PRESIDENT’S ANNUAL LETTER
June 2025
Dear Members,
This year has been a combination of positive accomplishments and also a frustrating reminder of how slowly water infrastructure projects can move.
In April we inspected our water storage tank. We brought in a commercial diving company that specializes in tank inspection, repair and maintenance. They inspected and cleaned the inside of our water tank. The report was good and we have no major damage or issues inside the tank.
We are proceeding with replacing the water meters across our system. This is a critical step to being able to accurately and quickly measure our water use. We expect the work to begin in September. Individual users can expect brief outages, we will communicate the details when we get closer to starting the project.
Earlier this year we completed and submitted a Small Water System Management Plan to the Department of Health. This is a large and detailed document that runs to hundreds of pages, and is designed as an aid to technical and financial management of all aspects of our water system. The DOH had 90 days to review and respond to our plan. At the end of our review period, they informed us that they would be taking an additional 90 days to complete the review. We continue to await their feedback.
Our intertie project with Doe Bay is in the ground and essentially complete. We will continue to await the state’s approval of our management plan before we commission the pipeline.
Our water quality continues to be excellent and our operators at Eastsound Water have been doing tremendous work in keeping water flowing through our aging intake equipment until we can have the intertie up and running. \
Financially, Olga Water Users has rebuilt our financial reserve after the near crisis several years ago. We currently have funds on hand to operate for 12+ months in addition to a $200,000 capital fund to put toward major system repairs and improvements. We continue to work toward planning out our future asset maintenance and replacement plans so that we can fund them gradually, and without resorting to sudden rate hikes.
We look forward to seeing our members at the annual meeting. Please join us July 12th at 6:00 at the Olga Community Club.
Geoff Cunard
OWUI President