Small Town News

PUD 3 awards bid for Johns Prairie water main

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The Mason County PUD 3 Commission voted 2-1, at their regular meeting on Tuesday, to award a bid for their Johns Prairie water-main construction. The bid was for $935,910 and went to the low bidder, Active Construction, from Puyallup. The bid was only 40 percent of the engineer's estimate for the cost of the pipeline.

"All along we were hoping that the current bidding climate would continue and fortunately, it has," said Joel Myer, PUD 3 public information and government relations manager.

Commissioners Linda Gott and Tom Farmer voting for, and commissioner Bruce Jorgenson voted against approving the bid. PUD 3 commissioners consistently split 2-1 on issues related to the Johns Prarie water line extension and the future PUD operations center on that same land.

"This is the essential piece of the plot to build an enormous health hazard incinerator on Johns Prairie," said frequent attendee, John Komen.

Komen and others argued that extending the city water line out to Johns Prarie would inevitably lead to the location of the proposed Adage biomass facility on Port of Shelton land.

Komen also argued that early in the discussion of the watermain, PUD manager Wyla Wood said under oath that a large city watermain was not necessary to support the future PUD 3 Johns Prarie Operations Center.

Wood responded, saying that while the existing well on Johns Prairie physically produces enough water to support the project, several studies show that draining that aquifer would be detrimental to the environment.

"While we felt that the well that was there could provide adequate water, in the big picture, there were other overarching concerns, Wood said. "We felt that it would be in the best interest of everbody concerned that we address those concerns that were out there, specifically those addressed by the department of ecology and the Squaxin Island Tribe."

The extension of city water to Johns Prairie does provide the opportunity for growth Wood said, but not only for the growth of a proposed biomass plant.

"While we felt that we could have moved forward, it's in the long term better interest to ... better the entire watershed so that folks that are there currently and or who locate there in the future have the option to connect to city water," she said.

said. "As it currently stands, commercial development cannot occur there and that is essentially the only urban growth area in south Mason County."

PUD 3 plans to recoup a majority of the cost to build the pipeline through latecomers agreements.

"It is not truly a cost to our ratepayers because we get the lionshare of that money refunded to us as others connect," Wood said.

Although other customers would pay to connect to this water line, the Port of Shelton will not be charged to connect, since they installed and incurred the costs from a portion of 16-inch pipeline that will be used for this project. Because the line is already installed, this saves the PUD from having to install it themselves.

"We have an agreement with the Port of Shelton in return for them giving us the section of 16-inch pipeline they have there," Wood said. "There will not be a charge made to them from us, in recognition for the substantial costs they have incurred for the section of line that will become a part of that water system."

The port will pay city water rates when they choose to connect to the water line.

Commissioner Gott insisted that the construction of the water line has nothing to do with the proposed Adage biomass plant.

"I think there might be a perception that our water-line is going directly to the proposed Adage site, that is not the case," Gott said. "Our water line is going out to our piece of property... How the water gets from the water line along Johns Prairie to the Adage site is between the port and Adage, if they should choose to locate here."



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© 2010 Shelton-Mason County Journal Shelton, Washington. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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