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City Council Water &. Sewer Subcommittee Feb. 18, 2003 Page 9 the quality of water below what the state mandates. So, why would the city do anything that would increase cost or debt? City Manager Malone explained that this last debt issuance was to meet the EPA Administrative Order and there was a list of projects provided by that engineering study that the city was forced to do. City Manager Malone said the study identified all of the elements in the system that needed to be replaced or repaired and the EPA determined that the city would be given three years to get it done. The City Manager said the city attacked these projects with local contractors doing work by the day and direction from the engineering inspectors to try to save money. He said the debt was issued in anticipation of being able to assure the EPA that we had the funds available to fix all of these things that they were telling us to fix in this period of time. City Manager Malone advised that the city was successful in working our way out of the EPA Order much cheaper than what the consultants estimated. He said the city took the savings from these projects and is using the money to build the elevated storage tank. The money is already in the debt service. He said they were shifting what they would have spent on these repairs that were demanded by the EPA because the city was able to do them more efficiently than what the engineering study suggested. The City Manager advised that the city is able to use that savings towards other needs and we are taking the highest priority needs. Mr. Wilson wanted to know if the city can pay for it in savings on pumping cost and in electricity. The City Manager pointed out that is not the only element, it is also an element if you look at these other cities and see the capacity of overhead storage for fire protection. He said the city has been inadequate in overhead storage for fire protection for many years. He concluded his answer by saying that you have accomplished energy savings as well as having water available for fire protection needs. Mr. Campbell said that at one time, depending on the situation, if the city lost power at the pumping station downtown and it was at the low level at the tank where we operate, he would have fifteen minutes to call every industry to shut them down before they reached minimum fire protection level and that is totally inadequate for a city this size. Councilwoman Neeley asked what did transfers mean as shown on the