BINGEN CITY COUNCIL MINUTES
Joint Council Meeting with White Salmon City Council
October 5, 2006
The meeting was called to order by Mayor Brian Prigel and Mayor Francis Gaddis at 6:00 p.m. Bingen Council members present: Terry Trantow, Betty Barnes, Tim Hearn and Laura Mann. White Salmon City Council members present: Richard Marx, Timi Keene, Susan Benedict and Brad Roberts. Bingen staff present: Clerk Treasurer Jan Brending. White Salmon staff present: Wil Keyser, Public Works Director and Eric Green, Clerk Treasurer. Audience: Stoner Bell, Frank Childs, Randy Knowles, Ruth Winner, Jesse Burkhardt, Tad Connors, Louella Estey, Andy Cervantes, Mark Yinger, Susan Gookin, Wayne Wooster, Mike Canon.
White Salmon Water Rights
Wil Keyser provided information on the status of options for resolving White Salmon’s water rights capacity. He said that the city of White Salmon currently has 3 water rights applications on file with the Department of Ecology (DOE). Keyser said one option White Salmon is go through a DOE cost reimbursement process where all applications in line ahead of White Salmon would be processed which means White Salmon would pay for a consultant to process the applications.
Wil Keyser reviewed five additional options including the PUD Cliffs Water Trust, transfer of City of Bingen inchoate water rights, the purchase or transfer of private water rights, the development of a new production well, and the acquisition of a White Salmon River surface water right. He said White Salmon’s priority is the acquisition of water rights through the PUD Cliff’s Water Trust.
Wil Keyser presented information regarding the White Salmon’s project water rights need for 2005 through 2020. He said the city needs an additional 495 acre feet per year of water rights through 2008 or 718 acre feet per year of water rights to cover growth through 2020.
Wil Keyser said the City of White Salmon will be submitting a proposal in the near future regarding the possible use of Bingen’s inchoate water rights (that portion of water rights not currently be used by Bingen). He said that he estimates there is approximately 266 acre feet per year of inchoate water rights. Keyser provided an e-mail from Daniel Haller, Department of Ecology about how Bingen’s water rights could be transferred.
Mark Yinger provided information regarding the connectivity of Bingen’s wells to the Grand Ronde Aquifer at the Powerhouse Wellfield (White Salmon’s wellfield).
Randy Knowles provided an overview of the PUD Cliff’s Water Trust option. He said the PUD is in the process of trying to municipalize an industrial water right and is very close to having an agreement with the Department of Ecology. Knowles said that the PUD has pledged to make some of the water rights available to White Salmon until such time that White Salmon can obtain permanent water rights.
Wil Keyser said White Salmon along with a number of other entities including Bingen will be traveling to Yakima on October 12 to meet with the Department of Ecology and Department of Health to address the water rights issue and water hookup moratorium.
Frank Childs asked how much water rights does the Cliff’s Water Trust have. Randy Knowles said 17,000 acre feet.
Betty Barnes asked if the full amount will be available. Randy Knowles said that approximately 13,900 acre feet of the water right can be municipalized.
Wil Keyser said that if the Cliff’s Water Trust is available he anticipates a temporary water right from the Department of Ecology for a 5-year period. He said White Salmon will have to develop a plan to solve its long-term water rights problems.
Wil Keyser said the Department of Health has required White Salmon to develop some additional information addressing its source capacity, delivery/conveyance system capacity and storage capacity. He said Bell Design has developed a technical memorandum which consider both the physical capacity and water rights capacity of White Salmon’s water system.
Stoner Bell provided an overview of White Salmon’s physical capacity issues. Bell said that without doing anything to address the physical limitations of the system the city can only increase its allowable connections from 1734 to 1789. He said that currently there are 1708 connections out of the 1734 that are allowed.
Tim Hearn asked if Buck Creek could be opened up.
Stoner Bell said it could be used as an emergency water source with a boil order. He said federal law requires that the water be treated. He noted that Buck Creek is in a very narrow area making it difficult to building facilities and currently there is no power to the area.
Andy Cervantes, Department of Health, said treatment of Buck Creek is required if used as a water source.
Tim Hearn asked if Buck Creek is an option.
Stoner Bell said yes but an expensive option. He said water rights could be transferred back to Buck Creek.
Wil Keyser said that if White Salmon was to use Buck Creek the city would be dependent on flow variations due to drought. He said the amount of water needed might not be available and the city would also have to install a treatment plant.
Stoner Bell said in addition the City of White Salmon would have junior rights to the irrigation district for water out of Buck Creek. He said the irrigation district has the right to shut the water off to the City of White Salmon. He said there are other issues that affect how much water would be available. He said Bell Design would actually recommend using water from the White Salmon River.
Tim Hearn asked if water rights can be traded as in could White Salmon trade with Spokane.
Wil Keyser said no.
Stoner Bell said water rights can be transferred downstream but not upstream.
Tim Hearn asked if anyone knows the number of water rights in the area.
Stoner Bell said the Department of Ecology has a database but small wells are exempt and are not listed. He said he did obtain a database of the White Salmon River basin. Bells aid there may be some agricultural rights available but there are few certificated water rights.
Andy Cervantes, Department of Health said that White Salmon must solve both the infrastructure and water rights issues. He said that without any fixes to the infrastructure the Department of Health may allow an additional 45 hookups. Cervantes said that with a fix to the transmission line an additional 88 hookups would be allowed and with a new well drilled and the transmission line fixed a possible 382 hookups would be allowed.
Tim Hearn asked how long 382 hookups would last the city of White Salmon.
Andy Cervantes said Department of Health has White Salmon to provide information about growth and long the anticipated # of hookups will last. He said depending on the information provided the Department of Health will either specify a certain number of hookups or will then provide an unspecified number.
Wil Keyser said he feels the creation of water district needs to be considered in depth although the creation of a district does not have a priority status at this time.
Mike Canon, Klickitat County Economic Development Department, said the EDA Board has indicated that it will recommend to the county commissioners that financial assistance be provided to the City of White Salmon to address its infrastructure needs.
Laura Mann asked how much water could White Salmon currently produce.
Wil Keyser said the city has 3 wells that produce approximately 1600 gallons per minute each.
Brad Roberts asked to what advantage is Bingen’s inchoate water rights if the Cliff’s Water Trust is available.
Wil Keyser said that if the Cliff’s Water Trust is available then there is no pressing need for Bingen’s rights. He said that Bingen is using White Salmon’s water rights when it purchases water from White Salmon. Keyser said the use of Bingen’s water rights would help reduce the amount of water rights needed by White Salmon.
Betty Barnes asked what benefit would Bingen receive if it transferred water rights to White Salmon.
Wil Keyser said Bingen would be able to access all its capacity in water rights while letting White Salmon use a portion. He said the tradeoff would be a drastic reduction in the cost of water purchased from White Salmon.
Betty Barnes asked how much.
Wil Keyser said the right for White Salmon to use Bingen’s inchoate water rights has a value that should be used to drop the cost of water purchased.
Laura Mann asked if White Salmon will work with the PUD and still pursue obtaining additional water rights.
Wil Keyser said yes.
Tim Hearn asked if White Salmon is looking at other options.
Wil Keyser said White Salmon is looking at all the options presented at the meeting.
Terry Trantow asked if DOE and DOH will change their positions depending on the options used.
Wil Keyser said DOE and DOH will not look at White Salmon differently until the water rights and capacity issues are solved in their entirety.
Susan Benedict asked what the cost of using the Cliff’s Water Trust will cost White Salmon.
Wil Keyser said $35,000 per year.
Mark Yinger said that based on some experience he has had with the cost reimbursement process in the Wind River area he anticipates it would cost between $15,000 to $30,000 to process the water rights application that are ahead of White Salmon and would take approximately one year.
Stoner Bell said he has had conflicting information from the Department of Ecology about the number of applications that are ahead of White Salmon’s.
Timi Keene said she wanted to assure Bingen that consideration of the creation of a water district is not taking place at this time or in the very near future.
Tim Hearn asked how the options will cover growth in White Salmon.
Wil Keyser said the PUD Cliff’s Water Trust option would take White Salmon into 2020 as would the cost reimbursement process.
White Salmon Highway 14 Sewer Project and Bingen Depot Street/Maple Street Sewer Project
Wil Keyser provided an overview of the White Salmon Highway 14 sewer project. He said that funding is coming from Washington Department of Transportation - $737,946, the US Army Corps of Engineers - $616,000 and White Salmon $204,000.
Frank Childs provided an overview of the construction status of the project. He said the piping is approximately halfway complete with the pump station 95% complete. Childs said the piping will not be completed this fall due to WSDOT limiting how much work can be completed during the winter months.
Frank Childs provided an overview of the Depot Street “bottleneck.” He said that all of the sewer line on Depot Street needs to be upgraded. Childs said the line handles half of White Salmon’s wastewater. He noted that a critical area is at Maple Street where all of the two cities wastewater comes together.
Frank Childs said he is working on the plans and specifications for the Maple Street section which will be provided to Bingen. He said it is important to get the Maple Street section completed before White Salmon’s system comes on line.
Frank Childs said that at the present time there is $300 thousand in federal funds however some of it will be needed to address problems with rock, unstable soils and groundwater on the existing project. He said he anticipates that approximately $200 thousand might be available to use of the Depot Street/Maple Street project. Childs said the cost for that construction is estimated at under $200 thousand including construction engineering. He said the project could be done in the spring along with completion of the Highway 14 project. Childs said it would be ideal to resolve the issue prior to White Salmon tying into the system.
Wil Keyser said the system already has problems with high inflows.
Brian Prigel said that last year with the heavy rain the line ran full and was actually surcharging. He said that the line will not be able to handle the additional flow. Prigel said that the completion of the Maple Street segment will buy some time until the entire Depot Street line can be upgraded.
Frank Childs said that his design will upsize the line and provide for 30 years of growth.
Wil Keyser said he hopes to meet with the Army Corps of Engineers and the two city councils to discuss the issue. He said when the Corps was originally approached about changing the scope of work and applying residual funds to the project they were very receptive. Keyser said that subsequent communications resulted in the Corps freezing reimbursement funds to White Salmon until White Salmon’s position was clarified. He said the Corps also denied the request for a change order. Keyser said that in additional e-mail’s it appears that the change order might be resolved but that no funding would be available.
Wil Keyser said that because of the way the funding has been provided, White Salmon anticipates using the Corps’s funding for the Highway 14 project and the residual from WSDOT for the Depot Street/Maple Street project. He said that if federal funds are not available the two city water/sewer committees discussed the option of splitting the cost between the two cities based on ERU contributions which is approximately 75% White Salmon and 25% Bingen.
Tim Hearn asked if there are other funding options.
Wil Keyser said the two cities could ask for funding from Klickitat County or the Department of Ecology. He said that if the two cities waited for additional funding to possibly be appropriated by the federal government the project could be delayed for a lengthy time. Keyser noted that the Senator Murray’s staff is coming to meet with White Salmon. He said he intends to raise the water rights and infrastructure issues in that meeting. Keyser said the second opportunity White Salmon was going to raise was the widening of Dock Grade. He said White Salmon needs to way the issues that it is facing. Keyser said he also wants to recommend doing an integrated sewer system analysis with the city of Bingen.
Wil Keyser said he would like to meet with the Army Corps and Washington Department of Transportation as soon as possible and get them to understand the seriousness of the Depot.
Brian Prigel said it is important the Depot Street/Maple Street project be completed before the lift station on Highway 14 begins pumping. He said that until the funding for the project is identified the city can not put the project out to bid. Prigel said he thinks it is a good idea to try and use the residual funds with the two cities splitting the remaining costs using some type of ratio.
Brad Roberts said the proposal has the support of the two city water/sewer committees.
Wil Keyser suggested putting the issue on White Salmon’s agenda.
Jan Brending asked if that isn’t what is being done at this meeting.
Timi Keene said she would like to see a timeline developed to address the issue.
A timeline was developed as follows:
Funding Agreement Complete January 1, 2007
Project Goes to Bid February 1, 2007
Bid Award March 15, 2007
Construction Starts May 1, 2007
Completion of Both Projects July 1, 2007
It was agreed that the two water/sewer committees would meet with WSDOT and the Corps on October 16 or October 19.
Tim Hearn asked if White Salmon gets water rights from the PUD will White Salmon need Bingen’s water rights.
Wil Keyser said no.
Jan Brending
Brian Prigel
City Clerk
Mayor