Wastewater Treatment Board

CITY OF CORTLAND WASTEWATER TREATMENT FACILITY Meeting Minutes Members: Da te : 3/ 26 /18 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 – Present Commissioner Todd Morris – Present Commissioner Diann Potter – Present Commissioner Gary Thomas- Present Village of McGraw Mayor Allan Stauber – Absent Bruce Adams, Supt. of Wastewater – Present Edward Poole, Chief Operator - Present Meeting called to order at 5:32 p.m. Minutes from February 26, 2018, meeting for approval. Motion to approve the minutes from February 26, 2018, meeting by Bill Starr. Seconded by Diann Potter. UNANIMOUS Superintendent's Report: Superintendent's Report For March 26, 2018 (As written by Supt. Adams) Administration– The sale of the Bond Anticipation Note is scheduled for 3/28/18. This will make $3.1M available for the Digester Phase 3 project and cover the prior project expenses that would have been covered by the NYSERDA digester co-gen grant. That grant, amounting to $2M, is payable as roughly $1M towards reimbursing capital costs and $1M over 10 years based on actual electricity generated. National Grid has been very slow to sign off on our interconnect approval. This is problematic on two counts. One, some of the electrical equipment is long lead time, so this can introduce delays to completion. Two, any further NYSERDA disbursements on our $1M capital expense grant require that approval. We have applied for and received the initial 15% of the grant, but are prevented from applying for more until the approval is in place. As of 3/20/18, we have begun accepting acid whey from Chobani. Following the advice of our engineer on the available capacity of our existing digesters, we are taking up to 8,000 gallons per day. Establishing this relationship now will help ensure that once the generator is on line, we will have sufficient gas production to run the generator full time. On April 7, we will be sponsoring a field trip to the vermicomposting operation in Seneca Castle. That operation is the model upon which our pilot project is based, though Cortland’s trenches will be wider and more sturdily built. Bruce Adams Superintendent of Wastewater Motion to approve the Superintendent's Report by Gary Thomas. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS WWAB Minutes 26 March 2018 Page 2 of 4 Plant Manager’s Report: Plant Managers Report For March 26, 2018 (As written by Edward Poole, Chief Operator) Operations The process is running very well and the effluent is high quality. We had a violation for Phosphorous for the month of February. Our permit limitation for phosphorus is based on a rolling 12-month total. The low total for March 2017 rolled off just as a high total for February 2018, caused by high flows and RAS pump issues, rolled on to the total. It is doubtful we will get back into compliance for March. We have two operator trainees who have been approved to take their 2A certification test. They will be making that appointment and taking the certification test sometime soon. I continue to send May El Prince an update on process, operations and digester combined heat and power project. Maintenance The maintenance staff are installing a spare chlorine feed line to the end of our final tanks to give us the option of chlorinating further upstream to get more contact time for disinfection. As I mentioned last month, the north Wemco is in the shop for rebuild. We have the parts and are waiting for W2O to finish sand blasting and painting pump body. Work continues on preventative maintenance on the process tanks. Edward Poole Chief Operator Motion to approve the Plant Manager’s Report by Gary Thomas. Seconded by Todd Morris. UNANIMOUS WWAB Minutes 26 March 2018 Page 3 of 4 Finance: Financial statements and abstracts dated 2/28/18, and 3/16/18, were submitted for approval. Motion to approve financial statements and abstracts by Gary Thomas. Seconded by Diann Potter. UNANIMOUS New Business: No new business Old Business: No old business Motion to Adjourn at 5:46 p.m. by Todd Morris. Seconded by Gary Thomas. UNANIMOUS Respectfully submitted by: City of Cortland WWTF WWAB Minutes 26 March 2018 Page 4 of 4