get thinner as we add content to the web site, found at: https://www.centralparkwater.net. We also post timely information on the Facebook page. The web site includes a lot of basic information that we used to include in the newsletter. This newsletter will also be posted on the web site for your future reference. Check the site often. Content gets added on a regular basis.
The Facebook posts are duplicated on the web site for those that don’t do Facebook.
Power Outages
When power outages occur, it impacts the District’s ability to pump water from the wells up to the reservoirs. It is important to minimize water use during power outages. When we lose power to the well pumps we can provide full service for up to 18 hours and reduced service up to 36 hours. Unless there is a fire. Those times can expand if everyone is careful with water usage.
About Leaks
The property owner is responsible for the condition of the plumbing on their side of the meter. The district offers one hour of free leak detection subject to operational considerations. This is a courtesy and does not relieve the property owner of the liability for all water passing through the meter.
Credit Card Payments
The District can accept payments by credit/debit card at the desk (once we can re-open the office) or over the phone. There is a transaction fee of 2.5% with a minimum $2.00. The transaction fee is not a district charge. It is added to the transaction by the processing company, not the district.
An option for paying online is to use the online bill paying services offered by most banks.
In the previous newsletter we included a survey regarding interest in other payment options, along with an estimate of the impact those additional services would have on rates. We received very few responses, at last count 10, all decidedly negative.
Emergency Notification
The County Emergency Management office has implemented a new program. The result is that the list of phone numbers did not carry over. Please contact them. You can find them through the County’s web site:
“Google” Grays Harbor County
Once on the web site click on “Departments”
Click on “Emergency Management”
On the links on the left, in green, click on “Emergency Alerts”
Fill in the blanks
THIS IS IMPORTANT. If you don’t have web access, ask a friend to help getting registered. If your contact information is not available to the County you may miss important emergency information not only from the County, but from the water district as well.
Conditions of Service
There are conditions attached to the provision of water service. If you don’t have a copy, please request one. We can mail it or email it to you. The Conditions of Service are also posted on the web site.
Special Needs
It is absolutely vital that you inform the District if you have special needs. If you suffer from an immune deficiency or other problem where a lack of water could be life-threatening, we need to know.
Rates
It is that time of the year to talk about rates and what to expect for 2021.
Rate setting is always a difficult exercise for the staff and the commissioners. We have two forces pulling on us. The first is concern for the community, especially those in our community who are struggling to get by on limited/fixed incomes. There are specific people I (your general manager) keep in mind, to help me stay focused, as I examine each line item of the budget. Those are people who I personally know have to watch every penny just to keep a roof over their heads and food on the table. The commissioners are charged, as elected representatives, to work in the interests of the community. This district is blessed with commissioners who take that responsibility very seriously.
The second force is the need to do what is necessary to meet the mission of providing safe and reliable drinking water to the residents and businesses of Central Park. As has been stated many times, though there are quite a few good things about the water system, it is an aging system with many maintenance, repair and replacement challenges. All of those cost money.
Much has been done over the past 10 years, but much remains.
The only source of money available to the district is rates. There are no sources of outside funding.
There are six primary issues, not in any particular order, that are impacting our budget, and therefore the rates, for 2021.
General Maintenance
General maintenance continues to demand an increasing amount of attention. In addition to all the daily checks that have to be made, we are repairing leaks, usually service lateral leaks, on an almost daily basis. Sometimes more than one in a day. Meters have to be read, grass has to be mowed, line flushing has to occur, locates need to be conducted, aging service meters need to be replaced, and the list goes on. It is typical for there to be over 300 open work orders at any one time. Inevitably, some things must be deferred. Just one example, while we are able to flush hydrants and make sure they function, we are way behind in painting, color coding, and tagging fire hydrants, all tasks important to the fire district.
Isolation Valves
An item that continues to frustrate, and has been deferred, is the finding of isolation valves that have been paved over, and the addition of new isolation valves where needed. Isolation valves are very important. When a leak occurs that requires shutting down water mains, the more isolation valves there are the fewer homes will be without water while the repair is underway. Finding and raising paved-over valves has been a deferred item for a long time. It can be deferred no longer. Beginning in 2020 we started a project to correct that problem. Because of the nature of the project, contractor assistance is necessary. It will be pursued with great vigor in 2021.
As an example, we recently had a water main break on Grange Road at Hunley. We, just days before, had located buried valves at that intersection. By having access to those valves six homes were without water during the repair instead of around 65 if we had not had access to those valves.
New Regulations
New requirements from the regulatory agencies to whom we answer continue to add pressure to our work load and expenses, both operational and capital. An example is the requirement for a Capital Asset Management Program. Intentional management of capital assets is very important. But doing so requires resources the district has not had. Now that it is mandated the rates have to be adjusted to provide the resource. The district established a plan in 2019 and contributes a calculated amount of money into the Capital Asset Management Fund every month. The fund is there to make planned capital asset replacements. The good news is that, for assets that we can work into the plan, the money will be available when they are due for replacement.
An element of a capital asset management plan is detailed inventory control. In such a system every part, down to the smallest valve, is tracked from the moment it is requested until it is retired from service. Such a system requires staff attention and computerized inventory tracking. The district has the software capability, but we do not have the staff. So that is a requirement for which we are out of compliance. Eventually we will need to add staff.
Another new requirement is Disaster Management Planning. The district has an Emergency Response Plan in place that addresses “routine” emergencies such as leaks, short term power outages, and potential contamination. The new requirements specifically address disasters that are beyond typical emergencies faced on a regular basis. Not only is the development of the plan a major undertaking, which we are striving to do “in house” in order to avoid the expense of consultants, but equipping the district to manage a major disaster is probably going to be quite expensive. We don’t yet know how expensive. It is more likely to be six figures than five.
Growth
Growth is also incurring some expenses. The big one is our Water Rights. The district has water right permits to draw a specific maximum quantity of groundwater at a specific maximum rate. Withdrawal has increased dramatically from two causes: the first is added service connections; the second is changing demographics with younger families moving into the community, which use more water. At this writing we are projected to use about 72% of our water right by the end of the year. That sounds like a comfortable margin, but it takes years, and the services of consultants and (often) attorneys, to acquire additional water rights. The good news is that we have the reserves with which to cover that cost, at least most of it. Every time someone requests a new service the district charges a General Facilities Charge which goes into a specific fund, the General Facilities Fund. That fund is specifically targeted at expenses that derive from increased service connections.
But growth impacts other areas as well. With increasing population we are required to conduct additional water quality testing and change the protocols by which the tests are collected. Additional testing and more complex protocols cost more money and take more staff time. There is also the cost of installing more sampling stations.
Major Repair Reserve
The issue that has hit us the hardest in 2020, is the Major Repair Reserve. This reserve is in place to pay for major, unanticipated repairs. Should the district be able to anticipate major repairs? In a perfect world, yes. But with an aging system it is difficult to predict what will break next. Ideally, we should just go through and replace all the aging infrastructure. There is no way the community can afford to do that. No mattered how structured, replacing the aging water lines would ADD about $150 to rates. So we have to be prepared for major repairs.
Over the past ten years the district has been able to accumulate about $450,000 in the Major Repair Reserve. We also carry some “cushion” in the General Maintenance Fund. In 2020 we faced two big items: the replacement of 1,200 feet of water main due to deteriorated cast iron pipe; and the replacement of the Well #5 pump. The total cost of those two projects was just over $300,000. By covering some of the cost from operational income we only had to draw about $217,000 from the reserve. Still, that leaves a balance of only about $233,000 in that fund. One big water main break (and there are multiple opportunities for that to occur) could easily top $500,000, and a $1 million repair is not outside the realm of possibilities. We may also have to draw from reserves to cover the expenses associated with complying with disaster preparedness requirements. Keeping this fund replenished is an absolute imperative.
County Delegation
Under Title 57, of the Washington Administrative Code, the County is charged with acting as the district’s treasurer. They in effect, are the district’s “bank”. Ten years ago the primary financial records were kept by the County while the district’s internal accounting practices were strictly for the district’s use. The County kept the “official” records and provided the annual reports required by the State Auditor.
That has been gradually changing with increasing amounts of responsibility, and tasks, being delegated to the district. The district has been able to absorb the additional workload without increasing staff. But we are at the saturation point. Any further delegation from the County and the district will have to add staff.
Deferred Projects
There are some deferred major projects that will eventually have to be addressed. They keep getting bumped by more urgent demands.
1. The water mains on Fairway Terrace are not up to industry standards and the fittings on the service laterals are nylon.
We haven’t had any leaks there recently, but the time is coming.
2. The water main on Hill Road south of Central Park Drive is in dubious condition. We have had several leaks on that main
and it is past due for replacement.
3. Pressures on Clemons Road are just barely at regulatory minimums. We did manage to solve the problem of standing
waves when the pumps shut off, but the folks there are in the greatest need for better pressure.
4. The source meter on Well #5 is past due for replacement.
5. Reynvaan has several challenges:
a. The state is requiring a downhill extension from the booster station
b. The pumphouse at the reservoir site needs replacement
c. The pump controls need updating
The Reynvaan booster pumps will be up for replacement in a few years. But they are in the Asset Management
Program and the money will be available when the time comes.
We budget for some of these every year. We keep needing the money for other things.
Budget and Rates
All of the above coupled with increases in almost every budget line item puts pressure on rates. We do our best to limit expenses, but fuel, electricity, office supplies, insurance, phones, control communications, parts and supplies (such as chlorine) all tend to inflate by some amount every year. Every line item is scrutinized in an effort to trim fat.
An item that we strive to keep a lid on is staffing. We keep the smallest staff possible to handle the day-to-day work load. We had to add field staff this year due to increasing maintenance/repair demands. We limit office hours in order to avoid additional office staff. The field staffing is the only area where there is some vacation/sick leave backup. If office staff is on vacation or ill, we have to limit office related services. Every staff member is compensated below typical industry scale.
For 2021 the residential base rate will increase 10%. The usage rate will increase from $2.15/100 cubic feet to $2.75/100 cubic feet over 1,200 cubic feet/billing period. Commercial and multi-family rates will experience similar increases. A copy of the 2021 rate schedule is attached to this newsletter. The extensive rate study just concluded indicated a need for a larger increase. But we are counting on some increased revenue from the new connections. There are those folks on limited/fixed incomes to consider.
Tours
The District is offering a very limited number of system tours. We can only accommodate two people at a time and tours are limited to one per week. A full tour takes about two hours. If you are interested call the office for scheduling. Tour availability is subject to operational and weather considerations and adherence to the “Stay Safe, Stay Home” requirements. You must be physically able to get in to and out of a pickup truck.
Emergencies
There are water district staff available to address water emergency situations 24 hours a day, seven days a week. If you have an emergency, or even think you might have an emergency, do not be bashful about using the emergency contact numbers.
POST THESE NUMBERS
360-580-2172
360-589-6007
Emergency crews are not in a position to answer billing or other account related questions.
Thank You
Thank you for wading through all this information. If you have questions, or there are issues that we have not addressed in this newsletter, please feel free to call the office (360-532-1828) during posted hours, or email the General Manager (reg@centralparkwater.net). You are always welcome at commissioners' meetings held at 7:00PM on the second Wednesday of each month in the District office. Commissioner meetings are now “live”. Please bring a mask and practice social distancing until further notice. You can learn a lot at commissioners' meetings. The District office is located on East Cross Road just off of Hill Road.
Feel free to call or email if you have questions or concerns. We love to talk with you.
Grays Harbor County Water District #2 is an equal opportunity provider and employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, sex, gender identity, or religion.