Board of Health

FITCHBURG CITY CLERK Aug 12 2024 8:35 am Office of the Board of Health City Hall 718 Main Street Fitchburg, Massachusetts 01420 978-829-1870 This was a regular meeting of the Board of Health held in the Legislative Building at 700 Main Street and recorded by FATV Studios, Thursday, July 11, 2024. The meeting was called to order by Dr. Bogdasarian. Present: Stephen Curry, Director, Dr. John Bogdasarian, Chair, Ian Murray, BOH-Member, Diane Tousignant, BOH Member, Karen Membrino, Clerk Stenographer. Joe Michaud, Greif Paper, Ken Dupont, Wastewater Sewer System Manager. Public Forum: There was no speaker in the public forum. Royal Fuel Smoke Shop – 880 Water St – Haji Ahmad Director Curry stated Royal Fuel Smoke Shop have asked for another postponement until August. There has been two postponements thus far and suggested the Board set a deadline for the hearing. Ian Murray made a motion if Royal Fuel is not in attendance at the BOH meeting on Thursday, August 8, 2024 the Board will vote on the outcome of the hearing at that time. Motion was 2nd by Dr. Bogdasarian, all were in favor. Motion carried. Michael and Mary O’Farrell – 62 Old Deerfield Road Director Curry stated the O’Farrell’s asked for a postponement until September. Greif Paper-100 Newark Way-Odor complaints Dr. Bogdasarian gave a brief summary from the previous meeting. Mr. Michaud is here to give an update on what has been happening since the April 25, 2024 meeting. Director Curry passed out a list of complaints since the April 25th meeting. There has been 35 complaints and most come from the residents at Mt. Laurel Lane, Oak Leaf Rd and Franklin Rd area indicating a strong odor sometimes of sewerage as well as a cardboard odor. Ms. Tousignant asked in the future to see the dates of when the complaints do come in. Director Curry will add them in but hadn’t had a complaint this week. 1 Laura Nickerson, resident at Ward St. stated she did send in a complaint the week of July 3 & 4 because the odor was very prevalent and was keeping them awake in the evening. She also stated she understands the See Click Fix responses are going to Greif Officials and a third party investigator and wants to know who the investigator is and what they are doing about it. She also wants to know what is in the water and what is evaporating and what people are breathing in because it’s not just a bother it’s people’s health that is concerning. Kim Goodwin, resident at Mt. Laurel Ln. stated the odor is present in the entirety of West Fitchburg area. Mr. Goodwin requested a total of complaints about the odor. Director Curry will get that information. Mr. Goodwin stated there was talk about sensors possibly being placed and they have not seen any as of date. Greif Company was going to offer to supply one to Oak Ridge and nothing is happening yet. Director Curry stated he did research the DEP grant and they would supply the equipment however they said it's not going to be effective with odors. It measures particulates and it really doesn’t accomplish the goals we are seeking. Greif has also offered to buy the BOH a H2S sensor however to spend $10,000 on them but there are still questions whether this will accomplish the goals we are seeking. Ken Dupont stated while he is not familiar with the treatment side and the odor issue but his crew has gone up into West Fitchburg and cleaned the sewer system just as a precautionary measure and they do have combination manholes in West Fitchburg that do have the potential to cause odor but nothing powerful or disgusting, but that being said those have been there since about 1913. Mr. Murray asked if the holding tanks are being drained more regularly now. Mr. Dupont stated they're being drained at the same rate but they're being cleaned out so there's no remaining residual solids there. Director Curry asked if redirecting the sewage from the plant to the East plant rather than the West plant will help with this matter. Mr. Dupont stated it would take the plant out of the equation whereas there wouldn't be anything in the open air where there's possibility of steam rising up and getting that odor. Laura Nickerson asked if there could be an assigned point person from the Wastewater Treatment Plant that residents can get status reports on what's happening. Mr. Michaud stated as promised he is providing an update on what has been going on with the project in the past several months to reduce the potential to generate odors. Mr. Michaud said they are working on that project right now and supposed to finish up the middle of October. They offered to purchase H2S sensors that are used in the process to the Board of 2 Health Inspectors which they have done so and still prepared to if they would like to have them as well and provided all the information the cost make and model to purchase them. Mr. Michaud stated they have tried different strategies to improve the operation so there would be less potential to generate odors. Greif Officials have also visited the places of complaints and visits these areas on the way into the mill. Greif also plans to contract with a third party independent person to come out when there's a complaint and do an adjective assessment. Greif has purchased a weather station so they have wind direction, temperature and humidity all of that that can be compared to the location of the complaint and that person who will come in fresh from the outside, not from the Mill with a fresh nose that can take that objective assessment. Mr. Michaud stated that the Health Dept. has resolved the technical issues with See Click Fix so now the complaints can be generated to the third party automatically when a complaint is received by the city via See Click Fix. Mr. Michaud stated they have brought in experts into the process to measure and conduct odor panels to see what might be an underlying odor generation. They have changed the treatment of chemistry that is done at the Mill by 80% to measure volatile fatty acids which are indicators of odors commonly known as butyric acid. Mr. Michaud stated there are surrounding odors in the area that are not only from the Mill but the Mill has an odor and the main project is to reduce the potential to generate odors and that project is underway and scheduled to finish up mid-October. Epsilon Associates is the third party Environmental firm that will go out in the evening to see if they can pick up on the odors in the Mt. Laurel and Oak Ridge areas. Another company called TRC will perform an odor assessment panel to measure around the area as well to see what they can pick up for odors. Greif is spending over $500,000 dollars to rehabilitate and improve those sequencing batch reactors. Mr. Murray stated a concern of the residents is what the components are of what they’re smelling. They are worried about mutagens and carcinogens. Is there any way of alleviating that? Mr. Michaud stated they are a highly regulated industry and measured on air, water and all of the chemicals they use in their process and all of that has to be reported. With that being said anaerobic digestion can cause hydrogen sulfide and hydrogen sulfide in high concentrations can be very dangerous and can kill you. They measure over the process is an indicator of the health of the water treatment, predominantly the odor of wet cardboard would be the smell of wood fibers and the resins that make up paper that came with the tree those things decomposing will cause an odor. 3 Ms. Nickerson stated it’s a possibility that Greif is not responsible for all of this and asked if there is a time where they can turn off the machines and shut down for a week and see if the odor appears, if it appears then it may not be solely the Greif Company. Mr. Michaud stated that they did shut down in March of 2023 and got several complaints during that time we weren't producing. The mill still had an odor and does smells like a paper mill odor of paper of wet cardboard. There has been several complaints of that since the water system was modified. Dr. Bogdasarian asked how many years ago did the offensive odors start. Mr. Michaud stated the Mills had an odor control plan since the early 2000’s and predominantly would only have complaints if there was an upset with it. Mr. Goodwin stated the residents have noticed it since 2021-2022. Mr. Michaud stated Greif changed the water system to improve the solids to the city however at that time it didn’t improve the solids and didn’t improve the biological oxygen demand. After a year they wanted to go back to the old system but the city was opposed to it as was the Waste Water Treatment Plant but now has enough data after the years to prove that it was a benefit. This is currently underway and hoping to be finished by October. A lengthy discussion ensued the members of the Board of Health asked numerous questions to Mr. Michaud and Mr. Dupont. Discussion took place regarding how residents can communicate with Greif and Wastewater to give weekly updates and follow up with the issues. Dr. Bogdasarian stated this would be revisited at the August 8, 2024 meeting. Meeting Minutes Approval – April 25, 2024 Mr. Murray made a motion to table the April 25, 2024 minutes. Motion was 2nd by Dr. Bogdasarian. All were in favor, motion carried. Mr. Murray made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Motion was 2nd by Ms. Tousignant. All were in favor, motion carried. Meeting Adjourned at 6:35pm. 4