Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes February 14th, 2018 J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA 01420 A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday February 14, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Water Treatment Facility Building 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 4:34 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey Mike Mclaughlin George Siener Others present: John M. Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Mayor Stephen DiNatale A.J. Tourigny, Chief of Staff to Mayor DiNatale Carl Luck, Vice Chairman Lunenburg Sewer Commission Mike Schrader, Engineer Tighe & Bond Samantha Squailia., Councilor at Large Janet Morrison., Land Conservation Consultant William Shoemaker, Constituent Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Members absent: None Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from January 10, 2018 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Janet Morrison, land conservation consultant gave the Commission updates on the projects currently in our Northern/Southern watersheds. Motion was also made to approve conservation of the following properties: Wright property, 13.3 acres in Westminster with a probable fee sale, the Nakrosis property, 56 acres in Westminster to be a conservation restriction, the Bomba property, 40 acres in Princeton to be a conservation restriction. Motion to approve conservation restrictions were granted by unanimous vote.  Regarding our MA DEP ACO, the state had given us a list of tasks to be completed by certain deadlines. All deadlines have been met so far, with additional deadlines the end of this July and also a few deadlines next year that have to do with our cross-connection, backflow program.  John next gave an update on the Oak Hill Storage Tank. We had a leak in that, and have had all the cracks repaired that we could see, pressure washed everything, filled it back up a few weeks ago and found that it is still leaking. The leak when first started was losing 8 gal a minute, and the last week or two it’s been leaking approx. 3-4 gal a minute. The problem is the tank itself, it is old and outdated and will need to be replaced at some point. We do need to do some work at the top of the tank and replace the vent because it does not meet current standards. DEP’s main concern is not that we are losing water. Their main concern is bacterial contamination have other leaks in the system that we are not aware of, their main concern is bacterial contamination if something were to get back in the system.  Our facility here on Rindge Rd, and also our treatment facility in Westminster have recently undergone new lighting and energy efficient improvements. All lighting has been replaced with LED lighting including our outdoor lights. They are also motion sensitive.  I have contacted MA DEP about the Gap Funding Grant and am waiting to hear back from them regarding the in-line turbine up on narrows rd. at our pressure reducing station. I have heard that we were probably going to get it and that the clean energy center said ok to all of their parts. This will be a huge plus to get this grant, not only will the turbine generate electricity, but this grant would basically pay for all of it. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff started off by updating the Commission on the SSU project. The project is moving along and is approximately 43% completed. Completion of the project in full will be sometime in October of 2019.  City Code Chapter 147 & “Rules and Regulations” is still ongoing. Arcadis the city’s on-call Engineering Services is helping with this task.  The Commission was also updated on a new “Past-Due” sewer service billing. Notification correspondence was sent to the homeowner of New West Townsend Road. It seems the address of 5 New West Townsend Rd, which is located in Lunenburg, has been tied into our sewer service since the property was built, and we were not aware of this nor was the customer being billed for service. The correspondence was sent using the updated City Solicitor Legal Review & Interpretation dated March 22, 2017.   Wastewater Management Plan is also still ongoing. This is a remedial measure having 3 phases with the first being submission, followed by two subsequent updates with a deliverable date of July 1, 2018.  The Mass Dept. of Labor Standards completed a safety audit last August at the East plant. We have completed all of the items on the list that was given to us for correction except for one. We are working with Weston and Sampson to fix the final lock out tag out program. This is a very involved process, so we have requested and received a time extension to complete this work.  Mike Schrader, Project manager from Tighe & Bond gave another more detailed presentation on the City of Fitchburg’s Wastewater Rate Evaluation. The presentation provided a basic overview of rate study basics, analysis, recommendations and the financial capabilities analysis. Motion was raised for the commission to approve to adjust sewer billing rates as presented, and indicate their preferred rate change alternative. Motion to approve rate change as a managed monthly increase (alternative A) was granted by unanimous vote. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 4:30 pm on March 14, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg, MA 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:36 P.M.