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Port Orchard outlines urgent water capital work; proposes general-fund support
Summary
City staff described immediate water projects — a $700,000 SR‑16 water main emergency, a Well 7 pump replacement, and a PRV redundancy project — and proposed reassigning leftover 2023 LTGO bond proceeds and limited general-fund subsidies to avoid hitting water operating reserves.
At the April 21 work study, Port Orchard staff presented a package of capital and operating amendments focused on water system resiliency.
Staff described an emergency SR‑16 (WAD) water-main project estimated at about $700,000 to protect a critical lower-zone intertie to the Man Park reservoir; construction was expected to start imminently and would affect water operating cash unless subsidized. Director Ryan and Noah said the general fund is the only fund that can legally subsidize enterprise funds and that staff planned to use available general-fund resources and remaining LTGO 2023 bond proceeds to limit the hit to the water operating fund.
Officials also described reduced production from Well 7 and the plan to re-install a pump and related production work. In addition, staff proposed installing a pressure-reducing valve (PRV) to permit a nearby well to feed the Vanzy/Vanz reservoir as redundancy for the lower pressure zone; staff said cost-sharing will use customer facility charges (CFCs) for a portion and water operating funds for the rest, with a proposed general-fund offset for the operating share.
Council members asked for more project cost detail and questioned whether river/drought conditions were driving decisions; staff noted the statewide drought declaration and said the council would be briefed on schedule and funding. Council also reviewed smaller capital items (a $321,000 clean-up payment tied to previously approved community event center contract amendments, a $70,000 impact-fee allocation for Anderson Hill design) and a proposal to reallocate unused LTGO bond proceeds toward water capital to cover shortfalls on projects labeled in staff materials (staff cited a shortfall approximated at $180,000 on one listed project).
Next steps: staff will include the amendments in an ordinance for council consideration next week and provide more detailed cost and funding tables in the packet materials.
