May 20, 2024 — Water Resources Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] What I do pick. call to order the May twentieth, 2024, water Resource Advisory Board meeting. and I will turn it over to Joanna to do this. That's virtual. Alright. Sounds good, thank you. Hello! My name is Joanna Bloom, and I'm serving as the technical host for this meeting. We'll start with sharing a few slides of the virtual meeting rules we follow. These rules are in place to find a balance between transparency with community members and security that minimizes disruptions. We need a full name associated with each person's participation in open or public comment, and we cannot unmute you without it. If your full name is not currently displayed. Please go ahead and change it, or you can text me, and I'm happy to change it for you. There's no chat feature for this meeting. The QA function is enabled and can be used to address zoom. Connectivity issues only

[1:04] but feel free to text me at 303817, 1, 7, 4, 2. If you need to reach me for zoom problems or otherwise. members of the public may be unable to control audio or video features. Video is limited to city officials, employees, and invited speakers. Only I will unmute you when you are recognized to speak just real quick check. If we have anybody on the phone. it doesn't look like it. So I'll forego reading the phone instructions. If you do want to speak under public comment. I'll call your name, and we'll start a 3 min timer that will be displayed, and you may start speaking once. You see, the 3 min timer. Thanks so much for your participation back to you. Thanks, Tyler. so we can move to approving of the April meeting minutes I read them didn't have any issues. I don't know other folks had

[2:06] issues. No, the minutes make motion to approve the minutes all in favor. Aye. Or we're we're missing Lauren tonight. So just the 4 of us and Steve's participant virtually looks like I'll forward it to approve the April minutes. So those are good. and we can move on to virtual public comment period. If we have anyone who is raise their hand or sign up to speak. Yeah. So if you would like to speak in public comment, go ahead and virtually raise your hand. Now the controls are at the bottom of the screen. If you care to speak. I do see one hand raised. Lynn Spiegel.

[3:01] you should be able to unmute and as soon as Karen has the timer up, you may begin. Well. this is really remarkable that no one ever speaks but me. It's it's really a sad a prophecy for Boulder. you know. Water is life. My water bill is 14 bucks out of the 100 bucks that I pay. Now, isn't there something that you can do? I don't even irrigate my lawn. You know I I don't use toilet paper for 30 years, because it's too water intensive. So what's what's wrong with the picture here. I'm using nothing. I'm paying a hundred dollars a month. and the people that are blasting their turf are you know. Can't you take some of the stormwater bees and

[4:03] taxes and proportionally loaded on the people, the users. Because you know what, even if I lowered my use. which about 80 5%. 90% of my water use is waiting for the hot to come now would gladly get instantaneous hot water heaters at each of my, you know, access points. But guess what? That's not going to do anything, because 85% of my bill is storm water charges and fees and taxes. And what do you have? You know I'm low income, social security. What do you have for for people that are in a situation like that to proportionally fairly lower their bills so they can have some funds for themselves.

[5:00] You know, and the thing is, you know also, where is there a person? A liaison on, Rab. I don't see one. I haven't seen one. Do you have one? What's what's with that at all the other major boards that I follow? Planning board and cab and and I would think Rob would have someone that's observing the other birds boards, because I I follow many of them, and I'm astounded with what I hear and see at each board how little they know about what else is going on in Boulder. You know you there is so much building here, you are not gonna be able to begin to deal with the water demand for all of these humans that are coming to this place, you know. You don't see them yet, but I'm gonna see it. I I know it's coming at Papelios at where Hoshi motors was at, you know 50 eighth. In Arapaho there's 5 places out towards gunbarrel. There is housing like you've never seen before, pushed by the Federal Government with high tech funds and Federal subsidies for growth, and you are gonna have to deal with it. What are you gonna do.

[6:23] Thanks, Lynn. I don't see anybody else who's interested in public comment tonight. Okay, thanks, Jenna, and thank you. Win to move on to first definition. I don't sure we can do that. And if you don't mind. Let's just say and good evening board members and members of the public. I'm Joe, Katie and the Director of Utilities for the city. and just going back to Lynn's comments.

[7:00] And what you said about the bill, and $14 out of 100 being for the water. Use the way our the way our system and our our rate structure is set up. There's a portion of the bill that are usage fees. So you pay for what you actually use. And and the more you use, the more you pay, the less you use, the less you pay. And then there are. There's a portion of the bill. That is kind of the fixed charges, and there's a balance that we have to do when we do a rate. Study some of our costs in the city like bundling treatment plan things like that. They don't change it. We don't send an operator home if we're using less water or that kind of thing. and so, having having some revenue stability with the fixed charges, portion of the bill is is the way they're designed. But I appreciate the feedback and

[8:00] at some point in our work plan here. In the next few years we'll be looking at rates again. That'll be something that the board and the public can weigh in on. Thanks, Julie. and then moving on to our only agenda item tonight. it is the capital improvement program, and and those are the board members. We've done with us for for a bit. Know that the way we do this each year we break this into 3 meetings, and in the in the main meeting try to give an overview and get everyone up to speed on on where we left off last year for a new member. It's the first time you've heard it. And then June is is probably the most consequential of the in some ways of the meetings, because we do a deeper dive into the 6 year cip the proposed projects, and and what the rates are going to be. and we really look for the Board's feedback in that meeting.

[9:03] so that we can come back in July hopefully, having address those comments or concerns that you might have had, and then would be looking for a recommendation from the Board in July. So our plan tonight is to in in giving an overview and a snapshot of where we left off last year. We're gonna go through the presentation segments and we'll go through some financial background first. and then we'll follow that with a discussion on each of the utilities systems and and just brief mention of the key projects that we'll be talking about in more detail in June. And we thought, since it's a it's the only item on the list tonight, and we've got time to go through it in a little more detail. It made sense to stop after each section and kind of see if you have any questions

[10:00] and sometimes it doesn't work for certain topics, but I would also invite the Board members to stop us at any point as as we're going through it. If you have a question pertinent question in the Mobile. And so Steph Bringerman is our principal financial analyst. Started with the city in in September, and so she'll be doing the financial portion of the presentation. And then, Chris Douglas is our utility engineering manager has been with us for for a few years and he'll lead the discussion on the systems, Internet and the project. So with that. it looks like the media is working. So I'll turn it over to Stephan. Thanks, Joe. Second. And then the financial analyst for utilities. So I think we've got a slide on the agenda. I'll

[11:03] so I'll be covering. As I mentioned the financial background. I'll turn it over to Chris. He'll give a an overview of cip process utilities, programs, priorities, and then we can wrap up with questions and discussion at the end. So the utilities apartments made up of 3 enterprise funds, the water, utility, waste, water, utility, storm, utility, and 3 utilities are designed to be self sustaining and are primarily funded through customer rates. These rates are set to recover their cost of service. So again, they're just self sustaining individual enterprise, funds and utilities. I'll just mention quickly. They're different and separate from the city's general fund, which is primarily funded through sales space tax. and our 3 primary funding sources come from our operating revenues bond sales, and then we may or may not have some alternative funding in there. Via grants, Federal match programs and State loans. Real quick. I'll just mention on our operating revenues the the main driver and revenue source. There are customer rates.

[12:12] We also receive revenues through plant investment fees also known as development fees and then some miscellaneous revenues from hydroelectric sales and biogas sales as well. so our 2024 budget. This is the city wide budget, actually. And for 2024 it's between 600 million 618 million dollars. Just wanted to show this just to kind of give a sense of magnitude for the utilities budget. It's roughly 20 of the 2024 adopted citywide budget. Coming in right now to around 120 million dollars forecast for 2024. So this slide just gives a quick breakdown of the 2023 actions by utility fund. So in 2023 total spend, I saw 3 funds was around 112 million dollars the water fund made up about 52% of this at around 58.4 million. The wastewater made up about 32% of that at 36 million and stormy flood made up the remaining 16% of that at around 17.4 million.

[13:22] So these next 3 slides, are formatted similarly. First, and I'll run through is the water utility, and on the left side, there we've got a pie graph of the 2023 revenues. On the right. We've got the 2023 actual for expenses, total revenues for 2023 was around 41.1 million dollars and total expenses was around 58.4 million. There is a difference there about 17 million dollars. But I'll mention a couple of things that make up that difference and kind of help bridge that gap. So in 2,022 we bonded for water and store projects, and we're able to use some of those bug proceeds to help you for that capital that you see there of about 32.9 million dollars

[14:08] and then we also have reserves and fund balance savings available that have been built up over time, so we can pay for our capital projects with cash. So this is the waste water utility. Again, we've got the revenues on the left side there, expenses on the right. Total, 2023 revenues. We're on 46.3 million dollars. The large source there for revenues is the build revenue from again customer sales at around 25.7 million dollars. We did receive long proceeds from the State of about 17.7 million dollars. That are being used to help fund our phosphorus upgrades program at the base. Water treatment facility. There are some miscellaneous revenues in there of about 1.7 million dollars, and then on the right side there again. This is just the breakdown of expenses by category. Capital expenses are around half of total 2023 expenses for the wastewater utility. And then we've got operating expenses of around 11 billion

[15:09] that service and transfers think through the remainder. There, I'll just mention really quickly. The capital program does fluctuate from year to year. But our operating expenses are are pretty consistent from one year to the next. And then here are our sources of uses of funds for the stormwater flood utility, total revenues around 22.6 million dollars and total expenses around 17 point. So this table just captures the current year approved rate increases for 2024 these were implemented back in January. We had to 8% increases for water and waste water utilities and a 10% rate increase for storm and flood. The projected rate increases for 25 and 26 were presented on last year in June. We will update our forecast to align with our proposed capital plan. So in June we will show projected rate increases or proposed rate increases for 2526 and 27.

[16:15] And so this is the the last slide for my section. This is really just a comparison of the city of Boulder single family bills to other front range communities. We used an annual consumption assumption of 90,000 gallons. And you can see that we are on the higher end of these benchmark communities. I'll quickly mention we have the sabotized water bill, which is, runs about average. I think it's about 3% higher than the average. So so pretty pretty average. Our wastewater bill is the second highest, and the storm is the highest among these benchmark communities. I will also mention we have a vast system of range ways in due to our location. City boulder has the highest risk of flash flooding in the State of Colorado. So as a result, our storm rates are going to trend higher compared to other communities.

[17:10] For waste water. We've also been working to complete main store interceptor project that Chris will also cover today's meeting and go into more depth than June's meeting. This. This project really was a result of an exposed risk that came about after the 2,013 flood. It's been a costly endeavor, so it's put some pressure on our wastewater rates. I will acknowledge that rates are high, but they are necessary to maintain our infrastructure adequately. So that is my section. I'll pause and see if anyone has any questions. I know a lot of communities have seen significant increases in their costs when it comes to capital projects and operations, and you mentioned that our operating costs are pretty consistent in terms of how much they make up of the pie.

[18:00] But have we seen everything sort of track or escalate sort of together? And have we seen the 3 enterprises experience same inflation of costs? I would say so. I think the capital expenses were trending a little bit higher. I mean, a few years ago, a couple of years ago, we had supply chain issues. On the operating side. I know the city of Boulder did make some adjustments for salaries. Things of that nature, and then also on the operating side we had increases chemical costs. But I will just say it's my opinion that I think that the capital of census have trended a little bit higher than your general operating. and year over year are we sort of seeing that calm down a bit? Are you still experiencing? Yeah, I think just based on so General Cpi and you know, front range area? I think it will. 2 years ago it was pretty high at 8 last year was a 5 cpi. Increase in the forecast. Going forward is around 3.

[19:17] We're the next. Might also comment on the graph, showed the comparison to other cities. We're we're at the high end of the scale, for sure, but that is one of the things that I pay close attention to, and we want to keep. What's that in check. or to say what others are doing and what their programs are, but don't want to see that where our bar suddenly. noticeably auditable. So it's one of the metrics that I, for sure pay attention to and thinking about affordability of our services as ability to pay and making sure that we have bill assistance programs for those who maybe are struggling.

[20:10] I had another question. Okay. See? Bye. Yeah, I had one question. I think the last several years. It seems like the rate increase on the stormwater portion has been quite a bit higher than the other 2, but it looks like it's gonna come back down. More in line. Going forward. Is is that because we've kind of, made up the differences or solved some of the short call shortfalls that were exposed in 2,013, or sort of how do we expect those relative rate increases to go in the future. Will they sort of be similar and sort of track general inflation? Or are we likely to see the floodwater expenditures. Go back up again. Well, that's a great question, Steve, and you really teed us up for one of the things that'll be part of our June presentation. We did the comprehensive storm water and flood plan in 2022, and we identified a new prioritization system for all of our flood projects.

[21:10] and we've been working for the past couple of years on applying that and coming up with a long term Cip, and I can't remember if the number is 20 years or longer that we're looking at. But I think one of the things one of the questions we get from community members is, we have some pretty expensive flood projects coming up in the near term. and will we? Will we be able? Are we mortgaging our future? And will we be able to afford other projects across the city, and I think there, there's decent news there, and that the the rates can be stable and at a at a reasonable level. I would not say that the the increases in the last couple of years. By any stretch have us have us caught up, but we're thinking about that affordability and how to space it out over

[22:04] over a longer term. So you'll be seeing that for sure in in June. Good. Yeah. A question also related to that. That the same. It's so. It's not necessarily the case that a 1% rate increase results in 1% additional revenues, and was curious how you all kind of projected that potential increase out, since it's so dependent on whether and how you may consider that. Yeah, that's a that's also great question. Our projections, I would say, have been are usually informed. Under a normal year circumstance. So we've looked at you know what what consumes been in a normal year? When we project on the water side revenues going forward, we do discount the rate, increase a bit because we expect people as rates go up to, maybe pull back on their consumption. So there's a little adjustment there when we project.

[23:07] I think, Steph, when you were showing the pie charts of the revenue versus expenses that can be situations where one is more or less than the other, and some of that variability comes into that. And we're kind of looking at the overall fund balance, or what we have in reserves and savings. And we've got some flexibility. And we just recently internally went through an exercise with stuff where we were kind of looking at that out several years. Well, what happens if we move this project one year, and and you can really see the effect of that. I always say it's like a it's like a musical mixing board, and that's that's part of what we try to do to make all of this balance out. And we can. We can experience some variation and what we were predicting and manage it because we've got the fund balances and things and just adapt as we're going.

[24:08] So just to confirm, we're not gonna see the proposed rate increases tonight. We'll see that in June. Fate. Yeah. What you saw on this on the slide that showed the 3 years was, that's where we left off last year with what we are predictable. Let's go to Section Nope. Thank you. I'll turn it over to Chris. Good again. Good evening, board members. The public. I'm Chris Douglas, the utilities engineering manager. And I'm going to talk through the capital improvement program process really, at at a little bit of a higher level this evening, and then we'll get into some more detailed projects in June. But and I even want to start off at almost at and and even Pre program across all of utility. Some of the things that we look at as we come up and identify projects. So typically we start our internal budget process, January. And so then that's a combination of

[25:15] really, those team Member utilities team members that have roles in the planning implementation operation maintenance on really any of the capital assets that we work with. So we do have a a, an internal discussion process where we do discuss over several meetings and talk about priorities. And really, the direction that we need to go to be able to pull together the cip that we will bring. We're bringing it to you here as a part of this. Really, this next 3 month series and couple of the big picture concepts is, there's lots of things that influence capital project but probably the main drive there. The main driver is that last bullet point on. It's really that aging infrastructure and asset management. It's that rehabilitation and replacement of those assets. That's really the main driver, really, where we're looking at within the boulder system. We have things that are over 100 years old. They're still working great, but it's in that useful life. And and what's going on question.

[26:21] which then drives us to? Well, then, how do we prioritize the project? Because, frankly, is more work? Then we can a advance in in a timely manner. And a lot of it comes from this concept here shown on this graph, is the likelihood of failure on the left and the consequence of failure on the right. And we're shooting for that upper right hand corner on the projects that we address first, that have that high consequence and likelihood of failure. And you'll but you'll probably the big takeaway from this graph is you'll see this concept up really a traffic light. We've got a red, yellow, and green concept on how we're choosing projects. So I'll be coming back to that theme. As we talk a little bit more on some of the systems that we're dealing with throughout the rest of the year.

[27:08] The other big aspect, and and we even brought up already, is plus and wh where those costs are coming from. So some of the things we look at from a cost perspective is wanted to spend a little bit of time talking about this figure, this funnel of costs, where you see that the figure shows the estimated range or class estimate of the cost. You know it's it really comes into some of the more. But if we have more information on our project. We're more confident on what that cost range is going to be. So you look at a class by best estimate on the left hand side of this graph is that conceptual level cost that we are trying to establish in this early years of the capital improvement program. They have a large margin of error, because we still don't have a lot of information. But the the as we get more knowledge on the project, that funnel that you can see in blue, there really narrows down more to where we have more cost certainty. And those are the types of projects that you're seeing will be bringing to Rob as a part of really the next year next year's capital improvement program.

[28:16] So you know, this slide really represents we're gonna be talking about aspects of the water, the waste water and the storm water and flood utility. And and it's so complex. But really, this is just as a really as a setup to really get intentional again on the same page. We're not going to go into a lot of project specifics tonight. But the other aspect is just wanted to let you know. Just as you see. This we're stepping through is, we'll take an opportunity to pause at each one of these sections to have a little more discussion of questions if what has them? So the first one, the section I'm gonna talk about is, there's the 2 components in the water systems, the source water system treated water system. This being the source water system really is where the where we acquire the water rights up in the watershed, and how it conveys that water down to the the treatment plants, and then into the treated water system.

[29:15] So as the concepts of the source water system is, we have 3 sources of water that are delivered to the, to the city. You can see in the green is the our western slope. Water that delivers water from the big Thompson Water project down to Carter Lake and via pipeline to the boulder boulder reservoir water treatment plant, located on 60 third. And then there's also a smaller watershed that supplies water from the boulder reservoir and then back up in the mountains west of town is, we have 2 other sources of water. We have the the North Boulder Creek system, which, and then the Middle Boulder Creek system, and both of those systems or separate systems that collect water via dams and reservoirs and pipelines and committed to the Castle water treatment plant just west of town.

[30:08] And now just a little bit more graphical on each of those water supply systems. And this, this particular one is the western slope water supply system. and it conveys water from Carter Lake to the 60 third water treatment plant. And you can see in that again. Stop light motif that Carter Lake pipeline is green. It's a relatively new system. It's been online. It's in good shape. We're monitoring it. But there's not a lot of active construction related to that particular project. But then, when we go up into the North Boulder Creek system, it's a series of dams that interconnect via surface drainage, and in creeks to, and then then into some pipelines that have hydroelectric power generating facilities to convey water to the Potassa water treatment plant, and really that the big project of note which we'll go into later is the Lb dam project. We're currently, actively under construction on that once in the next 2 years. That's facilities gonna change from a red to green in its condition.

[31:17] The Middle Boulder Creek system, really the main reservoir. There is Barker Reservoir, and never. And so it collects water that goes to Barker Reservoir, and then we have a pipe, pipeline, and reservoir system, and then in some hydroelectric facilities that convey water to the the tassel water treatment plant. The big thing to note here is the Barker gravity pipeline and the Boulder Canyon pen stock are couple of pipeline projects that we've been working at over the years for upgrading them again from a over a hundred year old work for gravity, pipeline. We've been slowly retrofitting that that project to get into that green status. and then just a quick touch base on the hydroelectric facilities that I mentioned at some of the the other product or the some of the other slides. And really we have 8 hydroelectric facilities

[32:12] that generate a a electrical energy for us. So that's something we can take. Ca, take advantage of, as since that elevation change, and as the water flows down into town, but really the big part point that Steph even mentioned earlier is, it is a part of our revenue represents about 1.6 million dollars in revenue for the city. And then finally, this watershed operations that we look at, and it's things like dam rehabilitation. But it's also other aspects where we're looking at our our infrastructure. There are dam stability, or also the hydrologic conditions within that water supply system. So there's the other types of projects that we look at. So then, this last slide on the source water system. It just kind of. It's a summary. But in June we'll dive deeper into projects including those identified here on the screen. But things like the Barker gravity, pipeline replacement expansion of the Albion dam

[33:15] and changes to the risk assessments we're reviewing, based on updated regulations from the Colorado State Engineers Office. So with that wanted to pause and see if there were any questions about the source wire system. I forget. Can you remind the partner? Dam itself? Why, it's yellow! Why, it's yellow on Barker Barker. It's an old dam. It's a hundred year old dam we've been doing upgrades to that dam over time. But it's still one of those things we still wanna keep monitoring. And and we have some plans that we're looking at in the in really, in the next 6 years in the capital improvement plan to do some upgrades on that just just really, because of the age of the facility.

[34:03] And at this point they are concepts related to needs and not once one. So it's the we don't have a an issue with the structural stability, the dam or anything like that. But there's again, just with the age of that facility. And it's critical nature. We wanna make sure we keeping up creating things? If I can add to that for sure it's it's a safe and stable structure. The outlook works the valves and pipes that deliver water to the Barker gravity line into our drinking system, or or at the end of their useful life and need upgrades. So that's a that's a primary reason why it's yellow. And since I'm talking, if I can have an editorial comment when Chris flashed up the red, yellow, green system on that schematic. and I'm in my eighteenth year at this city. On the North Boulder Creek side, that whole system of dams and pipelines.

[35:03] There's a lot of green there that when I started those were all red. And so in a one or 2 or 3 year timeframe, it can seem daunting that we're trying to address these systems, but over a couple of decades we have made significant progress. Like the Silver Lake pipeline, the Lakewood pipeline, the Carter Lake pipeline upgrades to the treatment plant. So we still got some registered address, and and we're doing it methodically over time. And certainly, Joe, that really brings into that concept of this red green is really, if it is the time scale, it is a decades long time scale that we're trying to address. so that that incremental progress is really what we want to see. And then and and it's not something to where it becomes a critical have to. To do item, really, anywhere in any of these systems that we're.

[36:04] Chris, could you? Could you elaborate on that last item on the on the slide there? Wh! Why is that on this list of top priorities. And sort of what is that State engineer assessment. The State Engineer assessment. And and it really comes down to that. The State engineer for the High Mount dams came up with a new evaluation criteria process last few. So we're going through and looking at. how does that criteria impact our dams? We're actively involved in some studies right now, that is helping us drive where we want to put our priorities. And and they've also come at more of a risk based analysis on upgrades to games. It! It's one of those things where I I've always talked no to to me as as not as a damn guy, but looking at it, it's almost like you're upgrading your home, and you're trying to add a new room or something like that. Well, then, they the

[37:03] building code says, Oh, well, we've got to upgrade our electrical system, too. So it's that with the state engineer, it's going to be okay. Where are those areas that we need to upgrade. And as we're doing this work, okay, you need to get everything else up to them as well. So it it is that incremental approach. And making sure that as they re-look at things a little bit, I think, in in the dam world it's the they're always re revisiting. Are these dams safe? And looking at them a different way. So teams right now. So this is, this is not a one time thing. This is sort of an ongoing process. You guys are involved with all the time. Yes, for. Sir. Yeah, that's true. And I I think a lot of what you see on the cip, and I don't want to steal Chris's thunder, but we have wastewater projects where there are regulatory drivers that we need to upgrade the plan. and a similar thing can happen. And to Steve's point those those refinements to the dam. Safety regulations kind of are happening all the time. They're a little less likely to drive major capital costs, like some of the plant projects do but they can pay close attention to that. They sometimes update the hydrology for

[38:19] different parts of the country. And so there are new new ways, new things that apply. It's it's things like that that get refined. But it could have implications to our capital program. So that's why it's on the list. hey? Unless there are other questions I'll move on to the Tree Water program. Steve asked. So treated water program really takes from the water treatment plan after the source water system delivers the water to the treatment plans. And then it's that transmission and conveyance of water to the custom. So can I step through that process a little bit here with the next few slots?

[39:06] So starting with the treatment plans is is mentioned a little bit ago, a little bit ago. The city has 2 2 treatment plants just wanted to give some orientation we had the 6. The Boulder reservoir water treatment plant located at Sixty-third, located on the slide in the upper right hand corner on the east side. and then the Potassa Water treatment plant, just located just west of town right up right along boulder team. And now I'm gonna dive into really, the 2 treatment plans and their condition. Lots of stuff on this slide lots of complex processes. We're not gonna go through those processes. It's really the the big point here is again in that red, yellow, green. Where are we? And and in general speaking, the 60 third treatment plants in predict is in good shape. But I wanted to point out a couple of areas that are those split red and green boxes.

[40:05] And so that's the high service pump station, the main power supply and the campus electrical equipment. We're 90% of the way through a capital upgrade project on that one. So it's not quite done where I'm not quite call coloring at all green, but really, by the early 2025, that project will be completed. So that's really get a lot of things at the 60 third treatment plant that are move into that group and category with a good condition at the Passo Water Treatment plant. We did some upgrades in 2,017, which got a lot of things to that green level. But there's still some areas that we'll go into a little more in June. But we're looking at upgrades to the disinfection and the wash tank system. And then the next step after the treatment plans is we have the transmission system which is made up of storage tanks and transmission lines, and then the distribution system before it's delivered to customs meters. And one of the things we're at you will. You'll actively seeing the cip is transmission, pipeline work and storage tank upgrade work to in improve that that overall.

[41:19] And then I wanted, you know, a little more specifics on the transmission system. And again, lots of things going on on the slide. But the big thing here is the line work is, we've got a lot of our transmission lines that are reaching the end of their useful life. There's still again, still functional. But we are actively moving forward with several projects to start a really, it's going to be a multi year program to replace and upgrade those facilities. And then the other things I wanted to touch base on. There's a couple of storage tank projects where you have on the lower left. There we hit Roller and Chautauqua storage tanks, and the Chautauqua tank is over 100 years old, still working very well, but it's time to replace it. So that's a a big project that we're planning here in the upcoming in the upcoming process.

[42:07] And then there is also, as a part of our transmission study. Right? We've identified some additional storage needs to help with pressure equalization on the east side of town. So we're looking at locating and and constructing a new storage techniques folder. And then just quick touch base on the distribution system. So we identified in 1994 that we needed to do some upgrades to the distribution system because the distribution systems, the single largest dollar value system, say. for all of those smaller diameter pipes. Think you're 8 in your 12 inch pipes that deliver water to all of our homes. But the really, the big thing here is since 90, 1994, we've replaced those lines that are represented by those in green. But it still is not everything in the city. So we've got this annual program that we need to keep addressing this and advancing and updating those pipe, those those pipes.

[43:10] and that is the quick overview on the treated water system and so that in June we're gonna dive deeper into some of the projects they're identified on the screen. But you know, we'll specifically talk about the almost complete electrical upgrades at the Boulder reservoir water treatment plant on Sixty-thir the phase, design, and construction on the disinfection system that I mentioned Pedassel water treatment plan. and then also the 60 third transmission pipeline project that we will begin construction later this year. So now, really an opportunity to take a pause and see if you have any questions on the tree water system. Are you using any analytics to determine where pipe failure is most likely in the transmission or distribution systems.

[44:01] And and yes, we in in the transmission distribution system is analytics. But really, there's there's a point of we're collecting data and on our our break information in our our be hive asset management system and and work management system. But right now the bigger thing is with a lot of these pipelines and and things is where's where we call them? What we call first page projects there. All these things that we know we need to address now. And it's working the timing in on that. And really the that behind asset management system really is gonna help us on that. When we get to the second page projects down Cip, because there's the. There's enough here. That is the relatively obvious projects that we need to get after right now. So it's like 100 plus year lines and 100 plus year lines. Or there's their particular on transmission pipelines. There's the type of material that are constructed that are that the pipeline is constructed of knowing that

[45:07] when a failure can happen, it can be a much larger failure. So we're trying to address those, because again, it's getting to the end of their useful life and trying to get ahead on that replacement program distribution system. The the break history does get analyzed and and factors into how we prioritize projects. Do you find that there are certain neighborhoods where you, because of the soils and just the location of the homes that you have more. or the lines themselves, that you have more breaks. There are some areas. And then there are also some areas where we do see a series of if you have a break in one area that's upsetting the pressure, and and then the flow conditions in that particular area that can lead to cascade breaks.

[46:00] I'll call it in the re in that region, or, you know, in the neighborhood as well. So it so it is a combination of trying to track that and for choosing what's the right project to go to? Well, being equitable in terms of where you're thinking correct. Yeah, that certainly is from that equitable aspect is that is one of the areas that we're looking at within all the utility systems is through that equity lens to making sure we're addressing. We're not just focusing on one particular area or the those areas that may not be historically. the the unique thing about boulder system is we? We kind of have 2 treatment plants and the potassium one. It's all gravity. Fed the boulder reservoir one. There's there's a pumping element. So you have these 2 sources that are pushing on each other. And and we do have. It's complicated because we have high pressures, and we have to break that pressure.

[47:00] And but some of the projects that we're doing like the boulder reservoir pump replacement is going to refine the the the way we change flows, and it's gonna result in less likelihood of pressure breaks. And that's that. Then that would be another. So we've got that at the Boulder reservoir and talked about this additional East Boulder storage. It allows us a little more of that flexibility to. I had a question on the the new storage in East Folder. What in? He's going? A little more detail with what the need is there as well and what the need is. Picture. So the if you can see in the upper right hand corner of the one tank that is in yellow there. So that's the only storage we have in East folder that's up in under. And so but then the pressure system really runs the entire east part of the system. So we've got one storage tank of northeast portion of the system, and we've gotta flip manage that pressures that goes through the pipes all the way up and down the eastern portion of the Si City. So it's difficult to

[48:12] manage that pressure in that, just with that one tank of energy. So by having something more in central or southern portions of the city is allowing us to work that pressure and and float really float off of those tanks to where pressure can go in and out of the tanks and not have such a long pipeline. So it's not an issue of growth. It's it is not really an issue for growth. It's more for pressure management and and really effective operation. So some of those areas where we talked about where we do have some issues with cascading pressure break problems is a little bit on the eastern side of the city, because we do see larger pressure pressure swings, so we'll be mitigated by what Joe was talking about at the sixty-third plant that just got finished off. But we want that extra level of mitigation to help with that that pressure.

[49:06] Glad you asked that question done? Not for growth pulling for system operations. any other questions. Okay? Well, I'll shift over to the wastewater system. And so the wastewater system being collecting sanitary sewer flows that come from all the customers, conveying it via smaller diameter and and and larger trunk sewer pipelines, and then conveying that to the wastewater treatment plant for the water resource, recovery, facility, or the wolf that will talk through on that so and following that flow path of from the customers to the worth is, this slide really shows the Sanitary Sewer Rehabilitation project that we've been going forwards with since 2015. As result of the 2013 Flood City Council.

[50:05] created and funded an aggressive 20 year program to really upgrade the sanitary sewer pipes in in the system. Really, what that shown here is really the 2 pictures on the screen on the left hand side is. and older pipe before it gets rehabilitated. You can see where there's the cracks. And we're having some of those inflow problems and infiltration problems in the system. And then we go and line it with a trenchless, lined project. And really it looks like a brand new pipe. But we're able to get after that. The trenches technology really create a pipe, a brand new pipe within the pipe, and that's what we've been doing since 2015, and we're on track for completion in 2035. And the big thing with the graph is probably looking at the light green colors and the dark green colors. This light green colors are the types that we still have to line. Dark green is what we completed since that 2,015 timeframe. So it's really getting to that point of as we keep talking and updating this project over the years we see more and more darkly

[51:08] in the light trip. How long does that lining last? That lining last is really the equivalent of a brand new pipe. It's 50 plus years. So really, what you end up doing with that trenchless liner is, you go in. You put it in there and basically, you cook it in place and you make a brand plastic pipe within that old within the old click. So it's really a really cost, effective and advantageous process, you know. The other alternative is to go dig up all the streets and do all the replacement work cause that's. Can that kind of work be done a second time too. And can. Years. And and and what you really can get in there, and the disadvantages you start getting to you part, start putting a pipe within a pipe within a pipe. It starts getting smaller and smaller and smaller. but for most pipes particularly on a residential street. That 8 inch pipe is more than enough. You. You've got room to kind of do a couple of projects there. But yes, I think eventually, Steve, I'll call it in that

[52:06] 50 to 100 years after a couple of life cycles, we may have to go in and start replacing physically replacing those phones and correct me if I'm wrong. But I thought some of the flows into the wharf from infiltration, and we can. Does this seal up the system where the wolf doesn't have supplies. This helps to seal up the system that that is a part of the concern. And that's part of some of the issues that the Wolf had in 2,013 was the the infiltration on on a lot of those flows. This is one component of sealing up those pipes towards the cracked pipes themselves. We still have issues with mantles or other service lines that we could do some other steps to seal up. But right now it's the the big effort is to sealing up the pipelines, which is where we'll get most of the that infiltration flow.

[53:01] But you're not selling up so much that you risk not having flow into the dwarf. Now I I'm I'm not remembering the numbers, but when we do get storm events we see we do see a significant peak increase in our flows. And that's really what we're trying to mitigate on that end to where we do get enough flows from. Everybody using the sanitary sewer system to main to to keep. I'll say, everything moving downstream. But we were trying to minimize that. When we do get a storm. We we see significant spikes in waste workflows at the at the treatment plan. So then, after the I'll call it the residential or the small sewer pipes. We have the main sewer interceptor lines. And here we've got picture of of several of them, and really what I wanted and and think these. These are with the larger diameter lines, these 16 inch and larger pipelines in the system. And so we've completed as a part of this program

[54:08] the baseline sewer and part of the Gooseberry Sewer interceptor program. The big thing I wanted to point out is on the main sewer interceptor product project which Steph mentioned earlier is this is the single largest capital project the city has taken on from a utility system where we're actually weighing, and a new pipeline which is shown there in yellow, which is currently under construction to to the to the werf. And really, that's that's one of those areas. We'll probably dive into a bit more. but lots of it exciting and interesting things that we've been doing on that project then at the water Resource recovery facility, or we're just wanted to show this aerial view, you know, from a overall cost. This is the largest individual asset cost value for the wastewater system.

[55:05] and I wanted to jump on and then wanted to jump on to another process. Diagram again, lots of processes going on to clean that waste water and the bigger takeaways. There's a lot of green here. It's in. It's in pretty good condition. But we do have those areas on the primary and secondary clarifiers that are in red, and we're actively doing some rehabilitation relation to those projects. And then we've also got a we're doing some regulatory upgrades as well, which will dive into those projects a little bit more. C, 1 6 year, cip. So that's my quick touch base on the wastewater system. and you know you can see here a couple of the projects that we'll be talking about in June. But definitely, we'll be touching on the ongoing main sewer interceptor construction project. the phosphorus and clarifier upgrade construction of the Werf.

[56:01] And then also, we're Gonna touch base on our progress on the asset management program that we've been implementing for the waste fire system as well. So certainly. Wanna take a pause here, and if you've got any questions on the wastewater system question that in the memo it talked about the January 2024 bond for 96 million dollars with. I think you said the large portion was for that main sewer. I just forgot that was the scale like that. But like it. it was that much. Yes, it it it is that much about putting myself on on the spot. That's a great job. hey? Consumer? Thank you, sir. I think that's made up of a few different pro. There's approximately 6 or 7 other projects in that. But of the mountain, I think it's 58.

[57:03] Yeah, the main series 50. And I don't retain that type of data. That question just happened to come up last Thursday. So, and and and we will talk about a little bit more in in the up and in the June memo and and presentation if we want to get into it on how we've allocated some of those costs from that. And I was just curious to, I know, during the Excel outage you did move some sewage into, I think one of the primary clarifies that was down for you up to that have any long term impacts, I know, because it was being updated, or it it would be. That was one of the projects that we had ongoing, and frankly, not having that clarified out of service was really a benefit during that hour. I mean, there will be some cost, because we're gonna this fall. We're going to drain that, and we have to go back and finish finish that project. So we're expecting some additional repairs and things that we had to do. But

[58:04] by having that available to us was something that really helped prevent a Senator who was spilling to the creek. and there weren't no long term issues from good. There, there's not I. I I would say. There's there's issues that we will be able to address. I think there will be some additional clean costs that we're going to incur. But we don't think there's any long term damage. and we haven't really completed that assessment yet at this point, because now that we're getting into the spring season. We wanted to keep that clarifier online because the plan was to have it online for the spring, so that we have it for those some of those additional water flows and increases that may happen. Spring. The tank was getting recoded and resurfaced, and that work was in progress. It was totally the the right call by the team to make that decision, to fill it up, or it would have been overflowing to the creek. But there. There may be some rework there for that active construction project.

[59:12] Now, just a few full slides on the stormwater flood program. And really, you know, couple of quick touch points on the stormwater conveyance, the storm, water quality, and then the the flood and the major drainage license. So on the storm water command system. And again, this map just shows. Really it's all the different colors or all of the different swarm water pipes that are in sip. And what we're trying to do is those with those pipes is convey that 2 to 5 year storm, water, storm and convert them to the to the major floodways. And really the the big concept here is there is a lot of pipe, but we're on an 8 year cycle to review and inspect all of those those things storm water pipes.

[60:06] And really, what that has done will be. And this is a relatively new program. We're in our third year of doing that. But in 2023 that program identified about $500,000 of storms for repairs, that we were both emergency and plan repairs, that we were able to address. And then we're looking at 2024 about $100,000 work on that end. So this is that another continued program to where we're looking at what we've got. And address addressing needs another component of the Us. Stormwater program is is the stormwater quality program. and the program not only seeks to comply with state water quality regulations, but educate the public and approve water quality through a better understanding of issues in enhanced system and the city's water quality program conducts various water quality monitoring and special studies along the creeks, including implementing studies related to the E Coli total maximum daily load implementation plan.

[61:12] And then there's the the floodway program, and there's this step talked about is boulder is the highest risk on flood damage in the state of 16 major drainage ways. And we're looking at trying to implement to the extent reasonable 100 year flood mitigation to the drainage rates. The big thing with the Graphic. Here is the areas in blue are the drainage waste that currently have a hundred here, flood flood capacity. So there's not a lot of blue here. So we're looking at as a part of what Joe had mentioned, and our 20 year capital improvement plan from the the comprehensive, stormy flood. Master Plan is looking at upgrading. Those were practical to try to get as many of those lines to that blue 100 year possible. Can

[62:07] that? That's the end of the storm water presentation slides. And you can see some of the projects here on this stream, and in June we'll dive deeper into some of the major design projects that we're doing on Gregory Canyon Creek, 4 Mile Canyon Creek and South Boulder Creek. and we'll also discuss that 20 year. Capital improvement plan that was created as result of the comprehensive stormwater flood. Master Plan. So with that again, take another pause. If there are any questions on the Stormwater and Flip program. Okay. with that. we need to kick it back over to Joe to to finish up on a couple of 2, 2 or 3 more slides here. Couple more. So we have a slide here for

[63:03] Rachel. Actually, we refer to that in the in the memo. I think the board members. Have all gone through the city's training that's required for that, or will be going through it. The city has a racial equity plan. It's one of our core values. Just making sure we're providing our services equitably we incorporate those concepts into our utilities programming in a number of ways each year. Our department identifies the work plan projects and and programs that are coming up. And we specifically every department in the city flags. The things that that are a good match for applying some of the tools we have for racial equity. A lot of what we do in in utilities is is system wide. It benefits everybody like an upgrade to a treatment plan or things like that. There are other elements.

[64:00] That are a little bit different, and some recent projects and programs that have had Rab involvement. Where those tools have been applied, or the 2022 drought plan. 2022 comprehensive flood and stormwater plan and the 2023 water efficiency plan. So that was the point in time where we applied those tools. But those documents and the application of them live on, so that the influence that has in providing equitable services lives on and on. And when we do the Cip program in June, and you see the prioritization of the flood projects that will that will keep blind year to year. 6 year. Cip for the decades to come. So we're it. It has been a really interesting journey in the last several years for utilities department. We're proud of some of the things where? Why, this. It's not perfect. We'll keep refining. But

[65:04] we'll continue to apply that, and I think you can move on to the to the last slide, and I will just say, in summary in June. We'll certainly be speaking to some of these things, and the bullet points on the slide in more detail. but hopefully kind of slowing down here tonight, since it was the only item on the agenda giving a refresher for some of you or for Katie an initial glance that, as the case may be in all of the factors that come into to play in the breadth of the facilities and the systems across the 3 utilities. And that is a big part of our current generation. Staff mission is to that. We're working to turn more system components green. And and we've inherited a really good system from the people that were in these roles before us, and it's on our generation to

[66:02] to leave it better than we found it. So and Steph David overview of the finances, and and we saw where we compare, relative to other municipalities, something to pay close attention to as well as the customers ability to pay and having programs in place. And so yeah, we'll we'll talk more in in detail in June, including the the cip for the storm and flood, and seeing that longer term view of how all the projects they've done for the decades to come. So I'm not sure if they're or or more questions on the overall program at this point, but happy to keep talking about. Sounds like sounds like we're gonna have a lot of material to look over before the June meeting. Joe. When when can we expect to get

[67:02] some of that info to have time to sort of go through it in more detail. So our our normal practice is to get that out to the board, so that you have 2 full weekends and a and a week before the meeting. In general, we try to keep the packet materials and the memos short, the capital programs and the budget. We let the page length. Get a little bit longer. and I'm glad you raised that question, Steve, for a lot of the stuff that we present to rob throughout the year. I I really push with the team to shoot for around 3 pages for our memo links, but we know some board members might want dig into things in more detail. So we'll include attachments so that the detail is there if you need it. But if there's a 500 page report that's the attachment. There is no expectation on our part that that you all read that it's it's there, if you want it, the info is there, if you want it

[68:06] so. I think you'll have close to 2 weeks with the weekend time in the to review the materials. Okay. Great. Sounds like Steve's looking for some reading attorney. So I think that's what we got for this. She's ran through. So this presentation was very helpful. Thank you both for getting us primed for for the cip. I'm I think that your presentation a great job of sort of setting us up. And so I'm just wondering if we can get a copy of it in our folder or sort of help frame our review, and even for those of us that work with it all the time. When you start looking at it in this concept is you forget

[69:19] how much is there? And and certainly it's just a large volume of things that we're trying to advance. Yeah, but thanks again, Steph and Crystal super helpful. I guess we can move to matters from the board. Anything from Ward. I don't either correct. No. Bit so we can move to matters of step cool. And I have just a couple of things. The first. The first thing you'll recall in our discussions at the Retreat

[70:01] definitely a theme from the Board, members of of being interested in being involved in the work and and I know you were all wanting to make sure that you're adding value to things. And so we talked about in the work plan is things come up that are maybe amenable to board. Member involvement will flag those things for you and John. You remember you followed along with the water Efficiency plan as designated by by Rab, and that was super helpful a few years ago. Similarly, we have a board member follow along with the comprehensive port plan. and so. additionally, one of the themes that we've heard from the board at retreats and and over the years. Gordon, who's just recently always encouraging us to communicate. Make sure. like we're attempting to do tonight, that we're communicating with the public

[71:01] and that the the amount of infrastructure we have and the costs and the rates, and if that go along with them that will kind of tell him our story, and what the public is aware of. what's behind everything that's that's on a bill. And so that those public education materials. And so I think in the it's more of a short term assignment different from the following, along with one of those plans, if a board member is interested in working with us on some of that that opportunity is there. So don't want to put anyone on the spot tonight. If if if you are interested by all means raise your hand. But if it's something that that you wanna think about. We could also follow up after the meeting and and just see what's there. You would need a decision before the next.

[72:03] Yeah, I think I think we would not necessarily tie to anything on the lab schedule, just the publishing of some material starting. So yes. next few weeks. So before we were interested, you know, to each other sooner than the than the next meeting. Yeah, that's fine. Okay. I don't think it will be a huge time for them right definitely would be helpful to have have a a board member who may or may not have expertise in that area. Give us a second set of wise, and to be clear like. When John followed along with the efficiency, plan it, not expecting you to represent the whole, the whole board necessarily, and not taking form of action, but just just helping us a little more informally some of our processes. And that's largely around, like the education material, the public. Okay.

[73:01] public outreach features. And then the other thing that I wanted to mention Chris talked about the 16 drainages and all of the flood projects, and we've got the South Boulder Creek Project, which is a major one that's active. Uppermost Creek and 2 mile is another active project you'll see in the Cip, and then a third one is the Gregory Creek Project. It's a drainage. That kind of comes down parallel to Ninth Street and and University Hill, Chicago area. And so we've got a mitigation plan. With that. And we're starting to work on on design concepts. So we have a May thirtieth community meeting. I can forward the details of when that is to board members. There's not really a role for the board in those meetings, and and absolutely no obligation for you to to show up. But making you aware, in case you're interested.

[74:03] And and on that project I think we generally have a supportive community after the 2,013 flood. It was one of the groups that showed up at at Rab and talked about their stories of the damage that was in Courland. And so we're getting to a point now where we're close to having a project there. There's been some community intensity around the scope of the project. And and people that would like us to expand that. And we're we're working through some of those conversations. Anyway, there's a May thirtieth meeting if you're interested. That is all I have on matters from staff, and if you'd like, I can move to the future schedule which we've already largely talked about June May, June and July is the 3 series capital improvement

[75:01] program. So we'll keep going back in June, with a deeper dive on the cip. Again looking for your your feedback on that, with hopes that we can come back and and get a recommendation. and have addressed yours feedback and concerns that you have. And then, in July there'll be board action on that, and a recommendation to council on the cip and then suggested rates. That's usually a a quicker subject. So for June it'll the whole meeting will be on the cip just like tonight, was july. They'll get the touch and board action, and then we'll also have an information item on the Red Water Service Line inventory as an update from that water quality quality team. And then it has been our practice the last few years that we haven't had in August meeting and not really seeing a need to have one this year. So that's how the 3 month schedule is shaping up.

[76:10] So I've got cool. Well, thanks again for the presentation super helpful, looking forward to the deeper dive next month, and unless there's anything else there, I'm wishy to join the meeting. Yeah. Motion to adjourn. I'll second. All in favor. Thanks everyone, Steve. Hope the recovery goes well. Thanks guys. Dual.