Present:
John Hardwick, Valparaiso Water, 219-462-6174, ext 302
Terry Atherton, Indiana-American Nivio, 219-880-2367
Nick Stanley, Water Solutions Unlimited, 317-736-6868
Michael Simpson, M.E. Simpson Co., Inc., 800-255-1521
Kathy Humphrey, Veolia Water of Indianapolis, 317-263-6540
Art Umble, CDM, 317-637-5424
Doug Perry, City of Goshen Utilities, 574-534-5701
Bruno Trimboli, Mishawaka Utilities Water Division, 574-258-1652
Jerry Schoenle, City of Fort Wayne, 260 427-1247
Todd Taylor, City of LaPorte, 219-326-9540
Pat Carroll, IDEM, Drinking Water Branch, 317-308-3281
Phil Smith, Smith Group Consulting, LLC, 317-788-8534
Odetta Cadwell, Indiana Rural Water Association, 317-402-7349
Melissa Moran, Malcolm Pirnie, Inc., 317-594-3750
John Stancati  South Bend Water Works  574-291-1816 
Jim Williams, Peerless-Midwest, 574-254-9050
Stan Diamond, Greeley and Hanson, 317-924-3380
Duane Gilles, Southeast District
Jerry Webb, IURC, 317-232-2765
Vince Griffin, Indiana State Chamber, 317-264-6881
Scott Bell, OUCC, 317-233-1084

Chairman Hardwick opened the meeting. Hardwick announced that Beth Millett is not able to attend due to a family emergency. He advised the Council that this would be Melissa Moran’s last meeting for two years as she and her family were traveling to Guatemala for a mission trip. Melissa talked about her plans.

Vince Griffin, State Chamber gave a legislative update and discussed the state Drought Plan. He also discussed Annex 2001, IDEM’s Environmental Results Program. He also advised that the Governor’s office would be making appointments to EQSC soon. DNR would be making appoints to the Water Shortage Taskforce in the next few weeks. Art Umble agreed to contact IDEM to find out more about the Environmental Stewardship Plan and the Environmental Results Plan. Vince also handed out information concerning the Legislature’s “Interim Study Committee assignments.

Hardwick advised the Council that U.S. EPA has two new websites out concerning water conservation entitled: WaterSense – Efficiency Made Easy and WaterWiser.

Hardwick advised that WUC would be sponsoring 2006 Advocacy Week, in which the WUC members would visit with their state legislators. This year, the Executive Committee was asked to participate. Hardwick received interest from 6 persons (not members of WUC). While we will select a one week to concentrate our visits, members are encouraged to make their visits whenever they can make appointments. Vince Griffin suggested that we concentrate on the two weeks after the November election because we would know who won and who lost and therefore not waste a visit on a legislator who may be defeated. Also, most legislators would be campaigning heavily in October and not be available for a meeting.

Odetta gave an update on the recent request by NRWA for an enforcement moratorium for small systems. While NRWA is calling for a tiered approach for small systems compliance due to financial concerns AWWA is opposed to varying the standards due to size of the utility. Hardwick asked Odetta to continue to monitor this issue.

Hardwick advised WUC that there have been improvements made to the WUC website to make it easier to update the state legislative page. This is needed in order to make updates timely.

Melissa Moran requested that the Section consider developing some state-wide marketing around the National AWWA marketing campaign “Only Tap Water Delivers”. A committee of Melissa, Kathy Humphrey, Roger Swafford, Chris Gale and will have a telephone conference to discuss this further.

Hardwick advised that the Executive Committee at its last meeting reduced the WUC budget to $17,000 for 2006-07. Hardwick thought that WUC could accomplish what it needed to with this approved budget.

Hardwick advised that he had conversations with Larry Landis, IURC Commissioner to discuss an issue that Larry had interest in, namely, Emergency Response Public Notification. Also, water conservation pricing was also discussed as a topic of concern. Commissioner Landis advised that Chairman Hardy agreed and would host a discussion between IURC and WUC. A committee consisting of John Stancati, Terry Atherton, Todd Taylor and John Hardwick will work with the IURC on these issues.

Hardwick discussed three national issues: the Chemical Security Bill before Congress, the Anti-Freeze Bittering Agent Bill and the DHS Infrastructure
Protection Plan.

Reports were given by Jerry Webb, IURC, Pat Carroll, IDEM, and Scott Bell, OUCC.
 
Hardwick announced the next meeting would be held during October 2006. Having no further business, the meeting was adjourned.