SLVWD Board Meeting Summary

August 17, 2023

Mark Dolson

Highlights:

  • Exposed San Lorenzo Valley Infrastructure on Brookside Drive in Felton

  • 2023-2025 Streamflow Salinity and Temperature Monitoring and Operational Gaging Contract

  • Conjunctive Use Update and Modeling Technical Support Contract Award

  • CZU Basic Waiver Homes Policy

  • Blue Ridge Tank Agreement Change Order

  • Capital Reserve Policy

  • Drought Status

  • Next Board meeting is at 6:30 PM on September 7th

Preliminaries

There was no report from the Closed Session prior to the meeting.

Director Mahood was out with an excused absence due to a medical condition.

Director Ackemann was attending remotely and was absent during the middle portion of the meeting.

There were no additions or deletions to the agenda.

There was no non-agenda-related public comment.

 

New Business

Exposed San Lorenzo Valley Infrastructure on Brookside Drive in Felton

District Manager Rick Rogers introduced this agenda item.   During a storm in early January 2023, several clogged culverts along Brookside Drive in Felton diverted runoff on to the roadway, washing it out, blocking access to many homes, and also damaging and exposing a 2” District water main.  Staff promptly restored temporary water service to the impacted homes.

The District submitted a damage claim to FEMA, and approval is still pending for the District to replace approximately 1650 feet of exposed/damaged pipe with new 8” pipe at an estimated cost of $800,000.  The District has procured services for surveying which is needed for design work and should be completed by the end of next week.  

The issue for affected residents is that current road conditions allow for only limited vehicle access to some homes.  On August 7, 2023, the District Manager and District Engineer conducted a field review, and Staff has reached out to several residents to schedule a field meeting to discuss working together to restore the road. The District’s position is that the exposed mains should not interfere with road rebuilding.  Meanwhile, the District is moving forward with design, environmental review, and replacement bidding targeting pipeline construction in early Spring of 2024.  It is doubtful that this schedule can be accelerated.

There were two rounds of Board discussion.  In the first round, Directors sought a more detailed understanding of the District’s response and expectations.  In the second round, Directors focused more on attempting to resolve disconnects between the District and the affected residents, three of whom were present.

In the first round, Rick’s perspective was that the District responded rapidly and appropriately, and that achieving consistent communication with the residents was challenging.  He said the Spring 2024 target was realistic, but it will require delaying other projects.  In response to a Board query, he agreed that it might be possible, in principle, to parallelize some of the required next steps, but he said there was insufficient Staff bandwidth to attempt this.  In response to another query, he said the District’s grant writer was already involved in investigating possible federal funding.

In the second round, Chris Keller and two neighbors (who also spoke to the Board at its previous meeting) expressed considerable frustration with the District’s timeline.  They reported that some of the residents were livid.  They felt they had done everything possible to expedite the road repair (they obtained funding from a special FEMA program in March), but their understanding was that this was being gated by the exposed pipes.  Rick’s disagreed, saying that road repair could proceed, and the District would promptly repair any new pipe damage.

Director Hill suggested that two keys to improving coordination from this point forward would be for the residents to establish a primary point of contact and for the District to assemble and maintain a checklist of pending steps.  Chris said this would relieve a lot of the tension that the residents were feeling.  President Smolley said he expected to see this item on future agendas so as to regularly update both the Board and the public.

 

2023-2025 Streamflow Salinity and Temperature Monitoring and Operational Gaging Contract

Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard introduced this agenda item.   She reviewed the long-term monitoring project (discussed in the previous Board meeting) and reported that the District had received two proposals for extending this work into 2025.  Both Balance Hydrologics and cbec, inc. eco engineering were judged to be highly qualified.  Staff recommended Balance Hydrologics based on their previous work on this project and their lower bid of $119,000.

There was no disagreement and limited discussion amongst the Board.   President Smolley sought a minor clarification and then moved to approve the contract award.  The motion was seconded, and there was no public comment.  The motion passed 4-0.

Conjunctive Use Update and Modeling Technical Support Contract Award

Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard introduced this agenda item.  For quite some time, now, the District has been working with Rincon Consultants on an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) in response to City of Santa Cruz objections to its Conjunctive Use Plan (CUP).   For the past year, Staff has been internally working through an operational plan, responding to Rincon’s requests for information, coordinating with the City of Santa Cruz, and working with regulatory agencies to begin permitting the associated water diversions.

In support of this activity, the District more recently entered into a contract with cbec, inc. eco engineering (cbec) under the District Managers purchasing authority of $30,000. Cbec then began preliminary hydraulic and habitat modeling on Boulder Creek (confluence of Foreman and Peavine creeks) and streamflow data processing for operational planning, with the idea that a comprehensive scope and budget would be developed based on initial modeling results.  cbec is now proposing additional modeling and data analysis at a cost of $101,627.  Carly introduced consultants Mike Podlech, fisheries biologist, and Chris Hammersmark, cbec Director, who presented the following overview:

SLVWD has developed two reports to support the CUP: a Water Availability Assessment and an evaluation of considerations relating to fisheries resources.  The District currently operates three distinct systems:

  • North System: Surface water and groundwater sources

  • South System: Groundwater only

  • Felton System: Surface water only

The District has emergency interties between the North and Felton systems, between the North and South systems, and between the South system and the Scotts Valley Water District.  The District is currently operating these on a temporary basis in the wake of infrastructure damage sustained in the August 2020 CZU Fire.  The District also has the right to 313 acre feet per year from Loch Lomond, but it currently has no infrastructure with which to access this.

The revised CUP calls for the District to use its existing interties on a permanent basis so that excess surface water can be used to reduce the need for groundwater pumping.  A feasibility study for Loch Lomond access is still pending.

cbec was brought on to assist with operational data gaps and climate change modeling.  Their tasks are:

  • Assess changes in habitat availability and fish passage due to changes in flow

  • Synthesize “without project” daily streamflow records for use by others in CUP EIR CEQA analysis

  • Scale existing hydrology to potential future conditions due to climate change

Further details of their presentation can be found at:

https://www.slvwd.com/sites/g/files/vyhlif1176/f/uploads/cup_slvwd_august2023_ppt_v2.pdf

Director Fultz asked a series of questions aimed at understanding how much benefit the District was deriving from this detailed assessment.  He noted that the District was essentially already implementing a significant portion of its CUP via the emergency use of its interties, so it had real-world data on the impact in both a dry year and a wet year.

Director Fultz and Director Hill also called attention to the importance of getting a price quote from the City of Santa Cruz for its treated water prior to launching the Loch Lomond study (which will determine the cost of getting untreated water from Loch Lomond).

Lastly, Director Fultz took strong exception to the use of the District Manager’s $30,000 purchasing authority to effectively commit to cbec without going through a proper bidding process.  Consequently, he said he would vote against a motion to award the contract to cbec unless his vote was essential (due to quorum considerations) for the contract to be awarded.

President Smolley moved to award the contract to cbec, and Director Hill seconded this.  There was one public comment:

Bruce Holloway agreed that the cost of obtaining water from the City of Santa Cruz was the crucial missing piece of information with regard to Loch Lomond.  He suggested that the Finance Director also needed insight into the City’s future cost determination.

The motion passed 3-0.

CZU Basic Waiver Homes Policy

Finance Manager Kendra Reed introduced this agenda item.  She explained that 113 District customers lost their homes in the CZU Fire and were placed into the District’s Basic Waiver Program, exempting them from the monthly basic charge for up to three years from August 18, 2020.  Due to the difficult and lengthy rebuilding process, Staff is recommending an extension of two years.  This item was discussed at the July 11, 2023 Budget and Finance Committee.  There are 64 homes still on the program.  The committee considered granting an extension only to CZU customers who were in the rebuilding process (as many properties are up for sale or will not be rebuilt); however, the committee concluded that this would require too much extra investigation on the part of Staff.

The Directors all supported this initiative.  President Smolley moved to approve the resolution, and Director Hill seconded this.  There was no public comment.  The motion passed 3-0.

Blue Ridge Tank Agreement Change Order

District Manager Rick Rogers introduced this agenda item.  He explained that the $5 million contract awarded to JMB Construction one year ago included a commitment to replace the District’s aging 40,000-gallon Blue Ridge redwood tank with a new 160,000-gallon steel tank fitted with level-monitoring instrumentation that will tie into the District’s existing Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.  The Blue Ridge Tank Replacement Project specifications were included in the construction contract, but the State Water Board had not yet completed its review of the tank design.  The completed review added a requirement for a mixing valve because the State was concerned that the higher-capacity tank could develop dead zones affecting water quality during low-flow periods.   This necessitated a $41,700 change order to the contract to allow for the purchase of a Potable Water Mixing Valve.

Director Fultz asked if the mixing valve would require maintenance, and District Engineer Garrett Roffe said it would.  Director Fultz asked if there were people who would continue to have low pressure with the new tank, and Rick said this was not being addressed.  President Smolley asked if the District had mixing valves in its other large tanks, and Rick said it does.

President Smolley moved to amend the existing contract with JMB Construction to include the required mixing valve.  Director Fultz seconded this.  There was no public comment.  The motion passed 3-0.

Capital Reserve Policy

Finance Manager Kendra Reed introduced this agenda item.  She reminded the Board that there was discussion back in 2020 about developing a Capital Asset Management Plan (CAMP) that Staff can use to help develop a comprehensive long-term financial plan.   The District’s Master Plan completed in October 2021 arrived at a total water system improvement cost of $75 million, but this assessment was far from complete.  Staff started trying to develop a CAMP, but they found themselves unable to devote the considerable time and effort that was required.  In light of this experience, they requested further guidance from the Board.

Director Fultz said his question wasn’t whether the District should have a CAMP.  It was about the basis for the calculation.  The question was what number should be used to calculate the District’s target for its reserve fund (which should be 2.5% of inventory replacement cost).  This number is currently set at $1.8 million, but this is not responsible.  A very quick calculation based on the District’s nearly a million feet of pipeline at $400 per foot suggests a number closer to five times $75 million.  2.5% of this number is around $8 million.  This is the target if the District uses numbers that reflect the actual replacement value of the system.  Director Fultz said the District couldn’t expect the community to vote on a rate increase based on a distorted picture of its situation.  He said it took him about four hours to come up with a more realistic number.  Lastly, he suggested that the District should be spending about $6 million per year for capital improvement, and that this number should be plugged into the rate increase process.  Kendra agreed that the Capital Reserve used in the budget was too low and should be amended for the rate study.

Director Hill expressed concern that the Budget and Finance Committee had not yet looked at this issue, and he noted that time was very short (with regard to the rate study).  President Smolley concluded that this matter should go immediately to the Budget and Finance Committee.

 

Drought Status

Environmental Programs Manager Carly Blanchard introduced this agenda item.  She reported that the District has been at Stage 2 Water Shortage status for a number of years, but per capita consumption has decreased substantially over this time due both to improved technology and to individual conservation efforts.  With the District so far having received about 144% of its average annual rainfall since October 1, 2022, the District is anticipating a shortage of less than 10% for the current water year.  Staff is therefore recommending that the District lower its status to Stage 1.

President Smolley agreed.  Director Hill suggested that the local population might be declining, and that this should be assessed independent of the Water Shortage declaration.

Director Fultz welcomed this change.  He said customers were consuming far less water than the state mandate of 55 gallons per person per day for indoor water use.  His estimate (assuming a population between 21,000 and 26,000 based on registered voters and school attendance) was that the District’s customers were consuming in the neighborhood of 40 gallons per person per day indoors.  He added that the District has been at Stage 2 since 2014, and he advocated for a clear policy that provides clearer guidance to customers.

Director Ackemann agreed with the proposed change but wanted to know if there would be any negative consequences in terms of funding incentives or grant opportunities.  Carly said there would probably be none.

President Smolley made a motion to lower the Stage 2 Water Shortage designation to a Stage 1 Water Shortage based on the anticipated water shortage of 10% or less for water year 2023.  The motion was seconded.  There was no public comment.  The motion passed 4-0.

 

Consent Agenda

These items are deemed adopted if nobody pulls any of them for further discussion. The minutes for the Board’s July 20th and August 3rd meetings were adopted without comment.

 

President Smolley suggested that, since the Board had now been meeting for over three hours, any questions on District Reports should be deferred to next time.

The meeting adjourned at 8:40 PM.