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2008 Budget
Revenues
Expenses
Water
Wastewater Collection
Wastewater Treatment
West Sound Utility District serves the Port Orchard/South Kitsap urban area and selected rural communities. The District is governed by a Board of Commissioners comprised of five elected commissioners. West Sound has 37 employees and their primary responsibilities are to:
In 2007, West Sound Utility District was formed by the consolidation of Karcher Creek Sewer District and Annapolis Water District, each of which has served the community for over 60 years. The 2008 Budget meets the obligations of the former districts and is based on neither water nor sewer subsidizing the other utility.
The District does not operate on taxes. Its revenues are obtained from its rates, connection fees, and services.
Water revenues are anticipated to be $2,989,300 in 2008. Sewer revenues are expected to be $3,211,600. The Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility is jointly owned by the District and City of Port Orchard and is managed by West Sound Utility District. The District pays $1,188,400 and the City pays $1,030,746 towards the operation of the facility. The cost sharing is based on the percent of total flows that are treated.
The District expenses are as follows:
As with most businesses, wages are a major expense in the organization. The District field crews are highly trained and have the required State certifications and credentials.
Administration is funded equally by water and sewer revenues.
In the last eight years, the District had had an aggressive effort to repair and replace deteriorated infrastructure. In addition, the District and City have completed the expansion of the Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility. In each case, the improvements were funded with Public Works Trust Fund loans that have an interest rate of ½% to 1 ½%. In 2002, the two districts constructed the Lund Avenue office complex and used a revenue bond for that necessary improvement.
Professional services reflect the cost of engineering, legal, and financial support when it is needed. The $1,188,400 cost of wastewater treatment is also in this category.
West Sound Utility District pays excise taxes to the State of Washington based in its revenues and the Kitsap County storm water tax.
WATER REVENUES
The District has 5,723 residential accounts and produces about 650,000,000 of water annually.
The District uses block rates to encourage water conservation. There is a base rate that everyone pays that finances the fixed expenses. Then as the rate payer uses larger quantities of water, the cost per 100-cubic feet becomes more expensive. This is incentive to conserve water and to irrigate responsibly.
WATER EXPENSES
The water revenues fund the water system operation. There are 15 wells and 4.1 million gallons of water storage. The District has 105 miles of water mains, some of which have been in service since World War II.
The field crew consists of 8 men and women who are trained and certified in water distribution systems. The system is flushed annually and this work usually is scheduled in the spring and autumn. There are daily visual system checks, monthly water qualify sampling, and routine repairs to keep the water flowing. 
The District uses telemetry to operate and manage the water system. The computerized system monitors the elevation of the water reservoirs and operates the wells as they are needed. The District has a multi-year program to switch from telephone data transmission to broadband and radio transmission to improve the reliability of the system. In response to the increasing vandalism, the District is also installing video surveillance at selected locations.
The above chart does not include capital improvements, such as new water mains, wells, and major equipment.
The District has four water main extensions in the 2008 budget:
The major water project for 2008 is the seismic improvements and painting of the 2-million gallon Salmonberry water reservoir. The District has contracted to widen the concrete foundation of the steel tank to better resist earthquake-induced movement. At the same time, the interior and exterior of the tank will be sandblasted to bare metal and repainted. This contract will cost $738,000. It is funded by District reserves and a $595,000 Public Works Trust Fund loan.
We need a new well and the administrative work will commence in 2008. Drilling a well that we expect to be over 1,000 feet deep will require realignment of water rights and Department of Ecology approval.
The sanitary sewer system consists of 45 miles of sewer mains and 14 lift stations. We have 4,503 accounts and the field crew consists of 6 employees. The lift stations are monitored daily and the crew has an excellent maintenance schedule of inspecting and cleaning the sewer mains on a regular basis.
Through an aggressive and systematic approach to maintenance, the sewer crew has been able to significantly improve system reliability. It is rare if we have a sewer overflow due to a blockage in the sewer mains.
The District has recently approved a rate increase from $36 to $42 per month. This is the first rate increase since 1999 and was needed to address the impacts of inflation and the increasing costs of wastewater treatment.
The District has completed its multi-million dollar sewer main system upgrades and has addressed most of its deteriorated pumps and pipes. The annual debt payment is over $500,000 and the District has made good use of the low interest Public Works Trust Fund loans.
The large Professional Service category reflects the District $1,188,400 share of the operational cost to the Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility. For 2008, the Dist and City are using $300,000 of the Facility’s reserves to pay down the debt. This allows more money to be used by the agencies for maintenance of the sewer system.
The District has one major capital improvement for the sewer system. The District is extending the sewer system along Converse Road to serve properties on Sedgwick Road. When WSDOT widens Sedgwick Road, 15 homes will lose their drain fields and will have to connect to the District’s sewer system. WSDOT is paying their fair share of this new sewer main and the District also has a $1,358,130 loan from the Public Works Trust Fund.
The District is using its staff and GPS surveying equipment to make our water and sewer maps more accurate and transitioning to digital mapping.
WASTEWATER TREATMENT
The community is served by a state-of-the-art wastewater treatment facility. The plant was originally constructed in the mid-1980’s as a new secondary treatment facility. It used the technology of the time. In response to the growth experienced and expected, the Facility had to be expanded. That expansion took almost ten years and was partially funded with a $16 million Public Works Trust Fund loan with an interest rate of ½%.
The Facility has a pilot project to treat septage from residential septic tanks. This generates about $55,000 annually.
The staff consists of ten highly trained employees who operate and maintain this complex. A qualified laboratory technician and electronics technician are also on the
Facility staff.
The expansion project was completed in 2007 and the focus is now to operate the new system as efficiently as possible.
The staff is addressing maintenance issues in the 20-year old sections of the Facility:
The Joint Wastewater Treatment Facility has transformed into a reclamation facility, rather than merely cleaning the wastewater. The expansion uses the modern technology of membrane filtration and allows us to better manage our natural resources.
The trained staff at the Facility are experts in their fields and we have contacted with the Washington State parks to help them with their on-site sewer systems. Currently we are working with the State staff to improve the Blake Island sewer system.
West Sound Utility Distict
2924 SE Lund Ave, Port Orchard, WA 98366
Telephone: 360-876-2545 Fax: 360-876-6719
After Hours Telephone 360-782-6719
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