 Hi, welcome to Town Meeting Television. This is part of our continued election coverage. We are gonna be starting with General Election Forum on September 12th. We're meeting here today with some folks from the Champlain Water District who have a ballot item to discuss with us that's not particularly part of the general election ballot because you're not gonna see it in November, you're gonna see it in September. And so, let's dive right into that if you could just introduce yourselves and tell us who you are with the Champlain Water District and a little bit about this item. Sure, I'm Joe Duncan. I am the general manager at Champlain Water District and I will let Nate introduce himself and then I'll give you a little information on what we're looking to do in September. Nate Pion, director of engineering at Champlain Water District. So, as you mentioned, Champlain Water District we're a little bit off on what it would be the normal schedule, Town Meeting, August primary, November elections. We're looking at holding a bond vote on September 13th from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at the Champlain Water District offices. We only have one location for the vote but we have many locations for absentee ballots which we can talk about a little bit later. But essentially, we're a little bit off schedule because we receive some funding through Senator Sanders that has a timeline that requires us to have construction complete by September 30th of 23 given construction issues and supply chain issues. We really couldn't afford to wait until November to hold the ballot because we needed to move things forward given the issues with getting supplies in order to meet those construction deadlines. And we found out about the funding in the July timeframe which didn't make us eligible to get on that August primary. So, it is a little bit different. We recognize that but we're doing it because we believe it's in the best interest of the project and the users to be able to take advantage of the funding that we're looking at for this and I can get into more detail on that as we go. Yeah, so September, just reiterate that again. September 12th is the... September 13th is the ballot vote and you can actually request an absentee ballot for that as well. So, you can either go to this one location or you can request an absentee ballot. And the Champlain Water District encompasses most of the towns of Chittenden County to save Burlington, correct? Yes. So, how does somebody know they're part of the Champlain Water District? Yes, if you... And actually, the way that we work we're chartered as a municipal entity that services eight communities, nine now with the City of Essex Junction. And so, you don't have to be connected to the Champlain Water District but as long as you live within one of those communities you can vote in those communities are South Burlington, Shelburne, Williston, the town of Essex, the village, excuse me, the City of Essex Junction, Town of Milton, City of Winooski, Village of Jericho, and Town of Colchester. So, you live in any one of those communities, you can vote in the way to obtain your absentee ballot. It is either to call Champlain Water District at 802-864-7454 or you can go to your municipal clerk and talk to them about getting either on their absentee ballot list or even going in and obtaining one in person because we have set it up so that they have some absentee ballots for you to take as well. So, we've tried to reach out to as many people as we can and make it as accessible as possible. And this is important, you wanna get this going and this is an 8.7 million dollar bond vote but 7 million of this is paid for by this federal, these federal funds that are coming in. So, we wanna just take us down that road and then we'll talk about what this is gonna, what kind of improvements these are gonna bring. Absolutely, so we applied for what is called a federal earmark through Senator Sanders and the federal earmark is essentially the ability of a congressional delegate to put money aside specifically to projects within their state. And so, we applied, there's a whole application process, Senator Sanders selected our project at 8.7 million dollars and so what that means is when the federal budget is approved there will be 8.7, there will be a project of 8.7 million dollars within that approval of which 80% will come from the federal government. So, essentially the earmark is a designated grant from the federal government. So, we will receive about 7 million dollars in grant funding and we still need to come up with the 1.7 million to cover the 20%. And the way that bonding works is bonding requires us to bond for the entire amount of the project but knowing that we're only gonna wind up paying back 80% of it, excuse me, 20% of it. Excuse me, pardon me, thank you, only paying back 20% of it. And so, essentially we are asking the voters to approve an 8.7 million dollar bond knowing that we're only gonna be paying back 1.7 million over time and so. So, what's the impact gonna be on members of the Water District as there are gonna be an increase in rates or what does this look like? No, there is actually no increase in rates as a result of this project. The way that we look at our projects and these projects are scheduled for a five to 10 year horizon. But, when we were able to obtain this 80% earmark, we were able to move it up and what we do is we have shifted some other projects but we time our construction of our projects with debt falling off from our budget. So, as we retired some old debt that's 20 to 30 years old in the next coming years, we're going to replace it with this 1.7 million dollars worth of debt. And it's actually pretty helpful because originally we had earmarked some, we had identified some higher costing projects that would be in there and now we're only gonna do 1.7 versus I think the 3 million on another project that we were looking at. So, no impact to the rates because of the fact that with that only paying back 20%, it stays within our lower than what our current debt service payments are. And does this bond affect the ability of these communities to borrow in any other way? Does that? Champlain Water District is its own municipality. We have our own bond ratings, our own bond capacity. And so, all the other municipalities are not impacted by their ability to bond in the future. Sounds like a, so Nate, you wanna tell us about then what's this, what are the improvements that it's gonna bring? There's just one thing to note too with the bond. If we don't receive the federal earmark, we will not proceed to construction. You know, those projects are contingent on those earmarks before we go to construction because it wouldn't be fundable without it. Okay, and is that in the bond language? Is that somehow? We note it in the bond language that the 8.7 is subject to reductions of state or federal grants. Yeah, so a little bit about the projects. You know, we've got two projects on the bond. There's the Raw Water Parallel Transmission Main, and then there's the Filter Water Tank II or the Redundant Chlorine Contact Tank. Both very critical to our operation at Champlain Water District. Our priority is to get clean, safe drinking water out to the customers continuously, 24-7, 365. So, in order to ensure that, you know, we are looking to move these projects forward. With the Raw Water Parallel Transmission Main, we have two parallel mains up from the Lake Water Pump Station, which is in Shelburne Bay right on the Red Rocks Waterfront. In the figure you see up here, there's two missing links for that parallel conduit. One is a pinch point right in the parking lot above the Lake Water Pump Station. And then we also, right before we cross under the railroad tracks, we come into one single conduit until we get to what we call the Lake Water Tanks, which are right on the west side of the Water Treatment Plant. So, we are looking to completely make that transmission main redundant. So, having parallel transmission mains throughout from the water, which is our source up to the treatment plant where we're filtering and disinfecting the water that we transmit to the customers. So, you know, the criticality of that, if we have a repair or we have needed maintenance on one of those single conduits, it shuts down the plant. We can't treat any water at the Water Treatment Plant. So, by having redundancy, we can continue to maintain operation. It'll also help with energy efficiency as there'll be less friction loss. You think of distributing flow through two pipes rather than one. It's going to reduce the amount of energy that we consume at the Water Treatment Plant. So, help me here. Is there one Water Treatment Plant? We only have CWD. We only have one Water Treatment Plant for Champlain Water District. It's at 403 Queen City Park Road. And that is where we have our three absorption clarifiers and our eight filters, and then our chlorine contact tanks. So, as part of the other piece of the project is that chlorine contact tank. In 2018, we built a new north filter water tank, is what we call it. Previous to that, we only had one chlorine contact tank in operation. Both are million gallons. And that's where we get our primary disinfection. We add chlorine to disinfect the water before it goes out into the system. So, the original one, which was constructed in 1991, has some structural issues associated with it. We've tried to make repairs, rehab that tank, but they haven't resolved the structural issues that we're seeing with settlement under the tank. It was poor backfill when it was constructed in the early 90s. It's since settled and it's caused cracks in the foundation. We are seeing water loss, some leakage through that. And so, now that we've got the new one in operation, we're looking to replace the old one. And it'll be a carbon copy of the one that we installed in 2018. Yeah, actually what's interesting is, we like to, we have one plant, but that one plant is made up of, as Nate said, multiple trains. And each train has multiple redundancy to it. For many years, we only had one filtered water tank, which we built in 2016. But part of that was building it to understand if this existing tank that is failing, how bad was it? And we finally got into it and realized, not very good. And so, in order to maintain that critical function of disinfection and having the reliability that we need associated with it, we need to replace that one. And being able to take advantage of an 80% grant to do it is an optimal time. So you're physically located in South Burlington, right by the lake there. And what's the capacity of this Champlain Water District? Like what, your build-up capacity for the next five or 10 years for the community? So we are rated for 20 million gallons per day through the plant. Right now we see about 9.8 million gallons. So we have additional capacity. Some of the limitations are with chemical treatment, so we may not quite be at 20, but that's what we're rated for with the three clarifiers and the filters. I know it's not directly related to the bond, but we've heard a lot about cyanobacteria and lake contamination and the impacts on lake quality from runoff and droughts. How does that affect what you guys are doing in getting clean water out of the lake to communities? Yeah, the monitoring our lake source has been a major activity of ours since the start. And we've gone through an evolution of Chittenden County being very agricultural rural to with the Bay seeing a lot of impacts associated with that agricultural runoff to a lot of development and storm water improvements that have gone in. So that's kind of helped clean it up. Our intake is about 80 feet down and about a half a mile offshore. So we're actually in a very deep portion of the lake so we don't get a lot of the surface influence. And a lot of the cyanobacteria has to do with more of the warm stagnant areas. Our water depth is deep enough that we stay out of that, but we are constantly monitoring for it to make sure that we don't have any of those issues. And we are also very, we are lucky, I want to say, I think there's three trillion gallons in Shelburne Bay. I'd have to get the fact there, but there's a large quantity of water within Shelburne Bay. So from a withdrawal standpoint, we don't have any issues, but we're actually beginning to work with EPA is putting forward a lot of resiliency and climate change programs. And we're actually working with EPA on an upcoming project to evaluate that because understanding the impacts of climate on the water quality is critical for us. But we've been taking, we've been monitoring it for many, many years. Yeah, I mean, it's interesting. The Champlain Water District, you referred to yourself as a municipality as a real stakeholder in lake quality. But you're pulling from the lake more than putting into it, but you want to have an impact on how clean that water is overall. Yeah, we do. We do a lot of support over the years with the different storm water and also some of the Heinsberg and Shelburne, La Plata is the major contributor to Shelburne Bay. So for years, we've been working with those communities and their groups on supporting improvements to the water quality through their actions. So you mentioned those two major improvements. Let's just go back, let's circle back to the, this is an $8.7 million bond, $7 million of which will be repaid, will be paid for by this federal earmark, leaving you on the hook for a million and a half left with this bond vote. September 13th, 7 to 7 or vote by absentee ballot are expecting a lot of folks to come out and vote in this election. How are you getting the word out? Why do you need people to come out and pay attention to this? Well, one, if it's unfortunate for water that the attention that it tends to get is when something bad has happened like you're seeing in Jackson, Mississippi right now, which is awful. Our goal is to always stay ahead of that and not put us in a position where we don't have the infrastructure necessary to support getting water from the lake out to our users. So one, we're trying to spread the word of just in general, the importance of water. But two, specifically this project because these two projects enhance our ability to maintain the criticality that we need to get water out to people. Having two of everything in good working function is key because if you lose one, you have the other one. And that's what we're trying to get to here. Understanding that we're doing this in September versus November does make it a bit of a challenge. We've been working directly with the towns to get information out on their websites. A bunch of the towns do direct emails to people so they've been kind enough to put information on our votes on there. Anybody that lives in Williston, South Burlington, or Shelburne will see flyers about this within their local newspapers, the Observer, the other paper, and Shelburne News. Jericho, we did a direct mailing of the flyer. And then for Essex Town, Essex Junction, Milton, Wienewski, and Colchester were doing a direct mailing of postcards to everybody there with information and links on this to hopefully get them interested and engaged in this. And one of the reasons that we're here today is to try and promote that as well. So to get the word out that this is what we're doing. And our goal is to, we understand that September is an odd time and it does make it challenging but it's critical for the timing of ours and we knew that we wanted this project to be successful and we had to measure whether we waited till November or do it now and waiting till November was not really too much of an option. We also have been trying to get out to the city councils and town select board and just present to them, try to get the word out in that way as well. And we've been to Colchester so far, Shelburne, and Wienewski next week. And you talked a little bit about the timing of this. Can you just talk a little, like why now? Not in terms of, I understand, we're doing the bond vote in September because it was too late to get on the August ballot and it doesn't work to get on the November ballot because of how the November ballot is structured. Why now for this project? Why is it important to do this? Yeah, so for us, I think we thought we had more time than we did for the filter water tank and maybe Nate can speak to the lead a little bit more because he's been in it. And we've been looking for years now at our raw water transmission main and saying we really need to get that complete redundancy across there and we've been trying to find the best fiscal approach to do it and the earmark popped up and seemed like an opportunity to apply and therefore it's there. I think we were planning on them in five to 10 years and Nate can probably comment on the filter water tank. I don't know that we'd actually be waiting five to 10 years on the filter water tank given what we've recently seen. Yeah, I mean both projects were identified in our 2002 master plan report and that provided the framework of what we've sort of worked through over the past 20 years of where the needs are for Champlain Water District and a lot of those projects we've picked apart over the past 20 years. The raw water transmission main was one that was still out there and lingering and then the filter water tank like Joe alluded to with the construction of the new filter water tank in 2018, it gave us an opportunity to really go into that tank and assess what the condition of it was and after some rehab that really didn't come to fruition we really do need to look at replacing that tank. You know, one of the things, one of the requirements with the federal earmark was are you on the drinking water SRF intended use plan? Drinking water state revolving fund. So we submitted a priority list for those applications back in January and we are trying as the engineering department. You can tell us a little bit more about that. What is the state revolving? State revolving fund. So that is your bonding mechanism, your funding mechanism to acquire funding from the state at a low interest rate. It's 2% for 20 or 30 years depending on what the asset life is. So it's a much lower rate than what you would see out on the general market if you were to go to a bank. The other option for us would be the Vermont Municipal Bond Bank but they've got competitive rates based on what the market value is. But the drinking water state revolving fund that is administered through Vermont Agency of National Resources, Department of Environmental Conservation is really the go-to for municipalities looking to fund water, waste water, storm water infrastructure. What is the interest rate on this bond? So for the 20% local match, the state for the SRF would be 2%. They don't go any higher than that. It is a fixed rate. Got it. And then Vermont Municipal Bond Bank, it would be whatever the rate is at that time when you acquire the bond. One of our hopes here is that one of the reasons for getting on these SRF intended use plans is we recently passed a bond vote for two projects, a line in Colchester and a new pump station in Essex. And being on that intended use plan, we wound up getting a 90% grant for the Colchester project, which was a $900,000 project. And we wound up getting about a 50% grant on the Essex project, which was a 2.5 million, 2.5 million dollar project. So our hope here is that by being on that, we know that the SRF will be looking at a 2% payback, which for a project that's $8.7 million, you're only paying 2% over 20 years for 1.7 million is a very, very good way to invest in your infrastructure. But there's also the possibility that there may be some subsidy or loan forgiveness as part of the SRF project process. So the other thing too is there's the whole infrastructure act that's done. They haven't really released exactly how that's going to play out. And that may be coming shortly too. And so we may be able to take advantage of that. So why is it I'm gonna go to voting houses? Why is there any risk involved and why would anybody vote against this? I'm a very biased person here, but I've been trying to find the reason why. There is no rate increase. It is money that's designated. One of the arguments that I hear is, well, there is no free money, right? And my argument is if we didn't ask for it, there's a pot of money up at the federal government that has been collected through the rate through the taxpayers, which I understand. But that money might have gone to Alaska or to Texas or somewhere else. So to me, ultimately it is, it's a 80% grant to us and to our users. And I don't know why you would say no. Knowing that if we don't get it, we are going to wind up having to do these projects at a later date, most likely at a higher cost because prices don't go down. So we're looking to do it with today's dollars at an 80% grant. I'm sure someone can find a reason to say no, but I have a hard time. Well, why don't you just quickly run us through the bond vote date, location, and amount again for our viewers who may have just tuned in or this moment. Sure. So we are doing a, it's an $8.7 million bond vote. The bond vote is being held on Tuesday, September 13th, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at Champlain Water District. We are located at 403 Queen City Park Road in South Burlington. If anybody's wondering, it's the end of Pine Street, essentially, is where we are located off of when you come off of Route 7189. And so the vote will be held there 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. We're actually, everything is being administered through our municipal clerks who have decided, who have graciously assisting us through the bond vote process. So one of the things, and not to get sidetracked, one of the things I've learned is I have an incredible respect for clerks because we've had to dive in to understand what it means to hold a vote off their typical schedule and all the things and challenges that they deal with on a daily basis. There's a lot of respect going out to them, but they've been willing to help us through that. So they will actually be administering the vote on the day of the vote at our facility. They'll be doing the counting. They'll be doing all the tallying and the reporting for us. But anybody who can't make it there on September 13th, we have absentee ballots. Some of you may have already received them, depending on who you are. There's a system called the Vermont Election Management System called VEMS. And in that system, you can request absentee ballots. Anybody who is in there, in that system that has a registered voter that is included in that date range in there and when they want to receive them automatically, they've already been mailed out. Hopefully you've received them. I know mail is a little challenging at the moment, but we have mailed a bunch of them out and we have received a bunch of them back and set them aside, ready for the clerk's account for us. So you may have received that already automatically. If you haven't received it automatically, you can call Champlain Water District at 802-864-7454 to request one. You can also contact your clerk and your clerk will either get you set up to receive one in the mail or you can go into the clerk's office. We have provided them with a number of ballots so that you can go get it there, mail it back to us, leave it with them, we'll pick it up. So we're trying to make it as accessible as possible for everybody. Yeah, this is what local democracy means, folks. It's like voting on where your water, how your water is gonna get to your door. We got a couple minutes left, I just would love to hear, how did you get involved in this? When did you start working at, why? Why are you doing this job? Yeah, so I started at Champlain Water District to be three years ago in May and before that I worked for a local engineering firm, graduated from UVM in 2010 and civil engineering seemed like the focus I wanted to do out of high school and as I went through different courses and found that water resources was more my passion versus structural engineering or transportation so it sort of led me that way with internships and real world experience definitely enjoyed the water side, the drinking water side compared to other avenues in civil engineering. And other avenues being the private sectors. Yeah, private sector or just other disciplines other than civil engineering as it is a very broad degree. For me, you know it's funny, I was talking with my kids about this the other day. I think when I was five or six, I came home after playing in the dirt with some mud and some water and told my parents I wanted to be an engineer and they started looking up like, what's like a train engineer? Like, you want to work for the railroad? And I was like, no, I wanna build things. I wanna direct things. You know, as I grew up, just water was it for me. I loved drinking water. I wound up going to UVM as well. I wound up working for a local engineering firm doing water, wastewater and stormwater but drinking water was really where I wanted to be and seven years ago I started at the district and have been there and love being involved in getting water to people because when you don't have it you realize how valuable it is. Great, well thanks both for joining us and letting everybody know and as you've heard the summary and I'll just repeat it, this is a $8.7 million bond vote coming up on September 13th, 7 to 7. You can vote either in person at the Champlain Water District or you can go into your clerk's office and talk to them about getting an absentee ballot. Again, most of this bond is gonna be paid for by a federal earmark so it sounds like an interesting and low risk endeavor at this point and to look for more information you can visit the Champlain Water District website and get the full language of the bond there. Thank you all for joining us and sharing this information. Thank you for having us. Thank you for the opportunity. Really appreciate it. Take care.