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Water Resources Commission Minutes - 01/22/2004MINUTES OF WATER RESOURCES COMMISSION MEETING January 22, 2004 The Water Resources Commission met on January 22, 2004 at 4:00 p.m. in Room 106 of the Memorial Auditorium. Those in attendance were Water Resource Members Charles Bentley, Charles Barr, Eddie Holcomb and Chris Neeb. Also present were Council Liaison, James Esther, Staff Representative David Lehfeldt, and Public Works Clerk Typist, Katy Shipley. Jeff Hogan, City Engineer was in attendance as a guest speaker. • Mr. Bentley called the meeting to order. • Minutes of October 29, 2003 meeting were handed out. Motion was made to accept minutes as written and passed unanimously. • Dave Lehfeldt gave an update on the RO Plant. Lehfeldt stated that the Plant is under construction and going well. • Mr. Bentley then asked for an Update on the Wastewater Effluent Reuse • Dave Lehfeldt informed the Commission that the Wastewater Effluent Reuse is still in the planning and design phase. Mr. Lehfeldt stated that the City Manager had been contacted by local industries requesting that the Wastewater Treatment Plant be given utmost priority. Lehfeldt also stated that the TEPCO pipeline has been acquired which will save 6 -7 million dollars plus time in the ease of Right -of -Way work involved. • Mr. Lehfeldt introduced Jeff Hogan, City Engineer, to the Commission. • Mr. Hogan spoke about the Texas Pollutant Discharge Elimination Compliance. EPA has ruled that municipalities that have a population density of 1000 or more per square mile must comply. The issue is stormwater quality. Scott Taylor, Director of Public Works has asked if the Water Resource Commission would be interested is becoming part of the public involvement. • Mr. Lehfeldt explained that in the past, the focus of the WRC has been on drinking water and this issue is on stormwater issues which would expand the duties of the WRC. • Mr. Bentley stated that he felt any water issues could be handled by under WRC jurisdiction and asked the Commission Members for their thoughts on this involvement with stormwater quality. Basically, all members were in agreement that the WRC should be involved. • Mr. Bentley asked that a motion be made that the Commission become involved with environmental stormwater quality. Mr. Neeb made the motion, Mr. Holcomb seconded the motion and it passed unanimously. • Mr. Bentley then asked Jeff Hogan to provide the Commission with summaries, studies, data and information as appropriate. • Mr. Hogan said that they will be hearing from the Engineering Division Consultant relatively soon, within a few months time. • Mr. Lehfeldt stated that a consulting engineering firm would bring all this data together and be responsible for setting up community meetings, etc. and getting the information to the Water Resource Commission. • Mr. Lehfeldt then brought up the Drought Water Restriction issue. He stated that approx. 270 tickets had been issued at this point. ti • Mr. Esther stated that he is disturbed about the complaints concerning tickets being issued when incidents were due to an accident. • Mr. Lehfeldt stated that the Citation employees work for him and they are tasked with citing illegal watering only. They take pictures of the violations and are not citing broken water lines as the cause of illegal watering. • Mr. Esther discussed the devices available for sprinkler systems to make sure that the system does not malfunction and stated he did not believe malfunction of sprinkler system is a valid excuse for violation. • Mr. Bentley then stated that he felt that the Mayor and City Council should consult the Water Resource Commission when there was confusion on interpretation of the Drought Ordinance. Mr. Esther agreed with this and suggested that it be brought to the Mayor and City Council's attention to refer Water issues to the WRC. • Mr. Barr asked about the issue of the offense being carried over from one Drought event to another Drought event. He did not feel the offense should carry over. • Mr. Lehfeldt explained that the Council was given information at the last Council meeting that only 13 people were affected by the issue of the Drought restriction offense carrying over from one Drought period to the other and based upon this information, the Council had decided not to change the ordinance, but to leave it as it is. • Mr. Barr stated that it should be clearly stated in the ordinance that the restriction does not carry over from one drought incident to the other. Mr. Esther agreed with this and Mr. Bentley stated that the WRC should look into this issue further. • Mr. Barr then discussed briefly the 30 -day Landscape Irrigation Waiver and stated he believed it should be able to pass from the person who took out the waiver to a homeowner if the house is sold during the time the waiver is in effect. • Mr. Lehfeldt stated that it should be up to the homeowner. If the homeowner is willing to take over the waiver with the understanding that water rates are 3 times what the normal rate is. Mr. Barr agreed with this. • Mr. Bentley then asked for input from the WRC Members as to what the goal of the Water Resources Commission should be in the future. Discussion followed about Public Education regarding the need for water conservation, developing public awareness programs, coordinating with Jack Murphy who is now willing to help in this effort, etc. • Mr. Esther brought up the questions of the rates going up when we conserve water and that the source of funds for conservation comes out of the water budget. • Mr. Lehfeldt discussed charted information taken since 1999 showing that water consumption goes up during drought restrictions. He feels that citizens water during times when they normally would not because they are given one per week to do so. Discussion followed regarding a water rate structure based upon ascending instead of descending base rates. The structure would basically charge the volume user more for using more water and drop the base rate for those with low volume water use. Mr. Lehfeldt further stated that our current computer systems are equipped to handle this rate structure. It Mr. Bentley requested that information made by the Commission Members. All WRC would study this rate structure and The WRC Meeting adjourned at 5:12 p.m. Sincerely, Charles Bentley Chairman and data be gathered and studies Members were in agreement that the prepare a proposal to the Council. CITY CLERK'S OFFICE Date 0�'aS-D�- By Time i D'• XPi