Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes July 11th, 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 July 11, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:02 pm Members present: Lenny Laakso, Commissioner DPW Rick Healey, Chairman George Siener, Commission Member Joshua Bedarian Commission Member Mike McLaughlin, Commission Member Others present: John M. Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert Principal Clerk Water Office Stephen Bodurtha, potential Commission Member Members absent: None Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from June 13, 2018 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  John started meeting off by updating the Commission on the Water Main Project. M.E. Smith the contractor has small section left on Jerry St, and they are excavating this week on Congress Place. Once those areas are finished, we will have a small list of punch list items to finish up like, cleanup, residents yards, driveways, etc..  Regarding the water meter upgrade project, the RFP’s went out and we have received 3 bids. Bids came in from the top suppliers, Badger Meter, Neptune and Census. Meeting scheduled for next week to evaluate proposals and select the Company and Supplier.  The Commission was also updated on two recent water main breaks that we have been dealing with. The first break on Water St. happened on July 2, 2018 and was fairly significant. We haven’t had a break like this one in a long while. The pipe that let go was a 12” main. We lost a tremendous amount of water that affected a wide range of the city, leaving people with dirty water for up to 2 days. We will be looking at that part of the pipe next year, because it does have a break history. It’s relatively thin cast-iron and we have seen a lot of corrosion, maybe because of soils, or gas mains in the area. Our second break was on River St., the new section. This break happened on Sunday night July 8th and continued into Monday morning. This particular section of main did not have a break history. The River St. project was a Mass Works Grant that would revitalize the street to make it look pretty, and the water mains were not part of the grant money. We did as much as we could budget wise. The pipes come in 13ft lengths, the break blew out almost the whole length of the pipe. The biggest problem with this break is the pavement is new and sealed pretty tight. With that said, the pavement not having many cracks, the water had no place to release out. It had to travel 50 to 60 ft. & cross the road before it seeped out, which made the pavement buckle. This will not be an easy repair, as we may have to excavate. We will do our best to make sure that when everything is said and done the fix will be smooth. The color of the asphalt will be the only difference, as the repair will be made with new tar/asphalt.  Meeting scheduled with Mike Ciotta, former City Solicitor to talk about issues with Wyman Pond in Westminster, Ma. The belief is that The City of Fitchburg owns the pond outright as a secondary reservoir. We pay taxes to the Town of Westminster on this property. The Conservation agent for the Wyman Lake Association wants to treat the pond with chemicals. After speaking with The Mayor and Lenny and Vinnie, we have told them not to treat the water as of this time. The Deed shows that Wymans Pond, Meetinghouse and Wachusett were all on the same purchase. We need to look much further into this to find out who is actually responsible for what and where any liability would lie.  The Land Conservation Projects are coming to an end. We are finishing up with the 5 remaining parcels which will be closing the end of August. One is a land purchase and the other four are Conservation Restrictions. The parcels are all within our watersheds from Mare Meadow to Bickford Reservoirs, which are our most important Reservoirs. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff updated the Commission on the SSU (Secondary Systems Upgrade) Project. The project is 61% to Substantial completion and 52% to Final Completion. We are also 66% of the Contract Price (though the end of June 2018). For work completed over the last month and planned work for the next month I have included an attachment along with the Agenda.   Draft revisions have been received regarding City Code Chapter 147 & “Rules and Regulations” and we have provided feedback to our consultants Arcadis. Once our summer recess is over, we will also be engaging with other city departments to see how all these things work together.  Weston and Sampson our On-Call Engineers, who displaced Wright Pierce have been working on our WWMP (Consent Decree). There are three submission deadlines to comply by, the first one of which was due by July 1, 2018. Due to delays and feedback that we were getting from both Mass DEP and EPA on the hydraulic model, we had submitted a time extension request and they have not responded back to us as of yet.  Tighe & Bond is working on our CWMP (Comprehensive Wastewater Management Plan) which is really a tool on how we are looking ahead on a planning period to service both Fitchburg and who Fitchburg serves. We have IMA’s with both Westminster and Lunenburg. They have been dependent on the BOH for information/records regarding existing septic systems within the city. We are hoping to receive this info within a weeks’ time.  Wright Pierce, has submitted final document on our Local Limits study for review by us. Once we review and approve, it will then get submitted to EPA for their review and approval. Local Limits has to do with pollutant loading to the east plant and allocating it out to our Industrial users.  Green Infrastructure was next topic for discussion. Jeff let the Commission know about opportunities and initiatives he and his department are working on. MOC has made us aware of a green infrastructure grant program, Mike Mclaughlin made us aware of a monetary donation that was made to the city years ago. The donation specifically requires the monies to be used for updates to Putts Pond. We will partner whenever we can and support any green infrastructure projects within the city.  Tighe & Bond provided us with a draft final technical report on the Sewer Rate Study. I have provided feedback, and they will give us a final revise submission report. Once that becomes available I will be sure to get copies to all the Commission Members. Lunenburg and Westminster are interested in this report also. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on Wednesday September 12, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:04 P.M.