Response to CBN January 30, 2012 Opinion Piece by Allan Brucker by TOM HICKMANN, City of Bend Engineer/Assistant Public Works Director
As City Engineer, I am committed to providing high-quality water for Bend’s residents and businesses. I have a thorough understanding of our current drinking water system and the analysis that has been conducted to date as part of the Surface Water Improvement Project. My responses below address a series of inaccurate assertions made in a recent opinion piece published in Cascade Business News. The complete response to all of the claims can be found at www.cascadebusnews.com.
Additional project information can be found at www.bendoregon.gov/surfacewater.
Claim: The city unduly romanticizes the dual source for water. Outside of Portland’s Bull Run water system, very few cities in Oregon use surface water. It is just too prone to pollution and other problems.
Response: Many cities in Oregon use a dual-source system and/or use surface water for their water supplies. Many more are seeking new surface water supplies. Some of these cities include Portland, Albany, Wilsonville, Hillsboro, Beaverton, Pendleton, Tualatin, Lake Oswego, Tigard, Salem, Corvallis, Clackamas, Lincoln City, Newport, and Medford. Eugene Water and Electric Board (EWEB) and McMinnville are currently working to secure a dual-source water supply.
Claim: The Bend Water Management and Conservation plan of 2004 stated, “Groundwater is a sound choice for future municipal supplies when considering water quality, water availability, reliability and environmental impacts to the basin. The impacts of groundwater use have the added benefit of being attenuated over time and space due to the large magnitudes of water in the regional aquifer and the high annual recharge rate.”
Response: Much new information and modeling work has been done since the 2004 report and the Water Management Plan was replaced in 2011. The City of Bend will likely need to continue to invest in groundwater to meet Bend’s future peak water demand. However, the Oregon Deschutes Basin Groundwater Mitigation Program limits additional groundwater use and remains controversial.
The City has decided it is in Bend’s long term interest to keep the current dual-source system. The dual-source system best meets the City’s needs, provides the most benefit to residents and ratepayers, and provides the operational flexibility to minimize the environmental impacts of supplying water to the community. Benefits include:
• Secured, senior water rights
• Operational flexibility to minimize environmental impacts to both groundwater and surface water resources
• High confidence in water availability. In the event that there are quantity/quality problems with one source, the other can still be used
• Preservation of community health and safety with a highly reliable dual-source system. If one system is rendered non-operational due to infrastructure problems or a power outage, the other system can provide back-up until repairs are made or power is restored.
• Lower operation and maintenance costs
• Improved energy efficiency as gravity serves as a primary means of moving water through the system
• Long-term reliability as demand changes with seasons and popula-
tion growth
• Opportunity to generate renewable energy and reduce carbon emissions
Claim: Inadequate attention is paid to the fact that surface water is very undependable in drought years. Should such an investment be made on an undependable source?
Response: Bend’s surface water source is supplied by a large and complex spring system that is fed by precipitation from both rain and snow melt. This water source is very stable and dependable and the recharge area is in the protected Deschutes National Forest. Had the City found that the surface water supply is “undependable” the City would not be proceeding with the project as proposed.
Claim: Another alternative is to abandon the 1920’s era pipe and continue use of only the 1950’s era pipe. This pipe can carry 6 mgd and provide for the city’s average daily winter use. This would avoid the $30 million in new piping, greatly reduce the cost of the treatment facility and eliminate the expense of the power plant.
Response: The new pipe and water treatment plant are needed independently of each other. The City Council decided to add the hydroelectric facility to the project because it would produce renewable energy and electricity revenues to help offset project costs. Retaining the existing pipe would not remove the City’s obligation to meet EPA regulations to build a new water treatment plant.
The two existing pipes are not being replaced simply because of age. There are numerous factors involved that expose both pipes to critical failure and expose the public to health and safety risks. Both of the existing pipes are known to have encroaching tree roots and are difficult to access. A storm could critically damage or sever the pipes if the trees were uprooted. Pipe lining and tree roots have been found in the City’s reservoir. The new pipe will last 100 years or more and will be easier to maintain under Skyliners Road.
The new pipe will be 30-inches in diameter, which is a standard size that provides a good balance between cost-effectiveness, a large enough diameter to allow internal welding, inspections and maintenance, and appropriate internal water velocities for pipe longevity and transient pressure control. The new 30- inch diameter pipe will replace two existing 12- to 14-inch diameter pipes. This pipe size was evaluated and confirmed during a formal value engineering study attended by a group of engineers from six independent engineering companies.
Claim: Cities under 10,000 do not have to test for crypto because the government believes it is too expensive. There are many other contaminates in surface water for which treatment is not now required. It is possible that the EPA could order more expensive treatments in the future, making surface water more uneconomic.
Response: The City of Bend water system has an estimated water service area population exceeding 62,000 in 2009 (City of Bend Water Management and Conservation Plan – June, 2011).
The water treatment method chosen for the Surface Water Improvement Project, called membrane filtration, was selected in part because that type of treatment would be adaptable to future regulations. However, the filtration treatment method was selected primarily as the best available technology to allow the City continued use of the surface water in the event of a fire in the watershed that contains a significant portion of dead trees as a result of beetle kill.
All waters, surface and ground, are subject to contamination. A recent study by DEQ found that out of 253 wells for drinking water systems within the Deschutes Watershed, 101 of them have had contamination events.
Claims: The city presently meets its winter demand almost exclusively from surface water – an average of five million gallons per day (mgd). Peak summer use, of 22 mgd in 2011, is met primarily by using ground water. If the city could not use its surface water for whatever reason, it could meets its peak demand using only well water, and still have a third of its well capacity unused.
Response: The City uses surface water as its primary source year-round due to low operational costs and superior quality. Winter water demands can be met solely using surface water. Surface water is supplemented with groundwater to meet peak summer demands.
Peak summer use is driven by weather and customer demands for water. The City has recorded peak summer use (maximum daily demand) exceeding 29 mgd in 2009. The City’s water master plan identified the reliable capacity of the City’s groundwater production facilities to be 9.0 mgd (Appendix E, Table 3, page 7). Maintaining the surface water source is needed to keep the City’s water supply reliable.
The City currently has 20 operational wells at nine well sites, with a total installed pump capacity (which assumes all pumps are operational) of 30.5 mgd. However, the City cannot rely on all of this capacity from groundwater since well machinery has been known to fail without warning. The City has had multiple well failures in a single year. Repairs can take a long time and be very costly. Additionally, 40 percent of the wells do not have automated controls and 30 percent of the wells cannot be operated during a power outage. All of these aspects must be considered when evaluating the reliability of wells.
The City would only be able to meet its peak water demand with groundwater exclusively if all of its wells remained operational and peak demand decreased.
Claim: The city plans to double its withdrawal from Tumalo Creek to provide for the power plant. The detrimental effect of taking more water from Tumalo Creek and the Deschutes River has not been valued.
Response: The hydroelectric facility, if built, would not take additional water from Tumalo Creek. The facility would generate renewable energy from water that the City uses to meet municipal water demand. The City is only allowed to divert water for which it has lawful water rights.
The new supply system will include flow control, enabling the City to divert only the water needed for municipal use. The City currently plans to operate the new system within an annual average diversion of up to 21 cubic feet per second (cfs).
With the new system, the City will only divert more than 18.2 cfs (current allowed diversion) when there is a municipal demand for it, and the water is available. Availability is based on water rights and available flow. The net increase of withdrawal of water from Tumalo Creek (when the water is available and City demand would require it) is 21.0-18.2 = 2.8 cfs. This is a maximum increase of 15 percent.
The U.S. Forest Service is currently evaluating the potential effects of this additional 2.8 cfs diversion by the City to stream flow and temperature in its environmental assessment.
Claim: The City has not evaluated the value of leaving water in Tumalo Creek and the Deschutes River.
Response: The United States Geological Survey has evaluated the environmental impact of Bend relying solely on groundwater (Simulation of Regional Ground-Water Flow in the Upper Deschutes Basin, Oregon, pp. 68-71). If the City uses more groundwater, it is projected to deplete flows in the Deschutes River upstream from Bend, Tumalo Creek, Whychus Creek, the Crooked River, Alder Springs and other springs. By maintaining both its surface water and groundwater sources, the City can manage the potential environmental impacts of its water supply.
Claim: As noted above, when it was determined that the power facility subsidies were gone, the council asked for a fresh review of the surface water project verses going to wells. In an amazing decision the city hired the consulting firm (HDR) to do that analysis. They were chosen despite the fact that HDR stood to make an additional $15 million if the surface water project was picked. How could anyone expect an objective study?
Response: The City hired an independent value engineering team to assess the project in March 2011. The value engineering team included experts from six independent engineering companies from across the country, none of whom had any vested interest in the outcome. The value engineering team concluded that, “the City is following the proper course of action in continuing to obtain potable water from two different types of water sources, namely surface water and groundwater.” The team also confirmed other elements of the City’s project.
The City Council did not base their decision to move forward with the Surface Water Improvement Project solely on the study produced by HDR. Many studies by many different engineering firms have been completed on this issue dating back as far as 1980, and all of them informed the Council’s decision. In addition, the Council and staff have considered the long-term needs of the city and have consulted with other jurisdictions and resource managers in Oregon as well as in other states.
Claim: The interest on the newly borrowed money will vastly exceed the cost of power to operate all the wells needed to replace Bridge Creek water.
Response: The cost of power required to run well pumps is expected to exceed the City’s interest payments over the course of the City’s loan for the Surface Water Improvement Project. On a present value basis, it is cheaper to pay interest on the loan to invest in energy-efficient surface water than it is to pay long term, escalating power bills for groundwater.
For additional information contact: Justin Finestone Communication Manager City of Bend 541-388-5516 jfinestone@ci.bend.or.us.
