Water Resources Board

MINUTES MURFREESBORO WATER RESOURCES BOARD February 27, 2024 ______________________________________________________________________________ The Murfreesboro Water Resources Board met on Tuesday, February 27, 2024, in the conference room of the Operations and Maintenance Building, 1725 South Church Street. Present at the meeting were Board members: Mr. Ron Crabtree, Mr. Brian Kidd, Mr. Warren Russell, Mr. John Sant Amour, Ms. Madelyn Scales-Harris, Ms. Sandra Trail, and Mr. Kirt Wade. Also present were Darren Gore, Valerie Smith, Michele Pinkston, Doug Swann, Alan Cranford, Donald Hughes, Adam Todd, Jennifer Tag, Joe Russell, Josh Upham, Travis Wilson, and Brent Fowler, along with other members of the public. The Consent Agenda was presented to the Board for approval: A. Consider Salem Barfield Sewer Upgrades contingency allocations B. Consider MWRD/CUD boundary revision C. Consider WRRF biosolids dryer MTE service agreement & easement Sandra Trail made a motion to accept the Consent Agenda as presented and it was seconded by Warren Russell. The motion carried unanimously. The January 23, 2024 Board Minutes were accepted as presented. The Board considered MWRD Admin building renovations contingency allocations. Structural modifications are needed to correct existing building conditions, and to support renovations in Customer Service and in the Engineering file room. During the renovations of the Customer Service area, load bearing walls were removed with no provisions for structural support in the construction plans. There were also two additional areas that needed support. One was uncovered in the Lobby area, which was not supported correctly, and the other is under the proposed Engineering file room on the second floor. Change Control Form (CCF) No. 1 is comprised of these structural changes. There are other changes forthcoming, both miscellaneous and substantial. There is also going to be a request for a time extension due to delays in the structural modification. The substantial changes are related to plumbing fixtures which were designated to be removed, however, replacement fixtures were not specified as well as painting the trim, crown molding, wainscot, etc. with an oil-based paint. The estimated cost of these two changes and the time extension will be brought for approval at the next Board meeting as a change order to the contract price to allow the remaining ~$50,000 in contingencies to be utilized for the miscellaneous and minor changes. The submitted change control log identifies the change request, through a CCF, and tracks the allowance allocations issued through field work change directives. This work change directive does not Page 23 Water Resources Board Minutes February 27, 2024 Page 2 change the contract price. The final contract will be adjusted accordingly in a future change order or the final balancing change order at the end of the project if necessary. The following table was provided to update the Board on the current field work change directives and the remaining contingency allowances: Prior Current Remaining Contingency Contingency Contingency Contingency Project Allowance Allocations Allocations Allowance MWRD Admin $100,000 $0.00* $49,992.71** $50,007.29 *CCF #’s (Prior) **CCF #’s 1 (Current) Staff recommends the referenced contingency allocation be authorized. $49,992.71 allotted to cover the increase expense from the contingency allowance with no change in the total contract amount of $2,084,256. Brian Kidd made a motion to approve. Sandra Trail seconded. The motion unanimously passed. The Board considered SSR Engineering Task Order 2341040.0, SRWTP Distribution Isolation Valves Replacement. During the high service pump and membrane feed pump project staff was unable to isolate the existing 24” and 36” valves leaving the water treatment plant. Staff was required to isolate the distribution lines at Compton Road and Sam Jared Drive thereby rendering customers out of water during the outage periods. These two valves are critical to allow isolation of the 24”, or 36” lines together or separately and keep the water treatment plant in operation. When both fail to operate, there is no way to isolate one distribution line and keep the plant operating. A line break on one would render the plant inoperable. Staff has worked with John Bouchard & Sons (JBS) on the water and wastewater mechanical and electrical contract to make the repairs. It has been determined that due to the complexity of the project it is outside the scope of JBS. JBS and staff did have discussions with a couple of contractors that confirmed that this project would be complex to keep the plant in operation and not negatively impact the supply of drinking water to the city. Staff then contacted SSR to look at the project. SSR was able to look at the areas excavated by JBS prior to JBS closing out their project. This task order covers the engineering basic services necessary to remove and replace the existing 24” and the 36” manually operated butterfly valve and place new valve into an accessible underground vault. Currently, staff is not able to completely isolate the SRWTP from the rest of the distribution system due to the two distribution line isolation valves immediately downstream of the High Service Pump Station being able to be closed. The replacement of these two valves will allow staff to isolate either of the two main distribution lines, and the HSPS to allow for future maintenance and repairs as necessary. Page 24 Water Resources Board Minutes February 27, 2024 Page 3 The new valve vault will allow staff to access the valves and make repairs without having to excavate. This will save money in the future if there are any problems and allow for better maintenance on the gear boxes. The cost is $65,450 and funding will come from rate-funded capital reserves. Staff requests the Board to recommend the City Council approve the SSR Engineering Task Order. Sandra Trail made a motion to approve. Warren Russell seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Board considered the construction of an additional sewer forcemain to the City’s Butler Drive Realignment Project. The Butler Drive Realignment is a project executed by the City to improve traffic circulation in the area of the Butler Drive & Joe B Jackson Parkway intersection immediately off of the I-24 Interchange. The new Buc-ee’s and other developments moving forward in this area expedited the City taking bids and starting construction of this project. Bids were received October 10, 2023 and Council awarded the project to Moody Excavating at the December 7, 2023 meeting. A notice to proceed for the project was issued January 22, 2024. During the time of the design, the Department was under contract with Griggs & Maloney to create a sewer master plan for this area as it does not have sewer service. During discussions of the sewer master plan, staff felt it best to serve the future developments in the area with individual pumps that manifolded into a common force main along the new Butler Drive. With expected developments to be low flow dischargers, allowing them to properly size their own pumps and tie into a common forcemain was seen as the most economical way to service future developments. Staff designed a 6” sewer forcemain along the western side of the roadway and requested pricing from the road contractor, Moody Excavating, to install the piping in conjunction with the roadway improvements. The contractor provided a cost for this installation of $284,032. If the Board wishes to recoup this cost, an approximate assessment fee would be $3,000/acre in addition to the standard connection fee of $2550 per single family unit. The fee to be confirmed. Staff requests approval for funding the sewer forcemain extension to serve the area. The construction is proposed to be funded from Working Capital Reserves with recoupment through an assessment district if the Board so chooses. Brian Kidd made a motion to approve the sewer forcemain extension. Sandra Trail seconded. The motion unanimously passed. Staff presented the Board proposed Stormwater Ordinance revisions. New State rules and Stormwater permit requires the City to update the Stormwater Chapter of the City Code. Staff will present the draft at a City Council workshop in March followed by two stakeholder Page 25 Water Resources Board Minutes February 27, 2024 Page 4 meetings in April. The intent is to bring a proposed final to this Board before the July Council hearings for an August implementation. Staff reworked several sections of the Stormwater Chapter including these that are most significant: 1. Stream Buffers (WQPA): TDEC requires a 30-foot buffer on good quality streams and a 60- foot buffer on impaired or exceptional streams. Staff proposes to adopt TDEC’s 60-foot buffer width on impaired or exceptional streams while keeping existing buffer widths of 35 and 50 feet (depending on stream size). Additionally, TDEC allows averaging in the new permit. However, staff did not include this option in the draft. Currently, mowing is allowed in the outer 15 feet of the buffer. Instead, we propose one continuous zone of naturally growing vegetation. We believe these measures will ensure the integrity of stream buffers. Lastly, to assist with floodplain management, staff proposes to extend the buffer to 25 feet outside the mapped floodway where applicable. 2. Land Development: Presently, City Code regulates the quantity and rate of runoff leaving a development after completion. This is in addition to TDEC permit runoff quality requirements. These requirements are common in other cities and are important for preventing streambank erosion and drainage concerns. Currently, developments must limit peak discharge for 2-year (3.7 inches) and 10-year storms (5.2 inches). Our proposal is to regulate discharge from 2-year through 100-years storms (6.8 inches). Additionally, we propose reducing the size of projects that require stormwater controls from additions of 10,000 square feet of impervious surfaces to 10,000 square feet of disturbance. This will result in stormwater controls being required on smaller projects. 3. Other Changes: An option was provided to staff to require a 25-foot buffer on hydrologically significant waters and around karst windows. These features exist on a relatively small number of development projects. For stormwater control measure design, several updates were incorporated in the draft to better align with the TDEC permit. Staff presented Customer Service and credit card trends. With the adoption of the 2012 IT Strategic Plan, the Department embarked on an ambitious plan to improve various Customer Service systems, including our billing system (CIS.Infinity), online access (Infinity.Link), account access via telephone (Interactive Voice Response – IVR) and mobile service order system (CIS.Mobile). The following are key benefits achieved through implementation of the systems: x 57% decrease in over-the-counter payments by customers x 70+% decrease in payments via mail and night deposit x 80% of 2023 calls, just over 80% (up from 70% in 2018) were handled via the IVR and did not initially require Customer Service Clerk interaction Page 26 Water Resources Board Minutes February 27, 2024 Page 5 x 114,239 payments totaling $12.8m in credit card and e-check payments were processed in 2023 x Credit card and e-check payments increased by 7.8% from 2022 to 2023 x Average credit card/e-check transaction in 2023 was $112.14 x 94% of credit card/e-check payments were made online or via IVR x Customer office visits are down over 60% on average from March 2013 to December 2023 x With the onset of COVID in 2020, MWRD put our most frequently used forms (new service, payment extension) online. At the end of 2023, online forms now account for over 2/3 of our customer interactions. This has improved efficiencies as online forms can be handled in a better workflow. Staff presented the Board with the sewer allocation variance exemption report and analysis. The report was requested by City Council in support of a possible ordinance revision to carve out exemptions to sewer allocation variance requests for certain food service and commercial establishments. Council expressed an interest to modify the ordinance to allow certain restaurants or other commercial establishments sewer allocation variances without coming to the Council for approval that met the following criteria: 1) The development was a business that generates employment, 2) The property of the proposed development was taxed at the City’s commercial rate, and 3) The development was a business that generates sales taxes. City Council stated the goal was to expedite developments progress by removing a requirement that has historically always been approved. Council communication has been prepared for the March Council workshop to communicate the analysis of sewer allocation variances to date and a potential revision to the ordinance. It is recommended that an exemption be made for variance requests that meet the above criteria for the development of less than three acres and less than five single-family units per acre. Staff presented the Water Resources Dashboard Performance for January 2024. Staff presented the Financial Reports for seven months ending January 31, 2024. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned. _____________________________ John Sant Amour, Chairman Page 27