Quench - June 2019

TRWA Advocates for Rural Water During the 86th Legislative Session

Also Inside:

Summary of the Bills that will Impact the Texas Water Business Breaking Down TTHMs May/June 2019 www.trwa.org

TRWA Today Established in 1969, the Texas Rural Water Association (TRWA) is a statewide nonprofit trade association with an active membership consisting of over 750 nonprofit water supply corporations, water districts, small-town water departments and investor-owned utilities. In addition, more than 200 water industry suppliers participate in TRWA activities as associate members. TRWA members provide water and wastewater service to 3 million customers throughout Texas.

TRWA is dedicated to helping directors, managers, operators and office professionals provide efficient service and clean, safe drinking water to their customers. Through on-site technical assistance, education and information exchange, TRWA helps its members better meet their needs as well as the needs of their customers.

Board of Directors Officers

President Brian Macmanus Cameron (District 6) Vice-President Chris Boyd Denton (District 3) Secretary Bruce Alexander Medina (District 2) Treasurer Robert Nettles Walker (District 13) Immediate Past President Pat Allen Guadalupe (District 9)

District Directors Mark Gardenhire Shackelford (Distict 1) Steve Adams Brown (District 4) Dave McMurry Bastrop (District 5) Johnny Rudisill Collin (District 7) Charles Beseda Hill (District 8) Kent Watson Brazos (District 10) Kevin Spence Franklin (District 11) Shirley Thompson Kaufman (District 12) Rhonda Shaw Rusk (District 14)

TRWA Staff

Leadership Team

Lara Zent Allison Kaminsky Lisa Adams Larry Bell Celia Eaves Janice Gibbs, CPA Trent Hightower Jason Knobloch Angela Russell, CMP

Executive Director & General Counsel Deputy Executive Director Foundation Development Director Technical Assistance Director Professional Development & Training Director Finance Director Assistant General Counsel Environmental Services Director Member Services Director

ext. 101 ext. 107 ext. 105 cell: 512-964-8133 ext. 134 ext. 102 ext. 106 ext. 137 ext. 108

Amanda Ashcraft Melody Bennett Ross Brookbank Pam Cantrell Emily Collins Kelsey Copeland Patti Flunker Angela Harris Andrew Montemayor Ariane Walker

Office Manager Project Support Specialist Assistant Environmental Services Director Accounting Support Specialist Administrative Assistant Communications Specialist Paralegal Project Support Specialist Instructional Designer Training Support Specialist

ext. 100 ext. 130 ext. 132 ext. 139 ext. 138 ext. 155 ext. 110 ext. 131 ext. 135 ext. 111

Thomas Acker, Jr. Michael Beadnell Nathan Cantrell Alex Eaves Paul King Deborah McMullan Charles Perkins Bruce Pearson Refugio Rodriguez James Smith Quentin Turner William White Scott Willeford Gilbert Ybarbo

Instructor Instructor Wastewater Technician Wastewater Technician Circuit Rider Source Water Protection Specialist Circuit Rider Instructor FMT Specialist Circuit Rider FMT Specialist Assistant Technical Assistance Director FMT Specialist FMT Specialist

cell: (512) 751-6337 cell: (512) 924-4552 cell: (512) 924-7158 cell: (512) 964-7203 cell: (512) 913-9753 cell: (512) 923-5842 cell: (512) 964-2108 cell: (512) 922-4942 cell: (512) 923-5812 cell: (512) 964-9234 cell: (512) 517-9889 cell: (512) 924-4233 cell: (512) 657-8813 cell: (512) 317-2003

Office Staff

Field Staff

Contact the Editor

Editorial and advertising inquiries may be directed to the Communications Department at editor@trwa.org.

Join the conversation at: www.facebook.com/TexasRuralWaterAssn 2

Quench — May/June 2019

Find us at @TexasRuralWater for industry and legislative news relevant to you!

Features:

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TRWA Advocates for Rural Water During the 86th Legislative Session

By Trent Hightower, Texas Rural Water Association Read on for highlights of TRWA's advocacy efforts during the 2019 legislative session.

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Tackling Fats, Oils and Grease at Your System

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Technical Assistance Corner: Breaking Down TTHMs

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From the Hole: Tales from the Road

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TRWA Launches 2019-20 Emerging Leaders Program Class

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By Trent Hightower, Texas Rural Water Association Out of the hundreds of bills TRWA monitored this legislative session, only a handful made it through the process. Here is a summary of the legislation that is relevant to rural water utilities.

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In Every Issue: Letter from the President Letter from the Executive Director

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Ask Larry

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Keep it Legal

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Answers to your technical questions Answers to your legal questions

Advertiser Index Plan Ahead

TRWA’s Calendar of Events

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Summary of the Bills that Will Impact the Texas Water Business

By Nathan Cantrell, Texas Rural Water Association Learn more about the problems fats, oils and grease can cause for your system.

By Jason Knobloch, Texas Rural Water Association Through efforts to treat water to safe and acceptable levels, we often create additional issues in the process, including Disinfection By-Products such as Trihalomethanes.

Meet the 2019-20 TRWF Student Scholarship Recipients

Compiled by Lisa Adams, Texas Rural Water Association This year's student scholarships were awarded to five deserving young scholars and included the first-ever Dwayne Jekel scholarship.

By Michael Beadnell, Texas Rural Water Association One of TRWA's Instructors visits Woodbine WSC to teach a Customer Service Inspections and Cross Connection Control class.

By Allison Kaminsky, Texas Rural Water Association Thirteen up-and-coming leaders were admitted into this year's leadership development program, which kicked of in June at an orientation and training session in Austin.

TRWA Briefs

Have You Joined the TXWARN Network; Don't Miss TRWA's Training and Technical Conference

On the Cover: Fate Trans Line by Heath McGee, 2019 PhotoStream Category Winner Quench — May/June 2019 3

President’s Message Howdy Texas Rural Water Association!

Another session of the Texas Legislature has come to a close, and everyone can breathe a little easier. TRWA pushed back many very bad bills and managed a few victories on passed legislation as well. Read into this Quench edition for the details. Thank you to everyone as part of TEAM TRWA for your phone calls, emails, personal visits and testimony on critical bills! Each of you made a significant difference for our association.

“Thank you to everyone as part of TEAM TRWA for your phone calls, emails, personal visits and testimony on critical bills!”

Summer has arrived, and all the joys associated therewith. Get outside and find some time with your Creator, yourself, your family and your friends. A nice beach, lake, river or bay are all great places to congregate around the awesome resource of water.

For those of you on the eastern 1/3rd of our great state, please prepare yourself for hurricane season. If you wait to plan until it arrives, it is too late.

Hopefully everyone can take a few hours to update their system emergency response plan.

Looking forward to seeing many of you at the Training & Technical Conference in Galveston. Please join us there at the Family Fund Fish Fry and trivia fundraiser supporting the Texas Rural Water Political Action Committee (PAC). It is certain to be a good time for all. Until then, keep the water going with a “true to rural” Texas smile.

Be Good,

Brian E. Macmanus, P.E. President Texas Rural Water Association

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Letter from the Executive Director Dear TRWA Members, The Texas Legislative Session concluded on Memorial Day and, overall, we were successful in furthering a crucial legislative initiative and combatting a lot of bills that would have been harmful to rural utilities. We worked with developer stakeholders to pass a bill that creates a fair compensation process for utilities that are decertified by the Public Utility Commission.

We have included two comprehensive articles in this issue of Quench detailing TRWA’s legislative achievements and explaining changes that were made to laws that impact rural utilities. Most notably, there are a few bills that passed pertaining to the Open Meetings Act and Public Information Act that may require some procedural changes at your system.

TRWA has been preparing to assist members impacted by hurricanes or other local disasters. On April 25, we held a training session with staff to discuss our revised internal emergency response protocols and staff assignments. On May 14-15, nine of our staff attended National Rural Water Association’s emergency response training in Lonoke, Arkansas where we learned best practices when assisting utilities in emergency situations and previewed equipment that other rural water associations use in their emergency response efforts. We’ll be hosting this training in Texas next year.

On May 30, we hosted an emergency response training in Bastrop for member water utility staff who plan to join TRWA’s emergency response team. Remember that TRWA is now a partner in the TXWARN statewide water & wastewater utility mutual aid network. Please join this free network if you haven’t done so already. And remember, you may always call TRWA when you need emergency assistance. Most recently, we helped a member system impacted by tornados in east Texas.

“Overall, we were successful in furthering a crucial legislative initiative and combating a lot of bills that would have been harmful to rural utilities.”

In early June, I had the pleasure of interacting with utility office professionals at our conference in San Marcos. In June, we also launched our second leadership development class (“Emerging Leaders Program”). We have 13 enthusiastic individuals in this class who are interested in growing their career to take on new leadership roles in our industry. I look forward to seeing many of you at our upcoming Training & Technical Conference in Galveston.

Warm regards,

Lara Zent Executive Director and General Counsel Texas Rural Water Association

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TRWA Advocates for Rural Water During the 86th Legislative Session

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By Trent Hightower, Assistant General Counsel, Texas Rural Water Association

he 86th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature came to a close on Monday, May 27. TRWA sponsored two bills this session to address issues that were hindering rural water utilities’ ability to provide clean and affordable water to their customers: 1) compensation after CCN decertification and 2) sensible groundwater permitting rules by groundwater conservation districts (GCDs).

We also monitored more than 400 bills in a wide range of subject areas with potential impact on the rural water industry. In several cases, TRWA and its members were successful in amending or stopping legislation that would have negatively affected rural utilities or raised rates for their customers.

The following are some highlighted bills that TRWA actively engaged with during the 2019 legislative session.

CCN Decertification: Since the passage of S.B. 573 in 2011, many systems have seen their service areas decertified without the Public Utility Commission (PUC) awarding any compensation for their stranded investment. Unfortunately, the problematic streamlined expedited release process remains entrenched in law due to the support of key members of the legislature, but after several legislative cycles of working to amend this legislation, TRWA was successful in convincing these members that the compensation portion of the law needed to be reformed. Chairman Lyle Larson included the issue as an interim charge between sessions and encouraged water utilities and developers to work on compromise legislation together. The compromise legislation, S.B. 2272 by Sen. Robert Nichols, removes the “useless and valueless” language from the statute that has been a barrier to compensation and provides clear timelines for the decertified utility to receive compensation. The bill cleared both houses of the legislature and was signed into law

by Governor Abbott in June. The intent of all sides was to ensure a fair compensation process for utilities when their service area is decertified, and the stakeholders plan to submit a joint letter to that effect to the PUC this interim.

Groundwater Permitting: Despite best efforts, TRWA was unable to negotiate a compromise on 6

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our other priority legislative issue. Currently, GCDs are allowed, but are not required, to take into consideration a utility’s service area when issuing the utility a water allocation permit. TRWA’s bill, H.B. 2249 by Rep. Eddie Lucio, III, would have mandated that all GCDs consider a utility’s service needs in this way. Opposition bills supported by Texas Farm Bureau and filed by Rep. Cody Harris (H.B. 2122) and Sen. Charles Perry (S.B. 2026) would have removed this provision from law, which could have resulted in increased costs and water rates for many utilities. The House Natural Resources Committee heard both versions concurrently, with the TRWA lobby team and several member systems testifying for or against the respective versions. The committee ultimately decided to maintain the status quo and did not vote out either version to be heard by the full house.

The opposition bill got new life in the Senate, however, as Sen. Perry chairs the Senate Water and Rural Affairs Committee. TRWA again mobilized testimony against the bill in this committee, but it passed to the full senate as expected by a narrow 4-3 vote. The bill then passed the full senate by a vote of 19-12, a rare occurrence in a chamber that typically passes bills by unanimous or near-unanimous margins. The bill then went back to the house, where TRWA mounted a strong opposition effort.

Following dozens of phone calls and emails from our members and their customers, the senate version of the bill also died in the House Natural Resources Committee. The current approach to groundwater permitting remains in effect until at least 2021.

Eminent Domain: As originally introduced, S.B. 421/H.B. 991 by Sen. Lois Kolkhorst and Rep. DeWayne Burns would have restricted the ability of water supply corporations (WSCs) to exercise their eminent domain authority by requiring them to provide insurance for landowners when obtaining easements and requiring them to pay damages to property owners when their initial compensation offers differ substantially from the amount actually awarded. TRWA testified against the bill in committee and worked with landowner groups such as the Texas Farm Bureau to amend the bill so that it only affected

its intended targets: private organizations operating large pipeline projects. The version of the bill that passed both chambers left intact the full range of eminent domain authority WSCs had before this session. Ultimately, however, the house and senate were unable to agree on a version of the bill in the final days of session, so the bill died.

Open Meetings: The introduced version of H.B. 2527/S.B. 1732 by Rep. Jeff Leach and Sen. Angela Paxton would have required all water districts serving in three or more counties to make audiovisual recordings of their meetings available to the public online. While the two Dallas-area sponsors of the bill seemed to be primarily targeting large, urban water districts with larger budgets and staffs, many rural utilities affected by the bill have more limited staff and technical capabilities. Current law already requires school districts with more than 10,000 students, and cities and counties with populations of more than 50,000 to record and post their meetings. After testimony from TRWA members and discussions with the TRWA legislative team, the authors amended the bill to apply only to water districts similar in size to those already covered by the statute. While the bill did successfully pass the senate, it died in the House County Affairs Committee without receiving a vote.

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Impact Fees Paid to School Districts: Rep. Andrew Murr’s H.B. 4031 would have prohibited WSCs from charging school districts capital fees for new development or fees to acquire water rights unless the district contractually agreed. Managers from three TRWA member utilities testified before the House Natural Resources Committee as to the negative impact this bill would have had on rural utilities and those who depend on them for water service. The bill never received a vote in the House Natural Resources Committee.

Replacement of Lead Pipes in Schools: Rep. James Talarico’s H.B. 2998 would have required utilities to replace all the lead pipes in each school and childcare facility they serve, at the utility’s expense. After several conversations with Rep. Talarico’s office, the bill was amended to place the burden of lead pipe replacement on the schools and childcare facilities who own the pipes in question.

The amended version of the bill was voted down by the House Natural Resources Committee.

Nonfunctioning Investor-Owned Utilities: Two bills this session sought to relieve people living in communities served by under-performing or nonfunctioning investor-owned utilities. Rep. Drew Continued on page 8

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Springer’s H.B. 4477 was initially drafted too broadly, and would have required all utilities, even nonprofit WSCs and water districts with no track-record of bad service, to submit an unnecessary report on their financial, managerial and technical capabilities.

Since most of the required information is already required by the PUC and Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ), TRWA got engaged and testified against the bill, which was ultimately refined to apply only to certain for-profit utilities. The amended version was voted out of committee, but never received a vote by the full house.

Additionally, TRWA assisted Rep. John Wray with a similar issue in his district by drafting a bill to incentivize the takeover of nonfunctioning utilities by neighboring systems. The bill defined criteria for nonfunctionality and provided funding opportunities for acquiring systems through the Texas Water Development Board. The bill also provided acquiring utilities with a grace period on enforcement actions from the PUC or TCEQ while they bring a nonfunctioning utility into compliance and authorized them to charge the rates necessary to pay costs associated with the acquisition. Rep. Wray filed TRWA’s language as H.B. 4241, but it did not receive a hearing in committee.

court to dissolve certain districts, including special utility districts. TRWA provided alternative language describing specific bad acts a district would have to commit before a dissolution could have been pursued. This language was designed to reduce the danger of politically motivated dissolution elections and to restrict the bill’s application to true bad actors.

Ultimately, Sen. Hinojosa pursued a separate local bill addressing his concerns with a specific local water district. S.B. 1108 did not receive a hearing in committee, but the local bill, S.B. 911, passed into law. *** Thank you to the TRWA members who helped us in our legislative efforts this session. Whether through sharing our Capitol Pipeline newsletter, contacting your legislator to discuss our issues or even traveling to Austin to testify for or against bills, your efforts were invaluable.

If you have any questions about any bills discussed in this article, you may contact Trent Hightower, Assistant General Counsel, at Trent.

Hightower@trwa.org or 512-472-8591 ext. 106.

Ultimately, it was a third bill, H.B. 3542 by Rep. Dade Phelan, that passed both houses and addressed both the reporting and acquisition elements of the previous two bills. H.B. 3542 requires additional financial, managerial, and technical reporting by investor-owned utilities with fewer than 10,000 connections and provides a structure for placing a value on investor-owned utilities when they are acquired by a Class A or Class B utility.

Dissolution of Districts: S.B. 1108 by Sen. Chuy Hinojosa created a process for a water district’s board, the public or the county commissioners’

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Summary of the Bills that Will Impact the Texas Water Business

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By Trent Hightower, Assistant General Counsel, Texas Rural Water Association

he 86th Regular Session of the Texas Legislature came to a close on May 27. Out of the hundreds of bills tracked by TRWA, only a small percentage managed to pass both houses and make their way to the governor’s desk. Below is a summary of the bills that are relevant to rural water utilities. Unless otherwise noted, all bills signed by the governor become law on September 1, 2019.

Open Government S.B. 239 (Nelson) This bill requires all districts to include in their meeting notices justification for the meeting’s location if it will be held at a location more than 10 miles outside the district’s boundaries. It also requires all districts to include the following mandated language with their water bills as part of their normal billing process: "For more information about the district, including information about the district's board and board meetings, please go to the Comptroller's Special Purpose District Public Information Database (or district's Internet website if the district maintains an Internet website)." The statement may be altered to provide the current website address of either the Comptroller’s database or that of the district.

The new law also requires WCIDs, FWSDs, MUDs and WIDs with a population of more than 500 people to post their meeting minutes on their website if the district maintains a website. The law also allows any district resident to request a recording be made of any hearing to consider the adoption of an ad valorem tax rate. The request must be made at least three days before the hearing, and the recording must be made available within five days after the hearing. Further, the district must maintain the recording for a period of one year after the hearing.

S.B. 494 (Huffman) This law, which applies to all entities subject to the Open Meetings and Public Information Acts, reduces the notice requirement for an emergency meeting from the current two hours to 10

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one hour. It also provides examples of “reasonably unforeseeable situations” that would authorize an emergency meeting, bringing clarity to a term that is currently undefined in statute. Under the new law, “reasonably unforeseeable situations” include: • • • •

fire, flood, earthquake, hurricane, tornado or wind, rain or snowstorm; power failure, transportation failure or interruption of communication facilities; epidemic; or riot, civil disturbance, enemy attack or other actual or threatened act of lawlessness or violence.

The new law also allows the attorney general to bring a mandamus or injunction action to stop, prevent or reverse a violation or threatened violation of the Open Meetings Act’s emergency provisions.

Finally, the bill temporarily suspends requirements under the Public Information Act for requests during a period of “catastrophe,” which is defined the same as “reasonably unforeseeable situation” above. When utilizing this provision, governmental entities must provide notice to the attorney general and the public that it is currently being impacted by a catastrophe and has elected to suspend the applicability of the Public Information Act. The initial suspension period may not be longer than seven consecutive days but may be extended one time for no more than seven more days if the governing body determines that the organization is still impacted by the same catastrophe. Public Information Act requests received during the suspension period are deemed to have been received on the first day the suspension is lifted, and they must be timely addressed at that time in the usual manner.

S.B. 943 (Watson) The Public Information Act generally requires governmental bodies to disclose information to the public upon request, unless that information is excepted from disclosure. This law creates such an exception for information that, if released, would give an advantage to a competitor or bidder. The

law also imposes recordkeeping and disclosure requirements on non-governmental entities that contract with governmental entities and forbids governmental entities from accepting a bid for a contract with entities that have failed to comply with those requirements in past bids. The governmental body may also terminate a contract if it becomes aware of such failures by a non-governmental entity after it has contracted with the entity.

“walking quorum” as the prohibited action. Under the revised statute, a quorum of board members may not engage in a series of communications in numbers that are less than a quorum to discuss matters within the body’s jurisdiction. Any member who engages in any such communication with knowledge that it is part of a series that would or could constitute a quorum is subject to criminal liability under the Act.

S.B. 944 (Watson)

Elections

This bill provides a process for a governmental body to retrieve public information held by a temporary custodian, which is defined as an officer or employee of a governmental body who, in the transaction of official business, creates or receives public information that they have not turned over to the organization’s public information officer.

Notably, the term specifically includes a former officer or employee of the organization who made or received information during their affiliation with the organization. The law imposes a duty on temporary custodians to preserve information and turn it over on request and makes clear that the individual has no private ownership interest in the information, even if it is maintained on their personally owned device.

H.B. 831 (Huberty)

H.B. 2840 (Canales)

H.B. 1067 (Ashby)

Prior to this session, the board of an entity subject to the Open Meetings Act was not required to allow the public to speak at an open meeting, but had the discretion to allow public comment if they elected to do so. H.B. 2840 amends the law by requiring all organizations subject to the Act to allow members of the public to speak on any properly noticed agenda item at their meetings. The law requires this comment period to occur before or during the board’s consideration of the item, and it allows the board to adopt reasonable rules regarding the public’s right to comment, including rules that limit the total amount of time that a member may speak.

S.B. 1640 (Watson) In February, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals struck down the provision of the Open Meetings Act that provides for criminal penalties for knowingly conspiring to circumvent the Act. The court held that the statute was unconstitutionally vague as written, because it was unclear as to the specific conduct that would subject an individual to prosecution.

The legislature responded by passing S.B. 1640, which more clearly describes the concept of a

The Texas Election Code requires candidates for public elective office to have resided continuously in Texas for 12 months and the territory from which their office is elected for six months before being eligible for office. This bill clarifies how a temporary absence from the state or election territory affects a candidate’s eligibility by providing that a person may demonstrate their intent to return to a residence by showing that they have made a reasonable and substantive attempt to effectuate their intent, and by showing that they have a legal right and the practical ability to return to the residence. This bill has a later effective date than most bills; it will only apply to candidates in elections occurring on or after January 1, 2020.

This bill took effect immediately upon its passage by two-thirds of both houses and will allow election authorities to exclude a deceased candidate from a ballot if the candidate dies before the filing deadline.

If a candidate’s name is omitted under this statute, the filing deadline for a place on the ballot is then extended until the fifth day after the original filing deadline.

Employment & Professional Licensing H.B. 2240 (Murphy) H.B. 2240 gives employers an additional option for paying their employees. In addition to payment in U.S. currency, written check or direct deposit to an employee’s bank account, beginning September 1, employers can also utilize a payroll card account.

Payroll card accounts must be linked to a federally insured financial institution.

S.B. 1217 (Alvarado) This bill removes a barrier many Texans have found to inhibit their ability to obtain a variety of professional licenses. Currently, TCEQ requires Continued on page 12

Continued from page 11

applicants for a new or renewal water or wastewater operator’s license to attest that they have no arrests, convictions, deferred adjudications, or dismissals for any charges above a Class C misdemeanor. Under the new law, licensing authorities such as TCEQ can no longer consider arrests not leading to a conviction or placement on deferred adjudication in determining an applicant’s fitness to receive a license.

Investor-Owned Utilities S.B. 700 (Nichols) Since jurisdiction over water rates was transferred to the PUC, both the agency and stakeholders have expressed concern that current law imposes burdensome requirements on smaller investor-owned utilities when seeking rate increases. The legislature sought to alleviate those difficulties this session with S.B. 700, which restructures rate classes for investor-owned utilities.

Currently, the Class B utility designation is quite broad, encompassing utilities with 500 to 10,000 connections. The new law would raise the lower threshold for a Class B utility to 2,300 connections while maintaining that 10,000-connection upper threshold. Utilities with 500 to 2,300 connections will now be classified as Class C utilities, and the bill creates a new category of Class D utilities for those with fewer than 500 connections. The law goes on to require the PUC to implement rules that are less burdensome for each class of utilities compared to the next-highest category. The bill also amends current law by requiring the PUC to determine the duration of temporary rates when a nonfunctioning utility is acquired by another utility.

H.B. 3542 (Phelan) H.B. 3542 requires investor-owned utilities with fewer than 10,000 connections to provide additional financial, managerial and technical reports to the PUC if they violate a TCEQ order relating to capacity, minimum pressure and accurate water quality testing. The law also provides a model for placing a valuation on an investor-owned utility during the process of its acquisition by a Class A or Class B utility.

Flood Control S.B. 7 (Creighton) The legislature’s largest response to Hurricane Harvey, S.B. 7 earmarks billions of dollars to fund repairs and flood mitigation projects. The bill creates 12

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several funds, including money to provide local agencies with grants or low-or no-interest loans to design and build flood mitigation projects, as well as a fund to cover the local match on federally funded projects.

Governmental Entities H.B. 2826 (Bonnen) Government Code Sec. 403.0305 currently prohibits many public entities, including districts and cities, from entering into a contingency fee contract for legal services without review and approval by the comptroller. This bill shifts the approval process to the attorney general, specifies how a political subdivision may select an attorney, and requires public notice and disclosures before entering into a contingency fee contract. The law further specifies that a contract entered into in violation of the statute is void as against public policy.

H.B. 3001 (Morrison) This bill will allow water districts to satisfy annual financial reporting requirements by ensuring that financial documents required to be submitted to the comptroller are made available at the district’s office for public inspection and making them available on the district’s website.

H.B. 2706 (Capriglione) Government Code Chapter 2256, also known as the Public Funds Investment Act, authorizes local governments, state agencies and nonprofit corporations and investment pools acting on their behalf to participate in certain investment activities.

This new law expands the authority of these entities to purchase, sell and invest public funds, including allowing investment in certain repurchase agreements and commercial paper.

S.B. 530 (Birdwell) Under current law, TCEQ may assess penalties against a person who causes, suffers, allows or permits a violation of drinking water health standards in Chapter 341, Health & Safety Code in an amount ranging from $50 to $1,000 per violation.

The new law raises the upper limit for such penalties to a maximum of $5,000 per violation.

H.B. 3552 (Sheffield) This new law amends the Health & Safety Code to require public water systems who furnish fluoridated water to provide customers with at least 60 days written notice before permanently terminating the fluoridation of the water supply.

Bills of Significance to TRWA Members that Failed to Pass

water in rural communities. The bill cleared the house but failed to receive a vote in the Senate Water & Rural Affairs Committee.

H.B. 2348 (King) This bill, which cleared both houses before being vetoed by the governor, would have prohibited employers with more than 20 employees from discriminating against volunteer emergency responders, which were defined as active participants in an emergency service organization who does not receive compensation for their services. Under the bill, employers could not terminate or suspend the employment of an emergency responder who missed work due to their response to a declared disaster in the employee’s capacity as an emergency responder. The bill also would have allowed employers to reduce wages or require the employee to utilize existing leave time to respond to a disaster.

H.B. 1868 (Lozano) H.B. 1868 would have created a 15-member statewide council to assist the Department of Agriculture in assessing the existence of, effectiveness of or need for rural water initiatives in Texas relating to the prevention, mitigation and abatement of a variety of issues affecting source

S.B. 621 (Nichols, et al) Like all agencies, the Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners (TSBPE) is subject to the sunset review process, in which the legislature decides whether to continue the agency’s existence and makes changes to their responsibilities and duties. As filed and passed by both houses, this sunset bill abolished the TSBPE and transferred its functions to the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation (TDLR), which oversees numerous other professional licenses. However, in a dramatic turn of events at the close of session, the House and Senate were unable to agree to a final version of the bill, meaning the TSBPE would have ceased to exist on its sunset date, September 1, 2019, without its functions having been transferred to TDLR as planned. This would have created a great deal of uncertainty in the plumbing industry, as no statewide agency would have had authority over the regulation of plumbers until the 2021 legislative session. The TSBPE was ultimately saved two weeks after the end of session, however, when Governor Abbott Continued on page 14

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Continued from page 13

issued an executive order continuing its existence until 2021 based on the necessity of plumbers to the ongoing response to the affects of Hurricane Harvey statewide.

H.B. 4553 (Lucio, III) This bill addressed the issue of decertification of a utilities certificate of convenience and necessity (CCN) by cities. The proposed law would have required cities to demonstrate that the CCN holder was unable to provide continuous and adequate service to the area in question. It also removed the “useless and valueless” language in current law that has been prohibitive to systems receiving compensation in cases before the PUC. The bill was voted out of committee but failed to receive a vote before the full house.

If you have any questions about any bills discussed in this article, you may contact Trent Hightower, Assistant General Counsel, at Trent.

Hightower@trwa.org or 512-472-8591 ext. 106.

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Ask Larry A Q&A column with TRWA Technical Assistance Director Larry Bell

Q:

A current member of our WSC has asked for a second meter on their property. Is it ethical for us to charge a second equity buy-in fee for this meter if we already charged such a fee for their first meter?

A: The answer is yes, it’s not only ethical, it’s also both fair and necessary. Think of it this way: what if that property owner was requesting not one meter, but four new ones? And what if one or all those new meters were located on the same property, but a half mile away from the end of your current line? Wouldn’t it make sense for the owner to have to pay the cost of extending the line(s) out to those structures?

The purpose of an equity buy-in fee is to establish parity between the new customer or applicant and those who have already been receiving service. All new customers or applicants for water service use some of the system’s existing facilities and capacity that was already in place — things like pipe lines, tanks, wells, pumps and so on. These existing capacity components were and are being paid for through monthly water rates.

Therefore, existing customers have been paying for extra capacity for many years and these new customers are being asked to provide a portion of the cost associated with the capacity they will be using.

Some of this cost will be paid by these new customers once they start paying their monthly water bill, but the previous customers not only have been paying for what it costs for them to receive water delivered to their homes, they have also been paying a bit extra towards the complete debt-service for all existing capacity.

Additionally, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) rules require that all public water systems be designed with a minimum of 15 percent “extra” capacity. The rules go on to state that once a system begins to use some of that extra capacity, they need to begin designing specific improvements that will replace this used capacity.

Then, once the system reaches 100 percent capacity, that system should begin constructing 16

Quench — May/June 2019

these new facilities to replace or build that extra 15 percent or more back into their system for future growth.

It doesn’t matter whether the extra capacity is used to supply brand new customers who have never had service or by existing customers seeking an additional meter. The capacity is being used either way, and these new meters and customers are utilizing their share of the system’s resources.

That availability to use that capacity should be paid for, but not by tacking the costs onto existing customers. Instead, growth should pay for growth, even if a current member is responsible for the new growth through the addition of a second meter on their property. Going back to my earlier example, if a current customer wanted a new meter placed at the end of a road a 1/2 mile past the end of the existing water line, that new customer should pay their costs for extending that line and not have that cost be paid for by the rest of the members.

Q: The person who tests Reduced Pressure Zone (RPZ) assemblies for our WSC bills each customer directly and then notifies us for our file. We have a member who insisted on installing his RPZ himself and is refusing to pay the tester for his annual inspection. Can we add the testing costs to his water bill so the tester can get paid? If so and the member doesn’t pay, can we lock his meter?

A: You present several potential critical situations. First, you will want to see if your system’s tariff or other policies contain any requirement that all RPZ assemblies must be installed by a recognized contractor properly trained and licensed to install them. Most systems have a list of recognized installers and testers, and do not allow for a homeowner to install these assemblies themselves to ensure compliance with TCEQ regulations. While some systems have allowed a homeowner to install their own RPZ, the TCEQ is ultimately going to hold the public water system responsible if an improper self-installation fails and a sickness, injury or backflow event occurs.

The public water system is responsible to

adopt and withhold service until the applicant has complied/met all the system’s requirements for service contained in its tariff or other adopted policies.

Next, you will want to verify that the tester conducted the proper testing of the RPZ and provided you with the TCEQ form indicating that the assembly is working properly. Assuming this has occurred, your system has no reason to disconnect the customer’s water service because you have properly-documented test results showing that the RPZ is functioning properly.

As far as payment to the contractor, the WSC is not responsible to collecting fees for a third party.

The law provides individuals with remedies for nonpayment for services, and it is the contractor’s responsibility to pursue those on his own behalf when necessary.

Q: What best practices should we follow when customers request a line location on their property?

A: It’s important to have a clear idea of where exactly the customer needs a line location before you begin line location work. Many hard feelings and legal costs have been racked up due to “he said, she said” when there was no documentation to back up what type of work was to be provided and where the work was to take place. There is no telling how many times something like this exact scenario has happened at systems I worked for before I started with TRWA and how many I’ve seen since I’ve been here.

In general, customers or landowners should provide the utility with some type of description of where they are intending to excavate, dig post holes, bulldoze the top of a hill, cut a ditch or install a pond dam. This is especially true if the landowner has a lot of frontage or the system’s line is located through the middle of their property. It’s just common sense for the utility to know where to start and stop locating the water line.

Aerial views of most all properties in the world are now available online. You might consider printing out a copy of their tract of land and showing that the water main is located within a filed easement on their property or off their property in the public right of way. This may resolve some of their questions and your staff’s questions about the water main being in the way of new construction.

Have the customer place “X” on the spot where they intend to do any excavation or activity, and sign and date the printed map. That way, the system has

a specific request in written form if the customer performs work elsewhere on the property and claims the system failed to accurately locate its lines.

Some systems have made several trips out to where they thought the locate work was to be done, only to find out there were no marks, ribbons, flags or paint on the ground showing the area where the customer needs the work done. Other systems may have marked their lines several times only to have the owner claim that it was not in the right spot. In some cases, utilities have had to resort to the extreme measure of assessing a service trip charge if the owner makes too many line locate requests without giving the system adequate instruction on the specific area in which the work is needed. Ultimately, systems are not in the guessing business, and they need to know things like which side of the water meter, how far from the water meter or gate valve or some other landmark on the property so they can accurately locate lines and prevent damage due to various construction and other projects.

If you have a technical question you would like answered, please e-mail larry.bell@trwa.org.

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Tackling Fats, Oils and Grease at Your System

By Nathan Cantrell, Wastewater Technician Texas Rural Water Association

I

s grease a problem? In the sewage collection and treatment business, the answer is an emphatic yes! Fats, Oils and Grease (FOG) are singled out for special attention because of their poor solubility in water and their tendency to separate from the liquid solution.

Large amounts of FOG entering the wastewater stream causes trouble in the collection system pipes.

It decreases pipe capacity by coating the inside of the pipe and fittings and, therefore, requires that piping system needs to be cleaned more often. As FOG clogs the pipes, bits of rotting food trapped in the FOG form Hydrogen Sulfide, which combines with water to form sulfuric acid, which deteriorates collection fittings, pipes and causes damage to the infrastructure.

Grease in a warm liquid may not appear harmful.

But, as the liquid cools, the grease or fat congeals and causes mats on the surface of settling tanks and digesters, in the wet wells of pumping stations and the interior of pipes and other surfaces, which may cause a shutdown of wastewater treatment units. The clogs caused by FOG can also cause sanitary sewer overflows, which expose people to raw sewage—a serious health hazard—and are expensive to clean up.

Problems caused by wastes from restaurants and other grease-producing establishments have served as the basis for ordinances and regulations governing the discharge of grease materials to the sanitary sewer system. This type of waste has forced cities and other sewer systems to require the installation of preliminary treatment facilities, commonly known as grease traps or interceptors.

What is a grease trap, and how does it work?

A trap is a vault that is located at the FOG generation site. The vault is sized by permit based on the amount of FOG expected to be generated at each customer site. It includes a minimum of two compartments, and the flow between each compartment is through a 90-degree fitting designed for grease retention. The capacity of the interceptor 18

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provides adequate residence time so that the wastewater has time to cool, allowing grease time to congeal and rise to the surface where it accumulates until the trap is cleaned.

Does your system need a grease trap ordinance?

Yes! Facilities generating FOG as a result of food manufacturing, processing, preparation or other food service providers need to install, use and maintain appropriate grease traps or interceptors.

These facilities include but are not limited to animal processing plants, restaurants, food manufacturers, food processors, hospitals, hotels, motels, prisons and any other facility with the potential to produce FOG. Help is out there.

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) has developed the "Let's Tackle the Grease in This Kitchen" poster, available in English and Spanish. Camera-ready art is also available, so that you can customize the poster with your establishment’s name. Call 512-239-3100 or send an e-mail to TexasEnviroHelp@tceq.texas.gov to order camera-ready art.

For more information on the TCEQ's Sanitary Sewer Overflow Initiative, visit the Sanitary Sewer Overflow Initiative website at https://www.tceq.texas. gov/compliance/investigation/ssoinitiative.

Where can I find more information and assistance?

The TCEQ's Small Business and Local Government Assistance Section offers free, confidential help to small businesses and local governments working to comply with state environmental regulations. Call 800-447-2827 or visit the TCEQ Web page at TexasEnviroHelp.org.

You can also contact one of the TRWA Wastewater Technicians who can assist on-site at your system. They can be reached by email at Nathan.Cantrell@trwa.org or Alex.Eaves@trwa.org, or on their cell phones, which are listed on the inside front cover of this magazine.

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Technical Assistance Corner: Breaking Down TTHMs

W

By Jason Knobloch, Environmental Services Director, Texas Rural Water Association

ater today is not what it used to be.

Waste, contamination and over-pumping has left us with a limited usable supply of degrading quality. Because of this, water utilities struggle to maintain and provide potable, palatable water for their customers. The treatment processes available to achieve those goals are becoming more meticulous to stay in compliance and combat a variety of potentially harmful constituents in the water. Through efforts to treat water to safe and acceptable levels, we often create additional issues in the process. One major result of treatment in water today is disinfection by-products (DBP).

Though there are many DBPs, the most commonly heard today is trihalomethanes (THM).

THMs are formed predominantly when chlorine is introduced to source water for treatment. They result from the reaction of chlorine with inorganic or organic matter present such as algae and decaying vegetation. Organic matter is typically more available in surface water sources over groundwater. High bromide levels in surface water and/or groundwater can elevate DBPs and cause serious quality and compliance issues.

There are many different THMs created during this process, but only four of them are identified as Total Trihalomethanes (TTHMs) and regulated by our state and federal agencies. The THMs that make up the total are Chloroform, Bromoform, Bromodichloromethane and Dibromochloromethane.

The total concentration of these four components are to be less than 0.080 mg/L to maintain compliance.

There are many factors that must be considered when trying to understand what causes the elevation in DBPs. The type of disinfection used that interacts with the source water, the swinging Texas temperatures, pH levels in the water and extended water age in the storage tank and/or distribution system all effect the formation of THMs. Unfortunately, there is no one size fits all solution to resolving the problem. Whether changes are made in the distribution system such as deep cycling storage tanks, looping main lines or performing 20

Quench — May/June 2019

unidirectional flushing; or if additional treatments are needed, like aeration or filtration, you need to understand which THMs are causing the problem.

If you will note the results of your DBP sampling, you can see the values of each of the four components that make up the TTHM. Another option is to search your public water system on Drinking Water Watch (https://dww2.tceq.texas.gov/DWW/) to find your results. The sample information is located under the “Other Chemical Results” link in the menu of options in yellow. You can then select the sample that corresponds with your DBP sample identified under “Sample Point.” Once you have your results and have identified the four THMs that make up the total, it’s time to evaluate.

Chloroform is a THM that is formed slowly and is more dominant when source water bromide levels are low. TTHMs are volatile organic compounds (VOC) with chloroform being the most volatile and the most common of the four compounds that make up the total. Chloroform can be removed by the process of aeration. Remedying chloroform in drinking water can come in many forms such as using spray or cascading aeration, diffused air or even recirculation pumps keeping the tank thoroughly mixed. In some studies, aeration has shown to eliminate up to 99 percent of

chloroform if properly installed and operated. Also, these processes have shown to have little or no effect on maintaining chlorine residual. Therefore, if chloroform is the primary factor causing elevated TTHMs in your drinking water such as in Table 1, there are some fairly inexpensive ways to eliminate the issue.

should not be the only goal. Understanding and accepting the responsibility that comes with the job to provide safe drinking water to those that count on you should be. Take time to dig deeper into the results of your samples and identify where your issues may be coming from so you can educate yourself on what to do reduce or eliminate them.

Unfortunately, aeration and tank mixing are not a fix for everything. Brominated species contribute more to TTHM values when source waters have higher concentrations of bromide (e.g. source water exposed to marine or estuary intrusion and certain geological formations). This is not localized to only surface water sources near the coast but can affect groundwater utilities around the state with higher brackish water influence as well. These THMs form quickly and are not as easily removed. Studies have shown that brominated species can be reduced with aeration, but not by a significant amount. For a utility that has sampling results similar to Table 2, other treatment options may need to be researched such as Granular Activated Carbon, Nanofiltration or Reverse Osmosis to help with removing TOCs and TTHMs.

If you have questions about this article, you can contact Jason Knobloch, TRWA Environmental Services Director, at Jason.Knobloch@trwa.org or 512-472-8591, ext. 137.

Once you have a grasp of where the bulk of your TTHM is coming from, go back and compare it to other samples that were taken at different times of the year. You will likely notice spikes during the summer months compared to the cooler temperatures. As mentioned before, pH, temperature and reaction/contact time are big drivers in formation of TTHMs. It’s also important to note, the lower the TOCs, the lower the DBPs. Use this information to help direct your operational decisions in the field, as well as your decisions during the treatment process.

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Keep It Legal Answers to Members’ Questions by TRWA Assistant General Counsel Trent Hightower

Q:

We recently found out that a customer has been secretly recording our board meetings without our knowledge. Is this legal?

A: Both districts and water supply corporations (WSCs) are subject to the Texas Open Meetings Act, which contains a provision allowing members of the public to record meetings of a governmental entity’s board. Section 551.023(a) of the Government Code states that “a person in attendance may record all or any part of an open meeting of a governmental body by means of a recorder, video camera or other means of aural or visual reproduction.” The statute is silent as to whether the board must know that they are being recorded, so the recordings made by this customer so far would appear to have been legally obtained.

That said, Section 551.023(b) allows your board to adopt “reasonable rules to maintain order, including the manner and location of recording.”

Going forward, your board could adopt rules relating to the location and manner of recording, including rules that the recording must be done out in the open, or from a designated part of the room. Once you have rules in place, you have a better argument that a secret recording is disrupting the order of the meeting (assuming you somehow become aware that the person is recording you). At that time, you could inform them that they are welcome to record your meeting openly, in compliance with your rules.

If they refuse, they are disrupting the order of your meeting and could be asked to either comply with your recording rules, stop recording or leave the meeting.

Unfortunately, if you find out after the fact that someone secretly recorded your meeting in violation of your rules, there's not much you can do about it. The statute is only concerned with recordings disrupting the order of the meeting at the time it's occurring. Finally, when making rules regarding the manner and location of recording, you should be aware that Subsection (c) of this statute prohibits you from imposing a rule that unreasonably impairs or restricts the person's right to record. This is 22

Quench — May/June 2019

obviously a subjective standard, but generally as long as the person is able to sit comfortably and obtain usable audio/visual recordings of your meeting, your rules would likely be deemed to be reasonable.

Q: We received a Public Information Act (PIA) request asking for a copy of a customer’s installment payment agreement. Do we have to comply with this request?

A: The answer is yes, this information is subject to a PIA request, unless the customer in question has submitted a written request to keep their personal information confidential. In general, the PIA presumes that all information is public and therefore subject to disclosure, unless it meets an enumerated exception to that rule. Section 182.052(a) of the Utilities Code contains such an exception, prohibiting utilities from disclosing customers’ personal information, such as their address, social security number or telephone number, as well as information about their utility usage or billing charges.

However, unlike many exceptions to the PIA, this exception is only available if the customer whose information is subject to the request has submitted a written request to the utility asking it to keep their information confidential.

Further, utilities should be aware that Section 182.052 also requires them to provide customers with information relating to their rights under the statute, as well as a form on which they may request that their information be kept confidential, along with their regular bill. If your system has not already done so, you should send this information and form to all your customers as soon as possible to ensure compliance with the law. If your system has adopted the TRWA Sample Tariff, we have included a sample form with all the required information, along with a form your customers may return to you if they would like to opt into the confidentiality provision.

For this PIA request, you need to see whether you have a confidentiality form on file from the person whose records are being requested. If you do, Section 182.052(e) allows you to decline to

disclose the information without having to request a decision from the Attorney General, as you would have to do for other PIA requests that seek protected information. If you do not have such a request on file, you need to see whether you ever sent this individual the information and form required by the statute. If you gave them the opportunity to send in the confidentiality form at some point and they never did, then Section 182.052 does not apply, and you must disclose the agreement.

If you find that you never sent out the notice and form, it is too late to request the form from this particular customer, and you are obligated to provide the agreement under the PIA. However, now would be a good time to review your records to see which customers, if any, you have not yet provided the confidentiality form. You should provide those individuals with the notice and form now so that you will be compliant with the Utilities Code if they are the subject of any future PIA requests.

Q: What costs can a utility include in its installation or tap fees? Can we include administrative costs or the cost of road bores system-wide as part of our standard installation fee for every customer?

A: Based on previous agency precedent, TRWA recommends that a tap fee include only the direct costs of installation, and not administrative costs associated with establishing a new account.

Road bores are typically viewed as an additional, exceptional cost and should only be charged to those customers who actually require them. Systems will often have customers on both sides of a road, with a main distribution line running parallel along one side. Properties on the “long side” opposite the line require a bore under the road to connect, while those on the “short side” do not. Including bore costs in the installation fee for all customers regardless of their side of the road effectively requires your short side customers to subsidize the cost of boring for your long side customers.

As we often remind our members, the PUC is typically very pro-consumer in disputes with utilities, so we believe it is likely they would side with a short side customer if they complained about this universal fee model. While many of the PUC’s rules only apply directly to investor-owned utilities, they can provide districts and WSCs with insight into how the agency would approach a customer’s complaint about certain fees. Rule 24.163 is one such rule. Here, the PUC explicitly refers to road bores as an “additional fee” that a utility may charge “for a tap expense not

normally incurred.” This is a strong indication that the agency does not intend for boring to be automatically included in the calculation of every customer’s tap fee.

Q: What is an affidavit of heirship? Is it sufficient proof of ownership for purposes of membership in our WSC? A: An affidavit of heirship is used to identify the heirs to real property when the owner dies without leaving a will. The affidavit must be signed by two disinterested witnesses who do not stand to benefit financially from the deceased’s estate.

The witnesses must be knowledgeable about the deceased and his or her family history and must swear under oath as to specific information about the deceased and the alleged heirs to their estate.

While the affidavit itself does not directly transfer ownership, Texas Estates Code Section 203.001 states that it becomes evidence of ownership once it has been on file with the county clerk for a period of five years.

For membership purposes, you will want to refer to your tariff to see what documentation your system requires. If you have adopted the TRWA Sample Tariff, it states that proof of ownership may be demonstrated through a deed of trust, warranty deed, “or other recorded documentation.” To be effective, affidavits of heirship must be recorded in the deed records in the county in which the real property is located. Therefore, we advise our members that, under the sample tariff, a recorded affidavit of heirship would be sufficient proof of ownership upon which membership may be granted.

The Office of the Comptroller has created a form affidavit, which applicants for service can find at https://www.comptroller.texas.gov/forms/53-111-a. pdf.

If you have a legal question you would like answered, please email legal@trwa.org.

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Quench — May/June 2019 23

Meet the 2019-20 TRWF Student Scholarship Recipients Compiled by Lisa Adams, Development Director, Texas Rural Water Association

T

he Texas Rural Water Foundation's (TRWF) Student Scholarship program was established to recognize outstanding and worthy students who are pursuing a higher education to the benefit of themselves and rural Texas.

We are honored to recognize our TRWF 2019-20 Student Scholarship recipients. We are also proud to announce our first Dwayne Jekel Scholarship awardee.

Dwayne Jekel received his bachelor’s and a Master of Education Degree in Agricultural Education from Texas A & M University. He served on the Texas Rural Water Association Board of Directors for 30 years and was a water industry leader. He was the owner and operator of D&L Service Company in Cameron, Texas, and his love for water and his community should not go unnoticed.

Special thanks to the Jekel Family for continuing his legacy by establishing the Dwayne Jekel Student Scholarship endowment. Not only does this endowment help a student to reach his or her higher education goals, but it also helps the Texas Rural Water Association raise awareness about the importance of jobs in our industry.

Congratulations to Laura Macmanus, our 201920 Dwayne Jekel Student Scholarship recipient.

Laura scored the highest points based on various scoring criteria. She will be awarded $3,000 to be applied toward her 2019-20 school year.

The recipients of our $2,000 Student Scholarships include Alec Macmanus, Kinsey Alyse Kelly, Taylor Clift and Evan Yount. Read more about our recipients below.

Laura Macmanus Laura Macmanus is the daughter of Brian and Nancy Macmanus and attended Harlingen High School where she graduated Salutatorian.

Throughout her high school years, she was the District Council Youth Advisor and Cameron County Council President through the 4-H program and has 24

Quench — May/June 2019

been a member of Choir, FFA, RGV LEAD, National Honor Society, Lower Valley Cotillion Club and PTSA. She was the Varsity Tennis Team Captain and the School Mascot. She will be continuing her education at Texas A&M University, majoring in Civil Engineering where she plans to focus her studies on rural development.

Taylor Clift Taylor Clift is a graduate student studying Environmental Engineering at Texas Tech University and has grown fond of the West Texas community.

Throughout his education, he has developed a strong interest in the areas of water and wastewater treatment, which is critical to the infrastructure of rural Texas. In his future as an engineer, he hopes to be able to support rural communities with the water they need to sustain their way of life.

Kinsey Alyse Kelly Kinsey Kelly graduated from Atlanta High School in 2018 and received a softball scholarship for 2019-20 to Labette Community College in Parsons, Kansas. She was in the Honor Society and on the district softball and basketball varsity teams. She was chosen as the most talented student at Atlanta High School her senior year.

Prior to graduation, Kinsey read meters for the Bloomburg Water Department for two years. She also cleaned the First Baptist Church for two years on a weekly basis.

At Labette College, she is on the softball team and plans to return for the 2019-20 year. She also sings the National Anthem for the college on occasion. She has stayed on the Dean’s list for her first year of college and plans to maintain that status through hard work. Kinsey plans to major in Business.

of the Corps of Cadets, American Society of Agriculture and Biological Engineers, and is active at St. Mary's Catholic Church in College Station.

Evan Yount Evan Yount is from Jacksonville, Texas, and is currently attending Texas Tech University, where he majors in Agricultural Communications and minors in Political Science.

He plans to become a lobbyist for the agriculture and natural resources industries. *** Join us in congratulating all of these impressive young students, and commending their dedication to helping rural communities. If you know someone who is interested in applying for the 2020-21 TRWF Student Scholarship, applications will be available online in October 2019, or you can request one via email at Lisa.Adams@trwa.org.

According to Kinsey, TRWF’s Student Scholarship “will be helpful in ways that [her] softball scholarship cannot.”

Alec Macmanus From Harlingen, Texas, Alec Macmanus is a junior at Texas A&M University where he is majoring in Biological and Agricultural Engineering with a focus on renewable resources. He is a member

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From the Hole Tales from the road by Michael Beadnell, Instructor for Texas Rural Water Association

O

Customer Service Inspections, Woodbine WSC

n May 13, I traveled to the small community of Woodbine. Woodbine is the home of Woodbine Water Supply Corporation, a nonprofit corporation formed in 1969 to serve its rural members in eastern Cooke County.

I arrived around noon and got an opportunity to visit with the corporation’s General Manager Rickey Kemp. Woodbine WSC currently has 10 full time employees serving approximately 2,315 connections. The system has 10 water wells which provide service to roughly 200 miles of water mains stretching from just east of Gainesville to just west of Whitesboro, and from just south of Callisburg to just north of Lake Ray Roberts. I was there that week to teach our 16- hour approved Customer Service Inspection and Cross Connection Control course. Rickey chose the class because it gave seasoned operators what they needed to keep their licenses current and the course would help newer operators obtain a Customer Service Inspection license.

Each state-issued water, wastewater, customer service inspector and backflow prevention assembly tester license is good for 3 years. Within these 3 years, these licenses require continuing education hours. The Customer Service Inspection and Cross Connection Control course is one of the TRWA Training Department’s most requested classes because the 16-hour course provides not only all the continuing education (CE) hours for the Customer Service Inspector license renewal, but also provides 16 hours of the 30 CE hours needed toward renewal of the water licenses, 16 CE hours of the 24 needed for backflow prevention assembly tester (BPAT) renewal and 12 CE hours of the 30 needed for wastewater license renewal.

A customer service inspection (CSI) is an on-site examination of a “private water distribution facility” limited to the identification and prevention of crossconnections and illegal lead components. A CSI must include an internal inspection of the residence or facility for the purpose of determining whether premise isolation or containment protection is going to be required. I teach three questions that the 26

Quench — May/June 2019

Woodbine WSC's grill was once a water tower leg. It also acts as a heater in the winter!

operator needs to understand in order to choose the proper backflow prevention device that is needed to protect the public health of his or her customers.

• • •

What is the degree of hazard?

What is the degree of pressure?

What is the backflow condition?

With those three questions and an understanding of each backflow prevention device’s limitations, the operator can select which device to install that would be best to protect the public. I carry each backflow prevention device and show new operators what they look like and re-familiarize the seasoned ones.

Operators learn in two different ways. With some operators you just explain once and comprehension is achieved, but others need a picture to comprehend. I’ve found if you paint a picture then everybody can comprehend — the trick is not to get the operators that comprehend easily bored. I bring a lot of training aids to help paint the picture, and because of that it takes a good bit of time to unload

and set up. While I was bringing in the training aids, I saw that Rickey was preparing hamburger patties for the class from a burger mold made of a 5-inch PVC water pipe.

During the course I took the class through situations others had encountered and highlighted my own experience as a customer service inspector doing inspections. When the customer service inspector was first introduced it was an endorsement on the water license. Just like you need a driver’s license first before you can get a motorcycle endorsement, you needed a water license to get a CSI endorsement. Now, the CSI is a stand-alone license, and I explained the process needed to meet requirements and testing. When I felt the students were ready, they were given field exercises. The class was sent to find cross-connections and crossconnection control devices. In the morning they were asked to share their findings with the class, explaining what cross-connection they encountered as well as the cross-connection control devices that they found.

For lunch, Rickey’s staff grilled hamburgers on Woodbine WSC’s grill, which was once a water tower leg. It was really quite genius and acted as a heater in the cold months as well. The tower belonged to a system that outgrew the tower and needed more capacity. Woodbine WSC needed it but it was a little tall for them, so Rickey repurposed the extra parts.

As a water and wastewater instructor I travel all over our state providing continuing education and state approved instruction to operators. One week I may be teaching a 20-hour water class in the Texoma area and the next week a wastewater course in the Valley. I see all shapes and sizes of community public water systems that host and support our training department’s effort to provide the knowledge, skills and comprehension needed to achieve state compliance. I don’t have one system I prefer over another, but I will say that the level of support and kindness shown to the students of the classes I’ve taught at Woodbine Water Supply Corporation has been first class.

More information on our training courses, including our current course schedule, can be found at www.trwa.org. If you are interested in hosting a TRWA class, please email training@trwa.org or call 512-428-5754.

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TRWA Launches 2019-20 Emerging Leaders Program Class

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By Allison Kaminsky, Deputy Executive Director, Texas Rural Water Association

e are pleased to announce our 2019-20 Emerging Leaders class! The Emerging Leaders Program (ELP) is TRWA’s professional development and networking program developed to enhance individual leadership skills and prepare participants to be active and engaged community leaders and advocates for rural issues.

Thirteen applicants were admitted to the program, which kicked off June 14th at an orientation and training session in Austin: • • • • • • • • • • • • •

Amber Durham, Jackson WSC Brody Ostrander, Buena Vista Bethel SUD Carlos Febus, SS WSC Chad Martin III, Bear Creek SUD Felix Ruiz, East Medina County SUD Floyd Ross, Walker County SUD Jorge Bernal, Riverside SUD Josh Howard, Johnson County SUD Lane Thompson, East Texas MUD Mark Rogers, Elderville WSC Ricky Hernandez, Rockett SUD Ron Henderson, Crystal Clear SUD Shelly Ragland, Bitter Creek WSC South

During the initial orientation and training, participants heard from TRWA staff, TRWA Board Director and NRWA President Kent Watson, Texas Water Development Board (TWDB) Director Kathleen Jackson, and independent Leadership Consultant Dr. David Biemer. This session armed participants with the tools necessary to successfully complete the remainder of the program.

The ELP combines in-person and remote learning specifically designed to enhance leadership, engagement and advocacy among early- to midcareer utility professionals. Participants will earn leadership development credit hours over the course of nine months by attending live training sessions and webinars, interacting through an online forum, completing monthly assignments and speaking one-on-one with an assigned coach. Participants will also plan and execute an individual local project required for graduation. Graduates will be honored at RuralWaterCon 2020, which will be held March 26-27 in San Antonio.

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The 2019-20 TRWA Emerging Leaders participants pose with TWDB Director Kathleen Jackson during orientation.

We will feature more information on these participants and their local projects in future issues of this magazine. If you have any questions about the ELP, please email leadership@trwa.org.

TRWA Briefs Have You Joined the TXWARN Network?

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ast year, TRWA partnered with TXWARN, a free, well-established emergency response mutual aid network that connects its members with emergency response assistance. Our partnership with TXWARN is the best way to meet everyone’s water-related needs in the event of a disaster. The TRWA Team will mobilize in the same way, reaching out to our members before, during and after an emergency and providing boots on the ground emergency assistance.

TRWA is also connected with a network of other state rural water associations who will come to our aid if needed.

If your utility is not already a member of this network, we encourage you to sign up by visiting https://www.txwarn.org and clicking "Register" in the upper right-hand corner of the page. If you’re already a member, please update your information in the TXWARN system.

challenge and games for the family. Please preregister so we can have an accurate headcount for all those hush puppies! Shuttles will run from the San Luis Hotel to the fish fry, which will take place at the Knights of Columbus Hall. Tickets for the Family Fun Fish Fry are just $15 per adult and $10 per children under 18. For an additional $10, register your team of up to six people for the Trivia Showdown. We encourage you to use a personal form of payment (personal check, credit card or cash) so your registration fee can support the Texas Rural Water PAC. Registration and further details about all associated events are available online at www.trwa. org. On-site registrations are also welcome. If you have any questions, email meetings@trwa.org or call Angela Russell, TRWA Member Services Director, at 512-472-8591 ext. 108. We hope to see you there!

Don't Miss TRWA's Training and Technical Conference!

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egistration is now open for the 2019 Training and Technical Conference, which will be held on July 10-11 in Galveston. This year’s program has something for everyone, whether you are a director, manager, operator or administrative staff of a water/ wastewater system.

Two classes are being offered before the conference officially kicks off, including Customer Service Inspections and Cross-Connection Control and Water Utility Management, both beginning on Monday, July 8. Public Funds Investment Act training takes place Tuesday, July 9 and includes either four hours toward renewal or six initial hours.

The conference officially begins Wednesday and offers 19 unique general and breakout sessions so you can choose the courses that are most important to you and your system. Water and wastewater operator certification credit has been approved by TCEQ. Check out the full agenda on our website at www.trwa.org.

Wednesday night is the annual Family Fun Fish Fry, hosted by AIA Insurance, in support of the Texas Rural Water Political Action Committee (PAC). This family-friendly event features a catfish dinner, trivia Quench — May/June 2019 29

Classified Ad Quadvest Water and Wastewater Utility Company is in search of the top talent in the industry. We have been in business since 1978 and have recently made it our focus to grow—becoming one of the few privatelyowned utility companies that are classified as a Class A utility company. Achieving success through our happy employees, we have become “Houston Business Journals” top 40th best company and “Texas Monthly’s” 14th best company! Our Core Values set us apart and take us down an ‘E-P-I-C P-A-T-H’ to success. They are Employee Centricity, Professionalism, Innovative, Customer Centricity, Passion to Win, Accountability, Trust and Hard Work.

If you want to be a part of a top Texas Utility Company and our Core Values are important values to you, please contact us at http://quadvest.com/careers or email Mandi Brown at mbrown@quadvest.com.

“The Glass Is Always Full”

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Plan Ahead CONFERENCES: July 10-11, 2019

Training and Technical Conference, Galveston Island Convention Center

October 9-10, 2019

Fall Management Conference, San Antonio

November 6-7, 2019

Fall Management Conference and Districts Conference, Dallas/Allen

OPERATOR TRAINING COURSES: Water Credit Courses

Groundwater Production: San Antonio - Sept. 10-12 Surface Water Production 2: San Antonio - July 23-25 Water Distribution: Harlingen - July 16-18 Water Laboratory: San Antonio - Aug. 13-15

Water and Wastewater Credit Courses

Chlorine Use, Handling, Safety SCBA: San Antonio - Aug. 1 Customer Service Inspections: Lorena, July 2-3  Galveston, July 8-9  San Antonio - July 30-31  Mabank - Sept. 4-5 Pump and Motor Maintenance: Harlingen - Sept. 24-26 Utility Calculations: Harlingen - Sept. 3-5 Utility Management: Galveston - July 8-10  Harlingen, Aug. 13-15 Utility Safety: Bastrop - Aug. 27-29  Schulenburg - Sept. 24-26 Valve & Hydrant Maintenance: Galveston - July 8-10  Denton/Aubrey, July 30-Aug. 1

Wastewater Credit Courses

Basic Wastewater: San Antonio - July 16-18 Wastewater Collections: San Antonio - Sept. 17-19 Wastewater Technology: San Antonio - Aug. 19-23 Wastewater Treatment: Morgan's Point Resort - July 16-18  Fair Oaks Ranch - Aug. 27-29  San Antonio - Sept. 24-26

Public Funds Investment Act Initial: Galveston - July 9 Renewal: Galveston - July 9

Advertiser Index

AIA Insurance Agency........................................... Page 9 American Flow Control.................................................13 Childress Engineers......................................................21 Chlorinators Incorporated............................................21 CoBank...........................................................................19 Daniel & Brown, Inc.......................................................28 Dedicated Controls........................................................28 DN Tanks........................................................................14 Ferguson........................................................................14 J.F. Fontaine & Associates...........................................23 KSA Engineers...............................................................25 Maguire Iron...................................................................29 NewGen Strategies & Solutions.....................................8 Pittsburg Tank & Tower Maintenance Co., Inc............30 Preload...........................................................................17 Russell Drilling Co., Inc................................................25 SAMCO...........................................................................15 Schaumburg & Polk, Inc.................................................8 Smith Pump Co., Inc......................................................21 Texas Aquastore........................................................7, 27 Quench — May/June 2019 31

1616 Rio Grande| Austin, TX 78701-1122 Telephone: (512) 472-8591 | Fax: (512) 472-5186 www.trwa.org

2019 Training & Technical Conference July 10-11 | Galveston, Texas Visit www.trwa.org for details!