SUBJECT: General Business
Title
A Resolution of the Board of Trustees of the Town of Erie Adopting an Updated Water Efficiency Plan and an Updated Drought and Water Supply Shortage Plan
Body
DEPARTMENT: Public Works
PRESENTER: Tyler Kesler, Sustainability & Water Conservation Specialist
Todd Fessenden, Public Works Director
Courtney Black, INTERA
TIME ESTIMATE: 20 minutes
only required for non-consent items
STAFF RECOMMENDATION:
Recommendation
Adopt the Resolution adopting the updated Water Efficiency Plan and Drought and Water Supply Shortage Plan
End
SUMMARY AND BACKGROUND OF SUBJECT MATTER:
Water efficiency planning is necessary for Erie to meet long-term water supply needs. Additionally, water efficiency planning, drought planning, and water supply reliability planning are interrelated with land use decisions. Furthermore, the State requires* these planning efforts to be integrated.
With this in mind, in July 2019, the Town contracted with INTERA to help update the Town's Water Efficiency Plan and Drought and Water Supply Shortage Plan. The Water Efficiency Plan is an update to Erie's 2014 Water Conservation Plan and is Erie's third State-approved Water Efficiency Plan. Simultaneously, Erie began its first update to the 2015 Drought and Water Supply Shortage Plan, capitalizing on new ideas, updated information and weather data available, the experience of staff, and guidance from industry experts and Town partners.
INTERA held seven official workshops and numerous additional meetings with Erie staff over the last year and a half. These workshops along with hundreds of hours spent by staff gathering and synthesizing data provided most of the information for both plan updates. Once the final draft was created, the Town coordinated a 30-day review process, including a Q&A session on March 22, where the public, Town staff, external stakeholders, and elected officials had opportunities to learn about and comment on the plans.
The Drough...
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