PIPELINE
Washington Association of Sewer and Water Districts
Articles from the September 2003 Publication
Officers and Directors
Elected at Annual Meeting
The members of the Washington Association of
Sewer and Water Districts elected new officers
and members of the Board of Directors at their
Annual Meeting held on Friday, September 12th.
Larry Jones, Commissioner, Alderwood Water and
Wastewater District was reelected to his second
term as President. Matt Warner, Commissioner,
East Wenatchee was also reelected to his second
term as Vice President. In addition, Ken Goodwin,
Commissioner, Woodinville Water District was
elected to his third term as Treasurer of the
Association.
Pam Martin, Commissioner, Coal Creek Utility
District was elected as Secretary of the
Association, a position she has held in the past.
Commissioners Walt Canter, Cedar River Water &
Sewer District and Commissioner Neil Kimsey,
Hazel Dell Sewer District were elected to their
second terms on the Board of Directors.
Vince Koester, Commissioner, Highline Water
District was elected to the water only position
currently held by Commissioner Mark Hullinger,
Lakewood Water District. This will be Koester’s
second time on the Board of Directors.
This change should provide each new PresidentElect sufficient time to recruit members for
standing and temporary committees prior to
assuming office.
Annual Awards
The 2003 Annual Awards were presented at the
conclusion of the Fall Conference, which was held
in Portland’s Downtown Marriott Hotel.
The 2003 District of the Year was awarded to
Silverdale Water District. Accepting the award were
Commissioners David Cook, Marcus Hoffman, &
Seley Moore
East Wenatchee Water District was also nominated
for this year’s award.
Commissioner of the Year was awarded to Neil
Kimsey, Hazel Dell Sewer District, Vancouver,
Washington. Commissioner Kimsey received his
award for his support of his District and the time and
effort he has dedicated to the Association.
Manager of the Year Award for 2003 was presented
to Ron Sheadel, Cedar River Water & Sewer
District. Ron was recognized for his efforts with
King Co. and other local governments to protect and
serve his District’s customers.
New to the Board are Dean Thiem, General
Manager, Penn Cove Water & Sewer District.
Dean will be replacing Roger Eberhart, Manager,
Olympic View Water and Sewer District, in the
Management Level Employees’ position.
The Director’s Award was present to three Districts
for their pioneering efforts in constructing a major
water supply project within the limitations and
issues of the Endangered Species Act. Alderwood
Water & Wastewater, Silver Lake Water, & Cross
Valley Water Districts are the recipients of the 2003
Directors Award.
Also new to the Board is Peter Moy, Financial
Consulting Solutions Group, Inc. Peter is taking
over the Associate Member position from
outgoing Director Kelly Snyder of Roth Hill
Engineering Partners, LLC.
Inclusion of Wastewater
System Planning in Muni
Water Bill
The new Board members and Officers will be
sworn in at the end of the December Board of
Director’s meeting and assume their positions on
January 1, 2004. This change in effective date
resulted from a recent change in the Bylaws,
which aligned the terms of office with the budget
and committee years. Directors and Officers serve
from January 1 to December 31.
September 2003 PIPELINE Articles
The requirement that wastewater utilities include
water reuse and coordination with local water
purveyor water system plans in their comprehensive
planning process is forging new relationships
between Dept. of Ecology Water Quality staff and
the staff of the Dept of Health’s Office of Drinking
Water (ODW).
PIPELINE
Washington Association of Sewer and Water Districts
Articles from the September 2003 Publication
For the first time Ecology Water Quality plan
reviewers will have to coordinate with OWD staff
on their reviews of wastewater system
comprehensive plans. Wastewater systems now
must investigate and discuss within their plans the
impacts of water conservation on their conveyance
system and/or treatment capacity.
Water systems must investigate opportunities for
the distribution and use of reclaimed water in their
water system plans. For combined districts this
may be an easier task than for districts that provide
only one of the services and will have to plan in
conjunction with other utilities.
A joint DOE-DOH internal committee has been
formed to coordinate these changes between both
agencies.
Conservation, reuse, and system
capacity have now all been merged and will
require joint agency participation.
Governor Locke To
Continue Seeking Water
Law Changes
Conference during the Legislative Workshop but not
one attending expressed interest in the topic.
There may be 10-12 additional water related bills
introduced by other parties during this next session.
Well relocation is an issue that many WASWD
ground water members are interested in seeing
introduced and passed.
To assist in passage of these bills Gov. Locke has
again retained the services of Jim Waldo and his
firm.
DOH Drinking Water
Delaying Review of Some
Water System Plans
The Office of Drinking Water (ODW) has issued
notice that it will delay the review and approval of
water system plans currently in process due to the
changes brought about by the passage of 2E2SHB
1338, the Muni Water Bill. This bill, which became
effective on September 9th, contains major changes
to the way DOH addresses service area and the types
of water rights held by purveyors.
Members of the Governor’s Water Team speaking
at the Department of Ecology’s Water Resources
Advisory Committee meeting in September
announced that the Governor would be actively
supporting at least two major water bills in the
upcoming 2004 legislative session.
The Office of Drinking Water will contact purveyors
whose plans will be affected by this delay and
provide guidance in how the system can operate
during this delay.
The first will be a bill dealing with relinquishment.
This is a bill that has been sought by the
agriculture community for many years. The issue
can be important to special districts that will in
future years need to purchase ag rights to maintain
supplies to their district’s customers. It those
rights are subject to relinquishment they might not
be there when needed by districts.
“...a number of provisions related to water system
planning make it imperative that we thoughtfully
review our water system plan and small water
system management program approval processes.
The Office of Drinking Water, therefore, will need to
define necessary changes to its planning related
approval processes, including any additional
information needed from utilities, before completing
our review and approval of pending water system
plans and small water system management
programs. Review of any water system plan or
small water system management program elements
not affected by the new statutory requirements will
continue without interruption.”
The second bill deals with achieving instream
flows. How they intend to achieve flows is
unknown as no additional information was
provided regarding these bills.
The water team is also seeking information from
various stakeholder groups on their positions on
changing the exempt well statutes. The issue of
exempt wells was raised at the WASWD Fall
September 2003 PIPELINE Articles
Following is a quote from a memo sent out by ODW
regarding this delay
Contact Jim Rioux at (360) 236-3154 or Denise
Clifford at (360) 236-3098 at the Office of
PIPELINE
Washington Association of Sewer and Water Districts
Articles from the September 2003 Publication
Drinking Water with any questions you may
have.
Normal Winter Forecasted
Ted Buehner, Weather Warning Coordinator
Summer
weather has been one of the finest in
years, but winter is just around the corner. So,
what’s the outlook for this winter?
Last winter had an El Nino event that translates to
warmer than average conditions in the Pacific
Northwest, with no correlation to above, below or
near average precipitation. The winter did turn out
to be warmer than average, and regional
precipitation amounts varied but were in general
close to average. The warmer conditions resulted
in a higher overall snow level and a below normal
snow pack in lower elevations. The snow pack in
higher elevations was very close to average.
El Nino is when sea surface temperatures in the
eastern Pacific Ocean tropical waters are warmer
than normal. As a result, mid-latitude weather
patterns shift. In the U.S., the Pacific jet stream
tends to set up across the southern tier of the
country, producing healthy precipitation. Did you
notice how wet Texas, the gulf coast, and
southeast were this past winter?
The other two tropical Pacific patterns are La Nina
and neutral conditions. La Nina is when eastern
and central Pacific tropical waters are cooler than
normal, usually producing wetter than average
conditions in the Pacific Northwest. Neutral
conditions are when tropical Pacific sea surface
temperatures are close to normal.
Well, El Nino is gone! As of mid August, it looks
like we are headed toward a neutral winter, the
most common of the El Nino, La Nina and neutral
conditions.
So, what do “neutral” winters mean for our area.
In short, they produce highly variable or
changeable weather throughout the winter season.
Some neutral winters have very active weather,
others not.
Our most recent “neutral” winter was 1999-2000,
which was not very active. However, our neutral
winter history shows some very active years.
September 2003 PIPELINE Articles
Prior to the winter of 1999-2000, other neutral
winters included 1996-97, 1995-96, and 1990-91.
Remember the floods of Nov 1990 and 1995, and
Feb 1996? Or how about the strong windstorm of
Dec 1995, or the arctic outbreaks of Dec 1996 or
Dec 1990?
Going back in time, the three snowiest winters in
western Washington were neutral years, 1968-69,
1949-50, and 1915-16. In the last 50 years, of the 25
wettest years, 18 were “neutral” winters. Our
nation’s strongest non-tropical windstorm, the
Columbus Day Storm, occurred during a neutral
winter in 1962-63.
We are still early in this game for this year. Seasurface temperatures in the tropical Pacific could
change before we reach winter, moving away from
the neutral conditions. For now though, we appear
to be headed toward a “neutral” winter.
The National Weather Service (NWS) Climate
Prediction Center (SPC) currently indicates
indeterminate conditions for the Pacific Northwest,
meaning even odds on above, below or near average
temperatures and precipitation for the entire winter
season. Given the usual highly variable weather
conditions during a neutral winter, we will likely
have at least one arctic outbreak, one significant
wind event, good potential for an extended heavy
rainfall or “pineapple express” event with major
flooding, and periods of dry mild weather. In
essence, temperatures and precipitation will likely
average out close to normal winter conditions for the
entire season, along with mountain snow pack.
So, stay tuned as we head into this fall and winter,
and be prepared for a much more active and
hazardous winter this year. Monitor the latest winter
weather outlook, issued during the third week of
each month, via the Seattle NWS web site at
www.wrh.noaa.gov/seattle.
The latest winter
outlook is linked as a headline on the front page.
This web site, along with the other NWS offices
serving Washington State in Portland, Pendleton,
and Spokane, also offer the latest area forecasts and
conditions, and much more.
Ted Buehner, Warning Coordination Meteorologist
National Weather Service - Seattle/Tacoma
PIPELINE
Washington Association of Sewer and Water Districts
Articles from the September 2003 Publication
Washington Water Utility
Council to host 1338
Implementation Workshop
The Washington Water Utility Council (WWUC),
a subcommittee of the PNWAWWA, will conduct
a workshop on Friday, October 24th to explain to
utilities how 2E2SHB 1338 will impact their
system. 1338 contains major changes in water law
that will affect how water and wastewater utilities
operate in the future.
While the State Agencies attempt to figure out
how they intend to implement these changes the
members of the WWUC felt that utilities needed to
fully understand the ramifications of these changes
so they may better participate in the State’s
implementation process.
The workshop will be held at the Moses Lake
Convention Center in Moses Lake please contact
the Association office for registration information.
The cost of the workshop will be $30 to cover
lunch and venue costs.
Neither DOH nor DOE staff will be attending
hopefully making the free flow of questions and
comments more open. If you have questions about
these major changes in our States water law plan
on attending.
Patty Grau & Phil
Montgomery - Lifetime
Members
The members of the Washington Association of
Sewer and Water Districts voted to induct Patty
Grau, Manager (Retired) of Hazel Dell Sewer
District and Phil Montgomery, Manager (Retired)
of Ronald Wastewater District as Lifetime
Members of the Association.
They join with Charlie Johnston (East Wenatchee
Water) William Lothspeich (Hazel Dell Sewer)
and Terry Matelich (Val Vue Sewer) as Lifetime
members.
September 2003 PIPELINE Articles