| Background: |
Review of the Water Master Plan Assumptions
and Recommendations
Carollo Engineers was hired in July 1998 to assist the City in developing
a long-term comprehensive water supply study. While the City has an adequate
water supply during non-drought years, the construction of the TAP Intertie
pipeline from Medford to Talent required Ashland's decision to participate
in the construction. The Master Plan looked at the City's supply and demand
for water through the year 2050 (Technical Memorandum #1). The conclusions
drawn indicated that the City would not be able to provide adequate supply
during severe drought conditions as Reeder Reservoir is undersized. Aggressive
summer conservation could theoretically achieve a 20% reduction, however,
the recommendation is that the City implement a voluntary curtailment program
that targets a 10% reduction during the high use summer months - every year.
Mandatory curtailment would be used to achieve the additional 10% (total
20%) reductions during sever drought conditions. The estimated supply needs
for 2050 required alleviating a 430 million gallon deficit.
The Comprehensive Master Plan evaluated and discussed several different
options. The TAP pipeline was the only "stand-alone" alternative that could
supply the City with the necessary 430 million gallon deficit that is projected
(technical memorandum #2). Carollo summarized the findings and recommendations
in Technical Memorandum #3, which is attached to this report. Although this
document has a published date of January 1999, these recommendations were
the basis of Council's decision in December 1998 to cooperate in the construction
of the TAP Pipeline and evaluate other water supply needs.
The timing of the construction of the TAP Pipeline to Ashland and
overcoming even short-term deficits are highly dependent upon drought conditions.
The reports suggest that with "…aggressive summer conservation, the
City can theoretically reduce the overall [water supply] deficit through
the year 2020. "However, demand reduction conservation would need to be achieved
every year during the highest demand months to adequately protect against
unanticipated drought. Demand reduction by summer conservation alone is therefore
not considered a suitable planning strategy for deficit reduction." The amount
of projected deficit is a strong function of projected population growth
and other factors including drought conditions. The year 2016 has been used
as a planning target for overcoming the additional growth related deficit
and completion of the TAP Pipeline to Ashland.
Update on the TAP Intertie Project
The TAP Intertie Project includes a 24-inch pipeline from Medford
to Talent. The cities of Talent, Ashland and Phoenix, hired Montgomery Watson
(MW - now Montgomery Watson Harza - MWH) Engineering to complete the final
engineering design and also to provide construction management services during
the construction of the TAP Intertie pipeline. The Rogue Valley Council of
Governments (RVCOG) continues to assist in coordinating oversight for MWH
contract and obtaining grant and loan funds for the cities of Talent and
Phoenix. RVCOG will continue to act as the coordinator for the three cities
during the operation of the pipeline.
Construction is now all but complete and includes the pipeline along
Hwy 99, a Regional Pump Station at Belknap and Hwy 99, telemetry links with
the City of Medford, Talent and Phoenix (and eventually will include Ashland).
Both Talent and Phoenix have has ancillary water system improvements designed
and constructed as a part of their funding through a combination grant and
loan program through the Rural Development that are not specifically part
of the TAP Intertie costs.
Construction Costs to Date: The engineer's estimate for the construction
work was $10,660,060. James W. Fowler's bid (September 2000) for the work
was $8,968,817 and there have been change orders to increase that cost to
$9,260,255. The City of Ashland participated in only three portions of the
project including the project mobilization, the 24" diameter pipeline from
Medford to Talent, and the Regional Pump Station. The total construction
estimate for those portions was $5,410,243 and the flow-based portion for
Ashland is 19.39% or $1,049,046. The City of Ashland participated in 5 of
the 13 change orders (the other 8 were specific to Talent or Phoenix), which
increased the total cost to $5,442,636, with Ashland's portion totaling
$1,058,256. James Fowler did an excellent job with keeping the costs within
the estimate, and the total change orders on the primary three-city portion
were less than 1%. The Capital Improvements Budget allows for $1,245,000
for the TAP construction and engineering / construction management
costs.
Non-Construction Costs to Date: Ashland has participated in the MWH
design, construction management, and bidding services at an authorized contract
cost of $137,737, RVCOG administrative oversight and management services
are authorized to a total of $30,000 (not fully expended and will actually
continue after the construction phase of the project), and pump station land
acquisition costs of $12,000. The total Ashland participation estimate of
these non-construction or land acquisition costs is just under
$180,000.
Lost Creek Water Rights
Based upon Carollo Engineer's evaluation for the Comprehensive Water
Master Plan, the total annual deficit during a drought year for the planning
horizon of the year 2050, with recommended aggressive conservation and
curtailment in drought year, and with some reallocation of water rights,
is 430 million gallons (Technical Memorandum #1). Carollo recommended obtaining
450 million gallons (or 1380 acre-feet) of water from Lost Creek Lake at
a cost of $674 per acre/foot or a total of $931,000. The City formally initiated
the process and purchased water rights for a total of $931,000 in June 2001.
Subsequent to that authorization, the Corps of Engineers has discovered an
error in their interest calculations so that the amount of water the City
purchased is significantly less than anticipated. For the $931,000, the City
has purchased approximately 920 acre feet of water. The details of this
difference are still being worked out with the Corps. The difference in needed
water rights will be budgeted for FY03 purchase.
TID Water Rights Reallocation - "Imperatrice
Property"
During the water master planning efforts, there was a proposal to look at
the City's water rights on the newly purchased Imperatrice Property. Initial
intentions were to use treated effluent as the irrigation source on the City's
"Imperatrice" Property and explore the possibility of using a portion of
the TID water rights currently assigned to that property for irrigation.
However, as the City has decided not to irrigate the land with treated effluent,
the water rights have remained on the property. The City was able to shift
a portion of the water rights to other City use late in the summer of 2001
to help offset the City's need for additional allocation for TID supplemented
drinking water. This was a one-time allocation.
At one time, there was discussion by the Council to explore the
possibility of providing "leased" water for in-stream beneficial use to replace
a portion of the wastewater treatment plant effluent. The ability to lease
the water for in-stream use to meet a targeted flow is possible, but may
not be possible after the end of irrigation season when the creek flows are
the lowest. This issue was discussed with TID and the State Water Master
without much possibility of success and would most likely require the Federal
Bureau of Reclamation (USBOR) approval.
Discussions with the City of Talent regarding their TID Municipal
Water Rights
One of the proposals made by the Medford Water Commission was that Talent
might decide to relinquish their municipal water rights stored and transported
by TID. The City of Talent has 600 acre-feet of stored water rights within
the TID system. The Talent City Council has decided to retain their water
rights, but may be interested in discussions with the City of Ashland to
sell Ashland a portion of their water on a year-to-year basis. Staff will
continue to explore this option.
Conservation Programs to meet the Goals for 20% Peak Day Summer
Time Reductions
The Comprehensive Water Master Plan adopted by the Council recommended
continued efforts to achieving conservation goals. The water deficit numbers
used in planning for the water need in the future depended upon achieving
a 20% reduction in water use in the summer. With this past summer's drought
conditions, the City felt the impact of mandated water curtailment and the
initial impacts of a significant water conservation program. There were many
complaints and concerns as the City achieved only a 10.5% reduction during
the summer months. A 20% conservation program is extremely aggressive and
may not be attainable several years in a row without additional
measures.
Water Supply and Demand
Reeder Reservoir is relatively small as the maximum storage behind
the dam is 860 acre-feet or 280 million gallons of raw water with the overflow
weirs in place. Reeder Reservoir is fed from snow melt and watershed rain
runoff from Mount Ashland. Typically, the reservoir fills to the top and
reaches capacity in April, stays full and spills over the overflow weirs
at the dam through to the end of May, and then the water level behind the
dam slowly starts to fall until the rains begin again usually sometime in
October. Theoretical drawdown of the reservoir begins the first of June and
goes to "empty" in March. The reservoir never reaches "empty" because of
rains that usually start in October. The predicted 50% reservoir level is
October 15th. Anytime after October 15th without rains and with the reservoir
at or below 50% would cause concern for water supply.
Water use in the summer months is highly dependant upon weather
conditions; the warmer the weather, the higher the use. When the late spring
/ early summer temperatures are in the 70s, the averaging use is 4-4.5 million
gallons a day (mgd). With temperatures in the 80s, water use reaches 5-5.5
mgd, and with temperatures in the 90s, average water use is 6-6.5 mgd. Peak
temperatures result in peak water use of about 7.5 mgd. We have had days
in prior years with use as high as 8 mgd. This past drought year (2001) during
the voluntary conservation periods, the average use in August dropped to
5.3 mgd. During September, the month of mandatory curtailment, the average
use dropped to 4.1 mgd. As soon as temperatures cooled off in mid October,
the average use dropped to 2.0-2.4 and stayed in that range.
TID Supplement: The City has an alternate water source to draw upon
through an agreement for 769 acre-feet of perpetual domestic water rights
from the Talent Irrigation District (TID). In anticipation of rapid water
use and very limited inflow of water into the reservoir, City crews began
augmenting the Reeder water supply with water from the TID system in June
2001. TID has also notified the City that the District anticipated only 85%
of each user's water right might be realized due to their short supply. The
City might have been limited to only 654 acre-feet (or 213 million gallons)
of TID water, but with the County and City's drought emergency ordinances,
the City was not limited.
Renegotiating the 1966 TID Water Use
Agreement
With VERY limited success, staff is continuing discussion with TID,
the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR) and the State Water Master on the re-negotiation
and renewal of our 1966 Agreement for 795 acre-feet of stored water. There
are questions regarding the type of water (whether it is specified irrigation
or M&I), the stored rights (from which initial allocation), and the ability
to use the water outside of the regular irrigation season that complicate
the renewal of the agreement. Ashland is asking for a determination on the
type of water rights and prefers they be specified as domestic or M&I
so that there is no question regarding use of the water. There are several
initial permits that TID has for the Howard Prairie/Hyatt Lake water that
need to be reviewed. BOR has indicated a need for City funding to review
and make decisions on all of these permits. Initial agreements for acquiring
the right to stored water between TID and the City were made in 1923, prior
to the formation of the BOR. Once the City begins to depend upon TID water
to supplement Ashland Creek on a regular basis, there are areas within the
canal that will need to be improved and enhanced to ensure reliable delivery
of water. The City would share in the costs of improvements. These costs
would most likely be included in the extension of the 1966 agreement for
the 795 acre-feet of water.
Attachments:
1) Carollo Technical Memorandum #3
2) Council Communication (Study Session) December 7, 1998
3) Council Communication December 15, 1998
4) Minutes of Council Meeting for December 15, 1998 (water discussion
only) |
