Water & Wastewater Commission

Water/Wastewater Commission Meeting Minutes September 21st, 2022 Legislative Building, City Hall Campus 700 Main St, Fitchburg MA 01420 ______________________________________________________________________________ A meeting for the City of Fitchburg Water/Wastewater Commission was held on Wednesday September 21st, 2022 at the Legislative Building, City Hall Campus, 700 Main St. Fitchburg, MA 01420 The meeting commenced at 5:03 PM Members present: Nicholas Erickson, Commissioner of Public Works & City Engineer George Seiner, Commission Member Michael McLaughlin, Commission Member Mark Piermarini, Commission Member Rick Healey, Chairman Others present: John Deline Jr, Deputy Commissioner Water Division Mark McNamara, Deputy Commissioner Wastewater Division Absent: Stephen Bodurtha, Commission Member Colby O’Brien, Commission Member Item #1 Approval of meeting minutes: Motion to approve minutes from July 20, 2022 meeting was granted by unanimous vote. Item #2 Public Forum: None Item #3 Water Division  DWSP Grant, Kerlinger Property Ashburnham MA – We have been approved to receive the DWS Protection Grant. So this is great news. This will be a conservation restriction on the property. This will give us an additional 50 acres of watershed land that will be protected.   Oak Hill Storage Tank Replacement – This project is being delayed due to material costs and the schedule and worker shortage of the company doing the work. Instead of being finished this winter it looks more likely that work will be completed in June/July of 2023. Engineering work on the new tank will be done as well. Tank will need to be drained completely to do the 3D model of the inside of the tank. Maintenance on some of our other tanks will need to be done as well. They will try and get this part of the project done before the end of the calendar year.  Meetinghouse Gatehouse & Mare Meadow pump Stations, SRF Funding – Primary water supply sources for the regional Water Treatment Plant in Westminster, MA are Bickford Pond, Mare Meadow Reservoir and the Meetinghouse Pond. Meetinghouse gatehouse is on the list that DEP wants us to rehabilitate.  Boulder Dr. Water Main Replacement/Upgrade Project – This project is being funded with ARPA funds. Weston & Sampson is working on the engineering. Looks like this will be going out to bid this winter and will begin next year. Some borings and stuff have been done. The water main is in sections on Boulder Dr. we are looking into how to facilitate not having two mains. This may be tricky work because some buildings are on the high system and some are on the low system. It also may incur other work that will need to be done on Main St. down the road.  Water St. Bridge Projects MA DOT – This project will entail quite a bit of work. Two water mains run under the railroad tracks and will need to be relocated. Bridge abutments are lying right across where our mains are located. We will also be replacing the two mains between the bridges. This will be a tremendous plus for the downtown infrastructure once completed.  Regional Plant, upgrades/NPDES Permit Renewal – Regional plants is now over 20 yrs. old. We do some maintenance work, but cannot keep up. Bigger projects will need to be done, so we are having Weston and Sampson look at this. We will also have to look at our discharge from the backwash on the filters and clarifiers. A new NPDES permit will be coming out so all these aspects of the Regional Plant will need to be looked at. Lots of things need to be upgraded or replaced all together. Example being that we are seeing higher organic carbon in the reservoir water. We will have to start treating this so that it doesn’t create disinfection byproducts. We also have PFAS in the meeting house reservoir. Very low detection, a couple parts per trillion. Being that it has been detected in rain water, there is not a body of water in the State of MA that hasn’t detected some PFAS. If there is something we can do to remove this down the road, we will. EPA may become stricter with the limits. If we are going to do some work in the plant we want be able to add the filters that are needed to remove PFAS altogether. Item #4 Wastewater Division  Staffing update – Two qualified in-house candidates were interviewed for the Plant Superintendent Job. Looks like we will be selecting one of these candidates and offering the position to them. We are just waiting on HR to finish the selection process. We still have numerous vacancies within wastewater division that still need to be filled.  West Plant Repurposing Project – Project is still ongoing. City met yesterday for final evaluation. We will next meet to discuss pricing proposal.  CSO 039, 048 and Clarendon St. Sewer Separation – Completed construction from July 22, 2022 through September 9, 2022 is as follows: Trench Construction on South St., Payson St., William St., Franklin Rd. at Reingold Ave., Franklin Rd. at Fredette St., Clarendon St. at Alden St., Beech St. at Franklin Rd., Pine St. from Rollstone St. to Walton St., and Hazel St. till ongoing. Short Line installation was done on Chester St., Legros St., Spruce St., and Walnut St. Cleaning, Inspection, Testing and Sealing of Sewer Mains and Laterals were done on Henry St, Marion St, Chester St, Legros St, Woodland St, Spruce St, Charles St, Payson St, Main St, Blossom St, Walnut St,  Clarendon St, and Water St. Our Projected Construction Schedule began beginning of this month. This includes trench construction on Hazel St, Milk St, Birch St. Passway, and Drepanos Dr.  CSO 010, 032, 045, 083 Separation/Rehabilitation Project – This project consists of the down town area, and was just voted on by the City for the 30,000,000 Mil loan order. SRF application is being prepared by Weston & Sampson and will be submitted to DEP by October 14, 2022. The City plans to phase this project to complete the CSO 10 area in 2023, with the remaining area CSO 032, 045 and 083 to begin construction in 2024. Once these areas are completed it will drastically improve the treatment plant as this is the area in which we see the most infiltration coming through.  Water/Sewer Rate Study – City is actively gathering information for Weston & Sampson for the rate study.  The City’s Easterly Wastewater Treatment Plant was selected by the USEPA and MADEP for a PFAS in Wastewater Study. This will test the influent and effluent sludge to see what the impact of PFAS is coming into a treatment plant and how it is handled inside the treatment plant. This testing was supposed to start in September, but it is looking more like October and will run for approx. 6 months. Item #5 Other Business:  The Water/Wastewater Commission will next meet at 5:00 pm on Wednesday October 19, 2022 at the Legislative Building, City Hall Campus 700 Main St. Fitchburg, MA. Meeting adjourned at 5:22 pm