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01/26/2012 - Minutes (3) r/ / -6 • RECEIVED Salt Lake City MAR 1 6 2012 Public Utilities Advisory Committee Minutes CITY RECORDER January 26, 2012 The Public Utilities Advisory Committee meeting was held at 7:00 a.m. January 26, 2012 at 1530 South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. Committee members present were Jan Striefel, Dick Gaddis, Dixie Huefner, Allen Orr and Larry Myers, Dwight Butler was absent. Salt Lake City Public Utilities employees present were Jeff Niermeyer, Tom Ward, Jim Lewis, Florence Reynolds, Chuck Call, Karryn Greenleaf, Bob Sperling and Zee Smith. Also in attendance were Holly Hilton, SLC Mayor's Office; Rusty Vetter, SLC Attorney's Office; Mike Devries, MWDSL'S; Jim Schwing CH2MHILL; Jim Olson, HDR; Alan Taylor, JUB Engineers; Keith Larson, Bowen & Collins. Approve Minutes of December 1, 2011 Meeting Committee member Dick Gaddis moved and Committee member Larry Myers, seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the December 1, 2011, meeting as amended. All members present voted aye. Approve Minutes of November 17, 2011 Meeting Committee member Dick Gaddis moved and Committee member Jan Striefel seconded the motion to approve the minutes of the November 17, 2011, meeting as amended. All members present voted aye. Elect Chairman and Vice-Chairman for 2012 Committee member Allen Orr suggested that the chair and Vice-chairman should be elected by seniority. Committee member Dick Gaddis suggested that the Vice-Chairman should be the chair elect. . Committee member Jan Striefel nominated Committee member Larry Myers for Chairman and Committee member Dick Gaddis seconded the motion.All members present voting aye. Committee member Larry Myers nominated Dixie Huefner for Vice-Chairman, Committee member Dick Gaddis seconded the motion, with all members present voting aye. Financial Report & Budget Process—Jim Lewis 1-1 Mr. Jim Lewis briefed the Committee on the financial report for the period ending December 31, 2011. Mr. Lewis stated that all three funds are currently doing very well and are in good financial positions at this time, even with the wetter summer. He stated that the Department had budgeted for a poor spring, but did not count on the wetter summer. Currently water deliveries are below last year by six percent and water revenues are below last year by $3.8 million. He also presented the water conservation chart for the current year, which shows water savings due to the wetter summer. The chart shows that due to the wetter summer we exceeded our conservation goal for the last calendar year. The next slide presented was a comparison of revenue for all three funds versus budget. Mr. Lewis stated that two of the funds, Sewer and Storm Water, are higher than last year with water below last year due to weather. The Water Utility is currently $3.8 million below last year, Sewer $12,000 higher, and Storm Water at $75,000 higher than last year. The next slide presented was a comparison of operating costs, comparing last year with the current budget amounts. Mr. Lewis stated that operating costs for the Water Utility are below last year by $75,000, which relates to lower water purchases over the last year. The Sewer is above last year by $704,000 and the Storm Water is above last year by $375,000 due to the early charge of street sweeping. The Department has been doing a very good job of controlling expenditures over the last couple of years. The last slide presented listed the capital improvements for each of the funds as compared to budget. The Water Utility has expended $4.6 million in capital improvements with $7 million encumbered at the end of December. The Sewer Utility has expended $8.6 million with $16.7 million encumbered. The Storm Water Utility has expended $2.4 million with $9 million encumbered. Total for all three funds equal $15.6 million and $32.7 million encumbered as of the end of December 2011. Mr. Lewis then asked for volunteers to help review the proposed budget for next year. Larry Myers and Dixie Huefner stated that they could be available on February7, 2012 at noon. The committee recommended that Dwight Butler be asked to participate with Allen On as a backup. TMDL—Florence Reynolds Based on monitoring data, Utah Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has determined that the full stretch of the Jordan River from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake is impaired. This has resulted in listing the Jordan River on the 303D list of impaired waterways in the State. Once the State lists a water body, EPA requires that efforts be made to address the impairments. This is normally accomplished through the calculation of a TMDL(Total Maximum Daily Load) for the river bed and allocating limits on the sources of the pollutants. The State developed a model to help identify causes and potential improvements. The main contributor to the DO (Dissolved Oxygen) impairment which they have chosen to address first is OM (Organic Matter). On the Jordan River the suspected dischargers include some water reclamation plants (not SLC water reclamation, it discharges to Farmington Bay), storm water discharges, irrigation returns and canals. The State's model has been in question and the proposed solution to the problem carries a huge N price tag, without guarantee that the river will improve. Consequently the State has proposed a a. phased TMDL to EPA. This phasing will allow for an additional 7 year time frame to reassess the issues and the potential improvement options. During this time frame additional testing will be done, and research will determine specific causes. Review of the TMDL • State designation for the Jordan River is as cold water fishery • The state has collected data to support listing The Jordan River for impairments. • Impairments Exist throughout the length of the river from Utah Lake to the Great Salt Lake • EPA requires steps be taken to address the impairments so as to make the waters fishable and swimmable. Current Direction • Initial State direction was to investigate the cause for low DO • A model was developed to try to determine the cause • Results indicate that organic matter(OM) was responsible • A phased TMDL has been presented to EPA • Phased TMDL allows for additional time to verify impacts, determine causes and address direction for improvement Proposed Jordan River Phased TMDL Schedule • Phase I Identifying the Problem • Development of models to calculate loading • Phase II: (2011-2018): Understanding the problem • Intense and targeted data collection • Implement behavioral and procedural changes for citizens and facilities • Phase III (2018-2023): Planning to fix the problem • Final Design • Phase IV (2023-2028): Fixing the problem • Construction, if necessary Both discrete and diffuse sources will bear responsibility to reduce OM loads to achieve the DO standards What causes low oxygen in the Jordan River? 1. Excess Organic Matter 2. River bottom sediments 3. River Management Organic Matter comes in many forms OM Family: CPOM = coarse particulate organic matter= leaves, grass clippings, sticks FPOM = fine particulate organic matter=break down of CPOM DOM = dissolved organic matter= soluble organic materials derived from the partial decomposition of organic materials, including soil organic matter, plant residues, and soluble particles released by living organism, including bacteria, algae, and plants Anticipated Sources of Organic Matter in the Jordan River • Utah Lake • Wastewater discharges • Storm Water flows • Natural stream inputs • Irrigation returns Next Steps • State DEQ is initiating data collection to verify impairment • Better characterization of the NOM loading is needed • Justification of the current"cold water fishery" status is needed • Attainability of desired future condition needs to be verified • Wastewater facilities are funding studies to supplement DEQ studies • Salt Lake City has other storm water concerns • Facilities support a water shed approach Potential Impacts to Salt Lake City • Numeric limits would cost millions to meet and may without appropriate verification, have little impact to the water quality of the Jordan River. Impairments need to be confirmed and the causes known, before resolutions are sought. The next 7 years must provide good data and good science to avoid a costly failure. Legislative Issues—Rusty Vetter Mr. Vetter informed the Committee that part of what we will be watching is the process of how water-related bills are brought to the Legislature. The Water Coalition and Executive Water Task Force have several bills that we hope will become sponsored legislation. Some groups who participated in these efforts are trying to change the bills for their particular purpose. We have supported the process, which has taken all interests into consideration and has tried to arrive at a fair result. We'll see if it works out. A Legislature Task Force led by Representative Pat Painter also considered some water issues, but no legislation appears to be coming out this year to address those considerations. This Task Force primarily focused on possible changes to the non-profit code and funding for big water projects, like the Lake Powell pipeline. Two major issues that we hope will be addressed are ones that came out of the Utah Supreme Court decisions in Big Ditch and Jensen. Big Ditch addresses who can file a change application and Jensen deals with the process for the State Engineer's review of beneficial use in the change application process. We are early in this Legislative session so there are very few other bills to discuss. But here are a few of the bill we are watching: HB67, Storm Water Capture amendments, Rep. Fred Cox—We have some concerns with the bill and are making suggestions to Rep. Cox to make is acceptable to us and the State Engineer. SB134- State Water Development Commission Amendments— Sen. Margaret Dayton—The bill increases the number of legislators on the Commission, removes the vote of the non legislative members and removes the requirement that the Legislators have to represent certain river districts. Federal Change Application Bill (not yet numbered)—This deals with mutual consent for change applications filed, related to BLR Reclamation water rights that will require the approval a of both the federal government and the entity using the water right. Taxing Authority for Conservancy Districts (not yet numbered)—We understand there may be an effort to remove taxing authority for conservancy districts. This could have a big impact on Metropolitan Water District of Salt Lake & Sandy. We will be watching this closely. Craig Peterson is working as the primary lobbyist and Lynn Pace with the Salt Lake City Attorney's office. Sen. Ben McAdams is also there to help us. Update on Salt Lake County Salt Lake County is in the process of updating the Salt Lake County's Canyon Master Plan. On March 26, they will be in the process of kicking off a program called Wasatch Canyons Today. This will be when they start to reformulate the general plan. Snowbird had proposed to build a mountain coaster. This was approved by the Salt Lake County Planning Commission and then was appealed and rejected by the Board of Adjustments. The Board of Adjustments was saying that the Planning Commission had acted prematurely. It was not clear that a mountain coaster is a snow related resort activity and that they had failed to do the required studies that would support the slope waivers that were given by the Salt Lake County Planning Commission when they approved the plan for the original coaster. So Salt Lake County Planning staff said the ordinance must be confusing. How can you have two different agencies' come to two different conclusions? So as a result of this confusion the need to clarify the slope wavier provisions and clarify what constitutes a ski area needs to be addressed. The Federal Government has been going through this process also trying to define what is an allowed activity under a ski area permit?They actually have passed a Bill HR765. This bill talks about the Ski Area Recreational Opportunities Enhancement Acts. This bill helps to define what is an appropriate activity under a ski area permit. This is driven by many ski areas that are finding their economic model now needs to include a component of summer activities in order to be a successful business model. The County was trying to clarify this issue. But was very secretive about the way they went about it. Mr. Niermeyer had actually submitted a 5 page letter which was not given to the Planning Commission; they failed to give proper notice that they were doing a land use decision, which requires 10 days notice. The County only gave a 4 day notice. The letter had gone through the Planning Commission and they approved it and now it is on its way to the County Council. Laura Briefer's comments just reiterate Mr. Niermeyer's report, saying that while we fully support summer activities, ski areas need to have clarity. We think that the current draft of this ordinance is much too broad. It leaves it wide open and we need to modify it, why don't we limit it to the existing ski areas that are under the County control? What happens on top of the snow is different than what happens when you are on the ground making cuts of 40% slopes. There needs to be good studies and good planning and not just an administrative process. Closed Session to Discuss Property Negotiations lr The Committee will consider a motion to enter into Closed Session for the purpose of discussing cts the purchase, exchange, or lease of real property when public discussion of the transaction would disclose the appraisal or estimated value of the property under consideration or prevent the public body from completing the transaction on the best possible terms pursuant to Utah Code Ann. Section 52-4-205(1)(d). Committee member Dick Gaddis made a motion to go into Closed Session, Committee member Dixie Huefner seconded the motion. Roll Call, Dixie Huefner,Allen On, Larry Myers, Jan Striefel and Dick Gaddis. Meeting Adjourned at 8:44 a) czs