Q&A
The City of Davis is facing significant challenges with respect to water and wastewater. Specifically, 1) its sources, 2) its treatment, and 3) its conservation -- both short term and long term.
- What are your opinions about these challenges?
- Do you see these challenges as separate or related?
- What trade-offs exist in the strategies and tactics we use to address these challenges
[Don's response:] Provision of clean water and compliance with waste water discharge requirements are core service issues that have reached a critical point in history on our watch. There are several variables at play in this set of issues. I believe that we must ensure that the water supply for our city is reliable and meets acceptable quality standards. We must ensure that the water we discharge meets minimum standards set by state and federal agencies and does not harm wildlife habitat or endanger downstream human users. These state and federal standards have become more and more stringent based on scientifically valid assessments of the contaminants. We are on a timetable to meet the current standards and would face severe financial penalties (fines calculated on a per day basis for each type of violation) if we fail to advance toward a compliant process.
Water conservation programs are a central component of these efforts and are part of the plans under consideration. Finally, we must work to contain costs for rate payers and be sure that they have complete information about these projects. Davis is not alone in this. Cities throughout the valley are facing similar needs and costs. In fact, the Davis ratepayers currently enjoy some of the lowest rates in the region and will not be out of the range even after these improvements are implemented.
Following is a summary of some aspects of this issue we are currently working on. This issue involves two interrelated projects that are both reaching key decision points.
Waste Water Treatment Project. This project will bring our plant from its current overland flow process to tertiary treatment processes required by the Regional Water Quality Control Board for any system that entails discharge to the river system. We are proceding with the design of the first phase of this projec; this will be on the Council agenda in June 2008.
Surface Water Project - Partnership. The surface water project would secure a water supply from the Sacramento River to supplement the diminishing ground water supply and blend the sources for quality purposes. The objectives of the Davis - Woodland - UCD Water Supply project are to provide a higher quality source of water and bolster the reliability of our water supply into the future. Currently, the City of Davis draws 100% of our water from ground water wells. Recharge of the shallow aquifers is becoming an issue and the water is becoming more brackish as we continue to draw from these shallow wells. We are drilling more deep wells to replace these shallow wells, but the deep aquifer is also confined with limited recharge and is being drawn by multiple users.
This is a partnership with multiple jurisdictions and has been underway for over a decade. The EIR approved in October 2007 considered available alternatives for securing drinking water and improving the quality of waste water discharged. We have an application for winter water rights pending with the state. We have open discussions with 8 different water right holders for purchase. Our state application has priority over several other similar requests, so long as we continue to exercise due diligence in developing the water right. We have been advised by knowledgable attorneys that failure to advance that application will likely lead to subordination of our request to other applications, lengthy delays, and potential risk of losing this option.
Relationship of Surface Water Project to WWT. These projects are interrelated because dissolved constituents in the source water supply pass through to the wastewater. If we do not improve the source water through this project, we will need to substantially increase the scope and cost of the waste water treatment process upgrades. The water we currently pump out of our wells and send to the taps contains constituents (Total Dissolved Solids and Selenium) at levels we are not permitted to discharge. Without higher quality water supply or drastically higher investment in waste water treatment, the wastewater effluent cannot meet permit levels for several constituents.
Water Conservation. Water conservation must be a component of this overall effort. All the planning for both the Waste Water Treatment and Surface Water projects has been based on 20% reduction in water usage from the 1995 levels. We currently have water meters and a two-tiered rate system aimed at conservation and have achieved a 15-20% reduction in usage based on these measures. When taking action to approve the Final Environmental Impact Report on the Surface Water Project, the Council directed that staff actively pursue consideration of additional conservation measures. This effort will include consideration by the Natural Resources Commission, currently scheduled for May 2008. Among the concepts under consideration are: onsite reuse and recycling of grey water, evaporation suppression, commercial/industrial/insitutional plan review, residential construction guidelines, public education, ordinances and rebate programs for low consumption toilets and washing machines.
Approaches to Cost and Rate Containment. My current thinking is that these two projects are critical and inextricably interconnected. The analyses I have heard and read indicate that we need to pursue them both at this point in history. These projects are significant and have costs - but not pursuing them also has costs. Any rate increase has an impact on households. We are continuing to examine the projects and explore methods to contain cost for rate payers. Here is a summary of my sense of our options and the tradeoffs:
- Don't upgrade the waste water plant. This is not feasible. It would present downstream harm and would cost us immensely in fines.
- Don't pursue the surface water project. This would risk the future clean water supply of the city and increase the cost of waste water treatment.
- Examine the technological solutions to find value engineering ways to reduce costs. This is a part of the project plan and is underway. We have contracted with the National Water Resources Institute to conduct a third party evaluation of the planning efforts to date on the water supply project. That evaluation will come to Council in late summer 2008.
- Explore joining with other jurisdictions to establish a regional waste water solution - similar to the surface water project. This has been rejected for technical reasons but will be reexamined.
- Reduce the cost of financing and debt service through the use of pooled investment funds potentially available at reduced interest rates. This is a real possibility and we are actively pursuing it.
- Extend the duration of the financing. This is a possibility but would bring much larger total life cycle costs to rate payers. The tradeoff of lower rates make this attractive.
- Delay one or both of the projects to spread the costs over time. I am very sceptical about this because of the continued escalation of construction costs and the risk of losing the opportunity to secure the water source reliability. This approach not only increases total costs and likely rates in a given year, it also jeopardizes the entire effort.
- Apply volume based rates and separate rate payers by type of use. We are pursuing this as a way of charging rates tied to actual use.
- Create a rate refund program for very low income folks. We are examining this in light of the legal restrictions applicable to utility rates and the need to identify a revenue source.
