Home ~ About Us ~ Customer Service ~ Minutes & Agendas ~ Construction
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:
- Pump, treat, and distribute potable water.
- Collect and transport wastewater to the wastewater treatment facility
- Treat the community wastewater
The District does not operate on taxes. Its revenues are obtained from its rates, connection fees, and services.
Water revenues are anticipated to be $2,800,400 in 2008. Sewer revenues are expected to be $3,111,500. 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 $1,270,062 and the City pays $1,072,926 towards the operation of the Facility. The cost sharing is based on the percent of total flows that are treated. The breakdown is 54% District and 46% City.
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 nine 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.In 2009, the District will need to sell approximately $4 Million of revenue bonds to fund the required water and sewer main improvements on State Road 160. Also included in this bond are funds for drilling a new well, the local match for a reclaimed water grant, and a new emergency generator for a pump station.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.
The District expenses are as follows:
The District has 5,753 residential water accounts and produces about 650,000,000 gallons 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 an incentive to conserve water and to irrigate responsibly. On a hot day, the District flows more than double due primarily to lawn irrigation.
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 wireless transmission to improve the reliability of the system. In response to the increasing vandalism, the District has also installed 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 the following capital improvements in the 2009 budget:
- Sedgwick Water Main: The Washington State Department of Transportation is going to widen portions of Sedgwick Road in 2009. The District will fund the construction of a 12-inch water main from Kerry Lane to Phillips Road to serve the expanded urban growth area. This main will replace the existing 10-inch PVC and AC mains that are now in service. WSDOT is requiring the District to destroy the PVC main and to physically remove the AC water main, which will cost the District an additional $200,000.
-
Well 22: The District will drill its next deep well, Well 22. This project will allow the District to transfer its unused water rights to the well and expand its water production capability.
- Sarann Water Main: There are too many homes being served by the 2-inch water line in the eastern half of Sarann Lane. The District will extend the existing 6-inch main to provide better service to this neighborhood.
- Salmonberry Seismic Valve: The District has a grant to install a seismic actuated valve at its 2 million gallon reservoir. When an earthquake is detected, the valve will automatically close to prevent the lost of a major water supply.
- SCADA Replacement: The District will begin a three-year process to evaluate and possibly replace its existing computer controls for the water distribution system.
The following projects were not funded in 2009 and will be considered again in 2010.
- Manchester Intertie: An intertie is where two water districts are connected. In case of an emergency, water can be transferred from one district to the other. Manchester Water District and West Sound are working to connect our two systems and to share that cost. This will be similar to the recently completed intertie with the City of Port Orchard.
- Long Lake Water Main: The District has a commitment to extend its water system from Mile Hill Drive along Long Lake Road. Once the Department of Ecology has cleaned the contaminated soil from the gas station at this intersection, the District will be able to complete this water main.
The major expenses of the Sedgwick Water Main and Well 22 will increase the District’s debt burden and will probably be the last major expenses for several years.
WASTEWATER COLLECTION
The sanitary sewer system consists of 45 miles of sewer mains and 14 lift stations. We have 3,208 sewer 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 estimated 50 new connections each year.
The District has recently approved a rate increase from $42 to $46 per month. This is a progressive increase from $36 to $50 over a three year period. The increased rate was recommended at the last rate review and is 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 $432,000 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 2009, the District and City continue to use $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 will be completing the Converse Avenue Sewer Main in 2009. This will extend 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 is treating septage from residential septic tanks. This generates about $55,000 annually. It is also treating leachate from the former Olympic View Landfill.
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 Facility is avoiding major City/District funded projects and will concentrate on maintenance and grant funded projects.
Maintenance projects include:
-
Completing the installation of the new railings purchased in 2008.
-
Designing the replacement for the glass wall in the administrative area. It is deteriorating and needs to be replaced.
-
The first of the two secondary clarifiers will be repaired and upgraded. The other secondary clarifier will be budgeted in the near future.
The grant funded projects for 2209 are:
-
Using a Department of Ecology grant, the District will construct a reclaimed water pipeline from the Facility to the Veterans Memorial; Park. The water will be used for landscape irrigation, but not sport field irrigation.
-
Using Puget Sound Energy grants, the District will replace inefficient air blowers and make other energy improvements with PSE’s grant for 70% funding.
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 District is working with the State of Washington to direct our surplus methane gas to the Retsil Veteran’s Home. This gas is now wasted in the atmosphere and can be used to help heat the Veteran’s Home. An in-depth engineering study concluded the project is feasible and would save the home a minimum of $16,000 a year initially. Another use of the methane gas is to reduce the Facility’s $175,000 annual electric bill by generating our own electricity with a methane burning generator.
-
The District is using a state-of-the art process to better treat the bio-solids that are produced at the Facility. Currently the District pays to haul its bio-solids to Centralia for disposal for a cost of about $80,000 annually. It is seeking local disposal sites for land reclamation to reduce the expense of hauling. Once we get EPA approval of our process, the bio-solids will be Class A and can be used as a soil amendment.
-
We are experimenting with a heat exchanger that uses the constant temperature of the effluent to heat the sections of the Facility.
-
We continue to experiment with new applications of improved technology such as solar cells and small scale membranes to learn how they can benefit our community.
The trained staff at the Facility are experts in their fields and we have contracted 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.
2924 SE Lund Ave, Port Orchard, WA 98366
Telephone: 360-876-2545 Fax: 360-876-2587