Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes September 12th, 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 September 12, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:06 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 Members absent: Stephen Bodurtha, Commission Member Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from July 11, 2018 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  John first spoke and gave an update on the ongoing leak at the Oak Hill Tank. After speaking with DEP and Weston and Sampson, Myself, Lenny, and Nick our Engineer think it would be more cost efficient to replace the whole tank. It’s not something that we want to do but with all of the unknowns of rehabbing it, a new tank will be completely compliant. We are still in talks with DEP to see if we can put off replacing it until 2020. The cost will be approx. 1.2 – 1.5 million dollars.  We have had some ongoing operational issues here at the Falulah treatment plant due to high turbidity/color levels. When color numbers are up in the 30’s it makes it harder to treat because it can cause disinfection bi-products. Due to the heavy rains we received in August, the plant shut down for a couple days. We have not exceeded any levels and have spoken to DEP about this issue. They have indicated that we are not the only city/town water system that is having this problem. The biggest problem is the plant is not using enough water, so there is not a lot of turnover. Where we have made some improvements with the water mains in some areas and shutting bleeders off, there is just not enough flow.  Regarding our NPDES Permits, starting with Regional plant. All backwash goes into lagoons, settles out and then is pumped out and brought to wastewater. When we don’t pump out, there is overflow that goes into the environment so DEP is looking at that and setting limits. At our Falulah plant, some goes directly into the sewer and the rest is pumped out and sent to Wastewater. We have an emergency discharge here because we have to pump up out of the plant. This is in case something goes wrong with some of the pumps, if this happens we have multiple backwashes that will send into the retention basins and then out into the environment. We are still waiting to see what the US EPA is going to require as far as what the limits on those discharges will be.  John next gave an update regarding Wyman Pond. At this point we are not sure if we own it or not. City Solicitor Pusateri has done some research and has found that Wyman Pond is considered a Great Pond by the state of Mass and is defined that all great ponds are owned by the commonwealth, which is all of us. We are being taxed on this by the town of Westminster and they are sorting through all of this as well. This all came about because the lake association wanted to treat the water with chemicals, and we said no, not only for liability purposes but we do not know the ramifications of what those chemicals could do to the environment.  The RFP’s for our water meter upgrade project have all been reviewed. We are in the process of interviewing each candidate and watching their presentations and will hopefully have a Vendor and supplier so we can go out to bid for installation.  Our Watershed Land Preservation Projects are almost complete. We have closed on 4 of the 5 we have been working on, and the last property we received an extension on the monies because of a hiccup with the land owner. The owner’s wife had passed away and there were some items that still needed to be tied up with probate.  Lastly, John updated the Commission on the installation of GPS in all of our vehicles. All have been done except for two which will be done by the end of this week. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff gave a quick update regarding the SSU Project. The project is currently 69% to substantial completion with a substantial completion date of May 2019. The project is 58% to final completion with a final completion date of October of 2019. The project is also 72% of the  contract price (thru the end of August of 2018). For work completed over the last month, or work planned for the upcoming month, please (see attachment).  Jeff next talked about the Combined Sewer Separation Project CSO 039, 048 and Clarendon Street, which was built into the sewer rate study for funding. Notice to proceed was issued to Weston and Sampson.  Regarding our Status update items, Jeff informed the Commission that we will be providing our feedback to Arcadis on the draft ordinances on “rules and regs” and will have small group meetings with city councilors and the commission along with the Mayor on what we propose to do. I plan to have Arcadis along at next Commission Meeting so we can have an open discussion. Our WWMP is also moving forward, we have completed our hydraulic model on the sewer system and have submitted our hydraulic capacity assessment report. Tighe and Bond is back on track with our CWMP after stalling out and finally getting septic records. This is basically planning ahead 20yrs and figuring out what our sewer needs will be, including Lunenburg and Westminster. We have also submitted our final report on our Local Limits Study to EPA. Once EPA approves Local Limits we will roll this information into the ordinance.  Lastly, Jeff spoke about Green Infrastructure. This basically looks at all prospects at which rain water can be diverted. We have worked with WPI, and are currently speaking with the school department (STEM) and also FSU. Looking to set up a kickoff meeting to discuss these potential ideas and work together as a community for funding of these projects. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on Wednesday October 10, 2018 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:12 P.M.  WORK COMPLETED OVER LAST MONTH INCLUDED: • 1st Stage Primary Gallery o Completed pump seal water stations and piping installation. o Installed HVAC ATC control panel, conduit etc. • 2nd Stage Primary Gallery o Replaced existing 16 inch tank drain gate valves and associated piping to tanks 2SAT-1 and 2SSC- 1. o Replaced Flanged DI RAS and WAS piping in gallery under change order. o Installed new PVC sump discharge piping from Easterly duplex sump. o Installed new DI SE piping in gallery for aeration tank foam spray header. o Installing electrical conduit and junction boxes and installed new SCADA control panel. o Cut Chlorine Bldg. over to permanent power from SWBD no. 8. • 2nd Stage Secondary Clarifier #1: o Cementitious coating and epoxy coating applications completed this week. o WIC began sludge collector mechanism and FRP weir/baffle installation this week. • 2nd Stage Aeration Tank, Side 1: o RJ Forbes/Dandis completed tank coating systems. o WIC completed Invent Mixer installation (Shaft length at Selector zone B to be corrected) o WIC completed LPA piping and diffuser installation including Selector Zone C. o WIC completed effluent launder FRP weir and SE foam spray header. o WIC completed installation of the influent gate, DI RAS influent piping and blanking off old influent opening. o WIC completed forming and placing center channel cut off wall. o WIC installing conduit and wire for mixers and instrumentation. Installed Remote I/O panels for both tanks. • New CAT standby power generators: o Automatic transfer switch OIT’s were replaced for BB and 1SPG. All new ATS’s have been repaired and tested as of last week. o Completed handrail and stair installation. • Blower Building: oo EPS successfully tested breaker 13B. WIC installing new conduit to existing 1st Stage Blowers. • Chlorine Building: o Completed electrical panels and transformers and now on permanent power.