Title
Options for the Long-Range Water Supply Plan
Recommended Action
I move that the Board of Public Utilities approve Option 1 to proceed to amend the contract with Daniel B. Stephens to revise the Long-Range Water Supply Plan to satisfy the Council motion and update all water data.
Staff Recommendation
Staff recommends that the Board approve as presented.
Body
DPU presented the Long-Range Water Supply Plan to County Council on March 21, 2017 for adoption. Council rejected the plan as presented by the following motion.
"Council reject the plan as presented and ask the Board of Public Utilities to correct the wording concerning LACWU which should be Incorporated County of Los Alamos and to revise the wording regarding use of San Juan Chama water rights to make clear that it is a last contingency and where the actual well to be drilled is at a location to be determined in the future."
Staff provides the following options for the Board of Public Utilities consideration.
Option 1- Proceed to amend the contract with Daniel B. Stephens to make the necessary changes to the plan to satisfy the Council motion. In additon, due to the length of time that has elapsed in gaining approval of the plan, update all water data to include 2016 data. Approval of the plan will now take place in the fall of 2017 and the Office of the State Engineer will likely not accept the plan based on data that is not current (currently incorporates up to 2015 data). We will request updated LANL water projections, in light of the proposed super computing project with projects significant increases of electric load in 2020 and 2025. The estimated cost for this level of effort by DB Stephens is $24,102.00
Option 2- Proceed to amend the contract with Daniel B. Stephens to make the minimum necessary changes to the plan to satisfy the Council motion. The estimated cost for this option is $13,373.00.
Option 3- Defer updating the plan until the lease for LANL water rights and the water service contract with LANL are finalized, which will be approximately 2-3 years. There would be no operational consequences and the current draft of the plan provides adequate data and analysys to guide water resource planning efforts for the next 3 years. The 2006 plan remains on file with the OSE.
Staff recommends Option 1 and this is reflected in the recommended motion.
Proposed schedule:
May 2017 - Utility Board Approve DBS&A contract amendment
June 2017 - Gather the new data
August 2017 - DBS&A to update the plan
September 2017 - 30 day public comment
October 2017 - Utility Board and Council
Background: DPU contracted with Daniel B. Stephens & Associates, Inc. (DBS&A) to revise the Long-Range Water Supply Plan using the original format and data from the Council-adopted 2006 Long-Range Water Supply Plan as a starting point.
The revised Long-Range Water Supply Plan was presented at a public meeting on November 15, 2016, to the Board of Public Utilities on November 16, 2016 and to the County Council on November 29, 2016. On February 15, 2017, the updated plan was presented to the Utility Board. After presentation of the revised plan and discussion of the comments received from the public the Utility Board took no action and asked that the plan be presented for approval in March 2017. The Plan was approved by the Utility Board on March 15th. Council rejected the revised Water Plan on March 21, 2017.
Alternatives
Alternatives are presented in the body.
Fiscal and Staff Impact
Increase in contract with DBS&A in the amount of $24,102.00.
Attachments
None