See the agenda for the list of topics. It was taken out of order to accommodate public comment.
There will be a regular meeting Saturday at 1pm at the Hope Brown Center. Hot topics on the agenda are likely to be budgeting / rate-setting, and the financing and engineering needed to comply with Department of Health mandates to clean up the drinking water, along with the usual housekeeping agenda items.
The “hot topics” should include:
As usual there will be routine topics, such as approval of prior minutes, accounts payable, system status, public comment, etc.
The full agenda has been posted on the Secretary of State site.
There are rumors floating around that “PIWD is at the top of the state’s list for funding”, or that “the west side is getting a million dollars”, or such.
Some of these rumors may be based on the state’s Project Priority List (locally hosted copy of 2021 list). This list in fact shows PIWD’s project at the top of the list, but without a dollar amount because we have not yet completed an application. Prudence Park Water Co-op (the west side system) is farther down the list with a request of $1.2 million for “Well, Storage Tank, Pump House Impr., Distribution Replacement”, which sounds like a complete system overhaul to me.
In order to respond to a letter from the state proposing a Second Amended Consent Order, the PIWD is having a special meeting at 1pm August 1, at the Hope Brown Center.
This meeting could be particularly significant. The state is requiring chlorination to kill fecal bacteria and greensand filtration to remove iron and manganese. If done properly this could be a blessing, as we’ll be able to drink the water, and use it for white laundry. However, we need significant changes to the consent order or the system will be quite expensive, for no good reason. So the approach we choose to take with the state, and their response, will be the key to the future of our system.
As usual, if you are interested in seeing the meeting list or signing up for alerts, visit the Secretary of State web site.
The July (2021) samples have been tested and PIWD water is once again positive for Total Coliform.
There’s not much to say about it that hasn’t already been said… the cross-connection control plan did not put an end to contamination of the water, nor did all of the corrective actions from a handful of Level 2 Assessments. DOH is still demanding disinfection; stay tuned for more on that.
A long time ago, human activity was only possible where sufficient water was present and naturally accessible, in springs, streams, and shallow wells. Reliable springs were quite desirable, as the water is naturally filtered by the soil and is much clearer than the surface water found in creeks and ponds. Prudence Island was likely once this way; the Indian Spring (below) may have been used for hundreds or thousands of years as a source of (relatively) clean water.
The Prudence Island Historical & Preservation Society can probably tell you much more about the old days, but the focus of this article is on much more recent technology; events and incidents remembered by people alive today. People of course desire running water in their homes, and at some point, technology permitted electric pumping of water. The Indian Spring Dug Well was the facility that previously got the job done, sporting a variety of pumps of various flow rates and fuel sources.
Several people on Prudence Island recall that the water came from this well when they were younger, and that it seemed cleaner than the water we experience today, and naturally wonder why this well is no longer in service. The short answer is that in the late 1980s, the federal government passed the Surface Water Treatment Rule. Water taken from the streams, ponds, or shallow wells is “surface water”, or “ground water under the direct influence of surface water”, and must be extensively treated to prevent waterborne diseases such as giardia lamblia and cryptosporidium. Water regulated under the less demanding “groundwater rule” must be from a depth of at least 50 feet, and Indian Spring Dug well has a depth of approximately 8 feet.
Rather than deal with “surface water” treatment, the Prudence Island Utilities Corporation (predecessor to today’s Prudence Island Water District) decided to drill deep rock wells, and in 1995 the current Indian Spring wells were brought on line.
Initially, the wells produced plenty of water, and the water was of good quality. However, it was soon noticed that nuisance levels of iron and manganese were appearing in the water.
To alleviate the problem with iron, in the late 1990s the PIUC investigated and piloted a process called “sequestration”, which was not intended to remove the iron and manganese, but to sequester it and keep it dissolved in the water. This involved adding a chemical called “CalciQuest” to the water. Anecdotally, this sequestrant caused skin rashes and other problems among islanders, especially those near the well field. Due to these problems, and concerns from state regulators, the use of CalciQuest as a sequestering agent was ended.
And here we are today, without much having changed. As much as possible, water from the Army Camp well is used, as it is of high quality and does not contain so much nuisance metal. In winter, the system can often run entirely on water from this well. But in summer, Indian Springs (particularly #4) must be switched on and iron enters the system, announcing its presence with the orangish brown color we all know.
What does the future hold? Hopefully, in the near term, filtration can be used to solve the problem (and perhaps, in time, we can develop a new water source). The engineering firms have recommended greensand filtration as a good candidate; it is a technology with an established track record that is simple and economical enough to be put to use by the PIWD. Let us hope so.
Saturday’s election was for 3 board members, with term running from 2021-2025. Preliminary election results were shared with the meeting attendees: 39 votes for Ann-Marie Lockwood, 41 votes for Charles Bear, 12 write-in votes for Chris Brown, and a handful of votes for other write-ins. Turnout was quite good compared to prior elections. (Almost 50 ballots were cast, compared to less than 10 in 2019.) It was mentioned that the election was not close, thus these are likely to be the official results as well. Members will be sworn in at the July meeting.
Overall, the tone of the meeting was quite encouraging.
1. Board Meeting Call to Order
All board members were present. Two members of the public were present.
2. Approve Minutes of May 15, 2021 Meeting
Minutes were approved with minor changes.
3. May Treasurer’s Report & 4. Accounts Payable
Backhoe rentals are a major expense. The board will reevaluate the situation, with regard to acquiring a backhoe, or somehow working out a deal with the Town of Portsmouth, to see if there is a more cost-effective way to dig holes, and to make sure that things that are “fixed” stay fixed. Other than a large payment associated with the audit, other items were routine.
5. FY 2020 Audit
Much work remains, some accounts need to be created so that items can be associated with accounts.
6. PIWD Annual Reports
The 2019 Annual Report has been sent out to customers. It still needs to be mailed to taxpayers; this is now underway, although the process highlights the need to better maintain the customer list. The 2020 audit needs to be completed before the 2020 annual report can be generated and distributed.
An update on the income survey:
As a reminder, this is survey is not an opinion survey, it is a survey to see if the financial condition of full-time residents qualifies the district for hundreds of thousands of dollars in money to fund much-needed water infrastructure. We need 80% of full-time islanders to respond to the survey for it to be valid. At this time, 71 surveys have been sent out, 41 were returned, but only 34 were accepted as complete. We’ve missed our chance at money this year, but, because the PIWD is still a priority funding recipient for next year, the board will continue to try to get the survey completed.
7. OPEN FORUM (30 minutes)
Two members of the public complimented the board for their hard work. A few questions were asked, but no major issues were raised.
8. Organizational structure review / staffing needs
Board member Melo met with Will and reviewed the water infrastructure and staffing. This is a good step toward reviewing the needs on the “water” side of the organization. He left us to assume that he’ll meet with the “money” side of the organization soon, and then “paperwork”.
9. Updates to Emergency Response Plan (Cyber Security, Corona Virus)
Few updates are currently needed or underway.
10. Consumer Confidence Report
The draft is largely complete (though maybe it shouldn’t have Robin’s home address and phone number as the contact information); next it will be printed and mailed.
11. General system status updates
The system manager produced a list of leak hot-spots; this is quite useful.
As mentioned, the district will review its options for backhoe access, in hopes of cutting cost.
Due to high consumption and low rainfall, the district is likely to move to Stage 2 water conservation.
Employee training needs were reviewed.
12. Update on Capital Projects
a. New Water Source (DEM & private property access; Options & Next steps)
Apparently there were discussions with DEM and the attorney generals office. (This website has been asking DEM for their records for months now, without success yet.)
b. Allen Ln / Hillside Rd distribution line upgrade
This item was not discussed.
13. Implementation of Cross-Connection Control Plan (CCCP)
a. A RIDOH letter dated June 10, 2021 (which we will get it for this web site at some point). The letter supposedly says that a new consent order is in the works, with reasonable timelines to improve the system. The timeline would accommodate getting funding in the next annual cycle. This could be a really good outcome.
b. Status report (e.g. funding, timeline)
The PIWD also received the promised memo from RIDOH explaining why the PIWD didn’t meet the CCCP compliance schedule, and at some point we will receive and post the memo, but we’re definitely beating a dead horse here, because while we may improve our cross-connection control, we also have to make improvements to the water system going forward, and the focus should be on making them judiciously.
The PIWD was also in contact with Senator Reed’s office; this seems to be another promising path to money if the PIWD can get projects attached to the federal infrastructure bill.
The PIWD, perhaps with help from Portsmouth, may have to provide 20% of the money under some funding schemes. It was encouraging to see the board calculating out the financial impact of this, about $40/year per customer in a scenario where we put in $337k of the money. (This seems to be a very reasonable price to pay for dramatically better water.)
14. Executive Session RIGL 42-46-5(a)(1): Annual Performance Reviews (cont.) & Compensation
15. 2021 Election results and future elections
The PIWD election will be held at Hope Brown Center, Saturday June 19, from 8am to 1pm. Please vote if you can. Also, there will be a board meeting following the election, at 1pm. It seems the board has decided to grant a small time for “open forum” discussion at this meeting. We hope to see you there, and we’ll definitely bring our “piwater.org” ginger ale and iced tea.
For May 2021, the PIWD meeting will return to the NBNERR Learning Center on Prudence Island. A fresh batch of “Prudence Island Water” iced tea and ginger ale will be on hand. We hope to see you there!
PIWater.org 