20230209HearingAtholID6PM.pdf

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1 BEFORE THE IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
2
3 IN THE MATTER OF GEM STATE WATER ) Case No. GSW-W-22-01
COMPANY LLC'S APPLICATION FOR AN )
4 ORDER AUTHORIZING AN INCREASE IN )
ITS RATED AND CHARGES FOR WATER )
5 SERVICE IN THE STATE OF IDAHO )
)
6 __________________________________)
7
8 TRANSCRIPT OF PUBLIC CUSTOMER HEARING
9 BEFORE
10 COMMISSIONER ERIC ANDERSON
11 COMMISSIONER JOHN R. HAMMOND, JR.
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16 DATE: January 18, 2023 - 6:00 p.m.
17 LOCATION: Athol Community Center
18 30355 Third Street
19 Athol, Idaho 83801
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21 REPORTED BY:
22 VALERIE J. LEGG, CSR
Notary Public
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M&M Court Reporting LLC
RECEIVED
Thursday, February 9, 2023 3:42:45 PM
IDAHO PUBLIC
UTILITIES COMMISSION
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1 A P P E A R A N C E S
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3 FOR THE STAFF:
4 OFFICE OF THE ATTORNEY GENERAL
BY: RILEY NEWTON, ESQ.
5 11331 West Chiden Boulevard
Build B
6 Suite 201A
Boise, Idaho 83720-0074
7 [e-mail]
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9 FOR GEM STATE WATER COMPANY:
10 NW NATURAL
BY: ERIC NELSEN, ESQ.
11 250 SW Taylor Street
Portland, Oregon 97204
12 503.226.4211
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1 ATHOL, IDAHO, JANUARY 18, 2023, 6:00 P.M.
2 * * *
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4 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Good evening, ladies and
5 gentlemen. This is time and place for the customer
6 hearing on Case No. GSW-W-22-01, also referred to as in
7 the Matter of Gem State Water Company's Application for
8 an Order Authorizing an Increase in the Rates and
9 Charges for Water Service in the State of Idaho.
10 The purpose of this hearing this evening is to
11 take testimony from members of the public in reference
12 to Gem State Water's request that was filed on July 21,
13 2022.
14 My name is Eric Anderson. I'm the chair for
15 today's -- tonight's proceeding. And I'm joined with
16 Commissioner Hammond to my right. And we compromise the
17 commission and will collectively make a final
18 determination on this matter.
19 To this point one public informational workshop
20 has been held on November 15, 2022. There were no
21 intervenors in the case. Tonight's objective to is take
22 live testimony, which will be added to the underlying
23 record. The commissioners will review facts and
24 evidence in the record in making a final decision in
25 this case.
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1 For those of you who wish to submit comments,
2 the deadline is this coming Friday, January 20, at
3 5:00 p.m. You can do that in writing or you can do that
4 online. We have sheets available and you may leave them
5 with our public officer, which is Adam Rush.
6 Tonight's meeting is not going to last as long
7 as the one we had at 2:00 o'clock today. We only have
8 about six people signed up and only two wishing to
9 speak. So this conversation is important to us. It
10 becomes part of the permanent record.
11 We're not going to take any time constraints.
12 Normally we do three minutes, but such few people, we're
13 not going to do any of that.
14 The procedures and parameters for tonight's
15 hearing will go as follows: I will call your name from
16 the sign-in sheet, and you will take the stand and be
17 sworn in as if you were in a federal court proceeding.
18 I will ask you to raise your right hand and swear that
19 the testimony you are providing is the truth.
20 The deputy attorney general will ask you to
21 identify yourself for the record, which will include
22 stating your name, spelling your last name, and whether
23 you are a customer of Gem State Water. You may then
24 present your testimony. Please remain standing until we
25 have had an opportunity to ask you questions, if we have
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1 any, and then I will give you your excuse.
2 As you provide your testimony tonight, please
3 remember that decorum is important. This proceeding is
4 very similar to a courtroom proceeding. Your comments
5 should directed to the commissioners and not members of
6 the audience. For those in the audience, we ask that
7 you to refrain from reacting to any testimony while or
8 after it's being presented. That means no clapping or
9 verbal comment, but we do appreciate very much your
10 willingness to respect this process.
11 Since our cases are judicial in nature, we do
12 have a court reporter to create an official transcript
13 of the record. The commission must base their decision
14 on the official record which is why the transcript is
15 necessary.
16 Our court reporter tonight is Valerie Legg over
17 here. And please don't speak too softly nor too fast,
18 or we'll have to give you a nudge to slow down or speak
19 up.
20 For this point let's begin by taking the
21 appearances of the parties. To begin with staff
22 representation from the attorney's generally office. We
23 have Mr. Riley Newton representing the staff.
24 And with Gem State Water?
25 MR. NELSEN: Eric Nelsen, senior regulatory
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1 attorney for Northwest Natural on behalf of Gem State
2 Water. And I appreciate everyone coming out today.
3 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you, Mr. Nelsen.
4 Are there any other parties present?
5 Hearing none, with that we will go ahead and
6 call our first witness. And at the top of the list we
7 have Sherry Ransier here again.
8 Thank you.
9 MS. RANSIER: I'm here again. I was here
10 earlier.
11
12 SHERRY RANSIER,
13 first duly sworn to tell the truth relating to said
14 cause, testified as follows:
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16 MR. NEWTON: Sherry, could you just please state
17 your name and spell your last name for the record.
18 MS. RANSIER: Sherry Ransier, R-A-N-S-I-E-R, and
19 I'm with Happy Valley.
20 MR. NEWTON: Thank you. Go ahead.
21 MS. RANSIER: The commission probably already
22 knows some of this information, I just want to state it.
23 About Northwest Natural Water, incorporated just
24 four years ago. In September of 2019 the company stated
25 that they provide or will provide water distribution to
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1 approximately 45,000 people through 18,000 connections.
2 Nineteen months later, March 2021, in a press
3 release the company stated they provide or will provide
4 water distribution to approximately 62,000 people
5 through 26,000 connections in the Pacific Northwest. In
6 those 19 months, that's a 27 percent increase in the
7 number of people and a 30 percent increase in the number
8 of connections. So is Northwest Natural Water growing
9 too big too fast?
10 In all the Gem State applications to buy our
11 water systems they emphasized Northwest Natural Holdings
12 and Northwest Natural Water have the financial resources
13 and access to capital to provide reliability and
14 proactively -- I want to emphasis proactively -- address
15 infrastructure needs. We should hold them to that
16 statement.
17 Happy Valley and Lynnwood Estates had the
18 opportunity in the past to buy their water systems, but
19 these 24 and 20 people respectively had no money to pay
20 for capital infrastructure. Gem State and Northwest
21 Natural Water should recoup their infrastructure
22 investments over time through reasonable rate increases.
23 That's what investments are about. You don't get
24 everything back immediately.
25 This issue doesn't affect Gem State but I just
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1 want to mention it.
2 Falls Water in Idaho Falls, serving 6,600
3 people, is now experiencing drought restrictions and
4 penalties. That's not our issue here with Gem State,
5 but I'm sure Northwest Natural Water was not expecting
6 this to occur.
7 I would like to address the allotments.
8 So typically a family of four gets an allotment
9 of 14,000 gallons per month for household use.
10 Allotments should be determined by comparing households
11 by people not by neighborhoods, for neighboring
12 properties on the same system.
13 I currently -- well, for the about the last five
14 years, I work for a natural staffing agency so I take
15 travel contracts, so I'm away from my home for three
16 months. My direct neighbors are retired snow birds, so
17 their water was turned off and lines blown out from
18 October through March of every year, so they a
19 absolutely zero consumption. Their other neighbors on
20 the other side, well, they have three cows. Other
21 people may travel or take extended vacations in the
22 summertime. Therefore determining allocations based on
23 meter readings does not actually compare the situation.
24 If they read my meter and my neighbor's meter and
25 compare it to everybody else on the system, we would
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1 definitely bring the average down quite a bit.
2 They can easily determine which addresses use
3 irrigation and which ones need water for business
4 issues. The baseline of allotments should be based on
5 family size needing household use and not just by the
6 meter readings for each property.
7 I think the decrease in allotment is double
8 dipping. By decreasing the allotment -- they want to
9 decrease mine from 20,000 gallons to 10,000 gallons,
10 which pretty much guarantees that every month I'll have
11 an overage. And then by increasing the cost per 1,000
12 gallons of the overage, they increase the revenue. So I
13 think the minimum should not be 10,000 gallons per
14 month. Maybe somewhere between 10,000 gallons and
15 20,000 would be reasonable.
16 Thank you.
17 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you.
18 Do you have any questions?
19 Over here, questions?
20 Thank you very much for your testimony.
21 Next we have Chris Lawson.
22
23 CHRIS LAWSON,
24 first duly sworn to tell the truth relating to said
25 cause, testified as follows:
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2 MR. NEWTON: Would you please state your name
3 and spell your last for the record.
4 MR. LAWSON: My name is Chris Lawson,
5 L-A-W-S-O-N.
6 MR. NEWTON: And what system are you a customer
7 of?
8 MR. LAWSON: Spirit Lake East.
9 MR. NEWTON: Thank you. Go ahead.
10 MR. LAWSON: I don't have much in the way of
11 comments tonight. I just wanted to thank the commission
12 and the staff for doing a very thorough, deep dive into
13 the original proposal. I think what you've come up with
14 is far more reasonable than the original proposal. I
15 think you identified a lot of errors that were in there,
16 in my opinion.
17 So historically the Spirit Lake East Water
18 Company was originally servicing Spirit Lake East. When
19 Gem State came in they doubled our rates, which to be
20 honest was probably necessary considering there were a
21 lot of repairs that needed to be done.
22 So fast-forward today, looking at their original
23 proposal, they wanted to double the rates again, and I'm
24 looking around going, what are they trying to pay for?
25 And it looks like they're buying out troubled water
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1 systems and expecting the rest of their customers to
2 share their burden to bring them up into snuff. That's
3 my one complaint there.
4 Realistically though, I think the $32 that is
5 proposed under your revised proposed rate structure
6 makes more sense. I think that's more in line with
7 existing interest rates over the years.
8 I do have one question on meter sizing. I'm not
9 totally sure I understand why the size of the meter
10 changes the cost of the water flowing through it.
11 And I'd also like to point out, in the early
12 2000s the Spirit Lake East Water Company did not have
13 enough one-inch meters. They were installing
14 inch-and-a-half meters for some customers, and I'd like
15 to make sure that those customers don't get penalized
16 for having an over-sized meter that they never asked
17 for.
18 And that's the extent of my comments. Thank
19 you.
20 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you.
21 We have one.
22 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: Have one. So just, I
23 want to -- so it would be clear, so staff who's
24 represented by the attorney general's office, staff,
25 commission staff, is a party in every case. And so
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1 staff is in the case independent of the commission
2 itself.
3 So I just -- I didn't want there to be any
4 misunderstanding. Staff filed those comments I think
5 you read.
6 MR. LAWSON: Yes.
7 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: So they -- the commission
8 staff was the party that filed them and then the
9 commission will review those comments, testimony,
10 anything other. I just wanted to make sure you
11 understood, we haven't made any findings or decisions
12 yet, but, of course, those matters come into the record
13 through staff's comments.
14 And the questions, there are staff members here
15 that might be able to answer or talk to you if you wish,
16 so just for that.
17 MR. LAWSON: Thank you for that clarification.
18 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: I'm not the trying to
19 rain on your parade just...
20 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: It doesn't look like we
21 have any questions from the parties.
22 Thank you, Mr. Lawson.
23 MR. LAWSON: Thank you.
24 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Okay. This is your
25 moment for public comment if you wish to have it. We
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1 only have -- nothing left here. Nobody wants to speak.
2 MR. BAKER: I have (inaudible).
3
4 MONROE L. BAKER,
5 first duly sworn to tell the truth relating to said
6 cause, testified as follows:
7
8 MR. NEWTON: Could you state your name and spell
9 your last for the record.
10 MR. BAKER: My name is Monroe L. Baker.
11 MR. NEWTON: And then B-A-K-E-R?
12 MR. BAKER: B-A-K-E-R.
13 MR. NEWTON: What system are you a customer of?
14 MR. BAKER: I can't hear you.
15 MR. NEWTON: What system are you a customer of?
16 MR. BAKER: I am a resident.
17 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: Gem State.
18 MR. NEWTON: Gem State. Okay.
19 MR. BAKER: I wear hearing aids.
20 MR. NEWTON: Sorry. Go ahead.
21 MR. BAKER: I don't have a whole lot.
22 One of -- one of the things I have -- with is --
23 comment on is the amount of water that you seem to want
24 to bring us down to. Right now I don't have, obviously,
25 a lot anymore. I knock that down where I can't get
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1 enough water to water my lawn, and I can't -- I'm having
2 trouble because I want to keep our garden going in the
3 summer. With what you're projecting, I don't know if
4 I'm going to be able to keep a garden going.
5 A lot of the people here probably know where my
6 place is. It's the fourth one on the left coming in off
7 the main road, and it just doesn't -- doesn't have a
8 lawn anymore. The garden is going to be iffy, I can see
9 that this year.
10 And then, one more thing, I haven't found
11 anything that says I can drink the water yet. I got a
12 notice saying I can't drink the water because it's
13 contaminated in some way, shape, or form, but I've never
14 receiving anything that says it's drinkable. If it's
15 not palatable, it doesn't sound like it's doing me a
16 whole lot of good other than watering the lawn and the
17 garden.
18 I hope you'll take that into consideration.
19 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. I'm not
20 aware of that component. You can talk to one of our
21 staff afterwards and perhaps they can direct you to an
22 answer there. I don't have that answer.
23 Commissioner Hammond.
24 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: So you said Gem State.
25 What system were you? Bitterroot? Spirit Lake East? Do
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1 you know?
2 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: It was Bitterroot.
3 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: And so did you receive a
4 notice or something in writing saying that the water
5 needed to be boiled or --
6 MR. BAKER: They said it's not palatable.
7 UNIDENTIFIED SPEAKER: They said there was a
8 problem, yeah.
9 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: So you don't recall
10 receiving a follow-up saying that -- okay.
11 MR. BAKER: I've never received anything saying
12 my water can be drank.
13 COMMISSIONER HAMMOND: Thank you very much. I
14 appreciate it.
15 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you very much. No
16 questions.
17 Next? Anybody?
18 This will be the third time. Please come up.
19 Okay. And you've been sworn in.
20 MS. RANSIER: Okay. I just want to state, when
21 we had Rickel taking care of our water system, every
22 monthly bill -- or periodically they would send out
23 whenever they did the water quality analysis. Gem State
24 does not do that. If you want the water quality
25 analysis, you have to go onto their website to get it or
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1 you have to drive down to their office and ask for it,
2 and before it used to be included with the bill.
3 I just wanted...
4 COMMISSIONER ANDERSON: Thank you. We'll take
5 note of that.
6 Anyone else?
7 If not, we are going to adjourn, so this is your
8 last opportunity while we're here. We are very
9 appreciative that you have come and given your comments
10 tonight. They will be part of the permanent record, and
11 we appreciate your time tonight.
12 With that we will be adjourned. Thank you very
13 much.
14 (The proceedings concluded at 6:19 p.m.)
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1 REPORTER'S CERTIFICATE
2 I,Valerie J.Legg,Certified Shorthand
3 Reporter,do hereby certify:
4 That the foregoing proceedings were taken
5 before me at the time and place therein set forth;
6 That the proceedings were recorded
7 stenographically by me and were thereafter transcribed
8 by me;
9 That the foregoing is a true and correct record
10 of the proceedings,to the best of my ability;
11 IN WITNESS WHEREOF,I have hereunto set my hand
12 and seal February 3,2023.
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VALERIE J.LEGG,ID SRL-968
17 Notary Public
816 Sherman Avenue,Suite 7
18 Coeur d'Alene,ID 83814
19 My Commission Expires July 21,2020
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