Thread by @shayshinecastle

Crap, I'm late! It's #Boulder City Council night. Special meeting has been called to discuss the situation at Orchard Grove mobile home park (been without water for a few days)

That will happen before a study session on Alpine Balsam, where the city wants to put housing and city offices. Part of that discussion will be the multi-million dollar renovation of the Pavilion Building. boulderbeat.news/2019/02/12/cou…

Series of water main breaks at Orchard Grove last week. The park has its own private system that's connected to the city's system. Two dif sets of pipes: one for domestic, one for fire protection, says Jeff Arthur, director of public works for utilities.

Fire system is OK; the domestic system had the breaks.

Plumbing co. on Monday, Feb. 5 asked for an emergency location of pipes. On Feb. 7, 3:30 a.m., city contacted about water main break. Did not turn off the water bc of cold temps; pipes could have frozen.

By Friday, different contractor on site. Lot 240 had some issues. Water was turned off, excavation and repair done. Water back on by 3 p.m., but then another break. Water turned off again, another repair, turned back on again by 5....

....But then another break. Water was turned off for the night.

Saturday: repairs. Water back on at 3 p.m. Then more breaks. Water again turned off for Saturday night.

Sunday, a pressure reduction valve for the park was found, fixed, and the water turned back on at 4:30, pressurized by 6. Still working, so far.

Jones: I'm proud for how city staff stepped up in this situation.
Lots of silent applause from the audience members. There are about two dozen people here who I don't recognize as city employees; including the ownership team of Orchard Grove.

"We don't have plumbers on staff," Arthur says, "so our ability to go into a home and do an assessment is limited."

Mike Chard, Boulder Office of Emergency Management: City now has agreement with EFFA about helping residents of Orchard Grove for housing, assistance, etc. Red Cross is handling shelter. Hotel vouchers are being provided as well.

Plan has been developed to do needs assessment of residents in the whole park in 3 hours or so.

To clarify that, the needs assessment could be completed in three hours. It's not taking place three hours from now.

Chard: Bottom line is we’re looking pretty good right now.

215 residents; 475-600 residents estimated at Orchard Grove.

Q from Morzel: How many homes affected that residents needed hotel vouchers?
2-3 potentially, Chard said. It's for folks whom temporary shelter won't work for.

Another q from Morzel: Any analysis of structural damage within the homes
Heath Harmon from BoCo public health is going to answer that

Four homes and as many as 7 ppl who have heightened diet concerns, Harmon says (we'll get to the structural q in a minute)

I think he said diet; I'm not quite sure. He speaks really quickly. But now he's addressing gastrointestinal issues, so maybe...?

No uptick in calls RE: disease or illness from the Orchard Grove situation.

Also no increase in people going to hospitals with stomach issues. It's tracked by zipcode, apparently.

Eric Dodge, water quality program coordinator at BoCo Public Health, said they got a call Wednesday from resident who said park had been without waters for 2 days. Park owners are required to provide water within 12 hrs, Dodge said.

Owners were supplying bottles of water, Dodge said. "That would not meet my definition of adequate."

BoCo issued notice of violation Friday evening to park owners for not having water, then connected owners with a water tanker Saturday.

Water delivered Saturday afternoon.

Young: Is there a definition for "adequate" when it comes to water supply?
No, Dodge said.
Young: So they could have just continued to provide (the) 8 oz. (bottles)?

Mobile Home Park Act doesn't cover how the water gets from the truck to the home; owners didn't provide containers and some residents struggled. County felt that wasn't under its authority to do anything about.

Morzel: Water everyone knows is very heavy; 8 lbs. a gallon. I know as I get older, it's harder and harder to carry so much weight. 5 gallons = 40 lbs. "a lot to ask someone to carry"
She and Young are asking about changes to Mobile Home act that might better cover these issues.

Morzel: "I was concerned about public health of having unflushed toilets for days."

Dodge: Act says there shouldn't be more than 25 homes per section of infrastructure so you can turn part of it off, but the park is old and may have pre-dated the act.

One of the breaks on Friday was 9 ft underneath one of the homes. There's some language in the Mobile Home Park act that should disallow that, but the act was passed in the mid-70s, so it was grandfathered in or maybe there's no requirement to upgrade.

Morzel: Various councils have been discussing for a long time upgrades at mobile home parks. Individual metering may have lessened the "severity of the situation."

Metering requires mobile home park to become public water supply; would be subject to more regulations, Dodge said. Now, they are treated essentially like private wells.

Q from Young: Who is responsible for making sure homes are habitable again?
Building inspector went out to the site, Arthur said, one of the home's egress was close to excavation. Residents were "advised" to leave; it wasn't an official action.

Young restates: Who is responsible? Morzel adds in q about damage or mold.
Dodge: Building inspector would be responsible for that. Language in mobile home park act says that damage is park owners' responsibility.

Morzel: "We have known for at least 10 yrs that there have been problems at this mobile home park with respect to water." Hints that the owners might be liable for damages, etc. under landlord/tenant law.

Jones: We want to acknowledge that it's been a really hard week for a lot of folks. One of the reasons we're holding this special meeting is making sure we're adequately taking care of this issue. For the residents, we're sorry for what you've been through.

Elizabeth Yurgens from Riverstone Communities (Orchard Grove owner) is speaking now. She's the area vice president.
"We are here for our residents; this was not type of malicious intent. We don't feel this was" an infrastructure issue.

"Our intent is to have communities for a lifetime. We don’t purchase communities to flip them." References community efforts, like having a "clothing shelf" and food pantry in the office. Some residents sitting in front of me looked at each other and shook their heads at that.

Fourth main line break since Riverstone bought the community. But she feels the high amount of pressure from the city's lines caused the problems.

A contractor hired by Riverstone was using the pressure reducing valve to shut off water; that is incorrect way to do so. Riverstone also believes the contractor left a bolt off a valve and it froze in the cold weather. Planet Plumbing is the co.

"It wasn't an issue with the lines, it was an issue with 170 psi coming through those lines."

"Are there lessons learned? Absolutely."
Updated emergency contact info needs to be distributed each year to residents, Yurgens says.

"We also need to make sure that our mechanics are using our vendors properly." This "could have been completely avoided if our vendor had been turning the water off to the community the way it was intended."

She seems a little defensive. Council seems a little attack-y.
Both responses are understandable, of course. Hundreds of people without water for days... someone needs to be held accountable.

Riverstone does intend to install isolation valves throughout the park.
"The community being without water to make a repair is unacceptable for us and unacceptable for them."

John Wakeham (? on that last name) from Dig Boss, contracted by Brothers Plumbing, is talking now. "I have done work in the Denver metro for 30 yrs and never seen the kind of assistance provided" by the city of Boulder staff.

Corrects that it was actually a 4-inch pipe, not a 2.5 pipe.
Does Orchard Grove's infrastructure need replaced? "No it doesn't" he says. Piping is "halfway through" it's 100-yr life.

"99% of the problem was related to the failure of the pressure reduction valve. If the PRV had not failed, you would not have had 170 lbs. of pressure running through your piping."

Talking schematics now. Several council members have asked about the layout of the infrastructure; they seem to be hinting that no one knew where anything was, and if they had, the problem would have been fixed earlier.

Weaver: "There was nothing kept on-site that would have helped you with the troubleshooting?"
No, Wakeham says. City doesn't keep private schematics and owners didn't offer one.

Reason that the PRV froze is that the hatch to the vault (apparently it was in a vault) was left open, Wakeham says.

Brockett: Does the park have any schematics?
Yurgens: We were not given any when we purchased the park in 2015, but it's something that we're willing to do.

Brockett: "It just seems like a missing piece here. If everyone had known where everything was, it probably would have gone more quickly. I strongly encourage you to get those."

Deb Gardner just walked in. BoCo commissioner.

Wakeham has recommended two other areas that need repair. Riverstone has agreed.
The water table is higher in this area than is typical. Where the failures happened, pipes were vulnerable bc of the amount of ground water.

Morzel referencing past residents' issues with high water bills. Leaks were suspected.
Curt:Kurt Williams, regional manager, says the property has a system that monitors leaks.

"We consistently are running 30% lower on water budget" than what the city-budgeted amount is (4K gallons per month per mobile home)

Morzel: What kind of due diligence does Riverstone do before purchasing a mobile home park. Wouldn't you want to know before you bought what infrastructure was like? I was surprised when you said that hadn't been done.

Yurgens: We only have info that previous owners provide us. We're not going to let the sale of a community slip by us.

Morzel now asking about Riverstone increasing water rates
Yurgens: I don't think we're here to discuss previous issues. That was a lease language thing, and it's been taken care of

Morzel persists: Did you anticipate costly repairs and that's why you bumped the water rate?
Yurgens: No. We're not looking to profit off utilities; that's illegal. Cities do it; I know you guys do it. But we charge for what residents use.

Weaver: How do you document so you know when maintenance is needed?
Yurgens: I'm not sure we have it at this property specifically; I've been here for 24 hrs at this point (Riverstone is based in Michigan)

Weaver: You had issues Monday, we didn't see someone on the ground until Saturday? What's the policy about mobilizing a team to support folks on the ground?
Yurgens: It was unfortunate that prop mgr quit in the middle of this crisis.

Weaver: What triggers supplemental support? How many days does it take to send somebody from corporate, or from other states even? What's the plan? We had to mobilize a whole bunch of support from city and county. What's your role in this, do you feel?

Yurgens: Work started on Wednesday; team was there Thursday so there wasn't really a gap
Weaver: Break was on Monday
Yurgens: We didn't start repair until Wed due to lack of parts

Yurgens: We were bringing water to residents, even though there was only one employee, we used third party to help residents before we started work on Wed

Weaver: How do you monitor for leaks?
Williams: Even the city of Boulder says you can't really monitor that. If you're paying someone to excavate to 8-10 ft to monitor, you may as well replace the pipe. The best thing to do is use age of system and monitor use.

Weaver: Residents have suffered. What's going to happen to residents who had pipes burst?
Yurgens: We'll meet with them. There is responsibility on residents too, just like us. One resident didn't have heat wrap, so they were at risk for freezing pipes, and therefore damage.

Jones: Is your policy to make residents whole for damages due to infrastructure break?
Yurgens: Infrastructure didn't have full break (or similar language)
Jones: You had operator error
Yurgens: We will be pursuing operators insurance for compensation

Weaver: Will that include residents?
Yurgens: Doesn't answer directly; says she'll "meet with residents" to determine

Young: You're getting legal counsel, you said. If they say you don't have to compensate residents, will you not?
Yurgens: We want to do right by our residents. But if there was a situation where resident wasn't maintaining home properly, we can't be responsible for that.

Yurgens: We have 215 homes and three homes with issues. We're talking about 3 issues here.
Jones: Great, then sounds like it would be easy for you to make them whole.

Getting a little tense in the council chambers.

Morzel: Temps were so cold thermal tape might not have mattered anyway. I hope will you consider that. Promises to look into the properties of thermal tape.

"I am not happy residents were left without water for days."

Young: There are residents in the park whose primary language is not English. I hope you proactively reach out to see if they have damages.
Yurgens: We will do broadcast and phone call, notices on the doors. Everything is/was in English and Spanish.

Calls and texts, to clarify.

Jones: One of the basic roles of local gov't is to make sure residents are getting services. Our hands are a little tied bc you're supposed to be getting services. Understandably, we're a little disturbed with the breakdown this week.

Hey @threadreaderapp can you unroll this, please?