July 15, 2024 — Water Resources Advisory Board Regular Meeting

Transcript

Captions from City of Boulder YouTube recording.

[0:00] 3 24 meeting of the Water Resource Advisory Board. and I'll turn over to Joanna to go over the rules. Great. Thank you. Hi! 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 that we follow. These rules are in place to find a balance between transparency with community members and security that minimizes disruptions. We do need a full name associated with each person's participation in open or public comment. If you, if your full name is not currently displayed, please change it, or you can send me a text, and I'm happy to change it for you. There is no chat feature for this meeting. The Q. And a function is enabled and can be used to address zoom, connectivity questions only. But again, you can text me if you need technical support. I Am. At 3 0. 3, 8, 1, 7, 1, 7, 4, 2

[1:01] members of the public may be unable to control the audio or video features. Video is limited to city officials, employees, and invited speakers. Only I will unmute you when you're recognized to speak. I will call your name when it's your turn to speak and announce the name of the next speaker on deck, and after I've unmuted you please say your 1st and last name, and then a 3 min timer will be displayed, and you may start with your comments there and let me just see if there's anybody joining by phone. There's not. So I believe that's it, and I'll turn it back over to you. Great thanks, Joanna. We can move to approving the June meeting minutes I read through. Didn't have any answer questions. Anyone else have any suggestion credits. No. So Steve is curious. We're having technical difficulties

[2:00] right now. Is there a motion to approve the June meeting minutes, a motion to approve the June meeting minutes. and then let's look to move the meeting minutes and we can move to virtual public comment. We have anyone queued up join us. Let me just give folks a moment to virtually raise your hand. If you'd like to speak. You can generally find the controls at the bottom of your screen. and I do see one attendee, Lynn Seago, who would like to speak. Lynn, give me just one second, and I you should be able to unmute. Now. Yeah. On the last meeting I was jumping back and forth between the the Colorado River project at the Jcc. And the Ev Demonstration project and

[3:05] trying to come at the time that I could speak multiple times, and I still didn't get to speak. So I'm very resentful that you cannot somehow accommodate to people who also have very busy lives. And I was, I mean, it's so ironic. I was trying to follow the Colorado River project. and I'm distracted with a Rab meeting, and then I don't even get to speak. There's something really wrong with that. And there's something really wrong with the fact that this time I can't have my 3 min back. That's not okay. Just saying now, John Bergman works at WRA. Which is the site of a water demonstration project. nonpoint source pollution. It was built in the nineties. It's going to be demolished. It's horrific that Rab didn't have something to do with the preservation of this project with the Basin project. If you've heard of that acronym it was. There were 4 demonstration projects in the State of Colorado. The site at

[4:13] base Line and Broadway on the South west corner had a demonstration, was designed as a demonstration project for runoff stormwater runoff, such that it could be absorbed and filtered on site with 3 ponds and the various landscaping accoutrements that were done to it, and because the planning board offered the developer 16,000 extra square feet. Since we're going from commercial to housing in this community. The developer argued that he couldn't fit the parking for all of that residential conversion. You know the conversion from commercial to residential or Wra is I don't think they're there now. Maybe they are, John. I don't know but they were and

[5:10] and so that space is, you know, they their argument for demolition was that they couldn't fit the parking for all of that residential on it. Then why? Why did this ever happen? The boards need to work integratively between the planning Board and you and others and the landmarks board? Because this place should never have been demolished. It isn't yet, but it will be. And that's just not okay, either. And all this development with the crisis of water that we have water is life. See you south. the east campus, the airport, and the planning reserve. All should not happen. And you need to do something about this, because it affects your position done.

[6:08] Okay? And that's true. Just my 3 min. That is your 3 min, and there'll be another chance to comment under the public hearing later. I don't see any other members. That. And I'm going to miss the Rocky Flats thing as a result of this. So you know. people, everyone has busy lives. So does the public. My mom died as a result of rocky flats. It's a big deal. but now I'm stuck here. Flynn. I don't see anybody else that is signed up for public comment or open comment this evening. Okay, thanks, Joe. If you. when I responded all to why or why not? Utilities Rep would get involved in them. Development review like when that the public that was talking about yeah, sure and and good evening board and members of the public. I'm Joe Teddy Ugm, the director of the utilities department for the city

[7:13] and in the city charter. Each of the boards purview is is spelled out, and there are a few boards and wrap is one of them that it's specifically stated that the board shall not involve itself in land use types of matters. And so there's there's kind of certain separations that have been established over the years, and it can be tricky to navigate at times. For the public, for sure, and even us the staff and board members. But we try to channel things into the right ways where specific boards and city bodies act on certain types of things. So that's why. And if I since I've got the mic, if I can just speak to the to the comment about extra time

[8:02] for this meeting, and for those who may not be aware, we had a glitch on the agenda last time, and the public comment, time was posted for later than we intended. and so we still gave an opportunity for public comment at the time we normally do at the beginning of the meeting, and then we get additional opportunity later, and just in in the course of doing board business that speaking time, if you can imagine trying to manage it does not carry over from meeting to meeting. Fortunately the Board didn't take any action on anything last last month. It was just information. So if there are members of the public who felt like they didn't get to say what they wanted to say can always email the board and staff and provide information that way. And we've got 2 opportunities tonight with the open comment at the beginning of the meeting. And then we have a

[9:02] appearing on the capital improvement program. So great. Thanks, Joe. Yeah, I'll just reiterate apologies for the screw month agenda last month. yeah. Notes are are bad, so that we can move to the public. Hearing sounds good. So the 1st item we have tonight, as I just mentioned, is the public hearing on the capital improvement program, and we are seeking a board recommendation. as we've discussed previously. We normally do this. do the cip, as we call it, in 3 meetings, where may, as a refresher on where we left off last year, and an opportunity for our newest board member to quickly get up to speed. And then in June we try to really do, clear the agenda and do a deep dive into the capital improvement program, and the proposed rates get any board feedback, and then we come back in July and follow up on on any loose ends that were there, and look for a board recommendation, and it's a chance for the public to waive

[10:10] on the program and the rate. So that's where we are tonight. And we have a really brief presentation. There are a few minor updates that we want to provide since June, and some things that we wanted to follow up on from discussion from the June meeting and The the flow of the meeting will start with a staff presentation that'll be followed by clarifying the questions that the Board might have of staff. Then we go to the public hearing, and then, after that there's a time for the board to deliberate and make a formal recommendation, and we've got a couple of motions prepared in the packet. Steph Klingon is our principal budget analyst and she's not in Boulder tonight, so she'll be presenting virtually on on zoom

[11:06] and so she will. She will take it from there grooming. So I think I'm I'm ready for you, Steph, and take it to that. Thanks, Joe. Again. Steph Klingeman, the principal budget annals for utilities. And we've got an agenda here that next slide, Chris, if you don't mind moving forward. Thanks. So, as Joe mentioned, the goal tonight is to provide any additional clarity on our priorities, projects, rates, and associated impacts that will enable a final recommendation. Joe did touch on the agenda for this evening, so, following the information that I share, we'll pause for any clarifying questions. Then we'll move into the public hearing portion of the meeting and finally end with Rab deliberation on the motion and the recommendation next slide. So just to briefly recap the June Rab meeting. We discussed the following items here, so we initially discussed the need to occasionally shift the timing of capital projects to optimize financial planning, accommodate operational needs or to address community impact concerns. We also discussed our financial strategies with regards to reserves fund management and financing options.

[12:18] Our reserves play a crucial role in ensuring resilience and sustainability for the utility, and can be leveraged to buffer against any unexpected expenses, to mitigate large capital costs, or to smooth out cash flows. Regarding other aspects of fund management. We track certain financial metrics like days cash on hand, and our debt service coverage ratio to ensure that our funds are healthy. ensuring that these metrics are kept in line with best practices, also strengthens our financial position during the bonding process. our financing strategies around capital projects will depend on the availability of cash market conditions and our financial position. We do plan to bond in q, 1 of 2025 for our South Boulder Creek. Storm and flood project, as we talked, discussed last time, we talked about potentially bonding in 2028 or 2029 for projects within our water and wastewater funds.

[13:13] and we may also consider another stormwater bond in 2028, although I'll mention that that's not currently modeled in our Fund financial, we are still several years out, so we have not finalized those outer year bonding decisions just yet regarding the Gregory Creek Canyon project. Chris Douglas mentioned in our last meeting that staff is currently working with impacted property Owners and city Council on the Easement acquisition process. This project is currently forecasted to begin construction in 2026 and will include channel improvement and culvert widening at road crossings. Are there? Are there any questions with regards to that slide. Okay, next slide, please. Oops. So these are the proposed recommended rates from our June meeting. You can see for 2025. It is an 8% rate increase in our water rates, a 6% rate increase for our wastewater rates and a 5% increase for our stormwater and flood rates. We've also included 2026 and 2027 projected

[14:20] next slide. Thanks. So this slide shows the rate impacts for residential single family homes based on varying levels of water usage. A typical home consuming 3,000 gallons per month, is projected to see an increase of about $6 and 31 cents in their monthly rate. A single family home, consuming about 6,200 gallons, is projected to see an increase of around $7 67 cents in their monthly rate. And a single family home, consuming about 7,500 gallons per month, is projected to see, on average an increase in their monthly rate of about $8 and 61 cents.

[15:00] So that's an average change of between 6.4 and 6.7% in the bar graph below. I've broken down the projected monthly bills by utility. So wanted to see if there are any questions here. I know. We briefly touched on this in the last meeting, and presented on the 7,500 gallon scenario, but wanted to provide a couple of extra examples here. Okay, next slide, please. So this slide shows some example. Bill impacts for the multifamily and commercial and industrial customers. I'll just mention that specific customer impacts do vary slightly based on details such as water, meter, size, water, budgets, and usage which may or may not include irrigation. So within the commercial and industrial class there is significant variability in usage patterns and the types of the structure. So I did illustrate these impacts in terms of percent changes rather than dollar values. But yeah, in general, just to kind of give a a broad average. We're looking at rate increases for the multifamily and commercial and industrial customers of between 6 and 7%.

[16:26] Okay, next slide, please. Finally, I just wanted to mention a couple of minor revisions to the CIP schedules. The treated water transmission and secondary clarifier projects will be ready to advance in 2025. They were originally slated for 2026, and I did highlight those changes and the attachments of the memo that was provided. It does not have a significant impact on the five-year Fund balance projection that we presented in the last meeting, but we did want to mention these slight changes in project timing.

[17:04] Question, just. Was there any particular reason why they were accelerated or. I can go ahead and answer that. But, Chris, you probably have a better answer than I do. I'm trying to both turn my screen on same time. So give me just a moment. I I think a lot of the time more often than not. Projects go the other way, and I think the the staff team just really feel like they're they're ready in those projects are ready to go, and that is the case. And good evening board on Chris Douglas, the utilities engineering manager. And really it it was this, as we talking to staff projects that were in the design process. And it was as we looked at, we did have the realization that we can advance quicker where it was. Something along the lines of what we were thinking in our early 2026 for these projects. But now it's looking like earlier in the 2025 timeframe and it it frankly, it's the timing just really worked out.

[18:18] Were there any other questions? I think we need to get back to that. Yes, thank you. It's like, it's like flying a 7 47. All kinds of controls. So that really wraps up my, my brief financial summary we did wanna open it back up to the board for any other questions about the proposed capital improvement program. Or the rates? So is there anything else? That we can help address. We go. Can we go back to that slide for a minute that showed the the increase by level of use.

[19:03] this one here for the single family or the I guess that one. Just it's interesting that the you know our our water bills are made up are comprised in a percentage way so much of fixed charges that that the impact of considerably different amounts of usage doesn't really affect the bill much. which it really kind of shows there that you know, family using twice as much water. He's only gonna pay, like, you know, whatever a 3rd of a percentage more than they haven't been lower end user. So I guess it just it's interesting to me that our that our water rates are so kind of not dependent upon volume. If you will, they are, and I might invite Joanna Blue, who oversees our billing team to weigh in here. But I will say one of the things that we have on the work plan

[20:00] in the coming years is to update a new rate study. We. We implemented the the tiered water budget rate structure, I think around 2,008. We updated things in 2,018 and and the fixed charges need to be there because we have to run the water treatment plan regardless. So we don't send enough like I said last month we don't send an operator home. If it's a lower production day. It's not that kind of a business model. But we've learned a lot since implementing this rate structure. And and the way we've done it is actually really complicated as well for our billing team to try and implement. So we want to take those lessons and update some things here in the next few years, and with the hope of it also be more effective. And I noticed that, just like my own water bill every month that, you know goes. My usage goes up and down for a bit. But the bill

[21:04] that was pretty pretty similar, and I guess it's just a it's just an interesting point that it's not more volume dependent is that is, that pretty typical for for other utilities, or in terms of sort, of that percentage of the total monthly charge is sort of fixed versus variable. It's a fair point, and I think every utility struggles with how to how to strike that balance, and and needs to account for the fixed costs. So I think I think it is fairly common for utilities to experience that. And, Joanna, you're you're closer to the to the billing world. I don't know if you have anything that you would add to that, and it's okay. If not. Yeah, thank you, Joanna Bloom, deputy director of policy and planning for utilities. The only thing that I would add is that I think you're right, Steve. Probably what you're observing is that my guess? I haven't looked at your bill, but my guess is you primarily use water in those 1st 2 blocks which

[22:02] does maintain pretty consistent bill charges. As soon as you kick into those 3, 4, and 5 blocks, and some customers really do, it is significantly different in terms of the consumption charges. I do think the water budget evaluation that Joe alluded to that it'll be a several year process. We'll look at right sizing potentially tho those water budgets so that it might be more sensitive. But I just don't we? There's so much to look at there. But I will say, if you stay in those one and 2 blocks, it is pretty. It is pretty manageable. for right now. Thank you. Any consideration of having like a hardship rate or some communities have, you know, elderly bill rates and and sort of the account for people who are using less water, and they have more difficulty paying their bills.

[23:02] We haven't looked at that concept specifically, but I think we're open to any and all that, and I feel like one of the pillars of our operation and utilities is having a safety net and bill assistance as we've discussed for for people over the last several years, we have the benefit of the arpa funding, which is the need for it kind of went away. And so we reallocated that to other things in the city. But I was just talking to Joanna about this today, and it's something that is top of mind for us has the proposed great increase historically been applied evenly across all of the blocks or server than a time when we say the 3rd block. It's a higher increase than Block. That's an interesting question. I think. I know it's I think it's been applied the same. But. Yeah, that's that's the history that I understand as well. We have talked about looking at other strategies potentially in a future years, Katie. Maybe not increasing the fixed charges as high as the the volumetric rate. But I think once we start looking at the tiered structure and kind of getting more into the the meat and potatoes of like a a real rate study. And looking at that

[24:24] that'll, that'll kind of fall out of that that study. Any more detail on the timing of the rate study other than just a couple of years. I I think that's where it stands right now, we're our focus in that world is. It's been a while since we've done software upgrades. We're we're doing a comprehensive overall of our billing system. That is. taking most of that team's attention this year. So I think, and Joanna weigh in, if you have more to add, but I think

[25:00] some of that will be starting in 2025. Let's see the board. Yeah, yes, thanks for the public hearing and interested members of the public are welcome to speak on the upcoming topic topic, which is the approval recommendation of the of the Cip Joanna, do we have anyone who's raised their hand or signed up. Let me take a look real quickly. And just before that I was getting some comment that my audio was a little crackly. Is it? Okay? Now. better. Totally. Fine. Yeah. Yeah. Fantastic. So just looking to see if any members of the public do want to speak, I'll give it just a second, so you can virtually raise your hand.

[26:10] K. We have one lynn Siegel is here to comment, and, Lynn. go ahead and try to unmute. Yeah. So so to make things fair in this community, you know, there's a lot of wealthy people in this community that are pushing all these major development projects like the planning area reserve area 3 like, see you south, like the airport, like the east campus, like the quantum business. the quantum physics. Huge thing at Cu. These things grow our community massively. And for one, you're going to have more and more higher and higher stormwater and flooding

[27:02] and and major infrastructure jobs to do over time without it being accounted for by the ability of the folks to pay for it. And I mean, even the rich folks aren't going to be able to pay for it at this rate. This is just unacceptable. And if you want to develop all these extra projects. You need to be the ones on the front line and the planning board and the the landmarks board, and the hat and the tab that were were defunded in so many areas of this city government. and we can't be buying up things that we don't have the money to pay for. And the people in this community get it dumped on them like I always say, let the developer pay. See, you is floating in the box.

[28:05] The developers in this town, the Moxie on the hill, the Conference center, like there are so many big profit issues coming to this community, and water is life. And this is your responsibility. and you know this. I'm not telling you anything new. I I don't. I don't care to be here to speak down to you, to speak to you. What is obvious. This is all obvious. You all know this. but you really need to stand up and speak to the origin of the issues. not just tweaking around the water bill a little bit, but looking at the 30 0 0 0 foot perspective of what we are getting ourselves into with a greater population and the limited water opportunities in this semi arid state. It's just not okay to use use use and then and not anticipate. I mean, Joanna was telling me. Yeah, we have all this infrastructure. Yes? Well, that infrastructure needs to be added into each house that's built here, each

[29:19] project that goes in each big project that goes in all over town, each infill thing. all, all the things that build population and water demand. Thank you, Lynn. Thank you. I do not see any other members of the public here this evening. I don't know Joe or anyone else wanted. Just kind of responded about what growth means for water and the utilities department kind of the big picture. Yeah, for sure. it's it's something that our water resources team members and and Chris and his team. We perform modeling and consider different scenarios for growth.

[30:12] And it's there's multiple aspects to that. I think a lot of our council members and some of the priorities they set in their retreat are aimed at improvement housing opportunities for people. So, therefore. certainly appreciate the feedback tonight, and and the balancing act to to try and manage all of that. I would say boulder and just built into our into our charter and our city policies. That. compared compared to other municipalities, the growth potential just is not. It's not unlimited. It's not that big. Thank you, Jim.

[31:03] That concludes the public comments. Now, we're moving to others. Those motions. Yeah. Propose motions or deliberations. We can show you the motions. First, st work the controls again with the Powerpoint, and we've set it up just like we did last year with 2 separate motions, recognizing that board member brought works for a consulting firm that supports some of the projects so given for the opportunity to recuse yourself when when it comes to a vote on those specific projects, and then the second motion is the balance of of everything else. So this is the 1st function folks read it. That was, gonna be my question. Why are you both into the newer? That's why

[32:07] board members volunteer their time and have interest in the water area, and it's it's not that uncommon to have a board member who also works with us in some capacity, or the firm does. I don't have the second one, just like Joseph. This is the remainder of the Cfp. Yes. with the proposed increase in dates. any comments or questions on either. Go back to the 1st one. so we want to make a motion. Wait, I'll make that motion second, I will second

[33:02] all in favor. Aye, and cruising yourself. So cruising myself. that's 3 for you affirmative votes. And then, we're gonna run, recuse yourself. We can move to the second question. is there a motion motioned second. all in favor. I should pass unanimously. Cool. Sounds easy. thank thank you, to the Board for working with us these past few months until staff members who have been working hard on on the budget and the capital and payment program are we going back to January? Lots of internal staff meetings and pencil sharpening. And I'm I'm really pleased that we've brought forward the program that we have. and actually manage to have a little bit lower rates than what we were proposing last year. So.

[34:02] thanks to all involved and to the board. yeah. And thanks especially there. Thanks for the staff and Stephanie, that's I know it seems a lot to have 3 consecutive meetings on the cap, but I do think it's helpful. and in my 5th year I'm still learning a ton. So I appreciate it. Thanks everyone for the presentations and all the effort. And ditto, yeah. And ditto, what John just said. Thank you so much and the staff so comprehensive and easy to understand. Okay, I guess with that we can move to the next agenda item, which is an information item on water quality updates. Yup, and I'll be really brief here. There's 3 key updates, and and we sometimes bring things to the board. That we think are of public interest, and anticipate that the Board members themselves may be interested in or receive questions from the public. So that's what we have tonight, and I am going to turn it over to Megan Wilson out call, who is our

[35:06] senior water quality manager? And she will introduce your team members, and here's up for this one that's good. Good evening, board members. Megan Wilson, alcohol water quality Manager for utilities. Just super brief background on the water quality team. I know I've had an opportunity to speak with many of you. Where we support water quality compliance across drinking water, stormwater and wastewater. So we cover a lot of areas. Tonight, we have 3 areas that are a little bit more timely. And you're gonna hear from Megan Chantler on the Water Service Line inventory project. And then Michael Lawler. Sorry, Megan is our drinking water compliance program manager, and then you'll hear from Michael Lawler. With an update on the Eurasian watermill foil in Boulder reservoir, and then water quality Update on Boulder Creek focused on E. Coli and I also just wanted to recognize we have a

[36:08] so she's sitting. Oh, I'm hearing. Thanks. we have a just wanted to recognize. There are a couple of staff from the Parks and Recreation Department who are online. So just in case any questions come up around Boulder Reservoir more from the recreation standpoint. They're here, too. So these are 3 disparate topics. You're welcome to ask questions throughout the presentation. We'll also have time at the end for questions. So turn it over to Megan. Thank you. Yeah. My name is Megan Chayner. Water quality. Appliance project manager and drinking water team. And we wanted to just provide a bit of an update and status and next steps on our water service and inventory project goggles. So we are following these, like new Federal State requirements and staff, recommend inventory of material type of all water service lines that fall within the city service area.

[37:03] and each water service line does have the city own portion and a customer own portion. You also can see in this diagram here. The distinction between city own portion and customer own portion. and then the main purpose of connecting this inventory is really to ensure that there are no lead lines to the service to city service area. So ultimately we will replace any discovered deadlines. And some yellow signs. So staff are seeking approval from the State at varying intervals throughout this inventory process. Just to make sure we are on following guidelines appropriately from the State. This project team is used several different methods to invent investigate the service line materials. Starting with the 1955 orders requiring the use of copper water service lines, which means that all properties that are built after 96 are automatically classified as copper staff have also reviewed over 5,000 historical permit records and laser fish.

[38:05] and about half the surface documented. The water Service sign material type. The example that we can kind of see here specifies copper main house. So, looking at both sides that water service sign customer owned and city owned staff have also reviewed over or received over a thousand visual inspections of water service lines. and this is completed through both the customer and city inspections to document the material, the customer, own portion of the service lines, and these are view from within properties. So in the basement or crawl space. The picture we have here is actually from a customer's call space, so not super easy to access. We also have potholes that are being conducted in the city street to inventory the material type of the city side of the service line. So we still have a couple of 1,000 unknowns in our inventory, and rather than investigate or visually inspect every single one of those unknowns we're following the State's guidance. Divisions inspect a statistically valid number of those unknowns.

[39:09] and this comes to about 340 visual inspections of both city side and the customer site. So upholders, approximately 28,000 service lines staff have successfully classified about 25,000 as copper or zoomed copper. We've discovered no lead lines at this point, and less than the line. Less than point 1% of service lines are galvanized. So this leaves us with about 10%. So about 2,700 is still unknown material type. And as we just mentioned in the previous slide. Staff are required to visually inspect a statistically significant number of those unknowns, and this does include inspections on a city owned person and a customer own person, and then so based on the results of those unknown that random sample, and for the guidance from the State, we might be able to assume that all those unknown signs are just non-leth

[40:09] or we might need to go back to the State, continue with targeted investigations of more of our analysis. any questions the unknowns. You speak a little bit to their geography like, Are they all in similar neighborhoods? Or, yeah, that's a really great question. They they're the unknowns that we do have. They're all built before 1956. It's the older part of town, city of Boulder. I'm not super great at geography. but they are. I could do the statistically significant like the 300. Whatever you're pretty confident of the remaining sounds like, because they're both from specific standpoint, and because they're all kind of the same area. Exactly. They're kind of clumped together in a similar area. Yeah.

[41:08] when when did copper lines 1st come into widespread usage? Roughly, I mean. yeah, we do see copper lines, and like, initially being installed, we just don't have a lot of records, for I would say, before the 1940 s. Or so. We don't have a ton of records before. So for a lot of the houses were built originally, let's say, in the early 19 hundreds, or that timeframe would they have all been? We did it sometime between. you know the original construction, and when this 55, like 55 thing, is sometimes sometimes there were galvanized lines change that were installed 1st and then replace with copper lines, but not necessarily

[42:03] back. Then. I mean. we're no guy. There were no regulations or anything. Why would people have been. I can sign on, say, the 60 s. Or 70 s. Or something. Why would what would be in the incentive for somebody to tear out an old line and put it in top of mine other than just maybe health concerns or whatever. That's a great question. Galvanize lines typically don't last super long. So the replacement of government line just because of the deterioration of that line. Typically. But I I wish we knew the answer to that question. We. We've researched a lot of historical records, not just the permit records, but also old construction records and other documents. And if we knew that answer, we may, you might be even more certain about what we'd find, but we had. We did find that some of the report, the tap cards that we looked at the permit record said replacement.

[43:01] And so those started in the 1930 S. I don't know why they were replaced, probably deterioration. The city also had a lot of problems with frozen pipes back in the day. So in the 19 hundreds or early 19 hundreds, most of the lines that would have been originally put in the houses would have been let we don't know. Or were there some other materials that were in use at that time? Or I think galphanized was used quite early on. and we're talking about this service line that would be buried in the ground and and depending on where you are in boulder. We have some pretty aggressive soils. And so I imagine those galvanized lines. What is deteriorating? Hasn't? He's a decent chance. That'd be my theory. That was a factor. We also have evidence going back. I think, to the 19 seventies, and we just assume that where what remains are replaced

[44:03] we would have replaced the city, for the city owned portion with copper, if it was anything but copper. That's been a pretty long standing practice, but they wouldn't have replaced the customer side literally. and I I think I would just add to the presentation which I really appreciate, that super newsworthy stuff in Flint, Michigan, around lead and drinking water. And just we try to reiterate it at the time? That's not not what we have here in Boulder. We don't have any of the wood surface lines. Do we know Denver has some. and does. Does the lab offer? The option for boulder residents to provide water quality samples to be tested for that.

[45:01] So we don't. We're not certified for lead and copper sampling in our lab. But the State does have a laboratory that we send samples to analyze for letting copper. So if interested, boulder homeowners wanted to know. You know, I have a real house. I could have lead pipes. They could use that service through the State. Yeah, they definitely could. And they also because the service line does enter properties in the crawl space. If you have access to that, you can also check out your line like kind of face to face for line. And how would I know it was led? We have a great website actually about that. Yeah. we also have staff. Who will go? We've done I don't know how many inspections with our staff who will actually go out to the home if you can't access it, or don't know what it is, even after doing the scratch and magnet tests.

[46:00] so we can just maybe just come through our last slide here, too. As far as next steps go. If we do find a new live service lines, or galvanize lines that were ever downstream of slide, they'll need to be on a replacement plan and galvanized science. That could be on a replacement plan would only be in our plan if we could not prove they were never downstream of, live so essentially. If we don't have records for those galvanized lines, they could be replaced and just give a bit of a touch point of what this might look like is, we have about 50 galvanized records, water service lines in our system, but maybe only about 5 to 10 could even qualify as needed to be replaced. And then in October of this year, Staff will be publishing our inventory on our city's website, and it'll look similar to this Denver Water Map example here, where customers can go and look up their address and find the water service and material type. and we'll also be sending this initial inventory to the State's website.

[47:01] And then this is an ongoing project. The EPA does expect to finalize landing cover improvements by the end of this year, and so those improvements documents might introduce some revised requirements for the inventory and for the replacement plan. a little bit more to come on that if you did find somebody would let. But what would the procedure be? You would tell them they need to replace. It looks at the road cost. And do you have any enforcement capability of that? Or what's this? What sort of happens when you do find you do find? Yeah, that's a great question. We're still trying to figure out what are what lines need to need to be replaced in our system. But if a lead line was discovered, we would provide the customer actually a water filter in the meantime, and then it would go on to replacement plan, and so kind of deciding who might pay for that. It's not not decided quite yet.

[48:07] Move on to our next topic. I'll be. My name is Michael Lawler. I'm the urban Water Quality Program Coordinator. I'll be presenting on the remaining 2 water quality topics, the same thing 1st of which is the management of Eurasian Water Bill foil and invasive product plant all the risk since identified, and 2022 Eurasian water milfoil has continued to rapidly spread throughout Boulder reservoir with extensive growth con being concentrated in the western coves. The figure on the left here shows that the extent of the Eurasian water mill foil from a recent vegetation survey and the red areas represent just about a hundred percent coverage current populations have decreased boating access in those Western coves and have created safety concerns for swimmers

[49:03] if left untreated uration Water Bill foil could also adversely impact water quality and ecosystem health and threaten the regional water supply. So management of Boulder Reservoir is a joint effort between the city and Northern Water city activities are coordinated internally between the utilities and park parks and recreation departments and the city in partnership with Northern water, has hired a consultant to develop an adaptive management plan for Eurasian water milk foil in Boulder Reservoir. This slide here shows the primary recommendations from that adaptive management plan like to highlight that none of these recommendations will eradicate Eurasian water milfoil. It's more. This combination of management strategies is what was suggested to best reduce our current populations. Current management activities include conducting routine vegetation surveys to track Eurasian water millfoil populations over time inform management strategies and evaluate treatment outcomes.

[50:05] Parks and recreation staff are also manually removing duration, water mill foil to priority locations to reduce swimish, swimmer safety concerns and limit fragmentation and high traffic areas. The other primary recommendation from this report was the strategic use of select selective herbicide applications which can be applied with minimal risk to water quality, recreation, and irrigation. We recognize that herbicide applications are a sensitive topic, and we want to notify Rab early in the interest of transparency, and after evaluating herbicide options, the consultant team recommended triple peer because it's a selective herbicide that's already being used upstream before the reservoir. We are currently targeting a spring application in 2025, and any applications will comply with the city's integrated pest management policy with the long-term goal of controlling your Asian water milfoil with minimal herbicide use.

[51:05] Our consultant team also recommended further exploring water level management and permanent bottom barriers as additional strategies to complement the manual removal and herbicide application efforts. These options we're excluded from the list of primary recommendations at this time. Because they require further evaluation of their feasibility. They involve long term planning and came with pretty costly price tags. So the next steps for managing your Asian water milfoil are focused on refining and implementing the recommended management strategies and community outreach. Northern water is currently working through their Rfp process in collaboration with city staff to hire an herbicide applicator. This applicator will be able to provide expert knowledge about the timing extent and frequency of any potential herbicide applications to meet our management goals.

[52:03] Both the city and Northern water have been collaborating on a communication strategy to engage with the public and downstream users well in advance of any potential herbicide treatments due to the sense of nature of that issue. Finally, city staff will continue to provide updates to their respective boards and the community while finalizing the management details for addressing Eurasian Waterville foil in Boulder reservoir can pause here. Yeah, happy to pause here, because I'm sure they're making a few questions. Just curious if there's any I know you said none of the strategies would completely eradicate the original water flow. But, like the herbicider, what's your goal? 90% reduction, 50% reduction? Or do you have any sense of how much that will actually help. Yeah, that will in in part be able to be answered more thoroughly. Well, when we do get an applicator on board. Basically, we're hoping to reduce the overall populations right now

[53:10] to to much more manageable level. So at percentages is tough, especially never know the response of plants and biology given, given the conditions in a reservoir. That being said, yes, we're hoping to. We're hoping to achieve large scale control with with herbicide applications in the hopes that then we can start to layer in some of these alternative treatment strategies or management strategies to help reduce the amount of herbicides in the long run. So trying to not to be a long term strategy of relying on herbicides and being able to transition away. Okay, so yeah, it's not the long term plan to spray every spring. It's perfect. Get it under control, and then use some of the other methods to keep it in control. Correct? Yeah, that's that's the long term goal of this management plan. And

[54:06] the the proof will be in the pudding to see what those large scale treatments can achieve, and that will kind of dictate the the timing for for herbicide reliance. The water level management does does that involve lowering levels so that you can easily manually move. Or what? How does that work? Yeah. Great question. Happy to spend that. So what we're water level management is exactly that so reducing, reducing the level of the reservoir can can help us achieve management outcomes, for in a number of different ways in the winter by exposing that sediment you can actually freeze the plan, and that helps to provide some control we have seen. We're just out at the reservoir today with our consultant team. And we did. We did observe exactly that. So there's a ring around the perimeter of the reservoir where sediment was exposed in there

[55:04] we did see limited Irish watermel foil in that in that area it also helps with treatment costs for for the oversight applications. So you have to treat a certain volume, so the less water and the rest are there. It could help us reduce treatment costs and then also help reduce installation costs. If we ever decide to go towards the the bottom barrier route by having more of the reservoir exposed, we can. It's much easier to to install those. No? Oh, God! You mentioned that risk to recreation be pretty minimal. Is the spring just hoping to get ahead of that before, like the res opens up, or could just be a little bit of a specifics of back to recreation. Yeah. So the specific urban side that we that was recommended in this plan was, try, clip here does does not have any recreational

[56:06] restrictions to it. So I think that we have seen we're still trying to identify exactly what what that will mean for for our recreation season. But exactly to your point. I think we are trying to to time that in during a time where the A the plant is growing. And B, we, we don't see quite as heavy recreational use, so that it's not not as much of an impact to to our public users. You say, you manual removing you? Just a bunch of people just stand out there pulling wheat like I'm pulling wheat dandelions in the Oregon. Yeah, it's exactly so. It's we have that I'm not sure how they also use rakes that sort of thing underwater so, but it's still very similar to removing plants, but that help. I mean, how feasible or option is that, I mean, can people up there, and they can try out the beach area, or how? What's the sort of certainly it's

[57:09] it is not a long term control strategy. And this is kind of what the parks and recreation staff are currently doing to keep our swim beach open. I think in in May staff spent at least 80 h removing leads and June. As the plan continues to grow, they spent a lot more and so that's kind of what is needed at at this time to kind of reduce that risk to swimmer safety. We wanna make sure, just in that small beach area that exactly. Do you know how this was introduced? That is hard to say. We we don't know exactly at first, st showed up in 2,022 during a Colorado parks and wildlife vegetation, routine, vegetation survey and then

[58:00] had quickly, quickly grown and spread to the Graphic. I showed earlier. And that's kind of what prompted us to take a aggressive action to put together this management plan, but it's it's not known. But we knew other reservoirs in the area had also had this issue. Yes, and and so suspected it could be. could be any could be from recreators. It could be from pets. There. There's could be from a whole number of different factors that that could have brought it from from 1 1 reservoir to another. Fortunately, that's the nature of these invasive species. What's the sort of worst case scenario here? I mean that that slide you showed with the red was pretty dramatic. I mean, what's the yeah. So I worst case, you're not gonna see the. It's highly unlikely you'd ever see that whole res far go red. I mean it. It's some depth, some depth. Ultimately these plans get limited by light availability, so we'll likely stick to the perimeter and it then it's just

[59:12] and how habitable the the different substrates are. And and what is this pesticide? I hadn't heard that name before. But is it some pyretham derivative? Or you know, I'm not sure if Pyrethrum is, I don't believe it is has. But the name is tri clip. Here it has been, it was selected because it's a selective herbicide and will target duration, watermel foil, and that it's also widely known to be effective in its control around the beaches. Without worrying about any you would invite. So you should. To some extent you try not to do that, obviously. But so there are certain certain restrictions that yeah, that there that are apple, that the applicator who selected well certainly

[60:09] adhere to the concentrations and things like that, and northern water manages the whole system, and they they already use it in the in the canal. We know other municipalities who have let us know that they use this chemical in there, and there's some of their water sources. and I would, I'll just add, before Michael changes topics here. I really appreciate the work that the staff teams have done on this and our our parks and Recreation Department staff, who manage the reservoir and our utilities water quality staff really working closely in partnership. and all kinds of different considerations. And

[61:01] Valley roads are Park Director and I have have been briefed a number of times, and one of the takeaways that I've had is that this? I mean, you just heard it started in 2,022. It is moving quickly. And so I think we're here. And we're recommending this management plan because we have to act or or it'll get away from us even more question, really quick. In the No, that was sent to you. It talked about growing near the 63 Water Treatment Plan Intake and the Boulder Creek Supply Canal is the manual removal, something that could keep those clear as well. I think, if if necessary. Manual removal is a lot more challenging at greater depth. So I think we we're still waiting to to figure out how much it is spread in those locations and continue wait on some of these more recent vegetation surveys.

[62:09] but yeah. I think it's presence has been known and is not proliferated in those areas at this moment. But I think we certainly should continue to be evaluating those those options. Happy to move on to to topic number 2 or 3 here. Yeah. So final water quality topic here is to provide an update the city's efforts to monitor and address E. Coli and Boulder Creek. so background equalize the bacteria that habits the intestinal tract of warm blooded animals that is commonly used as an indicator of pathogens which may potentially make recreators sick. Many urban streams across Colorado are impaired for E. Coli including Boulder Creek, due to their proximity to stormwater and wastewater infrastructure, urban wildlife, domestic pets and human recreational activity.

[63:08] It is challenging to Delist streams impaired for E. Coli, because there are typically multiple dispersed sources that are challenging to control. This update will focus on current Boulder Creek E. Coli trends findings from the city's recent E Coli source investigations and current E. Coli reduction efforts. City staff for over 20 years have monitored E. Coli at least monthly at 6 locations along boulder within the city as highlighted here. On this map. E. Coli. Results are highly variable, so conclusions should be based on trends rather than individual samples. Next, few slides will highlight common trends for both the creek E coli concentrations using box and whisker plots on the right. Here plot refresher. The dark line represents the median value. Gray boxes symbolize the middle 50 of the data or the interquartile range, while the whiskers extend one and a half times the interquartile range in either direction.

[64:12] The red line dash line has been included on these figures to represent Colorado's E Coli standard. and any outliers beyond the whiskers have been omitted just to focus on the trends rather than individual samples. So this this 1st box plot here shows the annual range of E. Coli concentrations in Boulder Creek for each of the last 20 years, and indicates that E. Coli concentrations have from fact remain stable. This figure also displays Boulder Creek's periodic exceedance of the State's E coli standard, which has led to its placement on Colorado's list of impaired waterways. Second figure, this displays Boulder Creek e coli. Concentrations do generally increase as you move downstream or west to east through the city.

[65:02] That being said, we do typically see a reduction downstream of the dense urban corridor that we've attributed to natural intenuation and limited recreational access to the stream. This next figure here shows the Boulder Creek the concentrations of E. Coli in Boulder Creek do fluctuate throughout the year with the highest concentrations. Typically occurring in late summer and early fall. This trend is likely attributed to the warmer temperatures and lower flows that are occurring during that time which are more favorable for E. Coli growth. City staff have conducted E. Coli source investigations for priority. Stormwater outfalls flowing into Boulder Creek overall. The investigations have found that the sources we collide from the city's stormwater system are generally dispersed and not easily controllable. No cross connections with the sanitary sewer have been identified.

[66:00] and the most prevalent sources included wildlife, domestic pets, and improper trash management, none of which are point sources or easily controllable. I would also like to recognize that humans are included on this list of sources, however, investigations have indicated that human contributions, including encampments, are not the sole or most important factor for E. Coli. Concentrations within Boulder Creek City staff are continuing to pursue opportunities to reduce E. Coli Boulder Creek, where possible Water Quality group has increased their educational education and outreach efforts to inform our community about potential risks, risks of recreating in Boulder Creek. the city's spill response and waste removal programs help prevent pollutants, including E. Coli. from reaching the stormwater system and Boulder Creek and E. Coli reduction projects are opportunistically pursued as they come up. The current example includes a project with Cu to install an automated head gate that will minimize ditch, return, flow from a priority stormwater outfall back to Boulder Creek

[67:11] and increased public education and outreach efforts have emphasized tips for safe recreation, and can be found on signs along Boulder Creek, the city's web page and annual press releases. These resources are meant to provide the public with information on first, st how to recreate safely in Boulder Creek, then the city's E Coli monitoring source identification and mitigation efforts, as well as what community members can do themselves to help reduce E. Coli in Boulder Creek. So next steps for the city's E Coli program include continuing our routine E coli monitoring in Boulder Creek and the city's stormwater system, maintaining accurate and up-to-date information educational resources for the public prioritizing source identification efforts on human and controllable sources. E. Coli, including the city's infrastructure, finally, updating program recommendations based on the findings

[68:08] from the source identification efforts to date. So with that to open it up to questions on all 3 topics, especially the E coli presentation question on the apologies. Since this is a dumb question. But you said, you monitor monthly for the equal? A ye yes, so back at this location. So our our monitoring program, it's said at least monthly. So we kind of switch up our timing throughout the year. So it's we monitor for E. Coli and a number of parameters every month. And then during those times where we see elevated E coli. So August. September, October, we're then monitoring weekly, and that

[69:00] that helps that increased frequency kind of helps us better understand what's happening during that time, and also helps us evaluate where Boulder Creek is against the State standard. That's my question is like if monthly, are you? And I don't know this. If it spikes after storms or what? And if you're just doing monthly, are you missing potential? It changes. It sounds like. probably not. And you're capturing the month where it's the most prevalent. You are doing it more frequently. So hopefully, you're catching those swings ex exactly, and that that decision was made. For a number of years we over a decade. We've monitored weekly throughout the entire year, and then we we took a quick look, and as our program shifted we decided that that weekly frequency throughout the entire year was not really providing us with more actionable information. So we we transition those resources more to the source identification. What's the specific purpose for where the

[70:02] where there's specific monitoring? I'm sorry. Yeah, sure, there these have been around for a while, so that first, st the furthest upstream site BC. Canyon that's that site was chosen because that to evaluate what does what does stream conditions look like when they enter the enter city? Evan, she find Park was added as an E Coli monitoring site, because it's a popular recreation. no access point and then the next remaining remaining sites were BC. 13 cu. And 30. Those were all chosen to just understand how E. Coli concentrations are changing as you move through the corridor, and that final downstream location at BC. 55 was, what does what does the stream look like as it's kind of exiting that the city limits is that above or below our treatment plan. That is upstream of our treatment plan.

[71:10] The one other thing I would note here is this. I highlighted these locations because these were all in the apparent segment of of Boulder Creek. So that's that's also why I wanted to have those today. So if you saw, like a dramatic increase in E coli in the creek, what what actions would be taken beyond what? Just right at education outreach. Yeah, I think it depends on once we kind of conduct that source identification. It depends on the nature of the source. There are working through what is controllable. Let's say we have. I mean, it's worst and best case scenario. We someone accidentally plumped to the sanitary sewer in our store water system. That's something

[72:05] we can fix. We can reconnect those pipes, how they should be connected, and address that source. urban, if it's coming from urban wildlife that that leaves us with less treatment. OP. Treatment options. There. that answer your question. Yeah. The wildlife probably wouldn't just naturally wouldn't lend itself to like a spike or a sudden sudden change. Correct? Yeah, yeah. No further question. Stop sharing my screen. Thank you. The last topic is is definitely one that is of interest to the community. We sometimes receive some correspondence where people are frustrated with that. that the stream is in the condition it is, and so

[73:03] this is one of the topics that since I've become a director, I've learned about and see how the team is going about systematically reviewing it. And I I'm impressed with the plan it it's hard to find a source that there's something that we can do about. It just tends to happen in urban areas. But I like our team is going through it methodically and systematically looking for it. And and I think there's still work to be done in the field investigations as as Michael identified. But as time goes on to public education will just become more and more prominent in the right there. Yeah. Oh, yeah, Megan Michael. Thank you very much. Thank you. Really helpful. that we can move to matters from the board.

[74:01] Have anything that we can move to better staff. And I didn't have too much this month, although checking with Chris and Joanna, Joanna mentioned some information on a replacement kind of example project we're doing, and I might look to Joanna to do a quick update on that if she's willing. I am willing, and I do have an update. So thanks for the time. I believe you all had heard about this before, but wanted to provide a brief update on the sustainable Grass Conversion project, sometimes known as Turf Replacement the city is doing a pilot project that's on the northeast corner of Baseline and 30th Street, and really focused on residential scale turf conversion, efforts that do not use herbicides and we thought it was timely to give this update because we're planning to begin on irrigation system modifications and then turf removal beginning next week. And we have let folks in the area know, letters have been sent out, postcards have been sent out

[75:11] and then there also will be a yard sign in this area to let passers by know what's happening. There's 3 different versions of turf removal there, kind of a manual removal, and then a black plastic, and then more layers of of newspaper and other materials. And so visibly, it'll be a visible project. That people can track either in person or on the website online. So again, that's kicking off next week. There is also a related project. That resource Central reached out to us kind of coincidentally on doing a similar pilot. Their timeline isn't exactly aligned with ours, so they're a little bit behind where we are in terms of project execution. But they're hoping to run a similar pilot that focuses on finding scalable non chemical solutions that can be applied to larger properties like hoas or commercial properties.

[76:12] So we're still in conversations about how we might be able to partner on that and support them. So I I don't want to steal their thunder about about all the details, but, they seem like really complementary pilot projects, and so we'll work with them to see what we can do. And then both projects would be aimed at providing the outcomes of both of these efforts and educational materials, so folks can use it on their their own properties. So stay tuned for more information on that as we as we keep going. I thought, really quick. Thank you for that, Joanna. And there's a lot of front range communities struggling with that scalability issue. How to do large scale per for placement. And there's a couple of additional pilot projects happening that I'm aware of, that we could potentially learn from the city of Westminster at their City Hall. There's Europe been there. There's a 3 acre like immaculate neon, green bluegrass on that no one ever touches, and they've been working for 2 years, and I think this year they're gonna break ground on replacing most, if not all, of that.

[77:15] And so that would be a good example, and then University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, on their campus, is also doing a similar large scale turf replacement project, and so there could be opportunities to to learn from our neighbors on that that scaling issue. Thank you. Thanks to Emma. that's that's all I had this month. If you want, I can move to the upcoming agenda cool. So the way things are shaping up and has been our practice the last several years that they're all heavy lifting on the capital improvement program. Take a break here in August, and we'll have a meeting then.

[78:00] in your head. Thinking of a short business meeting in September. Possible. Working with the team possible update for the board on the Goose Creek Front Project if everything comes together there. And so that will be part of a short business meeting, we review the minutes and things like that that we need to take a visit. And then there's some really really great stuff happening on the main zoom project and some tug of work, and it's it's an excellent time to go out and do a tour. So we've done that with the board in the past. That's something that came up at the Retreat last year that there was interest in doing more of that. And so that's how things are are looking in September, and I want to come back to availability on that. And then in October, again with the water quality team so backflow prevention measures and

[79:00] older revised code updates that are things that council takes action on going back to the beginning of the meeting. I don't know that there's a formal role for wrap. But Oftentimes, when we're taking something to council, we like to share it with the board as well, so that we can at least share your informal feedback. You have it. So that is how things are are shaping up, and with Lauren resigning, and and from the board and moving out of state. We're left with 4 board members, and John had mentioned to me that he potentially has, or likely has, a conflict in September, and so in a scenario, we have to have 3 to have a meeting. And so if others have availability issues. we can look at that. And it is not in in the past we have had. We've rescheduled a meeting within a month, and. John, if you would like to be there, or

[80:02] if we don't have all 3 members for the original September 16th date. I don't know we could look at that, and that's something. We could pull the board offline, but wanted to mention that we'll kind of be looking for critical aspect. That's what I have on the upcoming schedule. So we'd confirm that 3 of us will be here, at least on September 16, th that we hold it then. and we might do a field trip to the sewer project that. Yeah, if if we, if we are planning on doing that. And so it would probably make sense to have the business meeting at the at the Msc. Building that way 50 50 pearl, I think the addresses where we used to have rab meetings, and then The location that we would go to is kind of out by the stasio ball field and waste management entrance, and it's not very far away

[81:10] I was. I was planning to attend the meeting, but virtually because I'll be on the east coast then, so is there. Is there any chance? If you're going to be gone too? Is there any chance we do the on-site thing for the October meeting instead of September one, maybe where we are in the construction. The active construction. I think daylight would probably be okay, but they might be done with the part that you could see. Should we consider? Yeah, rescheduling the September meeting? Then. if you're gonna be out of town, I'm out you'll be attending. I can attend anytime, but I'll be. I'll be zooming in. Yeah. Why don't we pull the board just by email and throw out some

[82:05] I would like to see the Channel. I mean, I've I've seen a lot in my team, but it's pretty impressive. Let's see. so we'll we'll follow up with a with a poll, and we'll figure something out cool. That's what we've got alright. It's efficient meeting, that is there a motion to adjourn the meeting a motion to adjourn all in favor. Thanks, everyone.