Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Infrastructure Utilities topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Skagit PUD outlines new campus, water-right transfers, and energy-recovery project benefiting Mount Vernon schools
Summary
Skagit PUD General Manager George Sidhu updated the Mount Vernon City Council on a new administrative building and community room, seasonal water-right transfers to irrigators, energy-recovery microturbines that will save the Mount Vernon School District about $26,000 annually, and upcoming pipeline replacement projects.
Skagit Public Utility District told the Mount Vernon City Council it has moved into a new administrative building, plans to lease vacated space to the Mount Vernon School District, is temporarily transferring water rights to local irrigators during low-flow months, and has installed an energy-recovery valve that will generate electricity for a nearby school.
George Sidhu, general manager of Skagit PUD, said the utility moved its administrative staff into a new building on Freeway Drive two months ago and will open a new community meeting space, the “Aqua Room,” for nonprofit use beginning in July. He said PUD staff are in discussions to lease part of the older facility to the Mount Vernon School District for administrative offices.
On water management, Sidhu described a seasonal program in which the PUD temporarily transfers portions of its senior water rights to irrigators when in-stream flows drop and interrupt smaller users’ ability to pump. Sidhu said the transfers are targeted to three areas, including parts of South Mount Vernon and Fir Island, to provide irrigation security for local agriculture.
Sidhu also described a project that captures excess pressure in the water system to generate electricity through an energy-recovery microturbine. A newly installed device at the Ninth and Highland tank will cover the site’s small electric demand and transfer surplus energy to the Mount Vernon School District; Sidhu estimated the arrangement should save the district about $26,000 a year.
He said the project was fully grant-funded, citing clean-energy grants under the Inflation Reduction Act and funds from TransAlta, and that PUD expects final sign-off from Puget Sound Energy before the school begins to receive the power credit.
Sidhu reviewed water-system capital work under way and planned in the city: near-complete pipeline replacement on College Way, an upcoming upsizing project at the east end of Division Street, and a larger Hillcrest neighborhood pipe replacement designed for construction next year. He highlighted a recent survey using a drone with LiDAR that reduced survey time and cost during design work.
Council members asked about coordination with the city’s pavement schedule and whether PUD would ever provide retail electric service; Sidhu said the 2007 countywide vote failed in Skagit County and that any future move to public power would require a ballot measure and purchase of investor-owned infrastructure. He described the Jefferson County example, where the public agency reimbursed the prior utility for infrastructure acquisition.
Sidhu and Commissioner Joe Lindquist attended the meeting; both answered council questions on leasing, community-use space, and project timelines. No council action was required at the June 25 meeting.
