One item of good news for the Tanglewilde community is that the PUD is making progress in reestablishing use of the Tanglewilde-Thompson place water rights instead of being dependent on buying water from Olympia now and into the foreseeable future. Olympia water is very expensive and each Tanglewilde water customer is helping to finance Olympia's new wells and storage facilities as they move away from the McAllister Springs well field to a new well field. The cost of Olympia water went up 111% in 2007, resulting in a cost of $22.56 a month per connection for purchased water alone. Costs are expected to continue to increase. This is very expensive water and we can reestablish our own sources, for which we have water rights, and produce water at less cost.

In the forty or so years that Olympia managed the system for the PUD, the PUD and Olympia did not invest in new infrastructure and a lot of investment is needed now. The plan is to drill 2 to 3 wells, replace the reservoir adjacent to Lydia Hawk Elementary School, and replace large sections of water pipe and main in 2010. This will result in the community having its own water source and no longer purchasing Olympia water by 2013; the contract with Olympia requires us to give three years notice before we can stop all water purchases from Olympia.  Tying the Gaudio well into the Tanglewilde water distribution system is estimated to save $34,000 of water payments to Olympia in 2009. This will help fund the improvements and should help keep rate increases down.

Our ability to get grants and loans is very good news.  In an environment of tight money in which grants and low interest loans (1½ %) are hard to come by we have been successful; assuming the legislature approves the loans as recommended by state staff. For the Tanglewilde project, we have been approved for a grant of $1,475,634 and expect to get the balance of approximately $2,524,000 in low interest loans that can be repaid over 20 years.  This should stabilize your rates and let the community invest in its own infrastructure instead of investing in Olympia's.

In addition to stabilizing rates and keeping costs down, the PUD intends to establish a pool rate for the Tanglewilde Park and Recreation center, which is expected to free up money the Recreation Center to use for other things. The new reservoir, pipes and a booster pump station if it is needed, is expected to resolve the low water pressure issues. The investments in new pipe will also help keep costs down and help prevent leaks.    

I hope this answers your questions. Ultimately, rate payers pay for all system improvements and water costs, and so keeping these costs as low as possible is in everyone's best interest. Some of these benefits will not be felt immediately, but will be longer term benefits. We are trying to keep water rate increases as low as possible while reinvesting and rebuilding the Tanglewilde water system's infrastructure which has reached its life cycle end.