Wastewater Treatment Board

CITY OF CORTLAND WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Meeting Minutes Members: Da te : 10 /2 6/1 5 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 – Present Commissioner Todd Morris – Present Village of McGraw Mayor Allan Stauber – Present Bruce Adams, Supt. of Wastewater – Present Meeting called to order at 5:28 p.m. Minutes from August 24, 2015, meeting for approval. Motion to approve the minutes from August 24, 2015, meeting by Sally Horak. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Plant Manager’s Report: Plant Managers Report for October 26, 2015 (as written by Supt. Adams) Administration– I will be seeking Council approval to create and fill the position of SCADA/Instrumentation Technician in November. Phil Opera has shown great aptitude for this work and will be an asset to the department in maintaining our technological infrastructure. I will then subsequently seek to fill the open Operator I position with a new hire. Cedarwood Engineering is finalizing preliminary design work on the new anaerobic digester. With changes in C'Ville Yoghurt's marketing, the anticipated feedstock for this digester has changed from whey only to mostly DAF float and some whey. This will produce substantially more methane, allowing an upsizing of the generation equipment. Cortland has started a process with our three wastewater treatment client communities to negotiate new intermunicipal contracts. The aim will be consistency among the three contracts and ease of understanding of the billing formulae. The Village of Homer has received the engineering report on their I&I issues. This is a preliminary report only and additional engineering work will need to be done before a full I&I abatement project can be formulated. The Village is working on seeking funding sources for the project. Operations– The SBR process was started on October 19. As might be expected with such a major change, effluent quality took an initial hit. As we have been adjusting the run parameters and working up towards the desired biomass concentrations, the effluent has been steadily improving. All of the new equipment appears to be working well. Owing to an improperly configured SCADA output point, we had difficulties maintaining proper automated control of the disinfection feed system through September. This caused two issues leading to violations: One, overfeeding of SO2 caused high effluent CBOD5 results which led to UOD violations. Two, underfeeding of Cl2 caused high fecal coliform results resulting in violations for that parameter. Once the misconfigured output was corrected, the system worked properly. Maintenance– With most of the staff resources engaged in final efforts to commission the SBR project, we kept to regular maintenance items only outside of emergency issues. WWAB Minutes 26 October 2015 Page 2 of 4  The South Wemco pump failed due to shaft and packing box wear. The pump was replaced with a spare we had in inventory and the failed pump was sent out for a rebuild. Ed Poole has been working on streamlining the work order list and organizing related work orders into logical groups. This will improve efficiency in the overall maintenance management system. Bruce Adams Superintendent of Wastewater John Troy had asked Bruce Adams if we are still giving tours to SUNY Cortland students, which Bruce stated that we have one scheduled for November 4, 2015. Bruce Adams reported that we did not get the WQIP grant for the UV disinfection that we had applied for. Next year and most likely the following year, we will be utilizing liquid chemical disinfection with Sodium Hypochlorite and Biosulfides. We will, however, be looking into putting in UV. Motion to approve the Plant Manager’s Report by Sally Horak. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Finance: Financial statements and abstracts dated 9/15/15, 9/30/15, and 10/16/15, were submitted for approval. Motion to approve financial statements and abstracts by Todd Morris. Seconded by Sally Horak. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: Todd M. Trudeau submitted a sewer grievance application on 8/25/15, for property located at 7 Brown Avenue, City of Cortland. The grievance was placed on the agenda for the October WWAB meeting due to cancellation of the meeting in September. Mr. Trudeau reported that a problem was found with a leaking toilet that was subsequently replaced. He also reported that he had to replace sheetrock due to the damage caused by the leaking toilet. He is requesting relief towards the sewer portion of his billing. The board reviewed Mr. Trudeau's grievance application. After discussion of the possible allowable credit to Mr. Trudeau's grievance, a motion was made by John Troy to approve a credit of $350.00. Motion to approve a credit of $350.00, by John Troy. Seconded by Sally Horak. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: A sewer grievance application was submitted by Mr. Jerome Casciani on 10/19/15, for property located at 28 Morningside Drive, City of Cortland. Mr. Casciani reported that his water bill increased due to watering of four new trees on his property. He is requesting a reduction in his sewer bill. WWAB Minutes 26 October 2015 Page 3 of 4  Mr. Casciani was present at the WWAB meeting. The board reviewed his application and John Troy explained to Mr. Casciani how the board determines credits based on quarterly billings. Mr. Casciani reported that he had watered his four new trees causing an increase in his water bill, that the water did not go into the sewer system. A motion was made by Sally Horak to grant a credit of $99.00 to Mr. Casciani. Motion to approve a credit of $99.00, by Sally Horak. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS Sewer Grievance: Martin Shimer, Ivan PLLC, submitted a sewer grievance application on 9/18/15, for property located at 206 Main Street, City of Cortland. Mr. Shimer reported that a leak was detected on 6/9/15, to an outside wall and repaired on 6/10/15. He also stated that the water never went through the sewer system. Mr. Shimer further reported that he never checked his water bill until June and was out of town since then. He is requesting a credit on his sewer billing for the 4th quarter 2014, 1st, and 2nd quarter 2015. After reviewing and discussing Mr. Shimer's grievance application, it was decided by the board to table the grievance until the next WWAB meeting on Monday, November 23, 2015. The board requested that additional information be obtained from Mr. Shimer to clarify his grievance. Sally Horak made a request for a more detailed description of what was broken, repaired and which apartment or business was affected. There were two quarterly billing account statements that were submitted for the property requiring clarification by the board. Sally Horak made a motion to table the grievance. A letter of request for additional information will be sent to Mr. Shimer by Margie Becker. Motion to TABLE the grievance by Sally Horak. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS New Business: No new business Old Business: John Troy had asked the board about the progress of finding a new board member to replace Paul Lorenzo. He asked that the search be continued to find a replacement in the community. Motion to Adjourn at 6:14 p.m. by Todd Morris. Seconded by Sally Horak. UNANIMOUS Respectfully submitted by: City of Cortland WWTF WWAB Minutes 26 October 2015 Page 4 of 4