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CITIZENS ADVISORY COMMITTEE Meeting Minutes October 20, 2005
CAC members in attendance: Myrna Poticha (Chair), Michael Buchenau, Russell Burton, Tim Flynn, Theresa Jehn-Dellaport, Jim Legas and Rick Sackbauer
DW Staff: Ed Pokorney, Greg Fisher, Bob Peters, Dave Little and Joe Sloan
Opening Remarks
Myrna welcomed the Planning Staff present and stated the 2005 2008 Communications Plan provided in the packet was excellent. She encouraged members to read the document and send comments to Linda Firth.
Agenda and Minutes
Agenda Agenda was approved with the deletion of Draft Bill Design. Staff continues to work of the new Bill Design and there will be a presentation at a future CAC meeting.
Minutes Minutes of September 15, 2005 were approved as presented.
Denver Water Update Ed Pokorney, Director of Planning
New Commissioner Penfield Tate has been appointed to replace Commissioner Kirk. He has a strong background in state and local government and has a history with Denver Water. He worked four summers as a laborer during his college years and his wife is a former Denver Water employee.
Board Resolution The document is a guide and staff is already working on some of the items in the Resolution. At the next Board Workshop the Conservation plan will be discussed. The IRP had a 2045 conservation goal. Under the Resolution that 2045 goal will be moved up to 2016. Tim raised his concern that the Resolution has no mention of future water supply projects. Ed stated there are projects being studied but the resolution did not specifically mention additional supply projects. It did cover DW relationship with the watersheds and communities from which DW draws our primary water supplies.
Agreement with ECCV After many years of negotiation Denver Water has come to an agreement with East Cherry Creek Valley (ECCV). Water will be supplied to ECCV from the end of DW system near DIA. There has been a need to heavily flush the DIA end of the system. This agreement will send water to ECCV from DIA through a pipeline ECCV is constructing.
West Slope Rick, Ed and Dave spoke about recent meetings on the West Slope. Subgroups might be formed and proposals are being reviewed. One area of study will be pump-back from Green Mountain Reservoir to Dillon. Rick had attended a meeting regarding HB 1177. He encouraged DW to send representatives to future meetings regarding HB 1177.
Integrated Resource Plan Bob Peters, Dave Little, Greg Fisher, Planning
Planning has begun work to revise the IRP. Bob will manage the day-to-day work on the IRP. Greg will provide the numbers and statistics on growth and usage. Dave will oversee the project. Bob and Greg distributed a document with information on the IRP process. The first IRP was done in 1996. Once a service area was established by the Board the Planning Division began to develop an IRP. Since the drought, it has become necessary to re-think usage, demand, and supply. Every aspect of the IRP will be reviewed. The goal is to have the new IRP by 2007.
Jim raised the question of the 17,000 acre-feet figure for the Recycling Plant. Bob clarified that is the figure at build-out. Jim stated treatment plants have a finite capacity. While the plant, at build-out, could produce 17,000 acre-feet over an entire year, the maximum capacity of the plant will not be used since the recycled water allocated to irrigation of parks and other greenways would not be required during non-irrigation period of a year. Bob stated gravel pit storage is under construction south of the Recycling Plant. Once completed the gravel pits will offer storage for recycled water. This will improve the flexibility of the plant to produce water, then to store the water.
Michael asked how much pressure was there on DW to serve areas south of the service area. Theresa and Ed both responded that the southern water districts are very active in addressing water needs. DW will continue to work with those districts as long as it is beneficial for DW. Tim asked why DW was not seeking more storage at Chatfield. Ed stated DW has been involved in a long process with the State to gain access to water stored in Chatfield. Instead of seeking more water DW is working to firm up access to existing water in Chatfield.
Greg covered demand statistics and the consequences and benefits of accelerating the Conservation Plan from 2045 to 2016. Myrna stated technological advances will encourage/increase conservation in the coming years. Greg concurred. It will be up to the Board to determine if they want to incur the costs, and possible continued rate increases, as a result of accelerating the Conservation Plan. The benefits would be more water in the system and a possible reduction or elimination of future water storage projects. Russell stated there has been growth in the service area but demand has not increased significantly. Myrna stated that Denver has a high per capita usage when compared to surrounding metropolitan areas. Greg responded Denver is in the middle of per capita usage for cities in the Western states. While growth and demand have not increased equally there is additional demand created when customers are added. The drought impacted demand and it is too early to see when or if demand will come back to pre-drought levels.
Rick requested updates and executive summaries on the IRP process. Ed stated some preliminary numbers will go to the Board in January or February and the CAC will receive updates and summaries.
Tim asked if conservation savings are being tracked for the suburbs vs. the city. The suburbs are responsible for much of the conservation savings and this should be reflected in the IRP. Greg responded that the topic of conservation would be heavily studied in the IRP process.
CAC BUSINESS
Subcommittee Reports The BMP subcommittee would like to have a speaker on Land Contouring as a means of conserving water. Russell will forward his BMP information to Myrna.
Attendance at Board Meetings Board Workshop, October 26, 2005 - Russell will attend. Board Meeting, November 9, 2005 Myrna will see if Roberta can attend.
Annual Holiday Dinner - The Dinner will be held on Thursday, December 15, 2005 at the Burnsley. Each member can invite a guest and the Board will be invited.
Future Agenda Items Land Contouring Updates on Rate Design Workgroup Legislative Updates
The meeting was adjourned at 6:45 p.m. |