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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-07-09-25SJC MEETING JULY 9, 2025 SJC Board members A Robert Cantelmo, City of Ithaca P Rod Howe, Town of Ithaca A Clyde Lederman, City of Ithaca P Rob Rosen, Town of Ithaca P Scott Reynolds, City of Ithaca PZ Ray Burger, Town of Dryden A Dave Warden, City of Ithaca P Jason Leifer, Town of Dryden P Rich DePaolo, Town of Ithaca P = Present, PZ = Present via zoom, E = Excused Staff PZ Wendy Cole, City of Ithaca P Peter Wernsdorfer, Camden Group P Scott Gibson, City of Ithaca P Joe Slater, Town of Ithaca P David O’Shea, Town of Ithaca P Kelly VanRiper, City of Ithaca PZ Ken Scherrieble, Camden Group PZ Jesse Semanchik P Jimmy Jorda, Ithaca Voice P = Present, PZ = Present via zoom, PP = Present via phone, A= Absent Meeting called to order 1:05pm. 1) Agenda Review and Approval of Minutes: Agenda review – Add possibility to bring in grease from out of County Minutes Approved – June 11, 2025, Rod moved Rich second. All in favor. 2) Financials Updates: • Deficiency in Debt Service – Approximately $691,431 not recorded currently • Boiler Project is still open – Wendy has the breakdown • 2025 Financials – there are no questions • 2024 Financials will be updated for August Meeting 3) Operation and Engineering Report – Peter Wernsdorfer. • Regulatory Compliance –. Effluent quality is very high. An RONC was sent in for the settleable solids excursion we discussed at last month’s meeting. • Personnel – Two Operator Trainees will start on 4 August 2025. • Blowers – We have contacted counsel and will report on progress. • Digesters – The Ovivo Mixer is repaired and in good working order and the digesters are back in production • Micro Turbines – Operating normally. Gas quality remains very high. We received the maintenance data form RSP and are creating a work history in OpWorks • ActiFlo (Tertiary Treatment) – The polymer feed system pump is working correctly. • Clarifiers – as described last month, this has become multi-faceted in that it involves primary and final settling trains. We are keeping the following schedule. o Primary Settling Tank 1 (PST 1) repairs are scheduled for the second week of July. This includes the cross-collector drives in addition to the flights, chains, and sprockets. o Final Settling Tank 4 (FST4) cross -collector drive is scheduled for late July. • Facility Improvements – Lab HVAC is completed. • Asset Management – OpWorks is in daily use. Inventory continues often preceded by making ready work and housekeeping. Currently, we are tracking 14 repair (i.e. a fix) or routine (i.e. a tune-up) maintenance work orders. From the time we started using OpWorks, we have completed a combination of 96 work orders, and are tracking 41 preventive maintenance work orders (these are recurring and include a diversity of tasks including lab analyses) • Staff Management – Weekly check-ins continue. Safety Toolbox Talks are distributed weekly Reporting • Regulatory reports were sent as scheduled. Business, Long-Term Development • Capital Planning – Semi-monthly meetings continue. Asst Sup’t will report on the process and recent information Energy Management – attended monthly coaching call. Workshop 5 rescheduled to 15 July • Operations Data – The MOR and Gas Data Tables were forwarded to the Chair. 4) Discussion of Potential allowing Out of County Grease – Peter • Elmira Plant is Shutting down for repairs/improvements (Capital Improvements)– 1 ½ to 2 years • We could charge a premium for out of County Grease above the current fees • Possibly set the limit of 12,000 gallons a day • This would create a great revenue stream for IAWWTF • We can set specific limits as well as the days of the week when we would be willing to receive loads. • We can also state the this is for our current haulers and that we will not accept new hauler application for the purpose of disposing of grease only. 5) Discussions with Casella • Ontario Landfill will be shutting down in about 2 years • Casella will need a long-term solution • Normally they take in 2 tanker loads daily of Leachate • It looks like Casella would be paying for any need at the Facility upgrades, so that we could accept the waste when Ontario does shut down. • The possible upgrades costs could include Engineering and Construction • This would bring in a hefty amount of income. • As well as working into the contract they would truck out our sludge • 6) Discussion of potential 2026 Capital Expenses- Peter, Scott G. • 2 big items that we're thinking of for 2026. 1 One is that all the transfer valves and lead pipes coming out of our digesters need to be replaced. ▪ It's not an easy job in so far as it's not just a nuts-and-bolts replacement. We must drain the digester down. ▪ The digester was last cleaned about 5 years ago, and those digesters need to be maintainedoften. We're going to have to hire a Belt press filter company to come in to remove the solids at that point. In time we can replace all the lead pipes, the link seals and the necessary valving. ▪ We're planning on the cost right now. We don't have cost estimates yet. We've just been talking about this. We were going to replace some of the valves piecemeal, but we figured we would do this whole job at once. 2 We have 5 influent pumps. The wastewater comes into the headworks building. It gets screened for large material. Then it moves into 2 separate wet well chambers, and then there are 3 pumps on one side, 2 pumps on the other, and all they do is just lift the wastewater up and push it into the primary tanks. ▪ The hose is as old as the plant is, and they all must be systematically taken down. ▪ New bearings, new seals, new motors in some respects, and then new isolation valves in front of the pumps. ▪ We were making plans to do one of those pumps this year, using in-house staff, because the motor has been repaired already under previous effort. We believe we can just pull the motor. We have the seals in the house. We have all the valves in the house. But ▪ It's going to be a matter of hiring a contractor to help us out with cribbing and craning and things like that. We think we can get away with existing operating funds to do that. ▪ However, we need to systematically plan to do the remaining 4 pumps whether we choose to do one pump a year, 2 pumps a year. That's something that is going to come out in the wash with capital planning and estimates, and we're not quite there yet, so we're still strategizing. • These are the two items planned to work on in 2026 and need to be included in the budget. • In the future we need to sit down with Jesse and discuss Acti Flow process. • Jesse is aware of the short-term projects that we need to look at. Because, conceivably to the point, if this watershed study drags out over the next several years. We do have immediate concerns at the plant that have to be repaired. • If nitrite is a thing, we have to plan for it. We must look at these projects to determine whether we’re sort of throwing good money after bad. Kind of a separate discussion with Jesse. • Figure out what it is that we really need to do right now to keep the plant afloat. Maybe it won't be detrimental to our planning expenditure if nitrite is going to be a focus. • Right now the conversation we should be having will include a discussion of what needs to be replaced that would ultimately be replaced as part of the capital improvement. • Everything came to a grinding halt due to the nitrification issue. Things like sludge management, for instance. • One of the sidebar conversations was, do we invest 5 to 6 million dollars in sludge drying apparatus, even though it's something that's going to save us money for long term disposal costs, knowing that it's not going to handle PFAS. That's the kind of argument that we're having right now over any of this stuff. • Nitrite came along; it sort of put a grinding halt to all our planning. • The rebuilding of the plant? That's suddenly, you know, 5 or 10 years from now. There's so many unknowns right now regarding this new issue. • The digester work needs to be done regardless. That is sort of reactive maintenance. Because now we have valves that don't work. We have lead transfer pipes that have tuberculated down to a fraction of their original diameter. Thess items need to be done now. It's no question. Influent pumps, no question. Doors and windows. No question. So that's the kind of stuff that we're really talking about now. • The plant is getting older. It really comes down to ActiFlo. The point we need to make here is that, irrespective of what the capital improvements are, we still must keep the plant running until we're able to do those. We also must keep the plant running while we're doing the projects. So, there's the significant make-ready work and preparation work that we need to do in the millions of dollars before we can then spend millions of dollars. Even if we rubber stamped the so-called preferred alternative of the Capital Improvement Plan today, we wouldn't be sticking shovels into the ground for a few years, anyway. The real question here is making a list of things that will take the plant down. So, influent pumps is a good example, right? We have 5. How many could we live without? How quickly could we switch? This is going to be more money. We're going to have to bond for this money because it's going to be more than we could absorb even through our capital reserves. If we were to give you a criticality table, right, a lot of stuff would be in the red box. But even without the recent complications this was still projected to be a 40- or 50-million-dollar project. We're still talking about a subset of that that we can let me use the word fast track, maybe into a 3-year project, or something like that, to get ahead of things. • What do we absolutely have to do to keep the process running as it is, and the efficiency it is so like doors and windows wouldn't make it for me, although that does save money. 7) WQIP Phosphorus Grant and Capital Improvement Project Update- Jesse (B&L) • The CIP analysis that was done looked at the capabilities of a single digester versus 2 digesters to accept additional hauled in waste and food waste. • During the CIP there were conceptual discussions amongst our project team relative to Tompkin County providing an arrangement where slurried food waste was brought into the site and there it was determined, during the study, that there was still a substantial capacity in one digester to accept additional food waste. • That would capture another revenue stream via tipping fee, and then also increase biogas production at the plant. I think by about 25% plus or minus. • I was just going to say the grease; the grease waste would likely be over with that time. So, we wouldn't have to look at the combined effect of adding 3,000 gallons of grease and county food waste at the same time. • This is part of State law and there are plans in the County to have a facility, because we did talk about this, and said we would be willing to take slurry, but not deal with anything else on our side. It's got to be pre-consumer slurry. • The analysis was that the digester could potentially take about 3,500 wet tons per year of that food waste without any substantial upgrades like going to 2 digesters. • Jesse, we could get into discussion of your WQIP Bosphorus Grant. Maybe a general overview of the Capital Improvement Project at this point, and ancillary discussions that follow. Then can we move on to a discussion with potential 2026 capital expenses. • The CIP engineering report in May was submitted. Since then, we have fielded several questions from the Environmental Facilities Corporation. They were reviewing the score or reviewing the report relative to scoring the project for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund. • We did confirm that the plant does utilize an asset management plan that's being developed with OpWorks. We also confirmed that the capital Improvements project would include cyber security elements, which is one of the scoring items. • They reached out to discuss amongst our working group, and I confirmed with them that we do want the project placed on what's called the annual list. • The question was, do we want the project on the annual list, or a multi-year list? I made the recommendation even though there's a lot in flux right now that we do want to have the project put on the CWSRF annual list. It will allow EFC to complete the scoring of the project, and draft the annual list published in August, and that will allow us to know where a capital project has been scored… the EFC’s demographic assessment as far as income poverty levels are concerned to hardship, financing and or subsidized financing. Also, their assessment of potential bipartisan infrastructure law grant funds. This is the final year for that program. • Jesse will forward the list as soon as it is published. • Then at that time request a debrief with EFC regarding their scoring. Their scoring is more based on external factors. It's not really driven by the technical project that's proposed. So, it's going to be based on water quality, demographics, etc. • The recommended project of the CIP to comply with the ammonia and nitrite limits that were put forth. • We will get into this after we talk about the phosphorus grant. A request will be made to the Department to provide us with the full technical record and the regulatory underpinnings justifying the permit modification request. I made that request on the 24th of June to 4 individuals from DEC and have yet to hear back from them. • The New York State Consolidated Funding Application is due by July 31st at 4pm. The requirements are a little less stringent, so it would include the engineering report that's been completed and a budget worksheet. • Projects to upgrade municipal plants that are in a DEC-approved watershed implementation plan, which includes TMDL would be the Cayuga Lake TMDL for phosphorus. So, the award would be up to10 million dollars, the maximum award. There's a 25% required match. Eventually that would be provided by EFC funds as the funding package evolves. And again, our project is very well aligned. It will reduce phosphorus. This involves the permit modification, whenever that will occur, you know, at a minimum, it would be the next renewal cycle in 2029. It is said that Ithaca would be getting a supplemental phosphorus concentration limit of 0.5 milligrams per liter. • The tertiary plant is made to treat to .2, but I don't think it can do it right now, in its current condition. When it's working it, it can. It's just that. It needs a whole rehab. The improvements are going to do that. The funding application is connected to the preferred plan in the PER. If we end up going with conventional treatment or hybrid technology, would we still be able to utilize the money that we got from this grant request for that approach? Yes, I would be comfortable telling you that. Regardless, of what you do, whether you rehab the ActiFlo, or contemplate some alternate. We can pull a draft together and distribute that out for review. • I totally agree with that approach. I think another discussion with those folks is the next step. I requested records from DEC on the 24th of June. 2 plus weeks ago? That’s not a long time. But I will give them a nudge. We need this documentation to the extent that they can provide it. We don't even know if the record is more complete. There's a SPDES fact sheet that answers some of the questions. The sheet associated with the permit that was just renewed in the fall. It does answer some of the questions that relate to these proposed limits for ammonia. But it doesn't answer all the regulatory questions. I think it's important for City leadership to understand these proposed next steps. And then also, the Mayor presumably is aware of the kind of money that is potentially hanging in balance here. Hopefully, the City is not going to be blindsided by that. • Good and we're still approaching this from a collaborative sense. As I indicated, we had discussed the potential for an in-lake water quality monitoring program that would potentially last a year or two to consider all the seasonal variations and whatnot. That's something that we could propose. We could say, well, look, you're asking us to comply with a permit limit that is based on strictly theoretical modeling. How about you give us an opportunity to show that there aren't any water quality violations at the edges of our mixing zone? We could go that way, and presumably they would cooperate or collaborate in the design of a program that we could undertake that would hopefully alleviate their concerns. • The longer this drags on, the longer we don't know what kind of plan changes we want to make. So there's a stopgap, presumably in design if this thing gets pushed out a year and a half. But as far as that goes, I guess that it seems like those in attendance are in favor of scheduling a follow up meeting with at least Monica Moss and Tom Vigneaux regarding the application of the ties in this case. 8) Misc. Updates: • Staffing - Scott Gibson & Peter Wernsdorfer ▪ Revisit next month • Water Meter Replacement – Scott Gibson ▪ Scott brings us up to speed on water meter replacement. It is humming along. Year 2. We're up to about 1,850 out of 5,500. So, we're moving along. They're back up to their typical weekly quota, which is about a hundred a week is what they're doing. ▪ It was always going to be a 3-year project. We've approved 2 years of the final project for the remaining portion of the contract. So there, there's not going to be a pause this year. They're just going to keep going until they're done. • Flow Meter status update – Scott Gibson ▪ No updates on the flow meters. • Town of Ithaca Interceptor Study- Dave O. ▪ We’ve received 2 proposals. We selected a consultant Larson Design Group and are meeting with them in 2 weeks or so to try and get scope nailed down a little bit. ▪ Then we'll see where we're at fee-wise, and that we can make it all jive. ▪ They should be geared up to start by September, when students come back, so it should all fall into place to do the metering when students are here. ▪ The study should last 2 to 3 weeks, depending on how much money we spend on the metering portion versus the analysis portion. We would potentially prolong the metering until we get some wet weather events. Adjournment at 2:34 pm Upcoming Meeting Date: August 13, 2025