CCMIN 09072021 - Laserfiche WebLink

In response to Councilmember Balch, Director Olson confirmed 80% of Pleasanton's water comes from Zone 7 and there will be a pass-through cost for their filtration and PFAS mitigation in the future which will impact the rate. Councilmember Arkin agrees with the recommendation. She reported the public has expressed concern due to the high cost of the endeavor. In response to Councilmember Arkin, Mr. Yamello reported the treatment media removes many different contaminants and advised many federal sites are using the same media to remove PFAS successfully. What needs to be determined is how often the media needs to be replaced. Councilmember Narum advised the committee has gone through engineering steps in scaling up the project. Granulated Activated Carbon Technology is a new proven technology used for many things and the bigger unknown is how much contact time the water needs with the media, size of the vessels, and the maximum MCL count before the media needs to be replaced. Councilmember Testa expressed concern that ratepayers will be hit with increases on top of Zone 7 but understands it must be done. She hopes grant funds will become available. In response to Councilmember Testa, Director Olson explained the rate review was included in the scope of work in 2018 but staff wanted the Master Plan first to determine the infrastructure needs for future development and the associated costs. Mayor Brown reported she met with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with staff and have leveraged Townsend and Associates to help the City look for funds for the project. In response to Mayor Brown, Director of Operations and Water Utilities Yurchak reported the City has been monitoring the State's progress towards the MCL and noted it has dropped to 40 MCL. There has been no indication that it will increase significantly. Director Yurchak does not believe it is possible to remediate Well 8 first because the treatment facility needs to be constructed first along with upgrades and rehabilitation to Well 8. She explained operations require two of the three wells to be operating at the same time so if Well 8 was offline and Well 5 and 6 were not available there would not be enough redundancy to pull groundwater for distribution to residents. In response to Mayor Brown, Director Olson explained the rate increase would be a variable rate per water unit. Mayor Brown opened public comment. Jill Buck reported it is drier than in 2014 and 2015 at Lake Oroville where the hydroelectric plant was shut down for the first time in its history and will take multiple wet years to recover. She noted the City will be dependent on its groundwater. She expressed her support for the staff recommendations. Linda Kelly inquired if the $10 increase is per unit or per bi-monthly bill on the increase. Finance Director Olson confirmed the average increase will be $5 monthly. Mayor Brown closed public comment. Councilmember Narum moved to approve the funding plan as proposed and the strategy as outlined to pursue the State loan and to move to Revenue Bonds if there is a delay in the implementation of the plan. City Council Minutes Page 14 of 16 September 7, 2021