Hastings Utilities staff presented a high-level budget and multi-year capital plan that lists dozens of projects across water, sewer, gas and electric operations, and they asked the advisory board for feedback on priorities and timing.

Staff highlighted a cluster of water-system investments driven by regulatory and public-health imperatives: a 10-year effort to remove lead service lines (staff said the current average is roughly 90 replacements per year and the target is about 130), rehabilitation of older wells and construction of new wells, ongoing aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) work and expanded real-time nitrate monitoring. Brandon (staff member) said, “We have a 10 year mandate to get all of this done,” and described plans to add staff and equipment to raise replacement capacity.

Brandon and other staff noted contaminant-management costs and regulatory risk: ASR operating costs and design needs, potential future uranium treatment design, and PFAS litigation. Staff said the utility has joined a PFAS class action and expects an initial award near $500,000 tied to a trace PFOS detection; that award will help offset treatment costs but not eliminate long-term treatment planning.

On wastewater, staff reported large capital dredging and basin commissioning projects this year and next; they also flagged future regulatory work (ultraviolet disinfection or other measures) to reduce bacteria in final effluent as required by permits.

Gas projects include the Highway 6 relocation work, replacement of low-pressure downtown blocks, and plans to increase allowable operating pressure on the primary belt line to gain operational bandwidth during winter peak. Jason reported that resetting a prepay natural-gas arrangement (CPG2 reset) produced ratepayer savings and projected additional annual savings from prepay agreements.

Electric operations and generation planning were a major focus. Staff reviewed near-term plant O&M and multi-year capital for North Denver, Don Henry and WEC Unit 1, including boiler and turbine overhauls, DCS (distributed control system) updates, fly-ash and bottom-ash projects and other equipment replacements. Shane (staff member) and Derek noted that Southwest Power Pool’s new seasonal capacity accreditation rules will require summer and winter testing and also introduce a “fuel assurance” dimension that could reduce accredited capacity in some seasons. Shane said the net effect included forecasted capacity reductions: “we are still able to meet our current capacity needs, and still be able to market some of our capacities,” but staff warned that SPP policy changes increase the importance of unit availability.

Staff emphasized the tradeoffs of deferring capital work versus additional short-term operating expenditures: some projects were pushed out to balance the coming turbine outage year and to concentrate crew time on the Highway 6 schedule. Staff said no new headcount requests were being proposed for this budget year; instead they are shifting existing positions and using consultants where needed.

Discussion points
- Water: lead-service replacement push to increase replacements from ~90 to ~130 per year; ASR expansion, nitrate analyzers, uranium risk and PFAS class action recovery were highlighted.
- Sewer: major basin commissioning and lagoon dredging projects are scheduled; future ultraviolet treatment and biosolids/PFAS rule uncertainty noted.
- Gas: Highway 6 work, low-pressure conversions, cathodic protection and a possible increase of max allowable operating pressure to gain system bandwidth.
- Electric: turbine overhauls, controls upgrades, ash-handling projects, condenser tube cleaning and SPP accreditation consequences.

Ending
Staff asked the advisory board for continued input as the budget is finalized and said staff will present more refined financials and scheduling back to the board before asking for a formal recommendation to council. Board members asked for additional breakout briefings on water peak management, nitrate monitoring and the potential impacts of SPP rules on generation capacity.