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Water System:
A Message from your water department, Feb. 2009
The last news letter talked about water meter installations, since then there have been some changes.
High Valley is a Group A water system, all group A systems are considered a municipal water system.
On June 11, 2008 King County Superior Court Judge Jim Rogers struck down part of the Municipal Water Law. What he did was say all group A systems are not municipal. Privately owned systems are now not municipal. The state of Washington and Dept. of Ecology is appealing this ruling.
In Oct. 2008 while talking to another water system worker, he asked if we had got a letter from the Dept. of Drinking water about the law, we hadn’t. On Monday I checked the website and on Oct. 20, 2008 they had put the info out about the change. We received our letter Oct. 25th. This was the same week we were to take delivery of a bunch of water meter parts that we had ordered over a month earlier, $47,000.00 worth. At this time we called the supplier and tried to get out of the order, no one wanted the parts back and it would cost us 8-10 thousand dollars for re-stocking and shipping to return all the parts. This is where the gamble comes in. Return the parts and pay up to $10,000.00 or take the parts and see what happens to the appeal. We decided to take the parts, and put in meters whenever we work on service valves.
So we are not going to go at it as planned, “Until” we know how the appeal turns out. My best guess is we will still have to do this at sometime. When we will hear the outcome is another “guess”.
The state of Washington is strongly encouraging systems to voluntarily install the meters. You can find this and other information on the Office of Drinking water homepage at http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/
Or http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/mwl-legal.htm for municipal water law.
Reported by: Rick Jenkins, Operations Manager High Valley Country Club.
December 10, 2008 update regarding the previous Water System post seen below:
The High Valley Board recently learned that there has been a ruling on the water efficiency law that impacts our system. It seems that the judges ruling removes private water systems from the requirements of the law; he said that the law only applies to municipalities. The State is appealing the ruling. Further information is available at the following State Websites:
http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/mwl-legal.htm
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/rights/Images/pdf/muni/LUMMI0611.pdf
http://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wr/rights/muni_wtr.html
High Valley has already spent significant money toward complying with the law; we have purchased a backhoe, used truck, meter parts, and a new building. Several meters have already been installed. It is not clear what the final outcome of the ruling and appeals will be; your Board will inform you as more information is available and make recommendations for the next steps
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Previous Post:
The major issue for High Valley now and in the coming years is our water system and compliance with new state regulations, some that have just been published. These regulations are available at http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/municipal_water/water_use_efficiency_rule.htm. They require substantial modifications to the water system and will be very expensive. There seems to be no legal way to avoid these changes. In summary, the regulations taken from the Dept. of Health information have the following require:
There are six fact sheets listed that explain these requirements in more detail.
The DOH also requires High Valley to address potential cross connection contamination of our water system. A discussion of this issue can be found at the DOH web site http://www.doh.wa.gov/ehp/dw/Publications/CCC_Guidance_Document.htm.
In addition High Valley may need to:
1. Upgrade the aging water system. 2. Provide better fire protection.
The High Valley board is responsible for ensuring that the water system issues are addressed.