Drafter
Clerk 07/30/2002
Title
AN ORDINANCE approving the city of North Bend Water Comprehensive Plan.
Body
PREAMBLE:
K.C.C. chapter 13.24 requires approval of comprehensive plans for water utilities as a prerequisite for granting right-of-way franchises and approval of right-of-way construction permits.
The city of North Bend has been in a building moratorium since April 1999 because it is exceeding its certificated annual water rights for its spring source. The water comprehensive plan ("plan") discusses possible sources of additional water, including more water rights and purchases from Seattle, and commits the city to a conservation program.
The city currently provides water service to approximately three thousand eight hundred people; about six thousand eight hundred people are projected to reside in the retail service area by 2020.
The plan contains a six-year capital improvement program valued at approximately two million dollars and includes improvements to conservation, water treatment, and distribution.
The city has already taken steps to upgrade both source and customer water meters to more accurately account for water use by customer class. In addition, the city has expanded its public education efforts related to water conservation.
According to the plan, the city will conduct a new rate study in 2003 that emphasizes incentives for water conservation savings, including possible implementation of seasonal block rate or inclined block rate structures.
King County strongly supports conservation pricing and encourages the city to move forward with conducting the rate study and implementing rate restructuring found to be most effective given patterns of water use in the city of North Bend.
King County requests that the city provide the results of the rate study and any rate adjustments to the utilities technical review committee.
The King County utilities technical review committee reviewed and conditionally approved the plan on January ...

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