Wahkiakum PUD addresses water, other issues

The last Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners meeting of 2014 was a busy one.

Ryan Hart, District Director for Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler attended the meeting “to touch base” and Mike Johnson of Gray and Osborne stopped by to go over the PUD’s comprehensive plan and their water use efficiency plan during a public hearing. General Manager Dave Tramblie gave a report of the PUD’s response to the recent storm and the board reorganized for the next year.

“The Department of Health requires public water systems to complete a water system comprehensive plan every six years,” Johnson said. “The goal of the plan is to identify your future needs for water, determine what sort of projects might be necessary to meet those needs and develop a plan that shows how you are going to address those.”

He focused on the Puget Island water plan and noted that the PUD was headed in the right direction, with their work on water main replacement.

“There are still aging lines that need to be replaced and dead end lines that could be looped,” Johnson said. “And because a single source of supply of water coming across the bridge from Cathlamet leaves you vulnerable.”

Johnson encouraged the PUD to continue to reduce leakage, which has already dropped more than 8 percent in the last three years from 21.9 percent to 13.8 percent. According to Johnson, the DOH would like to see that number at 10 percent and lower. Johnson also suggested adding consumption history to customer’s bills and setting up a conservation rate structure.

“The Town of Cathlamet has been doing an assessment of their water intake,” he warned the commissioners. “It appears their intake from the Elochoman River can’t quite provide the capacity that they’ve been assuming it could. There is probably going to be a project within the Cathlamet water system to improve the capacity of the intake.”

The possibility of running out of water could create many problems and the commissioners were urged to consider alternatives to provide water to the island as well as providing some relief to a potentially taxed water system.

General Manager David Tramblie gave a quick account of the windstorm last Thursday.

“At 3:30 p.m., Greenwood Road went out for about 40 minutes and part of the Elochoman went out at 4:15 p.m. We got them back on,” Tramblie said. “There was an issue on the westend near Duffys around 5:30 p.m. that night and various issues on Puget Island and Columbia Street. We wrapped up at 10 p.m. Then we were called back out at midnight to the Elochoman and wrapped that up around 3:30 a.m. That was the extent of it.”

“I’m sure the community as a whole was appreciative of the job that was done during the storm,” Commissioner Dennis Reid said. “We suffered a lot less than any other district from what I can gather."

Tramblie suggested that the PUD surplus a spare transformer, thus “removing the liability” and cutting costs on maintenance. The commissioners requested more information before making a decision.

Auditor Erin Wilson reported that there was more than $1600 in the Residential Energy Assistance Program.

The next PUD meeting is scheduled for January 6 at 8:30 a.m. in the PUD meeting room.