Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes December 12th, 2019 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 12th, 2019 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd, Fitchburg MA, 01420. The meeting commenced at 5:12 pm Members present: Rick Healey, Chairman Nicolas Bosonetto, Commissioner of Public Works Steven Bodurtha, Commission Member Michael McLaughlin, Commission Member Others present: John M. Deline., Deputy Commissioner of Water Jeff Murawski., Deputy Commissioner of Wastewater Jennifer Lambert, Head Clerk Water Division Janet Morrison, Land Consultant Absentees: Joshua Bedarian, Commission Member George Seiner, Commission Member Item #1 Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from October 9th, 2019 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division:  Janet Morrison our Land Consultant updated the Commission on the Jewell Hill/Crocker Farm Land Preservation Project. Crocker Farm is comprised of over 500 acres within a landscape of historic farms and conserved watershed land. Its most prominent features are Jewell Hill, whose summit affords a view of the Boston skyline, over 120 acres of agricultural fields and scenic views in all directions. Motion was made to approve the DWSP (drinking water supply protection) Grant, and was granted unanimously.  The Commission was also updated on the progress of the meter upgrade project. Approx. 1400 meters already installed. Baystate now has a 5 man crew working 6 days a week. They each are installing about 10 meters a day, and have approx. 1200 more scheduled. By mid-January we should have about 2500 meters installed. We have had a few problems with old services that are iron pipe, some we can shut at street, and others we cannot so we will deal with them in the spring.  Sanitary Survey from MA DEP-update: Draft copy of the results received. Nothing to be majorly concerned about. It was mostly comprised of additional paperwork that MA DEP is now requiring. Example being daily logs sent in, rather than monthly.  ACO-update: Deadline for the Bickford and Mare Meadow pump station roof projects were to be completed by the end of 2019. MA DEP was notified that we would not have these done. Letter to go out to MA DEP requesting extension. There was some issues with purchasing regarding the bidding process, and we will need to go out to bid again. Item #4 Wastewater Division:  Sewer Ordinance, and Sewer Use Rules & Regulations was passed and signed by the Mayor in May of 2019. There are at least 13 locations where it makes reference to “rules & regs”, but the “rules & regs” don’t exist. We will continue working on so the two documents go hand in hand.  SSU Project- SSU Project- the SSU project is 100% to substantial completion, 92% to final completion and 98.5% of the contract price through the end of November 2019. For work completed over the last month or planned work for the month ahead please see attachment.  Next Combined Sewer Separation Project: Weston and Sampson provided preliminary design report. Storm drainage is substandard, and will be an additional $750,000 roughly. Separation of storm water cannot be paid by rate payers because “storm drainage” is not part of the enterprise fund. We will be meeting with Weston and Sampson to talk about this in further detail.  SSES, Phase 4-Interceptor Sewer Evaluation: Vendors doing CCTC inspections, work is continuing. Weston and Sampson is putting together a sewer evaluation report.  Combination Manhole Separation Project: Weston and Sampson are also working on a design project for combination manhole separation. This will allow us to separate approx. 150 combination manholes. This will have to be done in a phased approach.  Siphon Cleaning Design & Bid, and Inspection Services Project: This project has been previously budgeted and will go out to bid over the winter.  Miscellaneous updates: Industrial Pre-treatment Program Permittees briefing meeting was held on November 13th regarding Local Limits. EPA will be “public noticing” the local limits in the Federal Register, which will open a public comment period on local limits. Once finalized after the public comments, the new local limits will have to be incorporated into ordinance (City Codes).   Coordinated presentations by David Vallee, NOAA/NWS Hydrologist-in-charge out of the Northeast River Forecast Center, for presentation to the FPS 8th Students. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm. on January 8, 2020 at the J.A. Provencial Building, 1200 Rindge Rd. Fitchburg MA, 01420. Meeting adjourned at 6:24 P.M.