September 15, 2011 Shelton Mason County Journal | ![]() |
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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS ON THE WATER AND IN THE FIELD
By NATALIE JOHNSON "I feel REC purchase is both a wind and solar proj-
the way to go," he said. "We ect located in Idaho that are
The Mason County PUD don't necessarily need new expected to be in operation
3 commission will consider energy. In my opinion itby the third quarter of 2012.
over the next two weeks greatly reduces the overall "They're very similar but
a proposal to buy 50,000 cost of meeting the man-not quite identicaL" Wood
renewable energy credits date." said. "It might not be quite
(RECs) to fulfill 1-937 re- Samuelson said buying apples to apples but it's
quirements, rather than RECs outright reduces the close."
purchase actual renewable overall cost of meeting the Both contracts include
power, requirements, and involves 16-year terms during which
"There's no question this a lot less upfront invest- delivery of the contracted
is a better deal financially," ment, as opposed to invest- 50,000 RECs, for $18.50
said commissioner Bruce ing in a renewable project, each, is absolutely guaran-
Jorgenson."RECsjustmake Renewable projects can teed.
sense." also be unreliable. For ex- Samuelson advised the
Washington Initiative ample the Radar Ridge commission to consider both
937 (I-937) requires pub- Wind Project, a partnership contracts, but added that
lic utility districts such as between Energy Northwest, PUD staff preferred the sec-
PUD 3 to have 20 percent PUD 3 and several other ond contract.
of their purchased power utilities, has experienced PUD 3 staff acknowl-
be renewable energy, desig- seemingly endless delays, edged that negotiating a
nated as either wind, solar The PUD is looking at contract nearly five years
or biomass energy by 2020. two different possible con- before the services will ac-
By 2012, PUDs needed 3 tracts. Both specify delivery tually be needed is risky,
percent of their power to of 50,000 RECs starting in considering that market
be renewable, and by 2016, 2016, when the PUD must conditions or energy re-
that ratio increases to 16 meet the 9 percent mark.quirements could change,
percent. "They do not start untilthey said not taking action
When a PUD purchases 2016 when we actually need until the last minute would
renewable energy, it gets the RECs ... it defers the be even more dangerous.
credits based on that ener- expense until that time," "I think we are approach-
gy. However, a district can Samuelson said. ing this in a timely fashion,"
also simply purchase the One possible contract in- commissioner Linda Gott
credits, while another entity volves a public utility in Or- said. "If we approached this
keeps the power. This can egon working with a private much later we wouldn't be
happen when a power utili- investor. The RECs wouldable to make this deal ... I'm
ty or private power company come from one wind project prepared to make a decision
has surplus credits, located in Washington that in two weeks."
Assistant power supply is currently in operation. The PUD 3 commission
manager Matt Samuelson The second possible con-will vote on a potential con-
first brought up the idea tract involves a private de- tract to buy the energy cred-
earlier this year, PUD 3 veloper in Idaho. The RECs its during its next regular
Manager Wyla Wood said. in this case would come from meeting on Sept. 27.
PUD 1 updates Union water plan
By NATALIE JOHNSON "That gets us~ out at least 20 years or
more," Gray said.
Mason County PUD 1 has completed an Much of the work for the system update
update of its Union Water System plan, was completed before 2009, Gray said, but
and will vote on the update during its next in that year the Washington Department
regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 7.of Health (DOH) came out with its 2009
The Union system, one of the largest of Water System Design Manual.
PUD l's 35 water systems spread through- The district had to redo calculations
out Mason County, had not been updated and rewrite much of the update to be in
since 1997. compliance with the manual.
"They're technically supposed to be up- "What this does is help us plan our six-
dated every six years," said Jocelyne Gray, year capital improvement plan," Gray
director water operations at PUD 1. said. "It lets customers know where we're
It took 14 years to update the plan this planning improvements."
time because the small utility has so many Gray said the six-year plan fo~i~he
water Systems, Gray Said. Un~on system includes i:eplacing ~'oi~
Only a few changes to the plan came out 500 feet of mainline pipe a month, replac-
of the update, Gray said, and mostly relate ing two and three-inch lines with six and
to how the district calculates its capacity eight-inch lines to increase pressure and
for growth. The PUD found it has a min- flow."
imum of 413 new connections left in the The district also plans to replace sev-
Union system, eral pressure relief valves.
City moves forward on cross connection policy
By NATALIE JOHNSON shall be liable to the city of retrofit backflow prevention
any expense, loss or damage valves that fit directly on a
After several months of caused by such violation," hose bib.
discussion on a state man- the policy reads. "We think we can absorb
dated update of its cross The city commission ac- that cost in our utility and
connection control policy, knowledged that some cus- avoid any other conflict that
the city commission will tomers may view the policy that type of water source
likely approve the reworked as burdensome, it is vital may provide," he said.
policy next week. for the city to have such a Goins illustrated the pro-
During the Shelton Wa- policy, cess of preventing backflow
ter System Plan Update in "A lot of our policies we by showing the commission
2010, the Washington De- do, we don't do them to a "yolk system" that the city
partment of Health (DOH) make things difficult for installs when homes or busi-
directed the city to also up- folks, we do them to protect, nesses first hook up to city
date its cross connection in this case our water sys- water.
control policy, tem," commissioner Dawn The system, a 'U, shaped
The DOH office of drink- Pannell said. "On the whole system of pipes and valves
ing water defines a cross our policies are there for a fits between the city water
connection as "any actual reason and they're there to supply and the customer's
or potential physical con- protect our citizens and to meter, and only allows wa-
nection between a drinking protect our systems." ter to flow one way, prevent-
water system and any other The city had policy to ad- ing backflow and possible
non-potable substance (liq- dress possible cross connec- cross connections.
uid, solid, or gas)," including tions before, but Goins said "It creates a closed sys-
non-drinkable water, like it needed to be updated to tem," Goins said.
rainwater, reclaimed or re- address new needs. The new cross control
used water, or even water "Like a lot of other things policy will have no financial
from a swimming pool. these things change overimpact on the city, he said,
"From a global perspec- time and there's been a lot of but may have impact on cus-
tive the objective with these -revisiting of different types tomers though.
projects is to protect our wa- of issues," he said. Goins said water custom-
ter system and it's all based For example, when the ers need to be aware that a
on probability," said commu- cross connection policy was build up of pressure due to
nity and economic develop- first created, rain barrels the backflow prevention sys-
ment director Steve Goins. were not as popular as they tems could damage house-
"What's the likelihood that are today, and now present hold appliances like water
different types of hazards a cross connection risk.heaters if owners do not in-
will affect in a negative way "When you have a rain stall "bladder tanks."
our water system?" barrel you have a secondary "These water heaters
In order to protect citywa- water source and some folks have systems built into
ter, the policy allows the city have decided that they like them that relieve that pres-
to cut offwaterto customers these so much that when sure but they're often not
with cross connections and it's not raining like it isn't maintained very well and
to recover costs from dam- now they like to keep it full the nozzle or the release
ages resulting from those il- of water and they connect portion can calcify," he
legal connections, their hose to it and they wa- said. "So we try to let citi-
"Any water customer ter their gardens out of that zens know that this portion
violating any of the provi- system," he said. of the system is new and
sions of this policy and who To address that particu,might affect your system in
causes damageto or impairs lar issue, Goins said the city other ways and make them
the city's water system ... might consider handing our aware of that."
www. masoncou nty. com
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Shelton-Mason County Journal -Thursday, September 15, 2011 - Page A-3