minutes

Regular Meeting

Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority

July 27, 2005

The Governing Board of Sweetwater Authority held a regular meeting on Wednesday, July 27, 2005, at the Sweetwater Authority Administrative Office, 505 Garrett Avenue, Chula Vista, California. Chair Pocklington called the meeting to order at 3:30 p.m.

· ROLL CALL

Directors Present: Alkire, Doud, Pocklington, Salas and Welsh.

Directors Absent: Beauchamp.

Others Present: General Manager Bostad, Operations Manager Rogers, Legal Counsel Cowett, and Board Secretary Farpón. Staff members Rick Alexander, Hank Gaus, Bill Olson, George Silva, Jim Smyth, Don Thomson and Tom Woodrum.

· PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE TO THE FLAG
Chair Pocklington conducted the pledge of allegiance to the flag.

· OPPORTUNITY FOR PUBLIC COMMENT (Government Code Section (54954.3)
There were no members of the public present for comment.

· CHAIR ’S PRESENTATION
There was none.

ACTION CALENDAR ITEMS

1. ITEMS TO BE ADDED, WITHDRAWN, OR REORDERED IN THE AGENDA

There were none.

2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES

Director Doud made a motion, seconded by Director Alkire, that the Governing Board approve the minutes of July 13, 2005. The motion carried.

3. APPROVAL OF DEMANDS AND WARRANTS

Director Doud made a motion, seconded by Director Welsh, that the Governing Board approve Warrants 100970 through 101196 including all voided checks. The motion carried.

4. FINANCE AND PERSONNEL COMMITTEE (Meeting of July 13, 2005)

A. Review of leak adjustment report for the period April 1 through June 30, 2005. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

B. Director Alkire made a motion, seconded by Director Doud, that the Governing Board approve the 2005-06 membership renewal in the Urban Water Institute and the payment of dues in the amount of $1,500 for Sustaining Membership. The motion carried.

C. Proposed revisions to Adjustments to Customer Water Bills. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

5. OPERATIONS COMMITTEE (Meeting of July 20, 2005)

A. Status report on Jamacha Landfill monitoring and remediation. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

B. Update on Drinking Water Permit renewal. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

C. Update on Richard A. Reynolds Desalination Facility. This was an information item and no action was required by the Governing Board.

NOTE: Director Beauchamp entered the meeting at 3:38 p.m.

6. REPORT OF THE SOUTH BAY IRRIGATION DISTRICT REPRESENTATIVE AND THE CITY OF NATIONAL CITY REPRESENTATIVE TO THE SAN DIEGO COUNTY WATER AUTHORITY

Chair Pocklington provided background information on items that would be discussed and voted on by the CWA Board. He noted that the cost for the All American and Coachella Canal lining project is $1.5 million but it will be reimbursed by the state. He also said that the CWA’s share of the Colorado River Board is set at eight percent through 2007 and it will be increased to ten percent until the end of 2010. He commented on adjustments to several QSA environmental cost sharing agreements, one of which will shift responsibility to IID for development of a habitat conservation plan. The recommended action will reduce the CWA payment from $950,000 to $850,000 of the outstanding service invoices under the existing cost-sharing protocol agreement. He also reported that last June the Social Science Research Laboratory at San Diego State University did a survey of 735 adults throughout the CWA service area who were asked what are the most critical things the water authority should do to insure safe and reliable water supply. The top two responses were development of seawater desalination in first place and water conservation in second. Regarding recycled water, he expressed concerns about the City of San Diego putting reclaimed water into its reservoir, as it is the same reservoir that the CWA is storing its water, which means the recycled water will be used throughout the county.

Some of the directors also had comments on the issue of recycled water and Counsel Cowett provided some clarification on the matter. He said that when the City of San Diego was under pressure to go to secondary treatment for metro sewer, it obligated itself in the lawsuit that was brought by the EPA to produce 45 mgd of recycled water. Part of that judgment contemplated that the water would be put to beneficial use on the land. The city has had a very difficult time marketing the use of the recycled water because building the purple pipe to the places where that water would be used is enormously expensive. The City is in the midst of negotiating with the EPA for an extension of its waiver on the secondary treatment. If they have to go to secondary treatment, which is speculated today, it would be a $2-billion expenditure by the City of San Diego and the 13 jurisdictions that utilize metro sewer. He thinks the City is trying to quickly market this recycled water so it is not being pumped out to the ocean.

7. APPROVAL OF DIRECTOR’S ATTENDANCE AT MEETINGS AND FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS.

A. California Special Districts Association, San Diego Chapter – Quarterly Meeting August 18, 2005 – Doubletree Club Hotel, Mission Valley. All Directors will attend this pre-approved event. No action was required by the Governing Board.

B. Urban Water Institute – 12th Annual Conference – August 24 – 26, 2005 – Hyatt Regency Islandia Hotel, Mission Valley. Directors Beauchamp, Doud and Welsh will attend this pre-approved event. No action was required by the Governing Board.

8. REPORT OF DEPUTY TREASURER – HANK GAUS

Chair Pocklington said that he wanted to end today’s meeting with a few seconds of silence in memory of Wanda Avery, who had served South Bay Irrigation District and Sweetwater Authority for a long time. She was a Board Member for South Bay in the early 70’s and took over the Treasurer position in 1977. With regards to the replacement for the Treasurer position, he said that Management is looking at alternatives and will bring its recommendation to the Board at the next meeting. Director Welsh suggested that something be done for Ms. Avery’s memory and Chair Pocklington responded that some ideas would be sent to the Board through one of the Committees.

Deputy Treasurer Gaus had no report to offer.

9. MANAGEMENT REPORT

A. Report of Operations Manager Rogers: Operations Manager Rogers said that the ESRI Annual Conference is being held right now in San Diego. A number of agencies submit examples of good GIS work. George Silva submitted the Source of Supply for the Treatment Facility, the National City Wells, and the Desalination Facility, and he is proud to say that his presentation was included in the 2005 ESRI Map Book. He also reported that the fishing program started a year ago on July 25th. During this year, there have been 6,900 fishermen, 1,574 of them in the first month. We are getting around 89 percent of the fees out of these fishermen, which is a high number for the county. Usually with an honest-pay situation where the money is put in an iron ranger, about 60 percent of the fees are collected. He added that Finance Director Gaus did a good job budgeting the expenses for the fishing program. He budgeted $134,000 for the initial 12-months and the actual expenses were $127,000. The revenues were budgeted at $70,000 and the actual revenues were $29,000. Because it was the first year of the program, the $134,000 included start-up costs that will not be recurrent. The 2005-2006 Budget includes about $89,000 for the fishing program. If the revenue stays the same as last year, the fishing program represents a loss of about $60,000 per year. He noted that there is a bill now in the State Assembly that will require some type of recreation on all the lakes. This bill will not impact us as we have a trail around the lake and fishing along the side.

Operations Manager Rogers also reported that this past Sunday there was a fire just above Sweetwater Reservoir that burned about 23 acres. It started about 1:30 p.m., and it was put out at about 5:00 p.m. There were 60 firemen from Bonita/Sunnyside and from San Miguel. The cause of the fire is unknown. A helicopter dumped a total of 20 pounds, which is not harmful to the environment. They also made two pickups in the lake and dumped it on the fire.

B. Report of General Manager Bostad: General Manager Bostad referred to the monthly report of activities for the month of June included in the Board packet and offered to answer questions if there were any. He did not have anything else to add.

10. CLOSED SESSION

There was no need for one.

11. DIRECTOR’S COMMENTS

Director Welsh said that she attended the recent NWRA conference with Director Beauchamp, and they got much out of it. She brought information on three presentations on the dam modernization, what is in the future for dams, and trends on dam modification for environmental improvements, which she passed along to the members of the Board. She said that being in a state with 900,000 people for the whole state was glorious. What she found interesting is that ACWA has its California Water Plan, and we have Colorado and its water issues, and Texas and Mexico also have their problems, so we are not alone. She added that this fall there is going to be a conference in San Antonio, Texas, with people who are involved with the dams for the respective agencies and it might be of interest to staff.
Director Beauchamp said that at the recent NWRA conference, he met with one of his daughter’s professors, who had been involved with the release of water from the Glenn Canyon Dam to restore beaches in the bottom of the Grand Canyon and is also a member of the Science Committee on CalFed. They talked about the peripheral canal and California’s Blue Print. He realized that there are very few river people that really know what rivers do in California. He went to Yellowstone, which looked very different than when he went there 47 years ago. Even though it looked really wet and green due to June rains, he was told that the groundwater, after seven years of drought, is not recovered. He met with farmers from Nebraska and North Dakota and found out that the water they drink has iron in it and is brown, like tea. There were two people from Imperial Irrigation District at the Conference, two from Coachella Irrigation District, and one from Helix Water District. He also met with the Bureau of Reclamation district representative of Wyoming, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Eastern Colorado, who told him that there is no money to do everything that needs to be done. These kinds of meetings are very expensive and take a lot of time, but they help networking and he thinks they are worth it.

Director Salas said she went to the Caltrans Transportation Ventures event to rename the SR-125, which is now the South Bay Expressway. It was a nice event. It will open up at the end of 2006 and they told her that, so far, they are on schedule.

Jim Alkire said that when he went to the WateReuse meeting in Carlsbad he was amazed to see how far along some of the communities are already doing recycling.

Chair Pocklingon asked for a minute of silence in memory of Wanda Avery.

12. CLOSED SESSION

There was no need for one.

13. ADJOURNMENT

With no further business before the Board, Chair Pocklington adjourned the meeting at 4:41 p.m., to the hour of 6:00 p.m. on August 10, 2005.

W.D. Pocklington, Chair
Attest:

Marisa Farpón, Board Secretary