Mayor Severson called the regular meeting to order at 7:00 pm and declared a quorum present. Present were Councilors Hardin, Misner, Davis, Springer, Myers, Calame and Harkenrider. Councilor Harn was excused. Staff members in attendance were City Manager Brookshier, City Attorney Luisi, Clint Spencer, Dan Coulombe, Ron Sivey, Ivan Anderholm, Bill Schmittle and Donna Moeller. News media present were Jennifer Colton of the Hermiston, Erin Mills of the East Oregonian and Erik Olson of KOHU-KQFM radio. The pledge of allegiance was given.

Minutes

Councilor Hardin moved and Councilor Myers seconded that minutes of the June 28 regular meeting be approved for filing. Motion carried unanimously.

June Expenditures

Councilor Springer moved and Councilor Davis seconded to approve payment of the following June expenditures: $1,073,443.99 General; $54,828.10 State Tax Street; $1,163.75 Transient Room Tax; $226,342.51 Utilities; $53,360.93 911 Communications; $442,369.99 Energy Services; $709,092.00 Revolving Loan; $41,281.28 Regional Water; $157,474.12 WWTP Construction Fund; total $2,759,356.67. Motion carried unanimously.

Minutes Report

Councilor Misner moved and Councilor Myers seconded that the May manager’s monthly report and minutes of the June 9 planning commission meeting be approved for filing. Motion carried unanimously.

Report/Acquisition of Rights-of-Way - Recycled Water Plant

Mike Robinson, the city’s land use counsel from Perkins Coie, stated before the council tonight is a resolution that authorizes the city to proceed with acquiring an easement across LGW Ranch for the purpose of transporting high quality Class A Recycled Water to the West Extension Irrigation District (WEID). The City has proposed an easement location to LGW Ranch and specific terms of such easement and will continue to attempt to negotiate with LGW Ranch on such terms and on compensation to be paid to LGW Ranch for the property interests needed. In the event that agreement cannot be reached after reasonable efforts at negotiation, however, it is recommended that condemnation proceedings be instituted. Because this project is necessary to comply with permit obligations and is subject to a time line, it is recommended to prepare for condemnation, even though the preferred alternative is to reach agreement with LGW Ranch for the necessary easement. If the city uses condemnation it will have to pay fair market value (just compensation) for the property value acquired. Currently, during the summer, the City discharges recycled water to LGW Ranch for irrigation of pastureland, pursuant to the 1991 Reclaimed Water Disposal Agreement. By its terms, the agreement may have been continued, but the agreement also provides that either party may elect not to continue the agreement by giving one year’s advance notice to the other party. Because the agreement is incompatible with the federal funding requirements for the proposed project, the City has given LGW Ranch notice of the City’s election not to continue the agreement. Therefore, the agreement will expire by its own terms on April 22, 2011. The City did this after carefully considering the best options to provide a method of disposing of the recycled water, which made sense from a regulatory standpoint, made sense from a cost effective standpoint for the interest of the public and a method that would provide for the long term planning needs of the City. The proposed project benefits river health by discharging Class A Recycled Water into the Umatilla River; benefits ratepayers as it is more economical, particularly with the federal grant money; is required because new regulations require the City to improve and upgrade its current wastewater treatment facilities; provides stability and reliability; and is required in order to comply with permit obligations. One addition point worth noting, is the City has obtained land use approval for the pipeline from Umatilla County to cross the ranch.

Mayor Severson asked Sheri Wadekamper if she would like to address the council.

Sheri Wadekamper, representing LGW Ranch, provided each council member a copy of LGW Ranch’s response to the easement request. She continued to explain why LGW Ranch feels the path Kennedy-Jenks is advising the City to take is not in the best interest of the City. Her explanations were as follows:

1. Increased Liability Exposure for City and public opposition: While WEID views disposal of recycled water into its canal favorably, residents along the canal are concerned about contamination to their shallow domestic wells adjacent to WEID’s leaky canals from nitrates, pharmaceuticals, and other unknown toxins Class A water will still contain. Should a mechanical malfunction occur in the treatment plant, the direct pipeline to WEID’s canal will expose 11,000 acres to contamination instead of the current limited exposure of LGW’s 700 acres and one entity.
2. Environmental Detriments: Land applying waste water on LGW Ranch for the last 18 years has allowed clean, naturally filtered, cool, return flows of 1,000 gallons per minute to the Umatilla river that has benefitted fish, wetland, and recreation. Discontinuing delivery of water to LGW Ranch will dry up wetlands and negatively impact Tribal interests.
3. Loss of Investment in Infrastructure: Since all infrastructure for the City’s waste disposal is already in place on LGW Ranch, not having to build an expensive three mile pipeline at this time would save local and federal tax payers millions of dollars. Beyond the requirements of our 1991 Contract, LGW Ranch has developed over 200 acres to handle the City’s future growth.
4. Bureau of Reclamation Opposition: Top level officials of the Bureau have testified against the City’s proposal at two Congressional Hearings. They also stated that 53 other projects are in line for funding ahead of the City’s proposal.
5. Current Agreement has worked well: LGW Ranch has sufficient acreage to accommodate the City’s needs for the life of the new plant.
6. Loss of Family Wage Jobs: LGW Ranch developed a successful registered angus herd and bull business that supports the land application of waste water. Now with the termination of receipt of City water, 200 acres of land will be dried up and two employees have been laid off.
7. Alternative Option for Future: The pipeline the city has invested in on LGW Ranch is within six feet of a Westland Irrigation District mainline; a Bureau project.

Sheri asked the City where it was going to discharge its warm Class C water during the summers of 2011, 2012 and possibly 2013 during the new plant construction?

City Manager Brookshier stated the City has been working on this project for years and the City is about to invest multiple millions of dollars into a system that we feel will service the citizens of Hermiston for thirty, forty to fifty years into the future. The City did not just choose the optimal solution but the only solution available to the City of Hermiston. Mr. Brookshier asked Al Shewey and Brad Bogus from Kennedy-Jenks to further explain why we have to go to a large area for disposal of our waste water under the new regulatory regime that the City will be operating under in the new permit period.

Al Shewey stated for the last ten years we have been looking for a recycled water discharge option that would meet the many requirements that the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) has. There are a number of very difficult, technical issues that have been addressed in coming to a recommendation to this council and the City that says we should go to the West Extension Irrigation District.

Brad Bogus gave the council a chart showing the recycled water production and LGW Ranch’s irrigation capacity.He stated it’s easy during the hottest part of the summer, in this part of the world, to get rid of recycled water, but early spring and late fall it’s difficult to get rid of large volumes of water.The chart shows an estimate of what the capacity of LGW Ranch is, compared to how much water they can accept during the month of October and the blue line is what we project the City’s flow rate will be growing to over time. Based on this analysis, LGW can only solve the City’s October discharge problems for five or six more years and then the City would have to look for an additional way to dispose of the additional recycled water. Based on a twenty year planning horizon for this part of the project there is a severe deficit of about 20 million gallons a month. As the City grows over time the deficit will only increase. LGW Ranch has roughly 62 million gallons of capacity, in comparison the WEID has 650 million gallons of capacity. Brad asked if anyone had questions.

Sheri Wadekamper asked the question; “Who in the WEID irrigates in October?”

Brad Bogus responded that the WEID typically operated yearly through the month of October, with sufficient flow from the Columbia River Pumping Station to provide enough carrier water for the irrigation flows to meet all water quality standards in the canal.

Al Shewey, added additional comments regarding the decision to go to the canal system. First of all, there has been an issue and the agreement coming to fruition with LGW Ranch brings up a number of issues about the continuance of that agreement. If you look at the opportunity for a long term, thirty to fifty to maybe a hundred year discharge to an irrigation district who has multiple users, who has large acreage and where our contribution is about six percent of their flow, you see the benefit of going to a large irrigation district where the change in status of a farm for whatever reason doesn’t impact your ability to farm there. The second thing is that under the laws of the land through the Department of Environmental Quality, your tasked with watching the effluent that you have to it’s final source. When the City discharges to the WEID the compliance point is at the end of pipeline. When the City discharges to a single entity, whether that is LGW Ranch or some other entity, they have to track that water throughout the process, so the oversight requirements are in addition. When you take a look at an agreement between a single farmer and the City, you have to also take a look at the agreement with DEQ. If there is something through no fault of anyone’s, certainly not the farmers fault or the City’s fault, but there is a default on the agreement between the City and a single farming entity, the City still has the agreement between the City and DEQ to deal with. While you might have a breach of agreement between the City and the farming entity, that doesn’t take DEQ out of the equation. The City can’t just call DEQ and say we are no longer able to discharge to a single farming entity and so we don’t want to meet our ammonia or temperature requirements.

There was a comment about the Bureau of Reclamation in terms of the Bureau not supporting our application. They didn’t support the application for 25% fund, but it isn’t because they don’t like the process, they don’t like the way Congress is allocating the funding for these types of projects. It isn’t just the City’s project they don’t want to see, they do that to all of them and they send an Assistant Director up in front of Congress and they say, “we’ve been here before and guess what, we still don’t like the way monies are being appropriated” That is why they go on record as saying that about the process, it doesn’t have anything to do with the technical merits of the process.

In terms of wells, there are wells through out Umatilla County that have what is called 40 parts per million of nitrates, the legal drinking limit for nitrates in ground water is 10. The nitrogen content or the nitrate content in recycled water is less than 10. If the ground water is 40, and if the recycled water were to get there, which it can’t or won’t, it would make the well water better. The quality of the Class A Recycled Water is actually better.

From the City’s prospective, they represent the rate payers and as consultants Kennedy-Jenks works for the City, we also represent the best interest of the rate payers. In doing our job, we have to advise the City that they need to have a long term agreement, it has to represent your rate payers well and if the City doesn’t go to the WEID, they become ineligible for the grant funding. This proposed project will allow the City to reliably comply with its NPDES permit obligations and the Mutual Agreement and Order with DEQ. In addition, this project will return top-quality, Class A recycled water to the Umatilla River, resulting in additional protections for salmoids and enhanced river health. This project is necessary for the public interest because otherwise the City will be unable to meet its permit obligations and is the most cost-effective way for the City to manage its long-term wastewater treatment and discharge. The City must look to the future.

Councilor Harkenrider stated this federal funding will significantly benefit the ratepayers by reducing the City’s costs by approximately $6 million. The Wadekampers are great people, but in the best interest of the citizens of Hermiston, the City has to go along with this new program.

Councilor Hardin asked Brad to explain the difference between Class A and Class C water.

Brad explained Class A water looks, smells and acts just like drinking water, it’s cleaned to a very high degree. Class C water is cloudy, it’s full of disinfectants so there are no organisms living in it, but it’s cloudy and has a number of pollutants left over. Just in the last month, the State of Washington, which has the same recycled water classifications as Oregon, i.e. Class A which is the highest and then Class B, C and D. They have just promulgated new regulations which eliminate Class C and D as viable reuse alternatives. It hasn’t happened in Oregon yet, but the trend nationally is to be more strict on water quality and less free with where you can apply Class C wastewater, if you can apply it in the future at all.

Councilor Hardin ask about the discrepancy in the reports regarding 7,500 feet of pipeline and LGW Ranch reported three miles of pipeline.

Brad stated that number has fluctuated due to negotiations with the Bureau about where the pipeline would be placed to tie into the WEID canal. One item required by DEQ with this upgrade is to relocate the outfall into the Umatilla River. The new outfall will be to the Umatilla pool upstream of the Three-Mile Dam. So with either alternative going forward, WEID or LGW Ranch, a new pipeline has to be built to discharge into the Umatilla River during the winter.

Sheri asked Brad to explain to the council members about indirect discharge as an option.

Brad stated indirect discharge is a means of discharging the recycled water near the river, letting it percolate through the soil and then joining the flow in the river. Even though it’s an acceptable means through DEQ regulations, the City was getting a lot of push back from DEQ on that approach. We think it could be permitted, but it’s not clear the pathway forward and it would add two or three years to accomplish this project, with no promise of success.

Al Shewey added that indirect discharge has to meet all of the same requirements for discharge through an open pipe source. So in the summer time if the City were to indirectly discharge to the ground and you heat that water up and it has shown to be higher in temperature, you now bust or violate. Complex geologic and hydrogeologic evaluations to show the pathway of your effluent and if there is a very thin mantle of soil overlying rock and you are going on a continuous basis into this very light mantle of soil and you get down to the rock and there isn’t enough underflow coming through to cool your effluent sufficiently, you bust or violate. Again, we look to the future and we look at the ever increasing stringent regulations. We don’t like it one bit that temperature continues to be a stringent regulation or that DEQ considers analytes that ten years ago you couldn’t even measure because they are parts per billion, but they do. As consultants we are charged to look and see what are the best options for the City of Hermiston and while there is some promise for limited term infiltration into the ground, that big issue with temperature, especially if you do it on an on-going basis with any kind of volume and the underflow goes to heck because the irrigation district up stream or whatever causes the underflow to falter, then we start breaking the permit and the City gets sued and fined. It’s all about reliability, reliability, reliability....

Lane Wadekamper asked Mayor Severson if the City’s liability is different if the recycled water is piped into the canal rather than applied indirectly into the soil, are the fines higher for hot water or could you be facing more penalties for dumping water into someone’s back yard?

Brad addressed the question by stating that when the City discharges into the WEID it is as if they were discharging into a river. The way this is regulated is that if the City meets water quality regulations after mixing with that body of water, then that water becomes waters of the state and no longer the City’s responsibility. At the edge of the mixing zone, the City’s liability does disappear from a legal standpoint. The other issue that is driving this whole process is temperature, because there are no organisms in the concrete lined canal to protect, the City does not have to meet the same temperature regulations.

Res. No. 1880 - Acquisition of Rights-of-Way for the Recycled Water Plant

Resolution No. 1880 - Acquisition of Rights-of-Way for the Recycled Water Plant - was read and discussed. Councilor Harkenrider moved and Councilor Myers seconded that the resolution be approved and laid upon the record. Motion carried unanimously.

Request for Overnight Camping at Butte Park in Conjunction with Swim Meet

City Manager Brookshier reported the City was contacted by the Hermiston Swim Club requesting permission for out of the area teams to be able to camp at Butte Park during the swim meet this weekend, July 17 - 18, 2010. Parks and Recreation Director Anderholm supports allowing the teams to camp at the park, utilizing the west soccer field parking and west soccer field. However, City Ordinance does not allow overnight camping in our parks. As time is of the essence, Mr. Brookshier recommended allowing overnight camping in conjunction with the swim meet this year and work to create a policy and subsequent Ordinance amendment allowing overnight camping in conjunction with events in the future.

Councilor Myers moved and Councilor Misner seconded that enforcement of Section 93.04(J) of the city code prohibiting sleeping in city parks is waived for out-of-town participants attending the swim meet at the Hermiston Family Aquatic Center during the weekend of July 17 - 18, 2010, and who are camping overnight in the area at Butte Park set aside by the Parks Department for that activity. Motion carried unanimously.

Council Comments

Mayor Severson reminded the council members of the Fair Board luncheon hosted by County Commissioner Doherty’s family on August 7, 2010, everyone is invited.

There was no other business, and the meeting was adjourned at 7:35 pm.

SIGNED:

/s/ Bob Severson
MAYOR
ATTEST:

/s/ Robert D. Irby
CITY RECORDER