![]() |
Home About VVWUA Our Water Rights Our Responsibilities Our Domestic Water System Cross-Connection Control Our Irrigation System Sprinkler Specifications Finances and Budget News and Bulletins Download Documents FAQs |
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Fall 2012 Newsletter #2Welcome to Vista Vu Water Users Association's newsletter. Our purpose is to keep you informed about important activities and projects that your Board of Trustees is undertaking on your behalf. Domestic System Shut-DownStarting at 8:00 a.m. on Monday, October 15th, there will be a shutdown of the domestic water system while plumbing and electrical work is underway in the pump house to remedy ongoing problems with the arsenic removal units. We expect to have the water back online by 4:00 p.m. Please prepare for this event by having filled containers at hand for cooking, washing and toilet flushing. Avoiding Cross ContaminationThe loss of pressure while work is underway sets us up for backflow events that can cause contamination if there are any cross-connections to non-potable water sources. The most likely culprits are stock tanks and garden hoses. Please make sure your stock tank valves have the required air gaps, or are disconnected from supply lines during the time the system is down. Also please disconnect garden hoses from hose bibs as a precaution. Domestic Water Metering CompleteElsbree, Oestreich, Stenberg, Vanderstoep, Shove and Marsh households are now metered. With this our metering is now complete. We did discover that Lind's meter was running backwards as a result of the meter tube being hooked up incorrectly. We will dig up the meter tube next Spring and re-plumb it correctly. Latest Water UsageNow that all our 21 household connections are metered we are collecting some good data on how much water we're using. The table below shows what each household was using in early-October. (Names are omitted to protect privacy. You will receive a separate email that will identify your household usage data.) |
Household ID No | Useage (gals/day) |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
1 | 1,647 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
2 | 1,610
3 | 939
| 4 | 932
| 5 | 740
| 6 | 418
| 7 | 377
| 8 | 351
| 9 | 311
| 10 | 286
| 11 | 228
| 12 | 203
| 13 | 173
| 14 | 160
| 15 | 159
| 16 | 157
| 17 | 155
| 18 | 119
| 19 | 74
| 20 | 66
| 21 | 49
| Total | 9,153
| Mean | 436
| Median | 228
| |
Financial Crisis AvertedLast Friday the Public Works Board (PWB) granted us a 5-year extension to our Drinking Water State Revolving Fund loan and a 3-year deferral of principle and interest payments. On October 1st an $8,000 loan payment came due and we had insufficient reserves to to cover it. The reasons have to do with both capital cost increases and a revenue shortfall. Capital costs to complete the arsenic removal and system expansion project rose as a result of unanticipated electric power supply issues, engineering errors and operational problems with the arsenic adsorption units. Projected revenues from new hook-ups and water sales never materialized as the recession shut down the housing market, putting development in Vista Vue on hold. Rate Changes Are RequiredThe PWB has placed some conditions on the loan adjustment: First we must adopt a tiered rate structure similar to the one described in the last Newsletter; second we must increase the infrastructure fee by $5 per month to produce a steady revenue stream unrelated to the amount of water each household uses. These funds will be set aside to make loan repayments.
Bob Goodwin For further information contact: Stu
Skidmore, President; Doug Marsh, Vice President;
|