HomeMy WebLinkAbout20080821Comments.pdfMolly O'Leary (ISB # 4996)
Richardson & O'Leary, P.L.L.C.
P.O. Box 7218
Boise, ID 83707
Tel: 208-938-7900
Fax: 208-938-7904
37
molly((richardsonandoleary.com
Attorneys for Eagle Water Company, Inc.
BEFORE THE
. IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF EAGLE WATER )
COMPANY'S CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT )
REPORT AND APPLICATION TO )
CONTINUE THE EXISTING ~SURCHARGE )
)
CASE NO. EAG-W-07-01
COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
COMPANY, INC.
COMES NOW, Eagle Water Company, Inc. ("Eagle Water") and, by and
through undersigned counsel, provides the following Comments in the above-
captioned matter.
Eagle Water does not materially disagree with Staffs Comments, dated
August 5,2008, except as specifically noted herein. While Eagle Water
appreciates the time and effort the Staff has invested in this matter, and
appreciates the Staffs recognition of the value of the work contributed to the
Final Engineering Report by Ward Engineering, Eagle Water believes that Staff is
misguided in its undervaluation of the time and materials invested in the project
by MTC, Inc., the lead engineer on the project. MTC, Inc. was a critical part of
the overall project and Jim Rees, MTC principal engineer, provided Ward
Engineering valuable guidance and knowledge regarding the Eagle Water
system. In addition, Mr. Rees provided Eagle Water with a well-respected and
much-needed personal interface with the Idaho Department of Environmental
Quality through the year-long process of convincing the agency that the original
peaking factor standard of 2.58 proposed by MTC for calibrating the Haested
Method computer models for the system was indeed an acceptable standard.
In support of its position, Eagle Water submits the Affidavit of Chet Hovey,
P.E., attached hereto as Exhibit A, as well as the Affidavit of James M. Rees,
P.E., L.S, attached hereto as Exhibit B.
In conclusion, Eagle Water respectfully requests that the Commission
authorize full payment of all submitted engineering fees for the Final Engineering
Report from the Surcharge Account.
DATED this 21st day of August, 2008.
Richardson & O'Leary P.L.L.C.
EXHIBIT A
EAG-W-07-01 - COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
Molly O'Leary (ISB # 4996)
Richardson & O'Leary, P.L.L.C.
P.O. Box 7218
Boise, ID 83707
Tel: 208-938-7900
Fax: 208-938-7904
¡i: 45
molly(g richardsonandoleary.com
Attorneys for Eagle Water Company, Inc.
BEFORE THE
IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF EAGLE WATER )
COMPANY'S CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT )
REPORT AND APPLICATION TO )
CONTINUE THE EXISTING ~SURCHARGE )
CASE NO. EAG-W-07-01
AFFIDAVIT OF CHET A. HOVEY,
P.E.
STATE OF UTAH )
) ss.
County of Salt Lake)
COMES NOW Chet Hovey, P.E., and being first duly sworn upon oath, states
and affirms the following:
1. I make this affidavit based upon my own personal knowledge.
2. I am a professional engineer, duly licensed in the states of Utah
and Nevada
3. I have professional expertise in the area of public drinking water
systems.
4. My resume is attached hereto as Exhibit A-1.
AFFIDAVIT OF CHET HOVEY - 1
5. I worked with Jim Rees, P.E., and principal engineer with MTC, Inc.
("MTC") on computer modeling of Eagle Water Company, Inc.'s ("Eagle Watet')
system for a Final Engineering Report.
6. My involvement was necessitated by the departure of the previous
engineer from MTC, and the highly complex nature of the modeling software as
applied to Eagle Water's system.
7. MTC did a professional job in initially setting up the modeL. When I
received the model, it was very detailed and provided a very powerful tool for
Eagle Water.
8. The model has been a challenge because of the unique
characteristics of Eagle Water's system. Consequently, the continued
involvement of Jim Rees, MTC Principal Engineer, was required to complete the
modeling.
9. During the course of the project, Mr. Rees oversaw all modeling
work and together we drafted the Reports.
10. Mr. Rees's role was more than just a Technical Advisor to the
project. i talked to him two to three times a week during the course of the
project. I estimate that i was required to interact with Mr. Rees between 15-20
hours per month in project-related discussions, including meetings with the Idaho
Department of Environmental Quality where Mr. Rees provided an important
interface on behalf of Eagle.Water Company.
11. Mr. Rees's background information on the system was essential to
the project and Ward Engineering would have not gotten involved without Mr.
AFFIDAVIT OF CHET HOVEY - 2
Rees's intimate participation with the project. He was the cornerstone of the
project.
12. Mr. Rees was integrally involved with all work detailed in my
previous affidavit, dated December 19, 2006 and submitted to the Idaho Public
Utilties Commission.
13. Under Idaho law, as the Engineer in Responsible Charge and as
the designated lead engineer for Eagle Water Company, Mr. Rees was required
to be intimately involved with the Engineering Report project.
FURTHER your affiant sayeth naught.
DATED this 19th day of August 2008.
By: t& :a~E~
(~
SUBSCRIBED AND SWORN to me this 19th day of August, 2008.~-Notary Public for UtahResiding at: ~
Commission E;P30-?l
AFFIDAVIT OF CHET HOVEY - 3
EXHIBIT A-1
EAG-W-07-01 - COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
CHET HOVEY, P.E.
PROJECT MANAGER
education:University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah - B. S. Civil & Environmental Engineering
registration:Professional Engineer:Utah No. 368556
Idaho No. 11861
Nevada No. 17357
certcations:SWANA Certifications:Certified Landfill Manager (MOLO)
Certified MSW Management Manager
professional affliations: Rural Water Association of Utah
Solid Waste Association of North America (SWANA)
Mr. Hovey has nine years experience in water resources, municipal engineering, construction management,
integrated solid waste management, and design. He brings a wide range of background to the firm. He
worked his way through school owning and operating a construction company working both in the residential
and commercial fields. His overall engineering experience is very diverse as shown below.
selected project experience:
project name
Engineer of Record, D/W Blue Bench Landfill SSD, UT
Engineer of Record, Tooele County Department of Solid Waste, UT
Engineer of Record, Town of Rush Valley, UT
Capital Facility Plan Update, Town of Brian Head, UT
Water System Capacity Evaluation, Town of Brian Head, UT
2007 USDA Projects, D/W Blue Bench Landfill SSD, UT
2005 EPA Solid Waste Management Project, Tooele County, UT
Water and Wastewater Master Plan, Stansbury Park Improvement District, UT
Wastewater Treatment Analysis, Stansbury Park Improvement District, UT
Cummings Waste Water Management System, Sparks, NV
Preliminary Engineering Report, Eagle Water Company, Eagle, 10
Water System Interconnect, Eagle, 10
Wastewater Collection System Capacity Evaluation, Lake Point, UT
Comments on the EPA Six Year Review of Drinking Water Standard, SLCSA #3/Alta, UT
Drinking Water Source Protection Plan, West Wendover, NV
Drinking Water Source Protection Plan, Snowbird/Alta, UT
Summit Park Water Pumping and Distribution, MRWSSD, UT
Geohydrologic Assessment, D/W Blue Bench Landfil SSD, UT
Spiral Springs Subdivision Water System Design, Erda, UT
Pinetree Water Company Collection and Distribution Design, Brighton, UT
USDA Reuse Project, West Wendover, NV
USDA Water Projects, West Wendover, NV
Water Master Plan, Grantsville City, UT
Phase #5 Sewer Line Extension, Town of Alta, UT
Culinary Water and Wastewater Master Plan, West Wendover, NV
Promontory Point Landfill Permit Application, Box Elder County, UT
Florence Way Improvement Project (NDOT Project), West Wendover, NV
Alta Bypass Road Bridge Replacement (UDOT Project), Town of Alta, UT
Florence Way Bore and Jack Project (USDA Project), West Wendover, NV
Lost Creek Canyon Raw Water Treatment Plant, Summit County, UT
Johnson Springs Rehabilitation Project (USDA Project), West Wendover, NV
Shafter Water Transmission Pipeline (USDA Project), West Wendover, NV
Class I, Phase 2 Cell Expansion, D/W Blue Bench Landfil SSD, UT
Promontory Water Storage Tanks, Summit County, UT
EXHIBIT B
EAG-W-07-01 - COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
Molly O'Leary (ISB # 4996)
Richardson & O'Leary, P.L.L.C.
P.O. Box 7218
Boise, I D 83707
Tel: 208-938-7900
Fax: 208-938-7904
Ii: 45
molly((richardsonandoleary.com
Attorneys for Eagle Water Company, Inc.
BEFORE THE
IDAHO PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION
IN THE MATTER OF EAGLE WATER )
COMPANY'S CAPITAL IMPROVEMENT )
REPORT AND APPLICATION TO )
CONTINUE THE EXISTING ~SURCHARGE )
CASE NO. EAG-W-07-01
AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES M. REES,
P.E., L.S.
STATE OF IDAHO)
) ss.County of Ada )
COMES NOW James M. Rees, P.E., L.S., and being first duly sworn upon oath,
states and affirms the following:
1. I make this affidavit based upon my own personal knowledge.
2. i am a professional engineer and land surveyor, duly licensed in the
state of Idaho.
3. I am the principal engineer of MTC, Inc. and I have professional
expertise in the area of public drinking water systems.
4. My resume is attached hereto as Exhibit B-1.
AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES M. REES-1
5. I have been the principal engineer for Eagle Water Company, Inc.
("Eagle Water") since 1993.
6. I have worked for Eagle Water on a time and materials basis since
January 2, 1998, pursuant to the contract attached hereto as Exhibit B-2.
7. The purpose of a time and materials contract relationship is to
reduce the ultimate cost to the customer while ensuring that the contractor does
not underbid his time in the event of unknown project conditions. It is a
commonly accepted practice in the engineering field.
8. In August of 2005, MTC agreed to complete a system-wide
engineering report for Eagle Water Company on a time and materials basis.
9. MTC originally estimated that the report could be completed for
$79,895, based on the advice of its employee, Dave Collns, P.E., who was
familiar with the Haested Methods softare needed to conduct the study. MTC's
original estimate did not reflect a softare upgrade that was ultimately needed to
complete the work due to the size of Eagle Water's system, or the amount of
man-hours that ultimately were necessary to update Eagle Water's system maps,
or the amount of time spent by myself researching and advocating for a Peaking
Factor of 2.58 , which standard was initially rejected by the Idaho Department of
Environmental Quality as too low after several meetings and discussions, even
though a lower standard (2.50) was ultimately accepted by the agency a year
later after numerous costly computer modeling runs.
10. MTC billed Eagle Water $105,322.79 for its work on the
Engineering Report through June of 2006. See Exhibit B-3. This bil included:
AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES M. REES - 2
a. 136 hours for my time, billed at $85 per hour, $15 per hour
lower than my usual billing rate for this type of work;
b. 537 hours of Ron Scott's time, which time included upgrading
the Eagle Water system maps which were outdated; converting
the maps to electronic format; and inputting all system
infrastructure data into the Haested Methods softare;
c. 59.25 hours by Mike Jones who assisted Mr. Scott;
d. 157.50 hours by Tom Johnson and Ron Nesbett who verified
the location of all fire hydrants in the system and manually
checked out the location and number of all system valves;
e. 784.5 hours of Dave Collins', P.E., time. Mr. Collns did the
lion's share of the work on this project before his departure from
MTC. Mr. Collins had familiarity with the softare and spent
numerous hours in the early stages of the project consulting
with Haested Methods employees to customize the softare to
work properly for Eagle Water's system. In addition, once the
system infrastructure data was input into the softare by Mr.
Scott, Mr. Collns had to then enter nodes for each pipe (1032)
and pipe junction (1037), and had to determine elevations and
the friction factor for each pipe run. As verified by the affidavit
of Chet Hovey, P.E., once all of this preliminary work was
completed, the Eagle Water system was difficult to model
because, due to its size and the number of the wells in the
system, a change to one variable in the model required changes
to several other inputs, which in turn required additional data
entry for each new model run. Mr. Collns' time, billed at the rate
of $70 per hour, accounted for more than half of the project cost
through June of 2006.
11. In addition to the foregoing labor costs ("Time"), the project through
June of 2006 required $5,965.91 in out-of-pocket costs ("Material"). This figure
includes:
a. $5,045 in unanticipated softare customization costs;
AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES M. REES - 3
b. $597.00 for a well depth-sounder needed to measure the
drawdown at various pumping flow rates at each of the wells
(Eagle Water now owns this equipment); and
c. the balance in miscellaneous printing and .administrative costs.
12. Because of the unique characteristics of Eagle Water's system and
due to my role as Engineer in Responsible Charge on the project, I was required
under Idaho law to stay involved with the project after Chet Hovey, P.E., of Ward
Engineering was brought in to take over after Mr. Collns' departure from MTC.
See Section 54-1215(3)(d) and Section 54-1202(12), Idaho Code.
13. As a professionally licensed engineer and land surveyor in the
State of Idaho, I am governed by the Idaho Board of Registration of Professional
Engineers and Professional Land Surveyors, IDAPA 10.01.02, "Rules of
Professional Responsibilty." Under the rules, I am required to be truthful and
honest in all communications with my client and the public. All of the time biled
by MTC, Inc. on this project was accurately and honestly billed.
14. This Affidavit is submitted to the Commission in full compliance with
the aforesaid Rules of Professional Responsibility.
FURTHER your affiant sayeth naught.
DATED this 21st day of
"",,\\~:. "~S"ÇRIBED AND SWORN to me t is 21st day of August, 2008.
,~ .. ." ~.i., \0, c.' " ~', ì~,g.... ~.,l ........... /. "'. ~f\ ÛA~.~~~ ,~~ . ~:' ~ ._ e..... . ~
! l ~OT AR y \ \ Notary Public for Idaho; ,: _.- :"Á: Residing at: ~ L 0
\"n i:\ PUB \. \ C / j Commission Expires: ~/f nq..., .f1 .. w"..C' ..We
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~~,~ 0 y: ,',-'. li ~..ti~ ii ~ (...
AFFIDAVIT OF JAMES M. REES - 4
EXHIBIT B-1
EAG-W-07-01 - COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
MTC ENGINEERS 3438967 p.1
JAMES M. REES
EDUCATION: Boise Junior College, A.A. Civil Engineering, 1962
Utah State University, 8.5. Civil Engineering, 1965
University of Idaho, Graduate Work
REGISTERED ENGINEER & LAND SURVEYOR
Idaho, 1967 - P.E. No. 1830
Idaho, 1966 - L.S. No. 753
MEMBER: Idaho Society of Professional Engineers
Idaho Association of Land Surveyors
Consulting Engineers of Idaho . (past president)Various Civic and Fraternal Organizations
EXPERIENCE:
1990.
1985 MTC. r nco ConsuJfng Engineers,
President
Responsible for office management, proposals, and supervision
of all company personnel, major project direction and technica'
adequacy of aU plans and specifications.
3 Years IDAHO AIR NATIONAL GUARD, Gowen Field, Boise, !D
Term Appointment:' Responsible for all phases of planning,
design and construction of several '"m
i1ion--olla r plus" construe..tion projects, along with surveying, Inter-Agency coordination
and maintenance for Gowen Field, Boise, ie
10 Years REES ENGINEERS, Boise, 10
Control surveys, subdivision, land planning, mobile home parks,
water and sewer systems and special studies. Rees Engineers
associated with Chronic & Associates on specifc projects.
2 Years HUMMEL, HUMMEL, JONES &: SHAWVER, Architects, Boise,
Resident Representative and C.O.R. (TITLE Il) for 4.5 millon
dollar government housing project, complete with aU utUities and
building construction.
3 Years CHRONIC & ASSOCIATES, ConsuUing Engineers,
Engineer & Project Engineer
Preliminary design and reports, feasibilty studies of water and
i
i
I
I
r
I
1/2 Year
6 Years
2 Years
1 Year
1/2 Year
1/2 Year
MTC ENGINEERS 3438967 p.2
sewer systems, specifications, construction engineering and
inspection of various projects, retracement and control sur.reys.
UNIVERSITY OF IDAHO, Moscow, 10 Research Technician
Research on Idaho water inventory.
JOHNSON, UNDERKOFLER & BRIGGS, Boise, ID (J~U-B)
Part Chief, Design Engineer, Resident Engineer & Project
Engineer
Various projects, including sewerage systems, water systems,
parks, fairgrounds and facilties, minor structures, irrigationsystems, subdivision and control surveys.
BRJGGS & ASSOClATES, Boise, 10
Chief field operations, surveying, calculating subdivisions,
. designing roads and steets and subdivisions.
JOHNSON & UNDERKOFLER, Nampa, 10
Party Chief of survey crew.
L FREDERICK PACK, West Covina CA
Surveyor
STATE OF IDAHO DEP.ARTMENT OF HIGHWAYS, Distrct 2
Engineer's Aide
EXHIBIT B-2
EAG-W-07-01 - COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
---MTC ENGINEERS.3.7 p.2
CONTRACT
Agreement made ths 2nd day of January , 1998 , between Eagle Water
Company, hereinafter Eagle and MTC Engineers, Inc. , hereinafter MTC .
The parties to this agreement, in consideration of the mutual
covenants and stipuiations set out, agree as follow: Eagle Hereby Contracts
with MTC, Inc. to preform all Engineering services that may be required f~r
the extension, upgrading and inspection of the Eagle Water Company system.
The payment for "these services wiii be on a time and materials basis in
accordance with MTC' s standard rates.
SEC'l I ON
INSTRUMNT AS ENTIRE AGREEMEi,rT
This instrument contains the entire agreement between the parties, and
no statements, promises, or inducements made by either party or agent cf
either party that are not contained in this contract shall be valid or
binding; this contract may not be enlarged, modified, or altered except in
wríting, signed by both parties and endorsed on this agreement.
SECTION
EFFECT OF AGREEMT
This agre.ement shall inure to the benefit of and be binding on the
heirs, executors, assignees, and successors of the ~espective parties.
IN WITNESS WHEREOF, the parties have executed this agreeient on the
~ør~
Page 1
EXHIBIT B-3
EAG-W-07-01 - COMMENTS OF EAGLE WATER
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