The Wahkiakum County Eagle - Established as The Skamokawa Eagle in 1891

Scott Wilson, a power services account executive from Bonneville Power Administration, spoke to the commissioners and answered their questions for the better part of an hour at Tuesday’s Wahkiakum County PUD Board of Commissioners meeting.

Wilson spoke on a variety of topics affecting the BPA from renewables, staffing, and future rate increases.

“I want to compliment you on the day to day stuff,” Wilson said to General Manager Tramblie and Auditor Erin Wilson. “You are well ahead of the deadlines and that is really nice. It seems like things are moving in a good way here.”

Tramblie then gave an update on PUD projects.

“We were able to take Wahkiakum substation offline without anybody knowing it,” Tramblie said. “BPA showed up later that morning and started rebuilding the tap into Wahkiakum.”

The PUD is working on a project on Una Street and beginning the project on Shannon Road, where pipe is being delivered and will soon be joined by the PUD’s new excavator.

A tool that will fuse HDPE pipe was also purchased for the project and will be used in the future as the PUD continues to use more HDPE pipe.

Water consumption was up on Puget Island, according to Tramblie, which the PUD investigated. It turned out to simply be consumption, probably driven by sprinkler use.

Tramblie reported that he and Wilson had put together another proposal for the Town of Cathlamet regarding the water contract.

“I think it’s a good one,” Wilson said.

Wilson reported that she and her staff had been working with a software vendor to improve their website, specifically where customers login.

“It will look different and be more user friendly,” Wilson said.

Commissioner Eugene Healy asked Tramblie to do more investigation on smart meters and Commissioner Bob Jungers shared his concern about finding a water source for Puget Island before the PUD’s contract ends with the Town of Cathlamet.

“Gray and Osborne indicated that acquiring water rights for surface water or drilled water will be like pulling teeth,” Jungers said. “It occurs to me we do have one asset that is accompanied by water rights and that is our Grays River system.”

“To the best of my knowledge that water needs to remain in that watershed,” Tramblie said.

Tramblie had some numbers for Jungers but more investigation is needed.

“I know it sounds harebrained,” Jungers said, “but when you consider the alternatives that we don’t have, it might be something worth looking at.”

“We need to look at all possibilities,” Commissioner Dennis Reid said. “That project might cost as much as it would to take water out of the river.”

Commissioners approved travel for Wilson to attend a September Washington Financial Officers Association Conference in Tacoma.