At its regularly-scheduled meeting Tuesday evening, the City and Borough Assembly revisited the water crisis that potentially looms over the coming summer.
Public Works director Amber Al-Haddad reported efforts to “plunge” two of the plant’s four slow-sand filtration bays in order to clean them since last week showed promise. However, she was careful to point out that the method was still in its infancy, and only time and repetition would reveal how effective it actually is.
Her plan is to plunge each of the filters in turn, repeating as necessary to free up sediment clogging the system.
“I think it will take several processes per filter,” she said. “I think we’re just going to play it by ear.”
After nearly two decades of operation, the silicate material filtering water at the plant has never been replaced, though it should be periodically. Gradually efficiency at the plant has been diminishing, to the point where last year it was unable to keep up with summertime production. A state of emergency was called for several weeks as a result, briefly disrupting seafood plant production and other services.
Making substantial upgrades to the plant before the next busy season has proven time consuming. The state Department of Environmental Conservation has to review and approve of changes to the facility, a process which can take several months. Designs for a more efficient roughing filter – a preliminary stage of filtration before water heads to the slow sand bays – will not be ready to submit until the third week of May.
“We’re not on alert right now, we’re not there. We’ve started the education process,” said Carol Rushmore, serving as interim city manager until a replacement for Jeff Jabusch is in place. He retired at the end of March.
Efforts to reach out to the public and make residents more conscientious of their water usage would be undertaken by social media outlets. At its last meeting the Assembly approved a draft response plan to water shortages, coupled with fines for people found violating emergency usage orders.
A new rate schedule to bring water utility charges in line with production costs is also in the works, with Assembly members commenting on a preliminary, five-percent hike prepared by staff. But member Julie Decker, participating by phone, wanted to see a comparison of Wrangell’s rates to those implemented recently by Ketchikan, which elected to hike industrial rates substantially over three years.
Assembly member Mark Mitchell tasked city finance director Lee Burgess with running numbers on the cost to install water meters on Wrangell homes and commercial concerns. The reasoning for the move would be to better cover production costs, while also making residents more conscientious of their water usage.
Wrangell already uses meters for its larger commercial and industrial users, though rates only begin rising past the 500,000-gallon mark. Burgess proposed lowering that threshold to 5,000 gallons, gradually increasing rates per 1,000 gallons from there.
“This was kind of an initial proposal to serve as a starting point,” he noted.
Speaking with his counterpart in Petersburg about their meter installations on residences, Burgess roughly estimated it would cost half a million dollars to do so in Wrangell. Individual units could cost around $470 apiece to acquire and install, though that cost could double or triple if special hookups were necessary. Consumption in Petersburg had dropped by about 30 percent following the transition, he said.
Burgess would come back with firmer estimates at the next meeting, to see whether meters would be implementable in Wrangell. “It might require the (water) fund borrowing financing,” he said, “but it could work.”
The topic of rates was also tabled for a future meeting, though Decker recommended making any changes sooner rather than later. “I would just as soon wait until we learn about the cost of meters,” said Mitchell, preferring to have an in-depth rate conversation once. He agreed a decision needs to be made quickly, but with the best information available.
Also water-related, a public hearing required by the Department of Agriculture as part of its loan process was scheduled to be held at City Hall on Wednesday. This would allow the public to give input on a proposed project to replace the current water treatment plant with one better suited to the area’s water. A draft loan application with some alterations would be presented to the public. If favorable terms could be gotten and a new plant project pursued, it could take between three and five years to design and construct.
In other Assembly business, an executive session was held at the meeting’s end to continue term negotiations with manager candidate Lisa Von Bargen, currently economic director for Valdez. No agreement was reached Tuesday, with discussions to continue. Asked to participate in an interview, Von Bargen was hesitant until a contract with the city could be finalized. A profile on the new manager in the Sentinel will be forthcoming as that develops.
Commercial and retail licenses were approved for Happy Cannabis, a proposed shop and grow facility. It received its licensing from the state Marijuana Control Board earlier this month.
A special meeting between the Assembly, city staff and public employees’ union representatives was also scheduled for June 8. Negotiations over a new collective bargaining agreement has dragged on since the previous arrangement expired in 2014. Both Wrangell and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1547 headed into legal conflict last year, but resolved the matter before things came to a head through a settlement conference in December.
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