Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes December 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 December 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 Janet Morrison, Land Consultant Members absent: Steven Bodurtha, Commission Member Item #1 Approval of last meetings minutes: Motion to approve minutes from November 14, 2018 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Jane Morrison started meeting off by updating the Commission on our latest land acquisition. Said land is approx. 60 acres in Hubbardston MA near our watershed. This land is a donation from the Dimmick Family Trust. Cost to the city would be minimal, as a title search will need to be done, a baseline documentation report, closing costs, and attorney fees. Motion to approve spending approx. $11,000 for the acquisition of said land was granted by unanimous vote.  John informed the Commission that at the end of November he sent over a revised schedule to MA DEP on the remaining items to be fixed per our Consent Order. One major item is our Oak Hill Tank, which either needs to be upgraded or replaced altogether. I have asked if this item can wait until FY20 as we are in the process of upgrading our meter program and will not be able to fit all projects in. We are waiting to hear back from MA DEP.  Operational issues continue to be a challenge here at the Falulah treatment plant. Our color numbers are down from the mid-sixties to the thirties. Numbers are still high, but better than they were. This plant runs between 1-2 mil gallons a day when it was designed to run approx. 6 mil gallons a day.  The Commission was updated on the quarterly results of disinfection byproducts. Organic carbons that are already found in the water react with chlorine which then creates disinfection byproducts. The limit for these byproducts are 80 parts per billion. All of our test sites were below the limits with one at 74 parts per billion.  Regarding the Meter Upgrade Project, John informed the Commission that we are close to awarding the bid. We are finalizing suppliers and numbers with the help from Purchasing. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Jeff informed the Commission of an audit that was conducted at the East Plant by MA DEP December 4th through 6th. This audit was basically an overall view of how we’ve been progressing with the USEPA’s Clean Water Act, Consent Decree and the NPDES Permit. At the end of the three days, we had an exit interview which basically just recapped their observations, and comments and recommendations.  Regarding City Code Chapter 147 & Rules and Regulations, Jeff informed us that the City Solicitor has been briefed on the proposed ordinance change. Legal is reviewing it in more depth, and will put a petition together and approach City Council on the proposed change.  Update was also given from Jeff on the CWMP. Tighe & Bond have already checked in with MA DEP regarding the status of their review on the Phase 1 draft report. MA DEP reached out to Tighe & Bond on Nov 27th and verbally communicated their comments on the Phase 1 draft report. Tighe & Bond will incorporate those comments into a finalized Phase 1 Report by Dec 31st and also provide the city with a draft of the Phase 2 report. Regarding the WWMP, Weston & Sampson began review of EPA agenda, including items related to the collection system and preparing for the EPA meeting. They have also continued analyzing the City’s modeling files and requested model output files.  Lastly Jeff gave quick updates on the Construction projects. The SSU project is 68% to substantial completion, 64% to final completion and 81% of the contract price through the end of November. For work completed over the last month or planned work for the month ahead, see attachment. The next Combined Sewer Separation Project is under way. We continued reviewing CCTV videos, conducted light cleaning and CCTV of sewers that are unable to be  televised by city forces. We have also conducted smoke testing, prepared the building inspection kick-off packet for city review, requested gas improvement GIS layer from Unitil, and began conducting dye testing/flooding on potential inflow sources identified during smoke testing. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on Wednesday January 9, 2019 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:03 P.M.