Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES March 8, 2017 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday March 8, 2017 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:31 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healy George Siener Mike McLaughlin Others present: John Deline Jr., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski, Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: Joshua Champagne Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from last month’s February 15th, 2017 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: Mr. Hector Aldrich, owner of 111 Highview St. Fitchburg, spoke to the Commission regarding the issue of a sewer charge that went unbilled in excess of 3 yrs. The City sent notification in September of 2016 to the Aldrich’s notifying them of the charge for past services and that going forward a new sewer only account would be created with a flat fee of $60.83. Mr. Aldrich asked the Commission if they could waive all interest and penalties, and also set up a payment plan. Jeff informed Mr. Aldrich that he would have to speak to the Treasurer and Collector and see if it is legally possible to waive interest and penalties and to forego the lien process come December of 2017 if balance of the unbilled sewer charge is not paid. Item #3 Water Division:  John first updated the Commission on the situation regarding the state of the drought. Prior to the meeting John sent a link via e-mail to all Commission Members. The link sent takes you to the United States Drought Monitor, which specifically zeros in on Massachusetts and its status. As of this time the state of Mass is in a drought watch, and the City of Fitchburg is still considered to be in severe drought status. Link below; http://droughtmonitor.unl.edu/Home/StateDroughtMonitor.aspx?MA Restrictions are still in place for non-essential water use and have been since last spring.  The 2017 Water Main Project will be getting underway come the new fiscal year. Weston & Sampson will be guiding us. They are in the design aspect of the project. Looks to be like around 12,000 feet of new pipe. We have a list of streets where water quality is not good, also where bleeders are. Those streets will be taken care of first.  John talked about the Mass DEP Sanitary Survey that was done last summer. We received the outcome of the survey and a list of items that they consider are issues now or could potentially become an issue. We are taking care of the ones we can, but if items are not taking care of then they will issue a consent order and we will have to sign and work out a schedule to get items fixed.  John sent out the Energy Usage Evaluation Report that National Grid conducted to all Commission Members. Weston & Sampson also took a look at the report and did an evaluation themselves of the Mare Meadow Pump Station. Will schedule a conference call with National Grid sometime next week. Hopefully we can pool all ideas and work together to figure out where money can be saved.  Lastly, John mentioned testing that was conducted at the city’s public schools recently. Different areas of each school were tested for lead and copper. Water bubblers, as well as kitchen sink faucets, bathroom faucets, etc.…were tested. The results were pretty low overall and the school department will be sending out letters from Mass DEP to all parents/guardians explaining the testing and the results. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff first spoke about the FY18 annual budget for wastewater. He sent out a draft version of the budget to all Commission Members for their review, but still has some loose ends to tie up with the City Auditor and Treasurer before presenting it to the Mayor.  Updates on the 3 Capital projects were given to the Commission. First being the SSU project, which got underway in February. We are still in a ramping up kind of stage with drawings still being done and sent to Engineers and contractors mobilizing to site. Beech St. /Hazel St contract was executed late in 2016 and with soil issues we have not started construction. Pre- construction meeting to be held on March 10th, 2017. CMH Separation Project that started last year will be resuming this month. With the cure in place lining of pipes (CIPP) being done, this ensures a complete separation of both sanitary line and storm drain line, which will prevent sewer backups for residents.   Other updates from Jeff included City Code Chapter 147 “Rules and Regulations” and also developing provisions for City Code/rules and regulations on “Infiltration and Inflow” are still ongoing with City Solicitor Pusateri.  The Westminster/Fitchburg IMA drafting is in progress. Wright-Pierce’s proposal for the CWMP was received. We have transmitted service proposal requests to the City’s on-call Engineers.  Lastly, Jeff updated the Commission on the reports that were sent out to USEPA and MassDEP at the end of February. These reports are semi-annual and are part of the Consent Decree. They essentially provide a status update on remedial measures activities and progress and also sanitary sewer overflows and combination sewer overflows. Item #5 Other Business:  Next Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting scheduled for Wednesday April 12, 2017 at 4:30pm. Meeting adjourned at 5:43 P.M.