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Water district close to storage tank agreement

By Meg Olson

Point Roberts water district commissioners are ready to seal the deal with local developers to build a storage tank. Once built the tank would provide water connections for planned developments as well as individual property owners waiting to build.

“There were major concessions on their part which to me is a major indicator we’re getting close to a real deal,” said commissioner Scott Hackleman at a special meeting February 7. “I don’t see anything particularly smelly about any of it.”

The meeting was intended as an opportunity for commissioners to review a new draft contract with the owners of the marina and golf course, and Stanton Northwest, prospective developers of a gated community west of Lily Point.

Under the proposed agreement developers would pay for a new 3 million gallon storage tank, either on property owned by the district or by one of the developers. The design estimate for the new tank is $3.2 million. The new facility would be owned by the water district, and would store enough extra water for 1,050 residential water connections or their equivalent residential units (ERUs).

The payoff for developers would be enough water connections to move forward with planned residential projects. Stanton Northwest is requesting 132 connections, but the agreement states that if they don’t own the whole project site, part of which remains under contract, that number will drop to 47, the zoned potential of the property they do own.

Golf course owner Yamato Development Canada is asking for 184 connections in the current draft of the agreement, but district manager Dan Bourks said the property may not have that development capacity and the agreement specifies connections will only be allocated to a developer based on approved developments. “Whatcom County may not approve the density being proposed by Yamato – not enough sewer capacity,” he said.

Marina owners Point Roberts marina resort had first proposed retaining several hundred connections for their participation, but are leaving the number unspecified in the current draft agreement. “I told them you need to max out around 150,” Bourks said. “You need to be realistic.”

Commissioners agreed to set a limit of 150 certificates of conditional water availability for each developer, leaving 600 for other property owners, which Bourks believes serves the current zoning of the community. Future connections to the system would be used to reimburse the developers for their share of construction costs, which is estimated to add an additional $3,024 to the cost of a residential connection. The connections created by the new tank would not be available until the tank is operational.

In other district business Bourks presented a letter from B.C. attorney Raymond Young who was hired to review the water contract with the Greater Vancouver Water District. Under the 1987 agreement the GVWD provides a maximum of 3,182 cubic meters per day, and the district pays for that amount regardless of actual use. The term of the agreement is 50 years or the life of the water system, whichever is sooner, and can be extended if both parties agree.

The district, which uses far less than the maximum in the winter but occasionally reaches that level in the summer, has asked Young to examine the feasibility of changing the contract to get a different metering or pricing structure, such as an annual rather than a daily maximum.

“Is it possible to change the way it’s defined?” Hackleman asked. “We’re not really asking for more water.” Bourks said the catch was that Point Roberts does want more water at the time it is in the most demand – summer.

In his response Young cites numerous statutory barriers to increasing the amount of water the GVWD supplies to Point Roberts, but none that prevent a change to the fixed use rate now in place. If the district wishes to pursue a legislative amendment that would allow for more water than the current daily maximum, he recommends commissioners seek the support of the state’s governor.

“The issue of international water export is highly political,” he noted. “The Governor would likely have more influence than we would.”