Municipal Water Leader August 2020

Volume 7 Issue 7

July/August 2020

David Montagne: Water Supply for the Sabine River Basin

ADVERTISEMENT

The Leader in Engineered Water Pipeline Systems.

ADVERTISEMENT

Strategically located across North America.

Have a question about a project?

Call us!

NWP Regional Sales Team Neal Kelemen Northwest & Midwest Region nkelemen@nwpipe.com Mobile: 303-478-8342 William Ast Southern Region wast@nwpipe.com Mobile: 817-304-8991

CORPORATE HEADQUARTERS Vancouver, Washington MANUFACTURING PLANTS Adelanto, California Ogden, Utah Parkersburg, West Virginia Portland, Oregon Saginaw, Texas St. George, Utah St. Lake City, Utah St. Louis, Missouri Tracy, California San Luis Rio Colorado, Mexico

A legacy grounded in water.

Michael LaBroad Southwest Region mlabroad@nwpipe.com Mobile: 909-839-3978 Direct: 714-602-6022 Gary Lewis Atlantic Region glewis@nwpipe.com Mobile: 614-537-7549 Trevor Gonterman Permalok tgonterman@permalok.com Mobile: 618-974-8629 Direct: 314-888-6805

www.nwpipe.com

Municipal Water Leader is published 10 times a year with combined issues for May/June and November/December by

an American company established in 2009.

6

STAFF: Kris Polly, Editor-in-Chief Joshua Dill, Managing Editor Tyler Young, Writer Stephanie Biddle, Graphic Designer Eliza Moreno, Web Designer Milo Schmitt, Media Intern

David Montagne: Water Supply for the Sabine River Basin

Contents

July/August 2020 Volume 7, Issue 7 5 T exas Regional Water Providers

By Kris Polly 6 David

Montagne: Water Supply for the Sabine River Basin 12 Israel

Water Education and Trade Tour Preview, June 28–July 6, 2021 16 W hy North Texas Municipal Water District Is Building the First Major Texas Reservoir in 30 Years

20 T om Kula: 6 Years of Accomplishments at North Texas Municipal Water District 24 S an Antonio Water System: Diversifying San Antonio’s Water Portfolio 30 C anadian River Municipal Water Authority: A Guaranteed Supply for North Texas 34 E astern Municipal Water District’s Full-Spectrum Safety Program

SUBMISSIONS: Municipal Water Leader welcomes manuscript, photography, and art submissions. However, the right to edit or deny publishing submissions is reserved. Submissions are returned only upon request. For more information, please contact our office at (202) 698-0690 or municipal.water.leader@waterstrategies.com.

ADVERTISING: Municipal Water Leader accepts half-page and full-page ads. For more information on rates and placement, please contact Kris Polly at (703) 517-3962 or municipal.water.leader@waterstrategies.com.

CIRCULATION: Municipal Water Leader is distributed to irrigation district managers and boards of directors in the 17 western states, Bureau of Reclamation officials, members of Congress and committee staff, and advertising sponsors. For address corrections or additions, or if you would prefer to receive Municipal Water Leader in electronic form, please contact our managing editor, Joshua Dill, at joshua.dill@waterstrategies.com.

Copyright © 2019 Water Strategies LLC. Municipal Water Leader relies on the excellent contributions of a variety of natural resources professionals who provide content for the magazine. However, the views and opinions expressed by these contributors are solely those of the original contributor and do not necessarily represent or reflect the policies or positions of Municipal Water Leader magazine, its editors, or Water Strategies LLC. The acceptance and use of advertisements in Municipal Water Leader do not constitute a representation or warranty by Water Strategies LLC or Municipal Water Leader magazine regarding the products, services, claims, or companies advertised.

MunicipalWaterLeader.com

Do you have a story idea for an upcoming issue? Contact our editor-in-chief, Kris Polly, at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

4 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

MuniWaterLeader

COVER PHOTO:

David Montagne, Executive Vice President and General Manager, Sabine River Authority. Photo courtesy of the SRA.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF THE SRA.

Coming soon in Municipal Water Leader: September: Pharmaceutical Contamination

ADVERTISEMENT

Texas Regional Water Providers

By Kris Polly

T

hey say everything is bigger in Texas—and water delivery infrastructure is no exception. This month, Municipal Water Leader features a number of large regional water providers in the Lone Star State. Our cover story features David Montagne of the Sabine River Authority, which delivers raw water to municipal and industrial customers across millions of acres, from Dallas down to the Gulf of Mexico.

We also hear from Rodney Rhoades, the interim executive director and general manager of the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), about the exciting progress that is being made on Bois D’Arc Lake, the first major reservoir to be constructed in Texas in 30 years. We also welcome Tom Kula, NTMWD’s former executive director, for a retrospective on his time at the district, his second career after three decades in the U.S. Army.

Donovan Burton, the vice president of water relations and government relations at the San Antonio Water System, tells us about how his agency has been diversifying San Antonio’s water

sources. Ken Satterwhite of the Texas Panhandle’s Canadian River Municipal Water Authority tells us about his agency’s top issues and its impressive groundwater rights holdings.

Finally, we check in with Paul Jones and Doug Hefley of Southern California’s Eastern Municipal Water District about the district’s impressive safety programs.

Texas is a fast-growing state with rapidly expanding water needs. Municipal water providers in the region are deploying considerable energy and ingenuity to address and meet those needs over the coming decades. I hope you enjoy reading their inspiring stories in this month’s Municipal Water Leader. M Kris Polly is the editor-in-chief of Municipal Water Leader magazine and the president and CEO of Water Strategies LLC, a government relations firm he began in February 2009 for the purpose of representing and guiding water, power, and agricultural entities in their dealings with Congress, the Bureau of Reclamation, and other federal government agencies. He may be contacted at kris.polly@waterstrategies.com.

ADVERTISEMENT

MEASURE, CONTROL, RELAX...

Contain costs and optimize performance with reliable equipment designed to keep you in control.

Learn more about our multiprobes, analyzers, controllers and software at chemscan.com/mwl.

municipalwaterleader.com

July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

|5

ADVERTISEMENT

David Montagne: Water Supply for the Sabine River Basin

The SRA is building a new, $75 million pump station in the lower Sabine River basin.

T

he Sabine River Authority (SRA) was created by the Texas Legislature in 1949 to store, control, preserve, and distribute water. With 115 employees and a service area of over 7,400 square miles, the SRA helps conserve water and distribute it to large Texas cities, such as Dallas and Longview, and industrial customers near the Gulf of Mexico.

David Montagne is the executive vice president and general manager of the SRA and has worked for the authority for 34 years. In this interview, he tells Municipal Water Leader about the SRA’s current projects and its plans for the future.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

6 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the SRA and its history.

David Montagne: The SRA was created by an act of the legislature in 1949. It has a nine-member board of directors whose members are appointed by the governor.

The SRA’s first project was purchasing a canal system in Orange, Texas, that had solely rice-field contracts. Then the SRA entered into negotiations with the City of Dallas, and in the late 1950s, it started to build Lake Tawakoni, a 37,000‑surface-acre reservoir with a firm yield of over 238,000 acre-feet. That reservoir was finished in the early 1960s. Like a lot of reservoirs in Texas, it was built because of the drought of the 1950s. The SRA’s next major project was Toledo Bend Reservoir, which got a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission license in 1963 and was completed in 1968. It is the largest surface-acre reservoir in the southern United States at 185,000 surface acres municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SRA.

David Montagne: I’ve been working with the SRA for 34 years. I have an accounting degree from Lamar University in Beaumont, and I previously worked in accounting and served as the executive director of a housing authority for a brief stint. That was an interesting job, but I saw how many federal overlays there are for everything and couldn’t accomplish some of the things I wanted to, so it was also a pretty frustrating job. Since coming to the SRA, I have represented Texas on the Western States Water Council,

served as president of the Texas Water Conservation Association, and been a member of the Texas Ethics Commission. I currently serve as a member of the Texas State University System’s board of regents.

ADVERTISEMENT

Lake Tawakoni, a 37,000 surface-acre reservoir with a firm yield of over 238,000 acre-feet, was finished in the early 1960s.

and has a firm yield of over 2 million acre-feet. It has two 40‑megawatt water turbine generators. It’s a bistate project involving the Sabine River Authority of Texas and the Sabine River Authority, State of Louisiana. The most amazing thing about that reservoir is that it was built for a total of $70 million. Today, it would cost you $500–$600 million just to get the permit for a bistate project on the main stem of a river. To compare, Bois D’Arc Lake Reservoir, which is being completed right now in Texas, has 16,641 surface acres and cost around a billion dollars to construct. Our third major project was the Lake Fork Reservoir, located north of Tyler, which was completed in 1981 and has 27,690 surface acres and a firm yield of 188,660 acre-feet. Toledo Bend and Lake Fork are considered two of the best bass lakes in America. Toledo Bend has been ranked the number 1 bass-fishing lake in the United States several times. The inaugural Toyota Bass Classic fishing tournament was held at Lake Fork in 2007 and has returned four more times. The next event, the Toyota Texas Fest fishing tournament, is scheduled for November 2020. Our canal system, which was our first project, is now almost 100 percent industrial, serving major corporations like Dow and Firestone as well as power plants. We actually sell less water today than back in the 1950s, when we were supplying rice fields. Today, there are no rice farmers left in Orange County. We currently employ 110–115 employees, depending on the season.

David Montagne: With an area of 7,426 square miles in the Sabine River basin, our customer cities and water districts stretch from Dallas down to Orange, Texas, on the Gulf Coast. Our industrial customers are located in Gregg and Rusk Counties in the upper basin and in Newton and Orange Counties in the lower basin. The Sabine River basin has a population of about 800,000; its biggest city is Longview, with about 80,000 people. Our customers include a lot of cities and water districts, as well as some industrial facilities. I’d say our total industrial sales are about 60,000 acre-feet per year, while our municipal sales are more than 400,000 acre-feet per year.

Our most northwestern customers are the City of Dallas and North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD), which are located in the Trinity River basin. We serve them with water from Lake Tawakoni and Lake Fork. Dallas and NTMWD provide water to over 3 million customers.

Municipal Water Leader: How large is your service area today?

Municipal Water Leader: How does the SRA raise money?

municipalwaterleader.com

Municipal Water Leader: Do you deliver raw water to those customers?

David Montagne: Yes. We are a wholesale raw water customer. We do a little bit of sewage treatment, but we do not have any water treatment plants. We control some of the pump stations, and some of our customers, including the City of Dallas and NTMWD, own and run their own pump stations on land we have given them.

July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

|7

ADVERTISEMENT David Montagne: We have no tax authority and receive no appropriations. In Texas, river authorities are relatively autonomous entities with governor-appointed, senateconfirmed boards, usually with nine members. The Texas Legislature’s Committee on Natural Resources and the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality have oversight over us.

We don’t have a monopoly; a lot of our cities and industrial customers could use groundwater or other surface water sources. We need to have willing buyers. Our contracts cover the costs of maintaining our reservoirs and

8 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SRA.

David Montagne: Our top issue right now is how to operate safely amid the coronavirus pandemic. We’re following Governor Abbott’s instructions on how many people to have in buildings and how to work safely.

Aside from that, we’ve got several projects going right now. We currently have a $75 million project to build a new pump station in the lower basin. The existing pump station dates back to 1934, making it hard to get replacement parts. The pump station also draws its water from a tributary that, over the years, has been receiving less water flow. We’re moving the pump station about 5 miles north to access the main stem of the river and putting in 7 miles of 66‑inch pipe to tie it back to our canal. The new pump station and pipeline will provide a new level of reliability for our customers. They will give us access to the total flows of the river. We’re also going to put in an extra retention reservoir, which will give us another 10 days of storage.

We’ve gotten hit by a lot of hurricanes, including Rita and Ike, and in 2016, we were hit by the biggest flood we had experienced since the reservoir was put in. We had to install temporary pump stations several times during these weather events. The new pump Toledo Bend Reservoir, which was completed in 1968, has two 40-megawatt water turbine generators. station we are building will be elevated, will have vertical operating our pump stations and pipelines. In a sense, we rather than horizontal pumps, and will be built well above don’t sell water—we sell the services of producing, storing, the water. We also recently completed improvements to and transporting water. the Toledo Bend spillway, which was damaged during the 2016 flood event.

Municipal Water Leader: Do you also have flood control We are also working on increasing recreational opportunities responsibilities? throughout the basin with the development and improvement of park facilities at our reservoirs. These recreational parks David Montagne: All the river authorities in Texas with will increase public use of the reservoirs and provide a venue reservoirs or lakes have some flood control abilities. Our for fishing tournaments that will help promote tourism and reservoirs were built on a shoestring budget and don’t have economic growth in the Sabine River basin. much flood storage. For example, the conservation pool In addition, we are dealing with some federal issues of our major reservoir, Toledo Bend, has a conservation right now. In general, legislation on the Waters of the elevation of 172 feet and goes into gate operations at United States continues to be a big issue. We’re also 172.5 feet. It was primarily built for water supply. Sam collaborating with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Rayburn Reservoir, a major U.S. Army Corps of Engineers the U.S. Department of the Interior on how best to evaluate project about 20 miles away, is a little bit smaller but was and protect threatened and endangered mussels. They’re primarily built for flood storage. currently evaluating them in the Rio Grande and in central Texas; East Texas will be next. We’re looking into how our Municipal Water Leader: What are the SRA’s top issues operations will be affected if the data justify a federal listing today? of several mussel species as endangered.

ADVERTISEMENT Municipal Water Leader: Are the mussels in your reservoirs, or just in the rivers?

David Montagne: They are in our reservoirs, the river, and even in our water supply canals. Mussels and their life cycles are generally poorly understood. The lack of scientific data complicates the evaluation process. We are currently evaluating how operating pump stations, canal systems, and gated structures may affect mussels.

Issues related to the operation of a federally licensed hydroelectric facility complicate an already difficult process. We don’t believe current data are sufficient to support a listing for the two species being evaluated. For example, in the previous 18 years, only 107 of one species had been found in the entire lower Neches River, but one of our fellow river authorities recently found over 100 in 6 days of sampling a 2.5‑mile stretch of their canal system. We’re working on some studies to fill in the gaps in the data and to get a better idea of mussel populations in the Sabine River basin. We’d like to get better data before a decision is made that might change the way we operate our reservoirs.

Municipal Water Leader: How is the COVID‑19 pandemic affecting your operations?

David Montagne: We’re being careful in our day-to-day operations. We are having our employees check their temperatures before coming to work so as to avoid spreading the virus. We have been lucky: None of our employees or their family members have tested positive. We’ve had a few get a fever, stay at home, and recover without meeting the criteria to be tested.

We’re doing most of our meetings through conference calls and other types of media that we have never used regularly before. We’re allowing high-risk people to work from home. We’re trying to have fewer people in any building at the same time and staggering when people come in and when they leave. In our lunch area or in conference rooms, we’re requiring people to stay 6 feet apart. Operations staff who maintain and mow the dams are allowed to go straight to the site without contacting other people. Texas is reopening public business with reduced occupancy, and most water districts are trying to limit the number of people in their offices.

Our area is mostly rural, although there are a couple of hotspots in our basin. There’s one county that has over five infected people per thousand, which is high—the Texas average is less than half a person per thousand. We do have four employees who live in Louisiana, so when the governor shut down the border, those four people worked from home.

David Montagne: We recently completed a major contract with the City of Dallas. The Lake Fork contract was renewed in 2014. We had been trying to negotiate the terms of that contract since 1991, and in 2014 we set a rate Dallas disagreed with. We were in court for 3 years, which cost millions of dollars. In October 2017, we came to an agreement and signed a 40‑year contract, which we’re happy with. The old contract included no provision for Dallas to help us build the next project, and the city was not paying any recreation costs. With the new contract, we’re now able to construct new parks and improve existing ones to bring them up to the standard of parks on most reservoirs in Texas. In addition, the old contract wasn’t a cost-of-service contract with depreciation return on capital—Dallas paid maintenance but no depreciation or return on capital. Our current contract lets us move forward with Dallas participating as a customer in our next projects.

The SRA has been out of water in the upper basin area due to the sprawl of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. We have plenty of water in Toledo Bend, but moving that water 150 miles and 200 feet in elevation is a billion-dollar project.

There are some reservoirs nearer to Longview that have some water supply for sale that we might be able to buy, which would cut down on the amount of pipe and electricity that would be needed to supply the upper basin.

At this time, Dallas’s contract represents 66 percent of our current water contracts and can be used to help pay for the SRA’s next project. That puts us in a situation in which we can now plan for the future. In Texas, we do water planning over 50 years. We had been sold out of water in Lakes Fork and Tawakoni for about 10 years. In the new contract with Dallas, we did get 12,000 acre-feet back, which has given us a cushion, but it may not last for long. We need to find the cheapest way to take care of future needs.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future of the SRA? David Montagne: Our main concern is our water supply.

Our number 1 job, as far as the State of Texas is concerned, is to supply water to the economy. You can’t have people move in or construct new power plants without available water supplies. Our main goal for the next 50‑year planning horizon is to find 50,000 acre-feet of water for the upper Sabine River basin at the best price possible. M

David Montagne is the executive vice president and general manager of the Sabine River Authority of Texas. He can be contacted at dmontagne@sratx.org.

Municipal Water Leader: What projects will you be working on in the future? municipalwaterleader.com

July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

|9

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

Serving the municipal community with PVC pipe through 60”

MISSION: For over 35 years, Diamond Plastics has been passionate about gasketed PVC pipe for water, sewer and irrigation applications. We take pride that our pipe is stringently tested and widely trusted th throughout the industries we serve. But we know our customers also depend on the personal support we provide from initial design through acceptance testing.

Diamond Plastics’ corporate philosophy is based upon continuous improvement through industry participation. Our staff is involved with continuing education programs for the design community, industry speciic committees such as ASTM, AWWA, CSA and HSB. In addition, Diamond Plastics has continuously supported the PVC Pipe Association for ov 20 years to further the educational tools of our over clients.

ADVERTISEMENT 3

2 4

Israel Water Education and Please save the date for the following scheduled tour, sponsored by Municipal Water Leader and Irrigation Leader magazines and operated by Imagine Tours and Travel, LLC.

Projected Itinerary

1

1 Arrival at Ben Gurion Airport and dinner in Netanya, Israel.

2 The group will visit the Caesarea National Park and see the Roman aqueduct and water cistern, proceed to Kibbutz Maga and visit the Netafim irrigation factory, and then go to the Megiddo National Park to see the ancient water system there.

9

5

8

6

3 The group will drive north to see two of the main sources of the Jordan River, the Dan and Banias Rivers; go to the Golan Heights to see the Syrian border and Mt. Hermon; and proceed to the famous Golan Winery for a tour and wine tasting. The day will end at the Sapir site near the Sea of Galilee, where water is pumped for the National Water Carrier, the water supply system that spans the length and breadth of Israel.

4 The group will depart Tiberias and drive to Mt. Arbel for an amazing panoramic view of the Sea of Galilee, drive to Mt. Gilboa and Kibbutz Maale Gilboa, and then proceed to Kibbutz Sde Eliyahu for an agriculture bio tour.

5 The group will visit the Mount of Olives for a beautiful panoramic view over the Old City of Jerusalem, then visit the City of David, including the Hezekiah Tunnel.

Brave participants can walk through the wet tunnel.

The other option is to walk along the dry tunnel to the Pool of Siloam, then drive to Armon Hanatziv to see the ancient tunnels that convey water from Solomon’s pool to the temple. The group will then enter the Old City to see the Western Wall tunnels, the Pool of Bethesda, and the Roman Cardo with its old wells. There will be an opportunity to visit the Church of the Holy Sepulcher.

7

12 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

municipalwaterleader.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Trade Tour Preview, June 28–July 6, 2021 6 The group will depart Jerusalem and drive to the Einot Zukim Nature Reserve, where there are freshwater springs and typical oasis vegetation and animal life. Next, in the desert next to the Dead Sea, which has salty water and no life at all, the group will proceed to the Ein Gedi Nature Reserve, where kibbutz members pump water for their mineral water factory. The group will then visit the world heritage site of Masada, where participants can walk the snake trail by foot or ascend via cable car to see King Herod’s fortress, an ancient synagogue, a Byzantine church, and the water cistern.

8 The group will depart Eilat and drive via the Ramon Crater to the Negev Desert Research and Development Center near Ashalim, which specializes in using salty water for agriculture.

The group will proceed to Kibbutz Hatzerim near Beersheba, the southern branch of the Netafim irrigation factory, and continue to the desalination facility in the Ashkelon/Ashdad region on the Mediterranean Sea. 9 We will hold a farewell dinner in Jaffa and then drive to Ben Gurion Airport for a night flight back home.

7 The group will depart the Dead Sea and drive via the Arava Desert Valley to the Yair Research and Development Agriculture Center and tour • meeting and assistance at Ben Gurion Airport on arrival the Center for Modern Desert Farming, one • transfer to/from Ben Gurion airport of the world’s most advanced. There will be a • licensed English-speaking guide for all transfers and guided visit to the experimental greenhouses and sightseeing days a presentation of agricultural inventions to deal • luxury air-conditioned coach with the challenges of desert soil and climate. The • entrance fees for all visits and tours group will then continue to the ecological Kibbutz • eight nights of hotel accommodation Lotan near Eilat and learn how it transformed • breakfasts and dinners at hotels and farewell dinner at sandy desert soil into a green and flowering organic local restaurant garden. Participants will learn basic organic and permaculture tips and practical solutions that the $4,707.00 per attendee (with airfare from Dulles airport) Center for Creative Ecology has developed over the $4,319.00 per attendee (without airfare) years to treat waste, raise healthy food, save energy, All posted prices, services, and destinations are subject to the and build naturally. Proceeding to Eilat, the tour terms and conditions of the participant agreement. group will visit a desalination facility that draws To view, please visit water from the Red Sea. http://irrigationleadermagazine.com/israel_tour/.

Irrigation Leader and Municipal Water Leader Magazines are published by Water Strategies, LLC. To receive more information about the tour and to reserve a participation slot, please email Tom Wacker at tom.wacker@waterstrategies.

Services Included

municipalwaterleader.com

July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 13

ADVERTISEMENT

If you have debris in your water... We can remove it.

International Water Screens Designs, Manufactures and Installs Traveling Screens or Fish Screening systems for your specific need.

CONTACT RICH GARGAN (661) 979-1815 iwsrich@sbcglobal.net

CHRIS GARGAN (661) 979-7206 iwschris@sbcglobal.net

JOEL IRVING (310) 614-4681 iwsjoel@sbcglobal.net

International Water Screens 11007 Ainswick Dr. Bakersfield CA 93311 w: internationalwaterscreens.com Phone: (661)-746-7959

ADVERTISEMENT

Our business is with water.

Our hearts are with SoCal.

Looking forward to better times together.

THE

METROPOLITAN

WATER

DISTRICT

OF

SOUTHERN

CALIFORNIA

ADVERTISEMENT

Why North Texas Municipal Water District Is Building the First Major Texas Reservoir in 30 Years

Construction of the dam embankment, raw water intake structure, raw water pump station, and spillway of the Bois D’Arc Lake Reservoir.

T

he North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD) provides treated water to 13 member cities and other customers across a rapidly growing region with a population of 1.8 million. It is currently working on the first major Texas reservoir in 30 years, Bois D’Arc Lake. In light of the population growth in its area, NTMWD is also looking into developing new wastewater treatment facilities.

In this interview, NTMWD Interim Executive Director and General Manager Rodney Rhoades tells Municipal Water Leader about the district’s history, current services, and plans for the future.

Municipal Water Leader: Please about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

16 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Rodney Rhoades: The state legislature created the district in 1951. There were originally 10 member cities that participated in the district. We began providing more services in 1956. We had a population of about 30,000 at that time. Since then, northern Texas has experienced explosive growth, and today we serve 1.8 million people in 80 different communities throughout the region. In 1973, we added the city of Richardson; in 1998, we added the city of Allen; and in 2001, we added the city of Frisco, so we now have 13 member cities. In accordance with our enabling legislation, our board has two members for each city with a population of 5,000 or more and one member for each city with a population lower than that. The City of Farmersville is the only one of our member cities that falls into the latter category, so we currently have 25 board members who handle district operations.

Municipal Water Leader: Who are the district’s customers?

Rodney Rhoades: We have approximately 34 customer contracts with nonmember cities, municipal districts, and utility districts.

Municipal Water Leader: Who are the end users of the water? municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NTMWD.

Rodney Rhoades: I have spent the last 35 years in municipal, county, and now public-sector water district work. My experience ranges from engineering and transportation to finance and ultimately executive leadership. I currently serve as the interim executive director and general manager of NTMWD. Our previous executive director retired, and I was appointed as interim director in mid-April. I’ve been with the district for almost 5 years now. I was previously deputy director for administrative operations, covering personnel, human resources, financial operations, and information technology and helping manage the lab for the district.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about the district and its current services.

ADVERTISEMENT Rodney Rhoades: We serve a combination of residential and commercial end users. We provide the treated water to our members and customer cities, and they deliver that water to residential and commercial customers via their own systems.

Municipal Water Leader: You mentioned that this is the first major reservoir in Texas in 30 years. How does it compare in size to other reservoirs that have been built in the last few decades?

Municipal Water Leader: What is the source of the district’s water?

Rodney Rhoades: By the standards of the Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), a major reservoir has a conservation storage capacity of 5,000 acre-feet or more.

The last major reservoir was built about 30 years ago. As for comparison in size, Lake Lavon has approximately 118,700 acre-feet of annual firm yield, while Bois D’Arc Lake will have approximately 121,000 acre-feet of annual firm yield. Even though Lavon has more surface acres than Bois D’Arc Lake (around 21,400 surface acres, compared with Bois D’Arc’s 16,641), the hydrologic properties of Bois D’Arc Lake mean its yield is comparable to that of Lake Lavon. The Upper Trinity Regional Water District is also constructing Lake Ralph Hall in Fannin County, which will have 39,200 acre-feet of firm yield annually.

Rodney Rhoades: We have multiple water sources. Back in the 1950s, we started with a single reservoir, Lake Lavon.

Lavon was and continues to be our workhorse in terms of its ability to provide raw water for us to treat at our treatment plants. In light of the growth that we experienced in the 1990s, we began securing water rights and the ability to draw water from additional reservoirs in the North Texas region. We also developed one of the largest manmade wetlands in the United States for water reuse purposes; that contributes to our resources as well. We’re currently in the process of developing Bois D’Arc Lake. It’s the first major reservoir in the state of Texas in nearly 30 years. It is a $1.6 billion project that includes the reservoir itself; pump stations; pipelines; and our treatment plant, which will be about 30 miles from the reservoir dam. The district will own and operate the reservoir and will be the sole water right holder. We also are partnering with the county that we are building the reservoir in to rebuild the roads and bridges that will be affected when we inundate the reservoir.

Municipal Water Leader: Would you tell us about the process of conceptualizing, planning, and permitting the Bois D’Arc Lake project?

Rodney Rhoades: We began planning the project back in the 1980s. After we identified the site for the reservoir, we began educating local governments on what we were planning to do and securing rights of way in small parcels. We began working on our permitting process in 2003, continued it while we were securing the rights of way, and ultimately got our 404 permits in February 2018.

Municipal Water Leader: How did the district go about raising the $1.6 billion for the project?

Rodney Rhoades: Once we finally had an idea of the cost and the scope of this project, we brought on Freese and Nichols to assist us with the planning and cost estimates. In 2016, once we had that finalized, we began partnering with the TWDB, which provides planning and financial support for water development in Texas, to prepare for our application for financing and to plan out the financing structure and the process for issuing bonds. We did it incrementally in three different issuances. That has yielded over $240 million in interest costs over the life of the bond. The TWDB also approved $1.477 billion in low-interest State Water Implementation Fund for Texas funding for Bois D’Arc Lake and associated projects. We are now partnering with the TWDB on other projects, and we are already seeing tremendous savings as a result, which helps us with the overall rates that we charge our members and customer cities.

In operation since 2009, the East Fork Water Reuse Project is the largest manmade wetland in the United States.

municipalwaterleader.com

July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 17

ADVERTISEMENT staggered their shifts and had them work in teams so that the same individuals always work on the same schedule. In the event that someone becomes infected, only their team will be required to isolate. This prevents the other teams that are operating and maintaining our systems from being exposed.

The governor of Texas recently extended the easing of the regulations prescribed by the Texas Open Meetings Act, which has basically enabled us to do our business via teleconference.

We are using Webex to hold board meetings and committee meetings. We had previously not had that ability because of the Open Meetings Act, and it’s been a bit of a challenge to get it all set up. However, it has been successful.

We have not had any employees infected, although some of our employees had to quarantine because of travel at the beginning of the crisis. I’m proud of the fact that our workforce is healthy. We’ve been able to adjust our schedules and accommodate to the changes this situation has required.

An aerial view of the construction of the Leonard Water Treatment Plant.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the district’s other top issues today?

Rodney Rhoades: Bois D’Arc is still in the construction stage, but we are getting to a point where we can make reliable predictions about the final completion of its construction. We have shifted gears and have started to focus on wastewater.

We began wastewater services for the region in 1972. To address the region’s tremendous population growth and the resulting growth in demand for wastewater services, we are developing a new regional water resource recovery facility in the northwestern part of the region. The permit for this project is one of the largest that has been issued by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality for this type of facility. We have partnered with the TWDB on that as well, and we have seen some tremendous savings as a result. On February 27, 2020, the TWDB approved $459 million in low-interest funding from its Clean Water State Revolving Fund program for the wastewater facility.

Municipal Water Leader: Are you looking into any wastewater reuse or recycling projects?

Rodney Rhoades: Yes; we reuse about 20 percent of the effluent that goes back into our streams and ultimately back into the river. We pull that effluent out of the river downstream and flow it through our wetlands project.

Rodney Rhoades: We have allowed most employees who can work from home—myself included—to do so. For those who must work on site, like operators and maintainers, we have

18 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Rodney Rhoades: I brainstormed with the staff a couple of weeks ago about the lessons we have learned during this crisis. We’re looking at creating some policies that will enable employees to work from home after this is over, and we’re looking at implementing technology that will allow us to stop relying on paper copies of documents for signatures or the approval process. We hadn’t addressed those issues before, but the crisis forced us to. I think that some of the changes we have made with technology, telecommuting, and scheduling will become commonplace as we go forward.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future of the district?

Rodney Rhoades: I am hopeful for the district. We were founded on a regional partnership with our member cities and have expanded from that. We can continue to evolve as the organization grows and looks for ways to improve efficiency throughout its operations. That will ensure that our member and customer cities are getting efficient, quality services. I hope that we can set the stage for continued growth within the region and continued partnerships throughout the state, including with the TWDB and the Texas Water Conservation Association. M

Rodney Rhoades is the interim executive director and general manager of the North Texas Municipal Water District. For more on NTMWD, visit www.ntmwd.com.

More information on Bois D’Arc Lake can be found at www.boisdarclake.org.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NTMWD.

Municipal Water Leader: How has the district changed its operations during the coronavirus pandemic?

Municipal Water Leader: Do you foresee retaining any of the changes you have made after the pandemic abates?

ADVERTISEMENT

Quality|Reliability|Service A STATE WATER CONTRACTOR IN PALM SPRINGS, CA

www.dwa.org

ADVERTISEMENT

Tom Kula: 6 Years of Accomplishments at North Texas Municipal Water District

T

om Kula recently retired as the executive director of the North Texas Municipal Water District (NTMWD).

After serving 32 years in the U.S. Army, Mr. Kula went on to serve people in a different way by spending 6 years at NTMWD, helping to ensure the 1.8 million people it serves had access to the vital water resources they require. In this second phase of his professional life, Mr. Kula tackled many challenges confronting NTMWD in its ongoing quest for new opportunities to fully serve the region.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

20 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Former NTMWD Executive Director Tom Kula.

poverty—something most Americans just cannot imagine.

I saw a young mother with a toddler, washing herself and her child with the water in a roadside ditch—an image I’ve never forgotten. They had no access to clean, safe water to bathe in or to drink. Readily available safe water is so important to public health. We are blessed and fortunate in the United States, and we should not take that for granted. I was proud to serve at NTMWD with our team of professionals to provide those essential services.

Municipal Water Leader: How did you hear about the position at NTMWD? Tom Kula: I was due to retire from the military, and when I mentioned to a friend that I was working on my résumé, he told me that NTMWD’s current executive director was retiring and suggested that I would be a good fit for the position. It sounded perfect, so I quickly applied, had multiple interviews, and was hired. I formally retired from the army, and about 3 weeks later, in May 2014, took over the executive director position.

Municipal Water Leader: Would tell us about your time at NTMWD and discuss some of the biggest tasks that you and the district worked on during that time?

Tom Kula: Over the past 6 years, we took on the opportunity to successfully lead and manage change. Our service area is one of the fastest-growing areas in Texas. When I started with NTMWD, the district was serving 1.5 million people. Today, just 6 years later, that number is 1.8 million. The population municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTOS COURTESY OF NTMWD.

Tom Kula: I grew up on the Illinois shores of Lake Michigan, in a small town called North Chicago, about 30 miles north of the city of Chicago. We lived by the lake, and I loved to swim and fish. Our family vacations always included visits to wonderful Midwest lakes. I’ve always been drawn to water. Later in life, I figured that out. Water is life!

I graduated from West Point Military Academy in 1982 as a civil engineer and spent 32 years in the U.S. Army, finishing up in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, where I retired as a brigadier general. That segment of my career ended 6 years ago, at which time I was in charge of the Southwestern Division of the Army Corps, which is headquartered in Dallas. That position had brought me to Texas, and because I liked the area, the people, and the weather, I retired here.

In that last position, I supported military construction and civil works projects across parts of five states: Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, southern Kansas, and southern Missouri.

Among those civil works projects were a total of 90 reservoirs in that five-state region, and I had the opportunity to visit a lot of the lakes that the Army Corps operated and managed, mostly for flood control but also often for water supply. When I was contemplating retirement, I realized I wanted a second career in the water industry.

When I became aware of the availability of the executive director position at NTMWD, I knew it was a perfect opportunity to continue to serve the public. I had always wanted to do something that involved water resources.

The district serves 1.8 million North Texans with essential services, including safe reliable drinking water, wastewater services, and solid waste services.

The opportunity to help provide essential services really mattered to me. Many years ago I saw something that left a lasting impression on me about how precious safe, clean drinking water is. During my army career, about 25 years ago, I was in Haiti. I was driving along one of the main roads in Port-au-Prince and was struck by the sheer level of

ADVERTISEMENT of our service area is projected to grow to more than 3 million by 2040. In light of this growth, major changes were required in terms of people, programs, and projects.

NTMWD’s 25‑member board of directors is made up of appointed directors from the district’s 13 member cities.

During my time as executive director, there was a need to add appropriate positions, people, and leaders to right size the organization and ensure that we could reliably provide the essential services needed to keep up with the growth. In 2015 and 2016, we added trained operators, maintainers, and engineers to adequately and safely operate our plants, maintain our infrastructure, and design and build for growth in the region. When the COVID‑19 pandemic hit, the district was well prepared to continue providing essential services. We had the right number of trained and willing people to continue operations. Earlier organizational initiatives prepared the district well for this.

The district was also in need of some critical programs, and I had the support of the board of directors to develop them. We started by developing a strategic plan. The district had a vision and mission, but it had not yet developed goals for the future or a road map for success. The board of directors and staff started that process immediately upon my arrival in 2014. Our strategic plan included a vision, a mission, five goals, and core values, all of which have been

updated along the way and remain in place today. It was a fun and productive exercise for the district.

Safety was the first major program improvement we wanted to focus on. Many of NTMWD’s missions and tasks are high risk. Our people work with chemicals, around high power, with large pumps and motors, and in enclosed spaces. They do a number tasks daily that can be dangerous if people are not focused and trained properly. We improved our safety culture and practices because of a commitment by NTMWD’s leaders and all its employees.

Next, we focused on an improved maintenance program and on implementing a fully computerized maintenance management system to schedule, record, and manage the preventive maintenance of our water, wastewater, and solid waste infrastructure. NTMWD has over 500 miles of pipeline and numerous large pumps and motors, and it operates 14 wastewater treatment plants, 3 transfer stations, and a large landfill.

A major outcome of this initiative was that it helped us respond to lingering deficiencies that had been identified by a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) review that had been conducted just before I started with the district.

We were able to successfully address and resolve those problems by the end of my first year with the organization.

A big part of it was simply following our maintenance plan,

NTMWD Wastewater System Leader Jenna Covington (far left) and Tom Kula (far right) with NTMWD’s first ever WEFTEC Operations Challenge team in 2016.

municipalwaterleader.com

July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 21

ADVERTISEMENT which in turn prevented overflows of our wastewater system, which had been one of the concerns noted in the EPA report. The result was that on the final review, rather than levying fines or initiating legal action against the district, the EPA issued a letter essentially noting the progress and urging us to keep up the good work.

In 2014, we projected a huge increase in construction projects to provide for growth, replace aging infrastructure, and implement new technologies to meet regulatory requirements.

We had to prepare for this surge in projects. In 2014, NTMWD’s capital construction program was funded at about $100 million a year in projects authorized. Just 5 years later, in 2019, the capital program had grown to $900 million—a nearly tenfold increase in expenditures. While the program included projects in water, wastewater, and solid waste, the vast majority were projects for water-related infrastructure. The capital program we had developed by 2019 was the largest in the district’s history. A huge thanks is due to Deputy Director for Engineering Joe Stankiewicz and his team.

Municipal Water Leader: Of all the things you worked on, what was the most significant challenge?

22 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Tom Kula: It’s a job anyone seeking a second career or even starting their first career should consider. I would recommend it to anyone graduating from high school or college or to veterans like myself. A career in water is something you can pursue with passion—water is life. For me, it was rewarding to be part of and to lead an organization that provides essential services. It is a career field that requires all levels of skilled employees. We need young men and women fresh out of high school who can go to trade school to become operators and maintainers. We need college graduates to be biologists, environmentalists, regulators, and engineers. Water is a growth industry. The sector needs visionary leaders to look ahead and plan for how to best meet the substantial waterrelated needs of future.

Municipal Water Leader: What were the most important lessons that you learned over your 6 years with NTMWD? Tom Kula: My 6 years at NTMWD provided example after example of how good people working together toward common goals makes the difference. There’s a quote from Mattie Stepanek I just love: “Unity is strength … when there is teamwork and collaboration, wonderful things can be achieved.” I was fortunate to work with a great group of people. I could see that there were already great leaders at the district when I got there, and we were able to build a team that is even stronger today.

I feel fortunate to have been part of something that really mattered. When I started in 2014, it was the fourth year of a major period of drought in Texas. During my first 6 months on the job, we had major water conservation requirements in place and no idea when it might begin to rain again.

We later shifted to wondering when it might stop raining, but that’s been good because it keeps the reservoir levels up. However, heavy rains can cause issues with wastewater systems, so there are tradeoffs. I truly experienced the full gamut of management issues that can affect a municipal water district, including drought, wet weather, operational changes, compliance matters, major state and federal permitting, and the oversight of the construction of a new reservoir. It has been the opportunity of a lifetime! When I departed, I thanked our district employees and board for the opportunity to ride for the brand. M

Tom Kula is the former executive director of the North Texas Municipal Water District. He can be contacted at twkula@yahoo.com.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF NTMWD.

Tom Kula: There were two main challenges. The first was the work with the EPA that I mentioned earlier. That turned out to be a success story for us. It’s important to accomplish our mission, but we also need take care of the environment at the same time. We worked closely with the EPA in the development of our action plan to make sure our wastewater systems were operating the way they should be, and we addressed all the areas discussed in its 2013 inspection. We had some real heroes who made this happen—Jenna Covington, our wastewater system leader, deserves a lot of credit for leading the team.

Our greatest challenge was also our greatest opportunity: the initiative to build the first major reservoir in the state of Texas in 30 years. When I arrived in 2014, the district had been working for a decade to get a permit for a new reservoir called Bois D’Arc Lake. We desperately needed it to provide water for our growing population. A team effort by the board of directors, the staff, and our consultants successfully achieved a state water rights permit in June 2015.

We successfully secured a federal permit from the Army Corps on February 1, 2018. Deputy Director for Operations Mike Rickman deserves a great deal of credit for his work and leadership over more than a decade, which made this possible. We immediately started the construction of all the major projects for the reservoir, and the district is now halfway to completing the reservoir. The total cost of the project is $1.6 billion, and the project includes a 2‑mile-long dam, a water intake, a pumping station, 60 miles of raw water and treated water pipeline, a water treatment plant, and the mitigation work required by our permits. The project has remained on schedule throughout and is set to be completed and delivering water to our region by spring 2022.

Municipal Water Leader: Do you have any advice for other professionals considering a second career in the water sector?

ADVERTISEMENT

Wa t e r S u p p l y • F l o o d P r o t e c t i o n • Wa t e r Q u a l i t y • R e c r e a t i o n

Follow us:

Enriching communities.

Improving the quality of life. www. t r w d . com

ADVERTISEMENT

San Antonio Water System: Diversifying San Antonio’s Water Portfolio

T

he San Antonio Water System (SAWS) was formed in 1992 to take over the functions of a number of water, wastewater, and water reuse entities in the San Antonio city government.

Today, it provides services to 1.86 million people across a 933-square-mile area. Over the last few decades, SAWS has worked to diversify San Antonio’s water supply, which used to rely solely on the local aquifer, so that it includes recycled water, aquifer storage and recharge (ASR), brackish groundwater desalination, and nonlocal groundwater piped in via a 142-mile pipeline.

In this interview, Donovan Burton, SAWS’s water resources and intergovernmental relations vice president, tells Municipal Water Leader about the agency’s work diversifying its water portfolio to ensure that it can serve the rapidly growing communities in the San Antonio–Austin corridor.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

Donovan Burton: After college, I began working for a San Antonio state representative in the Texas Legislature, focusing on a variety of legislative issues. I enjoyed the legislative and political process, but after 10 years, I was ready to move on. I was able to come on board with SAWS in 2006 as its legislative manager, working in Austin on SAWS’s many legislative and regulatory interests. Eventually, I became the chief of staff to the president and CEO of SAWS and then was promoted to the newly created position of vice president of water resources and government relations. SAWS had previously had distinct government relations and water resources staffs, but in our state, the two are so intertwined that the decision was made to combine them to enhance our overall effectiveness. That is the role I still hold today.

In this capacity, I also focus on compliance issues, including regulatory, water quality, and laboratory issues.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about SAWS and its history.

24 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

agencies within the city government, including a water board, a wastewater department, and a water reuse district. However, in the late 1980s and early 1990s, these distinct departments were finding themselves continually at odds with one another over resource allocation and overall policy direction. It got to the point where one department was threatening to sue another. At that point, city leaders convened a meeting of the competing interests to determine how to overcome these divisions and ultimately decided to merge the individual departments into one entity. This led to the creation of SAWS in 1992. SAWS is a hybrid of sorts: It manages itself, but it is charged with serving the needs of San Antonio.

To ensure that the city still has a voice in SAWS’s overall direction, the city appoints members to the governing board of trustees and approves our rates and bond offerings.

Municipal Water Leader: Is your area heavily urbanized?

Donovan Burton: Yes. A lot of the suburbs and exurbs of San Antonio are growing at a phenomenal rate. The I-35 corridor between San Antonio and Austin, which is about 80 miles to the northeast, is one of the fastest-growing regions in the nation. Eventually, the corridor will become one big metropolis.

Municipal Water Leader: What can you tell us about the source of your water?

Donovan Burton: Our primary supply has always been the Edwards aquifer, which sits right underneath our feet and flows artesian, making it an easy source to access. It is a regional aquifer, so other communities and individuals access it, as does the agricultural sector. Just north of San Antonio lie the municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAWS.

Donovan Burton: SAWS is one of the largest municipal water utilities in the nation. It serves an area of over 933 square miles with a population of 1.86 million, covering all of Bexar County and portions of Atascosa, Kendall, and Medina Counties. The service areas are established by state regulatory authorities. We have approximately 511,000 connections. Around 94 percent are residential; 6 are general class. SAWS also provides wholesale water to three water retail entities.

We focus on drinking water, wastewater, storm water, and reuse, but also manage a chilled water plant in downtown San Antonio. The water utility used to consist of several separate

The Agua Vista station helps distribute the water from the Vista Ridge pipeline.

ADVERTISEMENT cities of New Braunfels and San Marcos. These communities are experiencing rapid economic growth, a significant part of which is driven by tourism linked to their rivers, which are fed by the Edwards aquifer. With so many interested parties, there has been significant tension over the use of the Edwards aquifer for more than 30 years. Consequently, one of SAWS’s major objectives since its formation has been to diversify our water supply and lessen our reliance on the Edwards aquifer.

This initiative has been tremendously successful: While the Edwards aquifer was once our only water source, we now have nine different sources, ensuring that we will be able to meet our demands through 2070 and beyond.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about how SAWS diversified its water supply.

Donovan Burton: The growing tension over the use of the Edwards aquifer in the 1980s and 1990s was coming from all directions. Agricultural users were concerned about the rapidly increasing use of the aquifer by the fast-growing communities to the north and east of San Antonio, while downstream communities were pressuring San Antonio and other communities to curb their use of the aquifer. In addition, the Edwards aquifer feeds many local springs, which harbor endangered species. When a lawsuit was filed to protect these species, a federal judge directed the state legislature to address the situation; if it did not, the courts would step in to resolve the issue. The legislature responded to the challenge by creating an authority over the Edwards aquifer that capped pumping based on historicaluse averages. Entities wishing to access the aquifer had to register their historical averages with the authority and were prohibited from exceeding those levels.

Those were the reasons that led SAWS to begin its quest for alternative water sources. The first alternative water source was simply conservation, which is among the least expensive options. Today, SAWS is proud of the national leadership it has displayed in water conservation, and we are fortunate that our community embraced the effort and continues to do so today.

In the meantime, we also developed the nation’s largest direct recycled water system. We were able to effectively use this recycled water program as an economic development tool to help the city recruit Toyota, Microsoft, and others to establish operations in the San Antonio area.

Another sourcing project was to develop traditional groundwater sources. This actually became quite political.

Over the past 50 years, San Antonio has excelled at planning for its water supply needs, but it has not always been as successful in the execution and development side of the equation. A lot of that has had to do with the political dynamics in the state. There are substantial regulations designed to protect local groundwater resources from being accessed by entities outside the area, making this one of our more difficult alternative source ventures. municipalwaterleader.com

In the course of these efforts, we also developed the nation’s largest groundwater-based ASR program. In this program, we divert the excess capacity from our Edwards aquifer allocation and pump it into a different aquifer, the Carrizo aquifer, which is south of the city. The Carrizo aquifer serves as a type of water bank or savings account. Its balance is currently approaching 200,000 acre-feet, which is almost a year’s worth of supply for SAWS customers.

Interestingly, we have three source operations going at our Carrizo ASR site. First, there is the storage and recovery element. We can also draw from the Carrizo aquifer itself.

We have also developed a brackish groundwater desalination plant on that site, which we anticipate will eventually have the capability of producing up to 30,000 acre-feet a year.

That’s a major victory in terms of developing new water sources right here in southern Bexar County and has dramatically helped our diversification efforts.

We also developed another alternative supply project in Gonzales, Texas, about 70–80 miles east of San Antonio, called the Regional Carrizo Project. This was highly contested by local parties, who were worried we would pump too much water and affect landowners. We eventually worked through that by reducing the scope of the project and successfully showing that our use would not undermine that of the local users. Part of the overall effort included an agreement with another local utility that we will pump and treat the water all on one site and will purchase excess capacity when it is available. The agreement allowed local rates to remain stable and was positive for everyone.

Despite all these successes, we still needed another major water supply. We finally decided to engage in a public-private partnership (P3), which happens to be the largest in the nation. In Texas, groundwater regulation can be extremely volatile for water developers because of a permitting scheme that provides permitting anywhere from 1 to more than 30 years. The dilemma is that an entity may invest hundreds of millions of dollars in a project with a shorter-term permit only to have the permit revoked at the end of the term, leaving the entity saddled with debt and with no ability to produce water. We needed to avoid that.

Our P3 allows the private sector to take on the risk of this venture. We launched this initiative in 2011 by soliciting bids from the private sector and ultimately partnered with a consortium called Vista Ridge. Our arrangement is different from a traditional take-or-pay water contract, in the case of which if something happens, you don’t have to pay for the water but you still have to pay for the infrastructure. In our arrangement, the private partners agreed that if they can’t deliver a drop of water, San Antonio doesn’t have to pay for anything. It is a major risk for the private partners, for which we pay a premium in terms of higher rates for the water that is supplied. However, we have built that 30-year fixed cost into our plans. The San Antonio city council and the SAWS board of trustees signed off on the Vista Ridge project partnership in 2014, and the system came online July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 25

ADVERTISEMENT in April 2020. It is a 45-million-gallon-per-day (MGD) project and is projected to provide us with 50,000 acre-feet of water a year. While we will always continue to look ahead, these major initiatives have substantially relieved the pressures we were confronting a couple of decades ago and have contributed significantly to the city’s ability to grow its economy.

Municipal Water Leader: What are the dimensions of the new pipeline and what is the origin of the water it delivers to San Antonio?

Donovan Burton: It is primarily a 60-inch pipe and runs approximately 142 miles. To underscore the risk of this venture, the approximate cost of financing, permitting, and constructing the infrastructure, including 18 wells spread between the Carrizo and Simsboro aquifers, was about $930 million. The Carrizo aquifer is about 1,400 feet deep, and the Simsboro aquifer is about 2,500 feet deep in this area. The blend of water that the project delivers is about 30 percent Carrizo well water and 70 percent Simsboro well water, all of which is run through a high-service pump station where it is cooled, enhanced with a small amount of chlorine, and sent south to San Antonio through two intermediate pump stations.

Municipal Water Leader: Which private-sector partners did you work with?

Donovan Burton: The private-sector partners were led by Garney Construction, which is the primary equity partner, and other engineering firms, including Pape-Dawson Engineers, which is local. The consortium has brought on EPCOR USA to serve as the project operator. Originally from Edmonton, Canada, EPCOR today has a substantial presence in Arizona. The project also has an equity partner called Ridgewood Infrastructure; ultimately, Garney intends to turn the equity portion of the project over to it.

Municipal Water Leader: What are SAWS’s other top issues?

Donovan Burton: One issue is our wastewater consent decree with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

SAWS will be pushing over $2 billion through the local economy over the next 2 years. A substantial portion of that relates to wastewater-related initiatives, which in large part address this consent decree. They include upgrades, capacity increases, and the rerouting of some pipes. This enormous amount of wastewater work will improve our services, reduce overflows, and support the local economy.

Donovan Burton: When the pandemic first emerged, we carried out several changes, perhaps the most dramatic of which was the movement of about 60 percent of our

26 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future of SAWS? Donovan Burton: Our vision for the future is a commitment to continuing to lead in terms of optimizing our resources and making sure that we’re doing everything efficiently.

Also, our vision is that we remain on the leading edge of technology and treatment and that we continue viewing our expanded city’s future as intertwined with the interests of the larger region inclusive of communities in every direction.

We’re a regional community, and we have to continue thinking regionally. We will no longer think in terms of what’s good for San Antonio alone, but rather what’s good for the region. I think we will continue being a good local partner, but our perspective will take into account the whole community, which is San Antonio and beyond. M Donovan Burton is the water resources and intergovernmental relations vice president of the San Antonio Water System. He can be contacted at donovan.burton@saws.org or (210) 233-3632. municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF SAWS.

Municipal Water Leader: How has SAWS changed its operations in response to the COVID-19 pandemic?

workforce to remote working environments. Some still go into the office, and a significant number of crews still need to regularly access the office, laboratories, and other facilities or go out in the field for maintenance and repairs. Everyone has managed well, though it was somewhat jarring initially, since like many people, we were simply not fully prepared for this unexpected situation. One significant effort was ensuring that our computer systems were fully operational and that our virtual provider network was capable of carrying everybody.

Today, like many other U.S. companies, we have become accustomed to virtual meetings and conducting significantly more business over the internet and by phone. Our information technology people have been invaluable during this process. It has been helpful that regulatory agencies have been willing to ease some of the requirements that do not have an immediate effect on public safety.

I’d also like to mention our Mitchell Lake project.

Mitchell Lake is on the south side of the city. It used to be a wastewater treatment plant and is actually still permitted as a wastewater facility. We’re now transforming it into an internationally recognized birdwatching facility run by Audubon International. We have a set of wetlands nearby and plan to transform the wastewater treatment plant into a storm water facility with the help of regulators. The plan is to enhance what is already an outstanding site through wetlands improvement and expansion while building on its educational elements for student learning. It’s a major undertaking, and we are relying on state and federal help to improve this constructed wetlands treatment facility, which will double as a community amenity.

ADVERTISEMENT

A recent J.D. Power and Associates report found more EMWD customers were aware of their annual water quality report than any agency in the country.

EMWD is proud of its commitment to transparency.

Eastern Municipal Water District Water • Wastewater • Recycled Water www.emwd.org • Perris, California

Municipal Applications

Distribution | Wells, Pumping, & Booster Stations | Effluent | UV Dosing | Filter Balancing & Backwash | Recycled & Reclaimed

45%

The FPI Mag meter can save up to 45% in installation and ownership costs

The Ultra Mag®’s fusion-bonded epoxy UltraLiner™ eliminates problems with delamination and is ideal for applications near pumps, water wells, and other municipal locations.

McCrometer’s team of experts customizes all meters to best fit each application. From initial quote to product installation, McCrometer is your partner in flow measurement.

Since 1955, McCrometer has provided flow solutions for efficient management of the world’s natural resources, prioritizing listening to customers and serving their needs.

ADVERTISEMENT

Quality Flow Meters for the municipal water industry

Made in the USA for more than 65 years To learn how a McCrometer flow meter can work for you, visit www.mccrometer.com/muni

ADVERTISEMENT

Canadian River Municipal Water Authority: A Guaranteed Supply for North Texas

Sanford Dam and Lake Meredith.

A

native of the Texas Panhandle, Kent Satterwhite is only the second general manager in the more-than50‑year history of the Canadian River Municipal Water Authority (CRMWA). The CRMWA is situated in the Texas Panhandle and meets most of the raw water needs of its 11 member cities, which in turn serve nearly 600,000 people.

In addition to providing surface water from its Lake Meredith Reservoir, CRMWA has perhaps the largest groundwater rights holdings in the nation, ensuring its viability far into the future.

In this interview, CRMWA General Manager Kent Satterwhite tells Municipal Water Leader about the authority’s history and services.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your background and how you came to be in your current position.

30 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about CRMWA’s history.

Kent Satterwhite: CRMWA was created to provide its member cities and the citizens of the Texas Panhandle and the South Plains a dependable and safe source of municipal and industrial water. This is a semiarid region, and prior to the creation of CRMWA, the communities here relied solely on water drawn from the Ogallala aquifer. The first well in the aquifer in this area was drilled in 1911, and by 1953, there were more than 25,000 wells. Because soil and climate conditions in this area are not conducive to significant recharge, they were draining the aquifer at an unsustainable rate. That led people to start thinking about a dependable alternative.

Municipal Water Leader: After that need was identified, how did CRMWA emerge, and what are its services today?

Kent Satterwhite: The period from the initial vision to the creation of a fully operational authority covered more than 15 years, beginning in the early 1950s and lasting to the late 1960s. This initiative was led by committed and forwardthinking individuals across a vast area. CRMWA itself was ultimately formed by the Texas Legislature, which allowed the municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF CRMWA.

Kent Satterwhite: I’m originally from the Texas Panhandle.

After high school, I left the the area to pursue a civil engineering degree with an emphasis in water resources at Texas A&M University. I got distracted along the way and came to own and operate an excavation company and later a swimming pool construction company. I ultimately earned my degree later in life and began looking for water-related jobs close back in the Texas Panhandle, where I had grown up and where my parents and in-laws lived. I began by contacting local groundwater districts and ended up talking to John Williams, CRMWA’s first general manager. I have been

with the authority for 30 years now, and in 2001, I took over from him as general manager—the organization’s second.

ADVERTISEMENT 11 member cities of Amarillo, Brownfield, Borger, Lamesa, Levelland, Lubbock, O’Donnell, Pampa, Plainview, Slaton, and Tahoka to come together under this umbrella. Each member city has at least one director on CRMWA’s board, and those with a population of 10,000 or more have an additional seat. Today, our board of directors has 17 members.

CRMWA’s original project—building the Sanford Dam, which forms Lake Meredith, and a 358‑mile aqueduct— cost $84 million in the 1960s. The majority of this cost, aside from several million dollars that were tied to flood storage and recreational aspects of the project, was assigned to CRMWA’s 11 member cities and their approximately 600,000 residents. That debt was paid off in 1998.

I simply can’t overstate the importance of this water source for the region. Over the course of its history, it has saved about 3 million acre-feet of groundwater by supplying an alternative. Since the late 1990s, CRWMA has invested around $300 million in our groundwater project.

The John C. Williams aqueduct and wellfield system was completed in 2001. Since then, we have increased our water rights holdings more than tenfold and doubled the size of our well production capacity. This project was developed to enhance water quality by blending groundwater with surface water and to serve as a backup supply in times of drought.

Today, it is our main water supply.

Municipal Water Leader: Has CRMWA been able to keep up with population growth in the area?

Municipal Water Leader: Is the Ogallala aquifer the underlying source for your groundwater project?

Kent Satterwhite: In 2000, the lake depth was about 96 feet. By 2012, it had lost 96 percent of its water volume and fallen to a depth of just 26 feet. It was astounding to see how vastly the surface area of the lake had diminished.

In the ensuing years, drought conditions have improved, and we have enhanced our water management initiatives, including controlling saltcedar, a nonnative deciduous tree that consumes great amounts of water, and keeping the channel defined and clear to minimize evaporation and reduce the process of transpiration. As a result, the lake level today stands at 76 feet, so it has recovered significantly.

Nevertheless, like I said, the lake only has a firm yield of 40,000 acre-feet per year, and the reality is that we cannot even use that much due to its salinity. If we were to blend the full firm yield into our system today, the blended water would exceed the state’s secondary drinking water standards.

Kent Satterwhite: Yes, it is. We have nearly a half a million acres of Ogallala groundwater rights, which are associated with about 26 million acre-feet of water. Nevertheless, it is important to point out that the aquifer is, for all intents and purposes, nonrenewable in this region. Due to the arid nature of this area and the composition of the soil, there is only about a quarter inch of recharge each year. Almost any level of pumping from the aquifer causes the aquifer level to decline.

Municipal Water Leader: How many employees does CRMWA have?

Kent Satterwhite: Today, CRMWA has 44 employees, including people in the office doing things like billing and crews monitoring the dam, maintaining the aqueduct system, and conducting water level and water quality readings in the lake and the well field. We’re a pretty lean operation considering the vast territory and the considerable number of communities, businesses, and people we serve.

Municipal Water Leader: What is the distance from Lake Meredith to CRMWA’s farthest member community?

Kent Satterwhite: Brownfield and Lamesa are each about 240 miles south of our groundwater project. It’s a pretty good distance and traverses several different watersheds and river basins. municipalwaterleader.com

Kent Satterwhite: The original Bureau of Reclamation studies on Lake Meredith assumed that it would have a firm yield of 126,000 acre-feet. Today, we think that number is about 40,000 acre-feet. We’ve got excess capacity in the pipeline, to say the least, since it was designed with the 126,000 acrefoot figure in mind. That’s part of the reason that our more recent groundwater project made sense—we had that available capacity to provide water over a long distance.

Municipal Water Leader: Have CRMWA’s member communities continued to use water from the aquifer in addition to the water the authority provides?

Kent Satterwhite: Yes, they have continued to rely on the aquifer to supplement the water that CRMWA supplies, which covers approximately 70 percent of their overall needs—a little more or less than that, depending on the city. As I mentioned, CRMWA’s water portfolio does include some groundwater in addition to the water stored in Lake Meredith.

Municipal Water Leader: Have the periodic droughts in your area affected the level of Lake Meredith?

Municipal Water Leader: Why has Lake Meredith’s salinity increased?

Kent Satterwhite: Typically, lakes have levels of inflow that allow regular or constant flow-through; Lake Meredith does not. Because of our low inflows, we’ve never released water from Lake Meredith, except on one occasion when we were testing the gates. The only way water comes out of the lake is through our pumping and through natural evaporation.

Currently, we’re pumping approximately 10,000 acre-feet and evaporating anywhere from 30,000 to 40,000 acre-feet per year. As you know, when water evaporates, it leaves salt July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 31

ADVERTISEMENT and other solid minerals behind, so the only way that we can get any of those minerals out is through pumping. However, because pumping more than 10,000 acre-feet makes the groundwater–surface water blend too salty, we are in a Catch‑22 situation.

cities will get more efficient over the decades, so I can envision this groundwater lasting even longer.

Municipal Water Leader: Is any of the water from Lake Meredith available for direct irrigation, or is it reserved for your municipal members?

Kent Satterwhite: Without a doubt, infrastructure, and specifically, pipeline integrity. In late 2015 and again in early 2016, we experienced major blowouts of our 76‑inch pipeline. We started doing condition assessments of the pipeline by draining the system in sections and walking through the pipe with equipment that analyzes its condition, making notes of all the areas that showed significant corrosion. We’ve already dealt with the most substantial concerns, wrapping up that effort earlier this year. We will repeat an assessment of this level within a few years, focusing on the original sections of the pipe, particularly areas where we detected the beginning stages of corrosion during our first review. The situation with our smallerdiameter pipe is trickier. Some of our smaller-diameter pipe has been experiencing failures, but it is more difficult to assess—you can’t drain it and walk through it like you can with the large pipe. Some of this smaller-diameter pipe crosses naturally occurring salt areas in the southern part of the system and old oilfield-related salt on the northern end.

We have had several corrosion-related failures on that pipe.

Kent Satterwhite: No; there is no irrigation pumping from the lake. The water is available for the exclusive use of our municipal members. CRMWA is responsible for maintaining the dam and delivery system infrastructure required to provide water to its members, who then determine how to allocate it among their respective residential and industrial consumers. When CRMWA was formed, the cities negotiated the percentage of the annual volume that each would be assigned. For the most part, those percentages have remained consistent, although when our groundwater project came online, Amarillo bought a small percentage of Pampa’s allocation.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about CRMWA’s groundwater rights.

32 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future?

Kent Satterwhite: We believe in CRMWA. Our member cities all get along and share a common objective that they are uniformly committed to. Our vision is established and shared by each of the member cities. We have taken major steps to ensure access to the water that is the underlying objective of that vision, and we are in the process of ensuring that our infrastructure remains able to effectively deliver on that vision. In the longer term, it will be important to continue expanding the wellfield and related pipeline infrastructure. That initiative will consist of doubling the size of the wellfield and extending another 70 miles of pipeline—a project estimated to cost $250–$350 million dollars. This project is scheduled for later this decade, though circumstances could always alter that timeline. At any rate, looking back on the history of CRMWA’s success and considering the member cities’ commitment to the mission and the dedication of our board and our employees, I have every confidence that we will collectively continue to successfully fulfill CRMWA’s mission. M Ken Satterwhite is the general manager of the Canadian River Municipal Water Agency. For more information on CRMWA, visit crmwa.com.

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF CRMWA.

Kent Satterwhite: We believe that CRMWA has more groundwater rights than any other entity in the nation. That puts this region in an excellent position going forward. We started off with 42,000 acres of groundwater rights, and our plan was to blend groundwater with water from Lake Meredith to overcome the salinity issues we had started to confront.

However, around the time when that project came online, the lake levels started dropping drastically. Consequently, we were forced to start pumping the new well field tied to these groundwater rights at a much heavier rate than we initially anticipated. Simultaneously, the groundwater district started modifying its rules, largely because it had not previously been accustomed to an entity like ours operating at the level we were now having to operate at. To top it all off, competition for water rights began to emerge, mainly as a result of the businessman and financier T. Boone Pickens buying groundwater rights to resell to Dallas, San Antonio, and El Paso. These three major factors led CRMWA to the realization that it needed to expand its own portfolio of water rights to help sustain its future. In 2005 and 2006, CRMWA made substantial purchases of additional groundwater rights, and in 2011, we nearly doubled our portfolio with a purchase of rights from Mr. Pickens, effectively raising our total groundwater rights to nearly 500,000 acres. Today, we think we’re in a good spot. We’ll continue to focus on conservation and other approaches to enhance inflows to Lake Meredith. We believe that even if the lake were rendered unusable, these groundwater rights would provide us with 100–300 years of supply. However, the reality is that Lake Meredith will continue to provide water and the

Municipal Water Leader: What is CRMWA’s top issue today?

ADVERTISEMENT Having Assura as part of our day-today operations has enabled us to be far more effective and efficient with our asset management and safety.

Melanie Brooks, CEO MHV Water, New Zealand

THE ASSURA SOLUTION • Can track your assets’ life cycles and maintenance schedules.

• Can be used to track and manage thousands of inf rastructure installations, tools, and vehicles.

• Can increase eff iciency by grouping maintenance tasks by physical location.

WHAT IS THE ASSURA SOLUTION? The Assura solution provides for the efficient management of the day-to-day running of municipal districts, making the life of managers and staff easier.

Staff know what the tasks and assets are, what the priorities are, and they don’t need paper to complete them.

Proven in New Zealand.

Assura successfully helps one company deliver water for irrigation of 130,000 acres with just 8 people.

This, in turn, allows them and their managers to manage by exception, as only the tasks that haven’t been completed are escalated for attention.

www.assurasoftware.com/irrigation Phone: +1 (480) 477 9283 Email: hello@assurasoftware.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Eastern Municipal Water District's Full-Spectrum Safety Program

The Riverside County landscape from the air.

E

astern Municipal Water District (EMWD) provides water, wastewater, and recycled water services to nearly 900,000 residents of a rapidly growing area in Riverside County, California. Its significant size and wide variety of activities mean that its more than 600 employees are exposed to a number of on-the-job hazards, from heat to high-voltage electricity to work in confined spaces. To address this, EMWD has a well-developed safety, risk, and emergency management system that includes training, risk reporting, and the identification of all risks associated with its equipment.

In this interview, EMWD General Manager Paul Jones and Director of Safety, Risk and Emergency Management Doug Hefley tell Municipal Water Leader about the various aspects of EMWD’s safety programs.

EMWD for 30 years. I started in the operations division, and about 18 years ago, I began to focus on the safety and risk management division and started obtaining education in that field. I have a bachelor’s degree in business administration and criminal justice and have added extensive training in behavioral safety and risk management through the years, including a certification in emergency management.

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about EMWD.

Doug Hefley: I am currently EMWD’s director of safety, risk, and emergency management and have been with

Municipal Water Leader: What are the primary areas of safety concern for a municipal water district like EMWD?

Municipal Water Leader: Please tell us about your backgrounds and how you came to be in your current positions.

34 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

municipalwaterleader.com

PHOTO COURTESY OF LAKE PERRIS.

Paul Jones: I am the general manager of EMWD and have been here since July 2011. Previously, I was the general manager of Irvine Ranch Water District in Orange County for 12 years. I have about 28 years of experience in the water and engineering fields in both the public and private sectors. My career has focused on water resource project development, special district management, and related subjects. I am a civil engineer by training, having studied at California State Polytechnic University at Pomona, and I am a licensed professional engineer in the state of California.

Paul Jones: EMWD is a municipal water, wastewater, and recycled water service provider. We serve close to 900,000 residents of the southwestern portion of Riverside County in Southern California. The 555‑square-mile service area encompasses seven cities as well as unincorporated county areas. We serve about 150,000 water connections, approximately 246,000 sewer connections, and nearly 600 recycled water service connections. We have a little over 600 employees. We are a full-service retail and wholesale utility service provider and have a diverse residential, commercial, and production agriculture customer base.

This part of Southern California is a high-growth area. We have been growing at a rate of approximately 4,200 equivalent dwelling units a year, which means we are adding the equivalent of a small city to our service area annually. As a result, we have a substantial number of capital improvement projects, with about 30 construction projects active right now. That capital program is valued at about $472 million through the year 2024.

ADVERTISEMENT

EMWD's Circle of Safety program requires employees to place a cone behind their vehicles and walk around their vehicles to inspect them before they move the vehicle again.

Paul Jones: One of the guiding principles that form the foundation of our strategic initiatives and corporate culture is to protect the health and safety of our employees and the public, and to do so without compromise. That particular principle is the basis of our safety program and has been formally adopted by our publicly elected board of directors.

There is also a solid alliance between our labor union and our management team, which fosters a leadership-driven safety ethic. This is complemented by a comprehensive safety culture that is fully embraced by our staff. All staff members are committed to providing a safe work environment both for their fellow employees and for the community at large.

They complete robust safety-training programs and use the equipment and resources EMWD provides. This is critical because the water, wastewater, and recycled water business has inherent risks. For example, many positions require work in hazardous environments, including confined spaces, trenches, and construction and repair sites; the use of heavy equipment; or the handling of hazardous materials, including chemicals.

With these potential risks, it’s important that we embrace a comprehensive safety approach that ensures that employees return home healthy and uninjured at the end of every workday.

Municipal Water Leader: How is EMWD able to proactively deal with and reduce these safety risks?

Paul Jones: As I mentioned before, we have a vigorous safety culture, but that culture is not driven by mandates. We have tried to make it a culture that is promoted and supported by the staff and our board of directors. The most prominent example of this commitment is EMWD’s participation in the California Division of Occupational Safety’s (Cal/ OSHA) Voluntary Protection Program (VPP). We were the first water agency in the United States and the first public agency in California to be certified by Cal/OSHA as a Cal VPP star site, which is a top-tier safety certification.

The Cal VPP star site certification requires the awardee to implement the highest level of safety standards at all levels of the organization along with continuous improvement in safety programs and practices. As part of this, we undergo a multiday audit by a team of Cal/OSHA employees and professionals every 3 years. The audit includes detailed record municipalwaterleader.com

inspections, site evaluations, safety program efficacy reviews, and employee interviews. We’ve maintained our Cal VPP star site rating for 20 years, which is only possible due to the commitment of everyone from the board of directors to our individual employees. It also requires the support of an excellent, high-functioning safety and risk-management team, which is led by our director of safety, Doug Hefley.

Doug Hefley: One of the key points of the Cal VPP program is that it is built on continuous improvement. That is something we demonstrate to Cal/OSHA on a regular basis.

As an example, for decades EMWD used gaseous chlorine as a part of the wastewater treatment process. It provided essential disinfection and was cost effective, but it involved a significant risk for the employees who received deliveries and worked with the product. EMWD took the initiative a couple of years ago to decommission gaseous chlorine at all four of our regional water reclamation facilities and convert those facilities to sodium hypochlorite. The conversion significantly reduced the risks of leakage associated with transporting, handling, and transferring the chemical from delivery vehicles to our actual storage facilities. Maintaining the equipment also became much safer, and we’ve found that sodium hypochlorite is much more readily available. The transfer required a capital investment of about $7 million and has increased our operating costs by about $2 million dollars annually, but it was important for the safety of both our employees and the public that we serve. Now it is helping us avoid significant cost increases, as the industry is becoming more aware of the risks involved with gaseous chlorine.

We also have a well-organized joint labor-management safety and health committee that meets monthly to look at potential areas for concern on safety issues. We also have a safety council, comprising department heads and their superiors, that meets at least quarterly to discuss safety concerns and ideas. The safety council assesses injuries and accidents that have taken place and looks at how we can continue moving our safety program forward.

We also ensure that our safety training compliance remains at 95 percent or above on a regular basis. This means that every employee, supervisor, manager, and director is actively involved in making sure they and their July/August 2020 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER

| 35

ADVERTISEMENT staff members are properly trained. We perform job safety analyses to confirm that resources are available for staff to perform their jobs in a safe manner.

EMWD also has a significant contractor safety program.

EMWD’s inspection team members are all trained to a high level not just on how to inspect project sites, the materials being used, and the methods, but also in the area of safety. They are empowered to work with contractors to provide assistance if needed and to recognize excellence on the job site.

Another program EMWD instituted is Safety Best Practices, which promotes a new safety practice every month. One example is what we call the Circle of Safety program. It requires employees to place a cone behind their vehicles and walk around their vehicles to inspect them before they move the vehicle again. This proactive use of a leading business practice significantly reduced the number of accidents involving moving vehicles.

We also use a proactive approach in all the areas in which we work. For example, when we design new facilities, we do a preuse safety analysis before building begins. We review any safety deficiencies that those types of facilities have had in the past so we can improve them. We ensure not only that the new facilities will be constructed according to good practices, but also that the end users of those buildings— wastewater treatment plant or water distribution operators, for instance—will be safe on the job.

Municipal Water Leader: In what ways has technological change changed the safety risks that EMWD employees deal with?

Doug Hefley: There are areas of technology that can lead to increased risk and to decreased risk. We use technology to enable employees’ participation in EMWD’s prevention program. For example, our program involves reporting near-miss incidents or unsafe conditions and making safety suggestions. All that can be submitted online by employees through a transparent process where possible issues are first received and evaluated by the safety and risk management division and then evaluated by the district’s safety committee.

Reports of unsafe conditions and near-miss incidents are assigned to the appropriate department head for resolution.

The technology allows us to ensure that we’re not just receiving these concerns but that we are correcting them within 30 days. It allows employees who submit items to see the status of their reports. It also gives us the ability, if we were to have an unsafe condition reported at one facility, to communicate this information to the rest of our facilities so it is corrected throughout the organization.

We also recently acquired software that will help EMWD to perform equipment-specific lockout block out procedures. This is a process in which each individual piece of EMWD equipment is identified, and then the risks and hazards associated with it are outlined in a step-by-step process. This program allows EMWD to standardize the approach that we’re using to identify hazards

36 | MUNICIPAL WATER LEADER | July/August 2020

and create proper preventative measures. It will ultimately result in a document that is used at all EMWD facilities, so employees will be able to walk into any facility and find a standardized document for effectively shutting down or starting up the equipment stored there. EMWD has more than 15,000 pieces of equipment that will go through this process.

Municipal Water Leader: What kinds of safety training does EMWD provide to its employees?

Doug Hefley: EMWD has a customized safety training program. Instead of assigning generic trainings to all employees, we look at the duties required for each position and the risks and safety conditions involved with those positions and assign training based on that. Our areas of safety training include heat illness (our part of Riverside County often experiences temperatures above 100 degrees during the summer), lockout block out, confined space entry, construction activities, construction sites, general electrical safety, and NFPA 70E high-voltage training.

Municipal Water Leader: What is your vision for the future when it comes to safety and risk management at EMWD? Paul Jones: It’s paramount that EMWD continually improve its programs and embrace new technologies, safety measures, and methods. We want to be innovative in our approach to injury and illness prevention and to continue leading the industry in this area. We also want to be responsive to emerging safety and risk topics. For example, we have invested in understanding cybersecurity implications to employee and public safety and developing risk mitigation. EMWD’s commitment to innovation and continuous improvement sustains a sense of enthusiasm for our safety culture that lasts from when an employee walks in the door until they retire and leave.

Doug Hefley: We have many employees who come up with great ideas for improvements, and it’s important to EMWD that they are recognized for safety excellence within the organization. We’ve done a good job finding significant ways to celebrate them, but in keeping with EMWD’s culture, we want to continuously improve in that area. M

Paul Jones is the general manager of Eastern Municipal Water District. Doug Hefley is EMWD’s director of safety and risk management. For more about EMWD and to contact Mr. Jones and Mr. Hefley, visit emwd.org. municipalwaterleader.com

ADVERTISEMENT

Bridging the gap between idea + achievement At HDR, we’re helping our clients push open the doors to what’s possible, every day. We can help you navigate the complexity of planning, designing, constructing, managing and operating your water supply facilities.

Contact Us: Blaine Dwyer | blaine.dwyer@hdrinc.com

hdrinc.com

ADVERTISEMENT

ADVERTISEMENT

New Revenue Stream Cost Effective

High Energy Output Low Impact

COVID-19 is hurting everyone

Emrgy can help reduce the financial strain Buy 40kW of modular hydropower – get a free upgrade to 50kW* Buy more than 50kW – get complementary O&M for two years* u Canal-friendly, hydropower turbine modules that don’t affect your waterflow u Installation is easy - no site work or permits u Modular and scalable power generation 5kW - 1MW

Learn more about our technology and our special limited offer to help you and your customers in these difficult times.

We’re all in this together.

*Email Sales@Emrgy.com for details.

www.Emrgy.com

Upcoming Events CANCELED: July 7–9 North Dakota Water Users Association, Summer Meeting, Grand Forks, ND (possible virtual training sessions TBD) July 8–10 (new date) P3 Water Summit (virtual event) POSTPONED: July 14–16 Hydrovision International, Envisioning a Hydro Future, Minneapolis, MN CANCELED: July 15 North Dakota Rural Water Systems Association, Summer Leadership Retreat, Medora, ND July 28–31 (new date) Association of California Water Agencies, Spring Conference and Exhibition (virtual event) July 30–31 (new date) National Ground Water Association, Workshop on Groundwater in the Northwest (virtual event) August 3 Nebraska Water Center/Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources/North Platte Natural Resources District, Nebraska Water Conference: Irrigation in a Water-Deficit Region, Scottsbluff, NE (August 4–5: optional water tour) CANCELED: August 4–8 National Water Resources Association, Western Water Seminar, Spokane, WA August 25–27 Colorado Water Congress, Summer Conference and Membership Meeting, Steamboat, CO September 14–16 WaterPro Conference, Phoenix, AZ September 14–16 (new date) WESTCAS, Annual Conference, San Diego, CA September 15–17 Husker Harvest Days, Grand Island, NE POSTPONED: September 22–24 Irrigation Australia Conference and Exhibition, Sydney, Australia POSTPONED: September 22–28 International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, 24th Congress and 72nd International Executive Council meeting, Sydney, Australia September 27–29 Nebraska Natural Resources Districts, Annual Conference, Kearney, NE October 19 Utah Water Users Association, Annual Summit, Provo, UT October 21–23 Texas Water Conservation Association, Fall Conference, San Antonio, TX October 26–29 American Water Works Association, CA/NV Section Annual Fall Conference, Las Vegas, NV November 17–19 (new date) Hydrovision International, Envisioning a Hydro Future, Minneapolis, MN

Past issues of Municipal Water Leader are archived at municipalwaterleader.com.

To sign up to receive Municipal Water Leader in electronic form, please contact our managing editor, Joshua Dill, at joshua.dill@waterstrategies.com. /MuniWaterLeader

municipalwaterleader.com

@MuniWaterLeader