Water & Wastewater Commission

FITCHBURG WATER & WASTEWATER COMMISSION MINUTES June 14th, 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 June 14, 2017 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:39 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey 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 Janet Morrison, Land Conservation Consultant Members absent: None Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from last month’s May 10th, 2017 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: No Constituents present, but Mr. Murawski gave an update on Mr. & Mrs. Aldrich of 111 Highview St. Customers continue to make payments by the terms of the repayment agreement. If the customer sustains this method, the agreement will be paid off in fewer than 8 monthly payments. Also discussed, was the policy draft on repayment of past due sewer service charges. The Commission reviewed, and made revision suggestions, regarding the policy draft on repayment of past due sewer service charges, and that Mr. Murawski will incorporate the Commissions feedback into a revised DRAFT policy for final review and approval at the next Commission meeting. Question was raised whether the water division will also follow this policy. Mr. Deline will review policy and give his feedback also. Item #3 Water Division:  Janet Morrison spoke to the Commission about the DWSP grant that the Water Division was awarded on the 4 tracts of land in the Northern Watershed. We have until June 30th of 2018 to finish up the project. Some tracts will be either a conservation restriction or a sale all together. Quabbin to Wachusett reservoir which is the Southern Watershed will be a Forest Legacy project. This gives the city a zero cost on these tracts of land.  Janet also informed the Commission that she is speaking to the Department of Fish & Game to possibly help us deter ATV’s on the Northern Watershed property since there is a Conservation Restriction on the land. Maps would be given to fish and game to let them know where the issues are and also signs with penalties listed if caught trespassing. We want people to enjoy the land but ATV’s are tearing it up. We know we cannot stop it, so we want to try and discourage it. The Commission was in favor of any means necessary to deter and protect the land. She also spoke about watershed mapping. GIS would show various factors regarding watershed tracts like whether or not they have a conservation restriction, what zone they are in, how much acreage, and the value of the property.  John updated the Commission on the potential MassDEP Consent Order regarding our recent Sanitary Survey and the items that need to be addressed. Meeting scheduled for June 29th or June 30th with two representatives from MassDEP, Lenny Laakso and myself.  The 2017 Water Main Upgrade Project bid has been awarded John told the Commission. The lowest bidder was M.E. Smith Inc. A few questions were raised, and after doing our due diligence by checking references we awarded the bid to them. Hoping to start beginning of July  John also gave an update on Hydrant flushing that has been on-going since mid-March. We have finished flushing the low system and have since moved on to the high system. With all of the maintenance done on hydrants last year we have had very little issues with flushing this year so far. The flushing was well received by most constituents, we had very few calls about dirty water. A few customers were in the process of doing laundry and called, so we dropped some iron out off to those customers.  Nelson Mui, our Business Manager has finished the RFP (request for proposal) regarding the Water Meter Upgrade Project. We are hoping to get two consultants who will oversee the whole project within the next week or two.  There was a water leak detected at the river crossing to East WWTP that started out as a pinhole and then developed into a peanut size hole in the main John told the Commission. We discovered that we were losing 200/300 gallons of water per minute. If this hole had been leaking for the entire year then that would account to about 8 or 9% of our unaccounted for water. The city’s unaccounted for water percentage was at 23.6% last year.  John also informed the Commission that we will be starting system wide leak detection services sometime after July 1st. Weston and Sampson will helping with this. Meters are currently sectioned off by routes, once the new meter upgrade happens I would like to section them off by systems. With four pressure zones being metered also we can keep track of unaccounted for water easily. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff started off meeting requesting a motion for the Commission to approve the award of service task assignment to Tighe & Bond for the CWMP. Motion was granted and approved by unanimous vote. The IMA draft is still in progress (pending…CWMP & Hydraulic Model.  The 3 construction projects, SSU, Beech St/Hazel St and the CMHs Separation are all going well and are on schedule Jeff said. Schedules of each project were handed out to the Commission.  Mr. Murawski informed the Commission that he is still working with the City Solicitor regarding the City Code Chapter 147 & Rules and Regulations and also Infiltration and Inflow to develop provisions for City Code/Rules & Regs.  Wastewaters Collection Engineering Services Contract for “On-Call” expired on May 4, 2017. The firm of Weston & Sampson Engineers has been selected for the new contract. Execution contracts are circling for City signatures. Item #5 Other Business:  Next Commission meeting scheduled for July 12, 2017 at 4:30pm at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:13 P.M.