From Mayor David King September 2014

From Mayor David King September 2014 2013 Audit The State has completed its audit of the City for fiscal year 2013. The auditors found the City’s financial condition to be improving and in compliance with our policies. There are no Findings or Management Letters in this year’s report (hooray!) In addition to the annual Financial Audit, we had an Accountability Audit this year that paid specific attention to our travel and cost recovery policies. Cost Recovery is how the City allocates centralized operational costs - facilities maintenance and payroll for instance - to the City operations that use them. Though we don’t have a full year’s experience with cost recovery the auditors were able to review our work to date, which they found thorough and proper. They’ll have a chance to audit a full our 2014 performance next year but it was important to verify that we were on the right track be- cause cost recovery has been a concern of prior audits. Other topics included questions about the City’s bid process for capital projects and concerns that the City’s rent subsidy of the KPTZ radio station and the Recyclery at Mountain View might be a gift of public funds (received on the SAO website hotline.) In both cases the Auditors determined that the City was acting properly – the deter- mination that we are providing public benefit at Mountain View being particularly relevant to our efforts there. Water Quality There continue to be citizen concerns about our water quality stemming from notice that we will print quarterly in these newsletters as part of our Health Department-approved plan to manage the watershed until secondary treatment is in place in 2016. To clarify: The quality and safety of the City’s water supply have not changed since the modifications that we installed in the 1990’s to increase the contact time for chlorine. Chlorine protects us against all but one of the pathogens that occur in our watershed - the oocysts of Cryptosporidium are highly resistant to chlorine disinfection. Jefferson County Health Officer, Dr. Tom Locke, describes Cryptosporidiosis as an unpleasant, short-term illness that usually clears up on its own in healthy individuals. However, for people that are immunocompromised, as well as for the very young or very old, it can be a more severe and dangerous disease. We do know that people are living longer and the numbers of those surviving with compromised or underdeveloped immune systems is increasing significantly. This is the reason that federal drinking water standards related to water treatment have become more stringent and why public water systems that rely on surface water sources that do not yet meet those standards are required to notify customers with language that may be alarming to some. We tested for the presence of Crypto from March 2008 through February 2010 and monthly from March of 2013 through February 2014 and quarterly since May. One sample in February of 2009 included a single oocyst of Crypto. No case of Cryptosporidiosis has ever been traced to city water, and there is no indication of increasing amounts of Crypto in the watershed. The City will spend $12+ million to physically stop Cryptosporidium by adding filtration to our system. We will continue to test for Crypto and run the required notice in our utility bill newsletters until filtration is in place in 2016. A River Runs Through Us Let’s stay on the river for a bit - our Olympic Gravity Water System (OGWS) is a wonderful thing. But though gravity does the work its operation and maintenance are not without cost or complexity. First of all we have to go a long way to get the water. It rains less in our dry corner than elsewhere on the Olym- pic Peninsula, way less than where I grew up in Maryland for instance. And major rivers – the Elwha, Dose- wallips, Dungeness, Duckabush, etc. don’t pass nearby. So we take water from the Big Quilcene River via a “diversion” located in the National Forest 8.6 driving miles from downtown Quilcene at 1023 feet elevation. The City and the Paper Mill working together built our current 29-mile pipeline in 1928 for $750,000. Since modernized with all steel pipe, much of it was originally built of two-inch clear fir staving held together with iron band clamps. Last year the City spent $4 million just to install new valves and 1400 feet of replacement plumbing at City Lake. In 2000 it was estimated that replacing the entire OGWS pipeline would cost $54 million. We must leave enough water flowing in the river to support salmon. As I’m writing this the stream flow in the Big Quilcene River is 66 cfs (cubic feet per second). It averages about 120 cfs daily over the course of a year but can vary from 24 cfs to over 3000 cfs during major floods. Though our state water right allows us to take up to 30 cfs from the Big Quilcene our National Forest Service Permit – required for the OGWS to cross federal land – requires that at least 27 cfs remain in the river. This summer the City is using about 1.7 million gpd (gallons per day) and Port Townsend Paper is using about 10 million gpd (used to be 12, working towards 8). Flows in the river are measured as cfs, but in pipes as gpd. (Very annoying. Pick one, why don’t they.) One cubic foot per second equals 646,317 gallons per day. So that’s about 18 cfs for City needs, including the Mill. Consequently at stream flows lower than 45 cfs something has to give. We augment our capacity with a water right at a much smaller diversion on the Little Quilcene River (9.56 cfs water right with 6 cfs minimum requirement for in stream flow) but even with that addition it is routine for stream flows to drop low enough to require us to draw down our reservoirs and for the Mill to reduce water use for a period (the lease terms require that the Mill reduce usage if necessary to keep the City supplied.) The system is buffered by the reservoirs at Lords and City Lakes and there is usually ample water for our needs and for future growth. But flow rates vary widely and have sometimes dropped below what is required for normal operation during late summer and early fall when we are waiting for the start of our rainy season. We are truly tied to and dependent upon our environment and the consequences of climate change in the watershed. As a provision of their lease of our water system Port Townsend Paper maintains the pipeline and staffs City Lake and the Big Quilcene diversion 24/7. Run of the Mill Wouldn’t it be nice to attract a major manufacturing operation to our community that maximizes the use of our local resources like our water supply? Ideally it would provide family wage jobs for about 300 people. For sustainability it should depend as much as possible on recycled or waste materials for manufacturing and energy generation – say at least 90%. Maybe we could find one that recycles the water twelve times in its manufacturing process, thereby reducing resource demand by more than 100 million gallons per day. And of course it would need to treat and clean the wastewater until, under strict environmental controls, it could be discharged into Port Townsend Bay. And we need businesses that export goods and services in order to generate the community’s wealth we work to retain by buying locally, so this business should sell nationally or internationally. Port Townsend Paper does all this already. It’s not just that I think the benefits of the Mill outweigh the negative impacts, though I do. Or that the Mill re- mains an appropriate operation for our community due in part to the partnership on our water supply, though I think that as well. I am also glad that we make something locally that is used all over the world – kraft paper in this case. Certainly we must call for efforts to minimize impacts and improve sustainability – I’m no fonder of the smell of sulfur dioxide than anyone else. And we can’t guarantee the Mill’s business success. But when I check messages on my iPhone or ride my bike to work, or monitor the power generated by my solar panels I’m aware that providing the things I constantly use impacts other communities that have the chemical plants, data farms and giant warehouses that produce them. There’s less and less of “somewhere else” on our little blue planet and being home to the Mill, and the opportunity to do so responsibly, is our portion of the global manufacturing system that provides goods and services to humanity. The Mill’s lease of the City water system is up for renewal in 2020. Watch Some Television The simplest and most accessible description of human contribution to climate change I’ve seen is episode twelve of the 2014 television series Cosmos entitled “The World Set Free.” I think it should be translated into every language and watched around the world. It’s fascinating, entertaining and, most importantly, not so much a lament as a call to understanding and action. At more than 7 billion population it is estimated that 6 to 10 percent of all the humans that have ever lived are alive today. The national and international responses to the impact of the planet’s most adaptable species will feature headlines and major policy decisions.

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