Wastewater Treatment Board

CITY OF CORTLAND WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Meeting Minutes Members: Da te : 6/ 23 /14 Ti me : 5 :30 p m Chairman John Troy – Present C on fe r en ce R o om , C or t la nd Wa st e wa t e r Vice Chair William Starr – Absent Commissioner Sally Horak – Absent Commissioner Todd Morris – Present Commissioner Paul Lorenzo – Present Village of McGraw Mayor Allan Stauber – Present Village of Homer Trustee Michael Berry – Absent Bruce Adams, Chief Operator – Present Tom McCall, CPWOA President – Absent Mack Cook, Dir. of Admin.& Finance- Present Meeting called to order at 5:25 p.m. Minutes from May 19, 2014, meeting for approval. Motion to approve the minutes from May 19, 2014, meeting by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Plant Manager’s Report: Plant Managers Report for June 23, 2014 (as written by Chief Adams) Administration– We have finally come to an agreement with Byrne Dairy on the put-or-pay agreement for whey disposal. Byrne started commercial production last week. Although it went up to the last minute, we did finally get DEC to sign off on our plan to accept more than the originally-forecast quantity of whey prior to completion of the dedicated digester. Now that we have completed the first two portions of the upgrade project, the bar screen and the gravity belt thickener, we took a look at where we are on the budget. For just those two projects, we are more than $440,000 under budget. This is due to a combination of factors: We got favorable bids, John O’Connell has been doing a great job of maximizing staff productivity in doing the installation work, and we have made several cost-saving project modifications suggested by department staff. I discovered, while trying to determine the status of our Chesapeake Bay permitting process, that the process will not include an automatic permit renewal. Some permittees’ C-Bay changes do include a renewal, but not ours. I filed a permit renewal application, but it is past the cutoff date for an automatic renewal. DEC permit renewal staff has told me they will mark the application for expedited handling. Common Council has approved the acquisition of a 6-wheel truck that will take large roll-off containers. This will take the place of our two current 6-wheel dump trucks, which will be transferred to the Water Department in exchange for their wholesale value. The roll-off equipped truck will reduce labor, fuel and maintenance costs and give us the option to transport sludge long distance should that become necessary. As has been our practice for many years, we loaned one of our side-by-sides to the Youth Department for use at a weekend event. We have also been periodically loaning our backhoe to the Water Department and DPW as they have needed it for street work. Operations- Chemical use for disinfection has been running considerably under our per-million-gallon usage for the same period last year. This is most likely the result of better-quality effluent which has a lower chlorine demand. The weather and flow conditions have finally allowed us to get more tank cleanings and repair work done. We are working on quarterly sampling of permitted industries, but two of our local industries are currently having equipment issues that prevent their operating their pretreatment processes. We are cleaning out the FSE grease holding tank preparatory to converting it for accepting whey. Due to the increased amount of whey that we are now expecting, we will be installing an active treatment process in that tank to reduce the whey’s impact on the facility processes. WWAB Minutes 23 June 2014 Page 2 of 5  Maintenance- Seasonal work including refreshing the mulch beds, planting flowers in the flower beds, mowing and brush trimming. Replaced mechanical seals in the on-site pump station that used to serve Buckbee Mears. This pump station has the double misfortune of having spent the first ten years of its life pumping corrosive sewage and the last 7 years pumping almost nothing. Should it become prohibitively expensive to maintain, we will replace the now oversized above-ground pumps with smaller submersibles. Installed a pressure reducing valve in the feed line to the polymer mixing unit for the GBT. The vendor advised us the existing 80 psi feed was too high and would eventually damage the unit. Installed a valve actuator in the sludge line from the primary complex so we could return to automated pumping from the primary clarifiers to the GBT holding tank. Bruce Adams Chief Operator Addendum: Bruce Adams requested an addition of three items to the Plant Manager's Report. 1. We have applied for a grant to pursue a vermiculture sludge disposal project. If we get the grant, the plan is to install a vermicomposting site which will be located where the old Wickwire Building once stood. Bruce reported that this is a low energy input treatment process and both of the finished compost and water that is drained off has commercial value. Also noted by Bruce is that this will be excellent use of the land. 2. Starting in July, we are going to go forward with the monetizing the of the sludge and leachate relationship. 3. The Common Council has approved a Memorandum of Understanding with our labor union in regards to holidays worked by employees and compensatory time. Motion to approve the Plant Manager’s Report by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Finance: Financial statements and abstracts dated 5/31/14 and 6/15/14, were submitted for approval. Motion to approve financial statements and abstracts by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: A sewer grievance application was received from Edward and Peter Bennedy, (B&B Properties), on 5/28/14, for property located at 34 South Avenue, City of Cortland. Mr. Peter Bennedy reports that he was contacted by the Water Department and was notified that there was high water usage in January. Mr. Bennedy reported that there was a frozen pipe in the crawl space of the residence and was repaired the following day. He is seeking relief towards the sewer portion of his bill. WWAB Minutes 23 June 2014 Page 3 of 5  The grievance was reviewed by the board and a recommendation was made by Todd Morris to table the grievance in order to obtain more information or a simple timetable with regards to meter readings. Paul Lorenzo further requested clarification and additional information on a timeline of when repairs were made in January until the time of the 1st quarter meter reading on March 5, 2014, and its affect on the reading. Motion to table the grievance by Todd Morris. Seconded by Paul Lorenzo. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: Al Barbieri and Paul Gallow submitted a sewer grievance on 5/29/14, for property located at 18 Arthur Avenue, City of Cortland. Mr. Barbieri and Mr. Gallow reported that around February 20, 2014, there was a frozen pipe underground running between this residence and the residence located in the rear (18 1/2 Arthur Avenue), which is on one parcel, that prevented water flow between the two houses. Mr. Barbieri and Mr. Gallow hired W2 Operator Training Group to come out and unthaw the frozen pipe at that time. On March 3, 2014, while in the basement of the property, they heard water running and after troubleshooting the issue, a break in the pipe between the two houses was discovered. The owner's then contacted Mr. John Bergeron who notified them that the ground was too hard to dig at that point and asked Mr. Barbieri and Mr. Gallow to wait until the weather remained consistently above freezing. On April 2, 2014, Mr. Barbieri and Mr. Gallow repaired the pipe by bypassing the leak with an above ground irrigation solution in order to supply water to the house in the rear (18 1/2 Arthur Avenue), without any loss underground. Mr. Barbieri and Mr. Gallow are requesting relief towards the sewer portion of their billing. After review and consideration by the board of Mr. Barbieri and Mr. Gallow's grievance, a credit of $167.00, was recommended by Paul Lorenzo, with a request that a list of properties owned by the applicants be obtained for future records. Motion to approve a credit of $167.00, by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS New Business: No new business. Old Business: No old business. Executive Session: Motion to go into Executive Session by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS WWAB Minutes 23 June 2014 Page 4 of 5 Motion to Adjourn at 6:05 p.m by Paul Lorenzo. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Respectfully submitted by: City of Cortland WWTF WWAB Minutes 23 June 2014 Page 5 of 5