Your PUD PUD News Line

12/19/2006

Farewell to Commissioners Boyd and Montague

PUD commissioners bid farewell to Bob Boyd and Gary Montague with praise and applause Monday. Boyd is retiring from the PUD board after 12 years. Montague has served eight years. “From myself and from all of the commissioners, we’d like to thank Gary and Bob for their many years of service. You have a wealth of knowledge and we can’t replace that,” said Commissioner Norm Gutzwiler.
Dennis Bolz and Randy Smith will be sworn in as new commissioners at the Jan. 2 meeting.

Storm causes widespread power outages
General Manager Rich Riazzi Monday summarized for commissioners the PUD’s response to the snow and wind storms last week that resulted in the loss of power for about 10,000 customers.
“I want to thank and commend all the men and women of the PUD for going above and beyond,” Riazzi said. “Their tremendous dedication is an outstanding testament to the people who work here.”
All available line crews, service crews and engineers were called in to work following outages that began with heavy snow on Dec. 14 and worsened with severe winds early on Dec. 15.
More than 60 PUD workers were in the field, some working for up to 40 hours straight. Customer Service and switchboard operators were called in to answer calls around the clock starting early Friday morning. Douglas, Franklin and Okanogan County PUDs sent crews to help.
Power was restored to most customers by Monday afternoon.
Commissioner Norm Gutzwiler also thanked PUD employees.
“We had a disaster and everyone stepped up and performed way, way beyond expectation. I think they’ve made us proud.”

Final design for two transmission lines to begin
PUD commissioners Monday approved starting design for rebuilding a section of the original McKenzie Transmission Line and continuing design of a new transmission line to serve the Entiat Valley.
HDR Engineering of Billings, Mont., will design the replacement of a 1.25-mile section of transmission line between the first powerhouse at Rock Island Dam and the McKenzie Switchyard near Alcoa at a cost not to exceed $175,000. The line dates to the original construction of the dam in the late 1920s.
HDR Engineering will also provide design work during construction of the new Entiat Transmission Line. Depending on the final route, the line could be 6.2 to 7 miles long. The design cost is not to exceed $250,000. The estimated total project cost is about $10 million.
The two routes under final consideration will be discussed at a community meeting at 7 p.m. on Jan. 17 in the Entiat school cafeteria.
Both lines are set to be built in 2008.

HCP milestone
Rock Island Dam has reached a fish survival milestone required by its Habitat Conservation Plan.
Three-year survival rates have been over 93 percent for young Chinook, steelhead and sockeye, allowing the PUD to focus on making the dam efficient for power production.
The PUD’s Habitat Conservation Plans commit the utility to a 50-year program to ensure that its hydro projects have no net impact on Mid-Columbia salmon and steelhead runs. Yount described the plans as the “highest level of fish protection on the Columbia River.”
Survival studies are only required every 10 years once the 93-percent goal is reached.
Rocky Reach Dam has reached 93-percent survival for only steelhead, and will continue to fine tune its fish passage strategies for other species.
To learn more about Chelan County PUD’s Habitat Conservation Plans, click here.

Community meetings set to discuss potential power-rate surcharge
General Manager Rich Riazzi and PUD commissioners will host three meetings to discuss contingency planning and a potential power-rate surcharge in January.
Early this month, commissioners gave staff the go-ahead to start planning for a possible electric rate surcharge to increase revenue next year if the low-water year forecast holds true.
The meetings will be held at 5:30 p.m. on the following dates:

• Jan. 3, 2007 – Wenatchee,  Confluence Technology Center
• Jan. 8, 2007 – Chelan, Chelan City Council Chambers
• Jan. 9, 2007 – Leavenworth, Cascade High School commons

DVDs of strategic planning meeting available
 DVDs of the Nov. 20 community strategic planning meeting are available. Contact Christy Shearer, (509) 661-4258 to request a copy.