Making good on his 2022 campaign pledge, Mayor Craig Berdie led off January 18, 2023, City Council meeting by proposing a water task force for Council discussion and hopefully, their favorable decision at a future meeting. The focus of Mayor Birdie’s proposed water task force was to help ensure that the City has a long-term, sustainable water supply. The proposed task force would be appointed by, and report to, the City Council, and would have a year to report to Council on its findings/recommendations.
Mayor Birdie’s 5 – 7 member task force would consist of City staff, Public Works & Streets Commissioners, and Yachats area citizens, all with an interest or expertise toward water, and would also include various water-related experts as advisors. The task force would collect water-related data and climate projections for determining estimated future water availability, as well as data on current City water supplies, system demands, and future use projections. The task force would then identify and analyze practical solutions to ensuring City water supply sustainability, including dollar costs to implement and maintain, and potential grants for financing implementation and long-term maintenance. Solutions could range from enhancements to the City’s current water system, including the Yachats River watershed, to cooperative efforts with regional water systems and supplies.
[Early in the summer of 2022, a similar water sustainability committee had been proposed by View the Future (VtF) for City Council consideration. Although supported by Public Works Director Rick McClung and the Public Works & Streets Commission, the proposed committee failed to obtain the support of newly-hired City Manager Heide Lambert and was withdrawn by VtF.]
While stating overall staff support for a City water sustainability goal, City Manager Lambert expressed serious concern with the Mayor’s proposed task force, particularly the burden she said it would place an already burdened City staff. Councilor Greg Scott agreed. According to Manager Lambert, Public Works Director Rick McClung has been focusing much of his time on improving the City’s future water supply. For example, he and the Public Works & Streets Commission had been discussing the City becoming a client of Southwest Lincoln County Water Peoples’ Utility District (SWLCWPUD) as a possible solution.
Mayor Birdie continued to urge Council consideration of his proposed water task force, and City Manager Lambert said that, if so directed by Council, she and her staff would review the task force proposal and prepare a written report on its usefulness to their work. All Councilors stated in the meeting that water supply sustainability is a key goal of theirs, although how sustainability is approached is not currently a matter of Council consensus. It was clear though that both City Manager Lambert and City Councilor Greg Scott favored a future City connection with SWLCWPUD. The Mayor and Councilor Greg Scott agreed that the City’s 2021 Water Master Plan was inadequate in a number of ways and should be revised in the near future.
VtF supports the Mayor’s proposed water task force because it is to be charged with careful identification and analysis of practicable solutions to City water supply sustainability, including helpful recommendations. We are also concerned with the rate at which the City appears to be moving to establish a formal client relationship with SWLCWPUD to solve the City’s future water supply issues with what we believe is limited comparative analysis. Adequate information on the City’s current emergency agreement with SWLCWPUD, and the PUD’s water supply and distribution system, was unavailable to the City’s consultant when preparing the 2021 Water Master Plan, and therefore the Council’s adopted Plan lacked careful analysis of this interconnect for helping with an informed decision. VtF will continue to follow the Council’s consideration of Mayor Birdie’s proposed water task force, and await City staff’s formal report on its usefulness to their work.
by John Theilacker, Cochair, View the Future
