Where: Vista Dunes, Washington
Problem: Vista Dunes failed to meet safe drinking water standards and lacked capacity to manage their drinking water system.
Solution: RCAC helped Vista Dunes expand its technical, managerial, and financial capacity to ensure that the water system maintains compliance with drinking water regulations.
Vista Dunes is a small unincorporated community on Washington’s southwest coast with approximately 30 homes. Many residents live in the community only part time, which contributes to the town’s limited capacity to manage the water system.
The Washington Department of Health (DOH) referred RCAC to assist Vista Dunes to address compliance issues related to water chlorination. The town needed to form a legal entity that would manage the water system. Vista Dunes managers also needed to complete a Small Water System Management Program.
RCAC met with community residents and DOH officials to discuss options to address compliance, form an entity, and develop capacity to manage the system. RCAC worked with community leaders to draft articles of incorporation, which were later adopted and approved by the state of Washington in July 2015. RCAC also helped the newly incorporated Vista Dunes Water Association conduct its first board election in August 2015 and then helped the board develop bylaws outlining how the association conducts its business. RCAC also helped Vista Dunes develop a budget, increase rates to cover operation costs, and initiate an asset management plan for future replacement and improvements for the water system.
Vista Dunes leaders have made other achievements, including compliance with water chlorination regulations. The board also identified deficiencies in water distribution pipes and then made repairs; installed meters on many homes well in advance of a 2017 deadline; installed three main line shut-off valves; installed an emergency generator for power outages; created an email address for Vista Dunes Water Association to improve communication between the association and customers; and completed the Washington Small Water System Management Program managerial and financial sections.
As a result of RCAC’s assistance, Vista Dunes Water Association has increased technical, managerial, and financial capacity to manage its water system and maintain compliance with Department of Health (DOH) regulations. DOH staff and Vista Dunes residents have remarked that RCAC staff’s assistance has been critical to helping them understand what it takes to manage a water system.
