2023-01-10 PPW CommitteeMinutes
PARKS & PUBLIC WORKS COMMITTEE MEETING
January 10, 2023
Elected Officials Present Staff Present
Councilmember Dave Teitzel (Chair) Oscar Antillon, Public Works Director
Councilmember Vivian Olson Rob English, City Engineer
Council President Neil Tibbott (ex-officio) Scott Passey, City Clerk
Councilmember Will Chen
Councilmember Diane Buckshnis
1. CALL TO ORDER
The Edmonds City Council PPW Committee meeting was called to order virtually and in the City Council
Conference Room, 212 – 5th Avenue North, Edmonds, at 7:30 p.m. by Councilmember Teitzel.
2. COMMITTEE BUSINESS
1. On-Call Stormwater Review Services on Private Development Projects
Mr. English explained over the past few years the stormwater engineer has focused the majority of their
time on private development reviews and emerging issues associated with drainage, water quality, and
increased regulatory requirements to keep the City compliant with the NPDES permit as well as
addressing storm-related issues such as occurred at the end of last month. As a result, they have not
had the ability to begin work on the City’s storm & surface water comprehensive plan update. The
stormwater engineer needs to focus at least 50% of their time on updating that plan, last updated in
2010. To free up the stormwater engineer’s time, staff proposes hiring a consultant to provide on-call
stormwater drainage review services as a short-term solution until the formal RFQ process is completed
and an on-call contract is executed. A first quarter budget amendment for these services will be
submitted during the budget amendment process. A preliminary budget estimate for 2023 is $125,000.
The actual amount will depend on how much private development and permit activity occurs in 2023.
Questions and discussion followed regarding workload that warrants this, why this was not included in
the regular budget process, return of the City’s former Stormwater Engineer Jerry Shuster, updating the
stormwater comprehensive plan in tandem with the comprehensive plan, benefits to updating the
stormwater plan, concern fund balances are being spent down at an alarming rate, insufficient funds in
the existing engineering or public works professional services budget for this, permit revenue that offsets
the cost, whether there are public works projects that could be funded with ARPA funds and redirect
those funds to this contract, using salary savings from the vacant public works director and stormwater
engineer positions in 2022, recognition of the need to update the storm & surface water comprehensive
plan, discomfort with approving any funds until the 2023 budget book showing the impact of final budget
decisions is available, preference for full council to vote on this commitment of funds, whether there are
sources other than fund balance to fund this, whether the storm & surface water comprehensive plan
update could be delayed slightly, and stormwater issues on Dayton.
Committee recommendation: Confer with Mr. Turley regarding ways to free up funds such as
reclassifying projects that qualify for ARPA funding. Full council approval if the amount exceeds
$100,000 with the funding source identified.
2. Public Works Updates
01/10/23 PPW Committee Minutes, Page 2
Mr. Antillon reviewed:
SR 104 & Dayton Flood Reduction
• Timeline
o August 2013: Study
o November 2014: Pump Station Design
o Jan 2020: Construction contract
o July 2021: Construction complete
• Study Recommendation
• December 2022 Storm Update
o Pumps operational but unable to handle volume with extreme high tide
o Flood factors
High tide
- Very high high-tide levels resulting from an unusual astronomical alignment of the
Earth, Moon, and Sun.
- Predicted (blue) and observed (red) water levels for December 25-27 in Seattle from
NOAA. The forecasts were excellent on December 26th but greatly underpredicted
the actual maximum water level (about 15 ft!) On Tuesday, December 27.
Low atmospheric pressure
- A regional low-pressure center caused localized water level increases, something
called the inverse barometer effect (see figure).
Large storm event in a short period of time
01/10/23 PPW Committee Minutes, Page 3
- At the same time, the tide was high, and the atmosphere pressure was low, Edmonds
received a large storm event. Between about 6:45 am and 7:30 am on 12/27,
approximately 0.6 inches of rain fell, with a peak intensity of 1.13 in/hr. This is an
intensity of a 10-yr storm event (storm that has a 10% chance of happening in any
given year).
Saturated ground conditions
- Ground was saturated due to snow, ice, and melting prior to event - This intense
storm event that happened during the King tide and low atmospheric pressure
occurred after days of snow, ice, and melting that had the ground completely
saturated so all the rainfall instantly become runoff
Questions and discussion followed regarding essentially pumping the bay so portable pumps would not
help, long term plan to address sea level rise, getting WSDOT to do some of their projects such as the
berm, improvements that could be done if the City owned the Unocal property, pump station was only
one of the projects to address flooding, daylighting of Willow Creek as an essential part of addressing
flooding, and making the PowerPoint presentation available on the City’s website.
Perrinville Creek
• Existing creek alignment
o Diversion structure
o Culverts under Talbot Road and under BNSF tracks
• Long term plan
o Conceptual design for final alignment
o Restoration requirements
1. Convert the BNSF to a fish passage culver or bridge
2. Remove the diversion structure
3. Convert Talbot Road culvert to fish passage culvert or bridge
• Timeline
o 2023
Complete grant applications
Finalize alignment
o 2024
Complete design
01/10/23 PPW Committee Minutes, Page 4
Permitting
Construction grant applications
o 2025/206
Complete construction
• Grants staff is working on
o (Annual) US Fish & Wildlife Aquatic Organisms Passage program
o (New grant program) FHWA/USDOT Culvert Removal and restoration Grant program
(submittal due Feb 6.)
o (Annual) WRIA8 – SRFB (Salmon Recovery Funding Board).
Questions and discussion followed regarding on-call City crews that clear blocked culverts during heavy
rain events, whether grant funds could address the undersized culvert under the BNSF tracks, seeking
matching funds from BNSF for the culvert under the tracks, the Tribes’ in-kind participation, whether a
diversion structure near the Perrinville post office would be helpful, and other opportunities in the
Perrinville area to reduce flows,
Snow Response
• Negotiated final price for new snow plow
• Snow on sidewalks
o Per city code (Chapter 9.20) maintenance of sidewalks is the responsibility of adjacent
property owners
Councilmember Teitzel relayed Emergency Services Manager Chuck Wallace’s comments that many
cities have the same requirement for adjacent the property owners to keep the sidewalk clear. Having
the City do that would be a huge task.
Discussion followed regarding a neighbor helping neighbor approach such as a volunteer group that
would help remove snow from sidewalks, concern with City snow plows creating berms that make it
difficult to exit cul-de-sacs, and snow plows piling snow onto sidewalks,
Carbon Recovery Project
• Project description
o Upgrades the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) solids handling system by replacing the
existing incinerator with a new gasification system.
o Provides ancillary upgrades to the WWTP headworks and odor control systems
• Construction Status
Location Scope Status
Gasification Demolish existing incinerator system Complete
Gasification Install new equipment on lower level Complete
Gasification Construct new second level Complete
Gasification Install new equipment on upper level In progress
Gasification Install new mechanical/electrical components In progress
General Install new odor control system Complete
Headworks Install new screenings equipment Not started
Offsite Install City Park odor control system Complete
Construction Percentage complete 90%
• Photographs:
o Gasification Building – Lower Level (prior to installation of upper level)
o Gasification Building – Upper level (equipment install on new upper level)
• Projected schedule of remaining work
01/10/23 PPW Committee Minutes, Page 5
• Budget – To date spent 96%
Budget Used Remaining/
Balance
Contract $22,116,389 $22,049,739.58 $66,649.85
Contingency $843,621.00 $0 $843,621.00
Approved change orders $155,148.63 $153,952.52 $1,196.11
Pending change orders
(potential)
TBD 0 0
Total $23,115,159.06 $22,203,692.10 $91,466.96
Questions and discussion followed regarding posting an update on the project website, whether
additional federal funds would be available due to the environmentally friendly nature of this project,
funding sources to cover the increased cost of the project such as bonds or utility increases, commercial
market for biochar, expected revenue from selling biochar, implementation of permit requirements for
nutrient removal potentially impacting treatment capacity, whether there is space to expand the WWTP,
potential use of the old public works property to expand the WWTP, redirecting ARPA funding from
green streets to the wastewater treatment plant, acting plant manager, when the WWTP needs to meet
the new nutrient removal requirements, additional space that may be required for nutrient removal,
whether state grants will be available to address the new requirements, providing a shorter presentation
to full council, request for an update on Tacoma’s lawsuit regarding wastewater treatment requirements,
and flooding at the WWTP in the past.
Committee recommendation:
SR 104 & Dayton Flood Reduction: Include the PowerPoint in the PPW Committee minutes.
Perrinville: Include the PowerPoint in the PPW Committee minutes
Carbon Recovery Project: Update to full council on January 24
3. ADJOURN
The meeting was adjourned at 8:52 p.m.
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SCOTT PASSEY, CITY CLERK