On the 8/28/07 Water Meeting

By Gentle Curmudgeon

Well, this is probably a forlorn hope, but the Water Meeting was interesting, and, though poorly attended, worth the time. In my view it is essential for city governments to provide informational and citizen input meetings like this. If people choose not to attend, that is unfortunate, but well-attended or not, it is important to have the opportunities there.

And I think the City Council is following precisely the right procedure in devising plans to deal with [i.e. pay for] the water, storm drain and sewer repairs the city is facing... many under federal mandate... and soon. Research first, then analysis, then conclusions and policy. [Unlike the Mayor's preferred practice of reaching conclusions first, and then commissioning studies galore in hopes that one of them will produce data to support the conclusion he has already reached. Especially where gondolas are involved.]

Some points learned at the meeting I think worth repeating here:

1. Ogden's water and sewer systems are paid for by "enterprise funds," meaning paid for by those who use the water and sewers. The are not funded by general city revenues, we were told, not even for construction projects like replacing antiquated and collapsing water and sewer lines.

2. Money raised by fees [water, sewer] can not be used for other purposes. The money will be designated exclusively for water projects, though it seems in the past water/sewer reserve funds [i.e. savings put into a rainy day fund to handle emergency repairs, etc. has been "loaned" to other city agencies for other projects. The briefers yesterday were adamant that that would not be permitted with water funds in the future and the Council could, and will, draft the tax ordinances in such a way as to make that certain.]

3.Ogden daily supplies 17 million gallons to approximately 90,000 users in the city. The city water system has 269 miles of water mains. And the average age of the pipes in the culinary water system is 60-80 years old. Design life of the sewer pipes is approximately 30 to 60 years. Average age of the pipes in this system is 60 to 80 years old. And Ogden has 300 miles of sewer pipe.[That does not include the 75 miles of storm sewer pipes.] Some portions of the storm sewers are a century old. Ogden Water repairs an average of 90 to 100 leaks a month.

4. Over the past two decades, Ogden has raised its water rates a total of 20%. Over the same period, inflation has risen 65%, which means the "reserve fund" [repair and rainy day fund] has been steadily depleted year by year. Soon there will be nothing left in it, and with massive federally mandated changes coming four years down the road, the city must increase rates to raise the money to deal with the problems.

5. The filtration plant for culinary water was last updated in 1960. Most plants are updated on a 15 to 20 year cycle.

6. The city has contracted with LYRB to conduct a study concerning how much the city must raise to deal with the water problems, and to analyze various ways to raise it it. Included will be recommendations regarding use rates so that they "reflect a reasonable and true cost of service among user classes" so that the resulting new [and higher] rates will be "as fair as possible." Recommendations will also include suggestions about providing some relief to low income users, and ways to promote conservation.

Last night's meeting was the first of two the Council and consultants will hold to get citizen input. Last night, those there were broken into several groups, each group including two council members and a member of the consulting team, to take suggestions, deal with citizen questions, etc. about the water system, the problems, possible solutions, how to deal with rate increases, etc.

In the group I was in, for example, one citizen raised the possibility of charging one fixed per-gallon rate for water use, rather than the system now, which charges one rate for the "basic block" [first X thousand gallons per house], then higher rates stepped up over larger blocks of use. Consultants and city water people said that would be included as a possibility. Another resident noted that the engineering information about repairs the Consultants would work from was being supplied to the consultants by the City. The resident suggested an outside vetting of that information, to insure that "political pressure on the engineering department" had not affected the information supplied to the consultants. [Naturally, some of us at that point recalled that the information supplied to LYRB by the City for another recent analysis...had something to do with gondolas I think... left much to be desired with respect to its accuracy.] Many other suggestions were made by residents, and many more questions asked.

I discovered at the meeting that Ogden does not charge an "impact fee" for hooking up new subdivisions, buildings, to the water system, as other communities do. Impact fees, we were told, would be one of the elements looked at by the city, but not in the consultants' study. Asked why, Councilman Garcia replied "cost and time." It would hugely increase the cost of the study if the city asked for a detailed analysis of impact fees, and it would extend the time it would take to do the analysis well into next year. The Council hopes to have the process completed and the new rate ordinances enacted by this coming January to begin raising the money for the repairs the FedGov has mandated that Ogden begin in four years.

The consultants will work with a Stakeholders committee appointed by the Council --- ordinary Ogden residents, some on supplementary water systems, some not, representative of business, one from WSU --- and produce and report and proposed water plan. Then the Council and consultants will hold a second public meeting, like last night's to get public reaction to, comment on, the proposed water plan --- mostly the proposed new rate plan. And then the Council will act.

Finally, one tidbit of information that surprised me. From the materials handed out to all who came: "An automatic dishwasher can use as little as 9 or as much as 123 gallons of water to wash one load." At which point I wondered how much water our dishwasher used per load [when it deigns to work, which at the moment it isn't]. I have no idea. Probably should. Something we'll definitely look into if/when we replace it.

All told, an interesting meeting.