Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, November 8, 2011 (Agenda)
Item 22
>> now let's call back to order the voting session of the Travis County Commissioners court, item 22, consider and take appropriate action regarding application form for purchase of nonpotable water from Travis County.
>> last week we presented to you a draft application that we would expect people who are interested in purchasing water from the county at our old satellite 4 office to complete.
and what you have before you is a final draft of that document.
it has gone through county review, we've made some changes as a result of that.
we've also made changes as a result of feedback we received from you last week.
most notable what we need is to ask the court to set the rate that we would charge folks.
currently the rate is $2.50 per thousand gallons regardless of whatever that use may be that the person purchases the water for.
what we're suggesting is hold the $2.50 to residential and agriculture which would include farming and ranching but consider a higher rate for commercial uses.
for reference, we currently pay $4.82 per thousand gallons to the city of Austin for the water.
and we would suggest that holding the 2.50 for residential and agriculture is fine, but for the commercial we should boot that up to at least what we're paying the city.
and I've had a question of staff if we could find a round number, it will make it easy for exchanging the quarters.
>> requiring cash, why not make it five dollars.
>> that will make staff extremely happy.
and also, while we were talking about this, just a few things that have taken place this last week.
howard, if you don't mind just so you know about the operation at the stand pipe.
>> thank you, howard aaron, t.n.r., just real briefly we did in fact shift our hours to Tuesday through Saturday.
that was effective last week so Saturday was our first day.
we're beginning to track the usage for that Saturday for the purposes of reporting.
this week we did secure the fence bids and got a perform of purchase order issued for that purpose.
we also had the purchase order for the plumbing that did with the meter, the back flow prevent and and cut on and cut off valve at the stand pipe.
we also going thaw that process with the plumber discovered some significant leaks that were at that stand pipe and facility management has expedited repairs, they are working on them right now.
has not disrupted service as of yet.
we anticipate based on some conversations this morning with facilities that they will have those repairs completed by the end of this week, Thursday is what they are targeting for after the normal 2:00 operational hours.
there may be, in fact, some limited disruption while they do those repairs if they extend past Thursday.
Friday is holiday so there are some issues about working then or come being back and finishing up.
but if there are some disruption, we have contingency for them to get water from another location that is near the center without too much disruption in service and that's where we stand right now.
>> thanks, howard.
tom, if you recall, you had asked if we could provide guidelines on how to purify water.
and tom did research, if you don't mind.
>> tom webber with natural resources, environmental quality.
I passed out before lunch a handout, english and spanish.
it's actually taken from the washington state department of health.
I did run this form by tceq for their input and then sent a reminder asking for the input, but I haven't received any response.
nonetheless, I'm pretty confident that these methods would -- would assist residents in rendering their water more potable.
there's basically three methods.
one is to boil the water.
the other one is to add chlorine bleach, and there's kind of a recipe as to how much you add per unit of water.
and then the third thing would be to filter the water.
and I think these would be good guidelines that could be provided after they are signing this form that says I know I'm receiving nonpotable water.
that is likely going to be their next question, how could I make this so I could consume it.
we could have this guidance for them.
>> thank you for that.
>> so do we think that tceq has not responded because it has issues or are they just -- it takes a little time to work its way through the channels.
>> it could take some time and it's probably maybe a little out of the sphere of what they do day to day.
so -- but I mean they have -- they have guidelines when they specifically know that water is not safe due to high coliform level, they give out guidance or they require a utility to notify residents on boiling the water and they have very strict kind of procedure for that.
this is a little bit different from that, although boiling is included as one of the options.
so I think it's maybe one of these situations where it's not exactly what they do day to day.
>> I would suggest that these
>> [inaudible] they are probably the safest, but we would use these until we got something to substitute from tceq, if you wanted us to start handing them out.
>> it would be better to have something, a credible source, in advance of getting the signoff from our own regulatory agency, state regulatory agency.
>> that's Commissioner Eckhardt's way of saying watch the --
>> the project number is on the sheet.
>> move approval of the proposed form.
>> second.
>> and the fee to be five bucks for commercial.
what was the other one?
>> 2.50 for residential and agriculture.
>> per thousand.
that's the motion.
seconded by Commissioner Gomez.
discussion?
all in favor?
that passes by unanimous vote.
as to the instructions on -- instructions regarding -- converting nonpotable into potable?
>> yes.
>> are we posted for that?
can we just give general directions that if tceq gets back with us -- or tceq does not call to our attention any apparent problems, then we proceed to distribute that to our residents.
>> that would be effective -- because what you have posted for is regarding the application form and what you all have discussed the attaching something to the application form.
and so that seems fair.
>> we have not discussed that, but we do now.
make it happen.
part of the other motion.
anything else?
>> just so people will know, we'll be keeping a register of folks using this as a source of water and there's other information we'll be gathering as well.
so it will help us decide -- make some decision in the future, I'm sure.
>> and do we have a large sign posted that indicates what the water will cost?
especially for the change for commercial customers.
>> we have a sign posted now that has the old rate.
I think it's -- it's posted as listed at 25 cents her hundred gallons which equivalent to 2.50 per thousand and we will post these newer rates hopefully effective tomorrow.
>> the sign is pretty large?
>> we'll make a large sign.
generally we'll post a sign roughly three foot by three foot located next to the stand pipe so it will be very obvious.
>> that's fine.
has it always been cash only?
>> it's always been cash only.
it's a requirement from the auditor.
>> okay.
anything else?
thank you all very much.
miss porter, does that bring us to executive session?
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