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Water Resources Commission Minutes - 03/12/2015Water Resources Committee Meeting Minutes March 12, 2015, 3:30 PM Cypress Water Treatment Plant Attendees: Russell Schrieber, Public Works Director Daniel Nix, Utilities Operations Manger Mark Southard, Water Purification Superintendent Tim Ingle, City Council Liaison Members Present: John Ferguson Mark McBurnett Michael Smith Cheryl Nix  Members were presented a list of potential permanent and temporary drought restrictions for future consideration.  Discussion began with consideration of twice/week watering during daylight savings time and once/week watering during daylight standard time. This proposal would be considered as a permanent restriction, regardless of lake levels. The committee gave some discussion and decided to look further into how this could be implemented before making any recommendation.  The next point discussed was possibly adding alternative landscaping and/or rain water harvesting. These could be added to future building code updates for implementation. The committee asked that other Cities, such as Austin and San Antonio, be contacted to see what types of requirements they use and how the requirements are implemented.  The committee then looked at developing a new water rate structure for irrigation meters. One point of discussion was the addition of a drought surcharge to make up for lost revenue during a drought that could be removed when lake levels were out of drought stages. The surcharge could go into effect during the next drought cycle, as it could not be implemented during the current drought and water rates have been changed recently. The committee chose to speak with other Cities that use similar surcharges to see what type of rate structure they use and whether the rate is flat or fluctuating.  A rebate for the installation of water saving fixtures was briefly discussed. John Ferguson mentioned that the building codes already require water saving fixtures, whether in new homes or even in remodeling of older homes. The committee chose to table further discussion of rebates for water saving fixtures at the current time.  The next item for discussion was the structure for when businesses would be cut off from the water supply, is there a level at which this would be considered? It was pointed out that there are no current plans to cut of water to any businesses until the City is out of water as a whole. The Drought Contingency Plan provides a list for prioritization of businesses during droughts, and current restrictions reflect that prioritization. The WRC did ask Daniel Nix if he could provide an updated list of the top 100 users, as some businesses have made great strides in reduction of their water demands and may be lower or even removed from the list. The committee would like to also consider requesting businesses on the top 100 users list perform water audits to see if there are any more areas for potential water savings.  Daniel then mentioned that during the Stage 4 and Stage 5 water restrictions, the City changes from a percentage reduction goal to a total production goal. This language is not reflected for raw water users, however. He asked that the WRC consider a 55% reduction in raw water usage by those customers. This would be in line with the percentage of reduction that treated water users have made during these two drought stages.  Daniel also asked the WRC to consider new language in the Drought Contingency Plan that would give the City Council the ability to trigger drought stages based on severe weather conditions, not just lake levels. It has been previous legal interpretation that the language currently in the Drought Contingency Plan only allows the City Council to trigger drought stages based on the combined lake level listed for each stage in the plan. Several members asked that the City’s legal staff take another look at the language to ensure the City Council does not already have the authority to trigger based on some other factor before taking action to update the language.  The committee discussed and was in agreement that drought stage triggers should be moved up to 65% for Stage 1, 60% for Stage 2, 50 % for Stage 3, 40 % for Stage 4 and 30% for Stage 5.  Before adjourning, Daniel asked the WRC to consider some type of certification program for car washes that could be further discussed at the next meeting.  The meeting adjourned at 5:10 PM.