Lake Josephine Riviera Water 2021 Board of Trustees Meeting Report
Dear Members,
As another fiscal year ends, I thought I would recap this year’s annual meeting. As always, I want to start with thanking the water department Staff, Josh Kudlecek, Krista Ullis and John Recker. They play a huge roll in making the Riviera water department so successful.
Lake Josephine water system was installed between 1968 and 1972. The water system covers approximately 1/3 of the island. With three water tanks totaling 630,000 gallons of storage and 32 miles of main pipe ranging from 2 to 10 inches in diameter. We have an additional 9.4 miles of water service line. The Riviera holds 356 Acre feet of water rights and uses 56% of this allotment. Currently we have 886 service connections. I took some time to emphasize that we are a public drinking water system. Even though we are privately owned, we serve water to several properties outside of the Riviera boundaries.
This year we pumped 52.1 million Gallons of water; this was up 6 million from last year. We added 15 new water services in the 2020-2021 fiscal year.
This year we focused on tracking down water leaks and repairing them. This was accomplished with sounding devices that allowed us to hear underground leaks that had not surfaced. Due to the supply shortage of ductile iron pipe, we were unable to complete the Country Club main replacement project. We are currently working with Rural Water Cooperative of Pierce County in hopes to participate in a group purchase of 8-inch ductile iron pipe at a much-reduced price. This should happen in April or May of 2022. In addition, we are working with Tanner Electric to reduce the cost of the trenching by combining both utilities into one ditch.
2021/2022 capitol purchases include replacing our 2007 pickup with a 1-ton flatbed. This change will allow a non-cdl driver to haul the mini excavator. The second item is a new trailer vac that would replace the 25-year-old vac we currently have. The new vac is larger and will allow us to use it for many other projects saving time and reducing permit fees with Pierce County.
I want to end by reminding all members who have any question regarding your water system, to please contact the water department. Our goal is to make sure you get the most accurate and up to date information.
Russ Rodocker
Water Department Manager