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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-2017-08-092017.08.09 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 1 SJC MEETING August 9, 2017 SJC Members Staff Cynthia Brock, Chair Steve Thayer Supervisor Bill Goodman CJ Kilgore Supervisor Jason Leifer Erik Whitney Rich DePaolo Scott Gibson Donna Fleming Jose Lozano Absent Guest Tee-Ann Hunter Brian Davis MaryAnn Sumner (Dryden Alternative) Dave Warden Cynthia called the meeting to order at 12:36 p.m. Quorum was obtained at 12:37 (through 1:50). Bill MOVED to accept the June 14th minutes. Seconded by Jason. Approved 5-0. Financial Report – Steve Thayer 2017 Activity through July – Revenues – septage revenue is coming in nicely. All three owner’s quarterly payments have been received. Debt service will be billed in November. Interest is booked at year end. Expenses – we have expended a little above budget in equipment parts 5477, treatment supplies 5495 and lab supplies 5496 - otherwise everything looks good. We refinanced some bonds and reduced interest expense by approximately $4,000.00 for 2017. Keep in mind that all expenses do not follow the calendar. Health Insurance contributions will be booked at the end of the year. We are running a deficit of about a $150,000.00 and are continuing to work toward reducing our fund balance to be more in line with the agreement. Capital Projects – 420J Feasibility Study - Enhanced Primary Treatment – $1,830.00 engineering services. 2018 Budget – The Mayor’s guideline requested a 1% increase. Staff has submitted their preliminary budget figures to Steve. He will put the 2018 budget package together for the September meeting – he will try to forward it to the members prior to the meeting. The State pension costs should be in mid to late August. Preliminary health insurance numbers appear to be increasing close to 5% - the consortium has kept increases down. 2017.08.09 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 2 Cynthia asked about the peak shave process pricing program - Steve will check into our curtailment participation. Operations and Engineering Report – CJ Kilgore 1. Plant Maintenance & Operations a. CJ met with GHD in June-July to determine scope and prioritization of projects going forward. He hopes to receive the preliminary report by the next meeting. His focus is on grit removal, concrete repairs (both structure and tanks), and improvements to: influent screening, septage receiving and the vacuum truck dump station. Cynthia questioned the lengthy lead time for the report - Erik interjected that our revisions and changes are the cause but added that our needs will be more specifically addressed. b. MRB Group – Tim Carpenter – O&M manual upgrade/update. The proposal was for $24,500.00 and should be completed in three to six months - CJ will provide a copy of the proposal to the members. CJ added that this will be a good base to build coordinating lubrication schedules and routine maintenance. c. Emergency Generator repairs - HMT substation maintenance. Our emergency generator cooling system needs work - the preliminary repair estimate was for $25,000.00. The total amount of the additional necessary repairs will be $45,000.00. Our generator is 30 years old. CJ has asked GHD to perform an analysis of our generator at a cost of $5,200.00 to be sure it is adequate to handle our load and the additional equipment planned for the future. They will check into the EPA requirements and air quality standards too. Erik added that we have about four hours of storage on a dry baseline day but on a wet weather day we have about less than two hours. Cynthia questioned if the power we produced could be used in an emergency situation. Erik replied that our switch gear would have to be evaluated by an electrical engineer to determine the feasibility and cost. d. Replacement doors - $13,000.00 - to bring the doors to code and to restrict access to authorized personnel to the office area. 2. Facilities Maintenance & Operations a. Monitoring Stations – Scott is working with the controller’s office to advertise the RFP for the Monitoring Stations - he hopes to have it out later this week. They will hire a consulting firm to evaluate 13 of the monitoring stations and upgrade communications. The improvements will allow us to monitor flow within the system and at the interchanges at our boundaries - it will give us a better handle on the sources of inflow and infiltration. Scott estimates the costs to be between $8,000.00 and $10,000.00 per station. Cynthia asked that both the inter-municipal agreement and the plant to plant agreement be looked at to be sure the RFP reflects that which is expected to be gleamed from the information that is gathered from the monitoring stations according to the agreements. 3. Staff Management a. CJ is moving forward on getting the two senior operator positions approved and in place. The appointment of an assistant chief appointment will be revisited in early 2018. 2017.08.09 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 3 4. Reporting – May 9th we had a minor DEC limit violation – we exceeded our effluent settleable solids limit. 5. Business, Long Term Development – CJ hopes to someday get some beneficial reuse of biosolids and along the way get more gas production and reduce the costs of biosolids disposal. Cynthia asked if the members were interested in converting our biosolids to Class A for land use application. CJ is interested in pursuing options and looking into alternatives – especially those that allow us to produce more biogas. He added that he is gathering the information requested by Lystek. Jose added that we should all be aware that many of the organics are persistent and some of them are completely undesirable – we should proceed with caution with any beneficial land reuse. He suggested to modify (destroy the chemicals) and generate more biogas, to dry and burn (energy neutral), or to use hydro thermal modification (pressure cooking - seeking approval by the DOE). Donna asked what would be the best mechanism to go about evaluating and researching options. Cynthia offered that hopefully we will have something from Lystek to respond to (or to discuss) at the next meeting. 6. Energy Production Statistics – provided by CJ. Cynthia added kilowatt hours used. Discussion Items a. Joint Sewer Agreement Group – they will schedule a date for their next meeting today. b. The plant to plant agreement – Erik – is an arrangement between the Town of Ithaca and the Village of Cayuga Heights to workout equivalent flows – to divert an equal amount of flow by using some of their (Town of Ithaca) excess capacity here – this could be accomplished by using Kline Road or Remington Road interceptors. Cynthia offered that the monitoring stations are very important in determining the amount of excess capacity. She added that the entity exceeding their permitted capacity is required to purchase capacity from the remaining two owners. She supports upgrading all of the stations at the same time to give us a more accurate reflection of where the flows are coming from. Based on SPDES permits and preliminary budget reports – she stated that (by comparing potable water sales to the volume coming in) she estimates that water sold comprises about 55% of the sewage arriving at the plant. She added that her figures do not take into consideration the Kline Road bypass amount. Cynthia has used the flows from the SPDES reports (going back 2 ½ years) to arrive at the following use percentages. Average daily normal monthly flow is 5.6 million gallons = 47% of capacity. Average daily peak flow is 9 million gallons = 76% of permitted capacity. She said that the intent of the Cayuga Heights plant is to use the Remington intercept to deliver a million gallons per day to this facility - that additional 1,000,000 gallons will put us at 75% capacity. Rich is concerned that this will shift the burden of exceedance to us – we will be taking on the liability and may be too close to our permitted capacity if we accept this additional flow. CJ said that we have to factor in wet weather. Cynthia added that this is an Infiltration/Inflow and a pricing discussion. Scott said that the monitoring stations will be able to tell us a lot of the things we have needed to know for a while. He offered that the closer we get to capacity – the more we may be forced to tighten up the I/I. Erik suspects that the City will be more of a burden on the I/I than either of 2017.08.09 APPROVED SJC minutes.doc 4 the Towns. Once we get reads we will know where the storm surcharges are coming from - we may have to look at a separate charge for the I/I. Rich asked the timeline of the monitoring station upgrades and the ability to address Cayuga Heights. Scott thought that we should be able to have a plan in place by the end of this year. He added that he thought we should have at least a year’s worth of data to note fluctuations and to be able to take into consideration spring runoff. Erik thought that the infrastructure could be in place by construction season 2018. Bill said the six municipalities met June 30th and are planning to meet again in September. Cynthia said and Erik confirmed that all six municipalities must have the same standards of sewer use laws and sewer use ordinances. The agreement committee will take this on as part of their focus. Announcements – Jose applied for and received a $50,000.00 grant from the Park Foundation pertaining to studying micro plastics and the part that wastewater plants play. Initial data from Fall Creek and Six Mile creeks show significant amounts of micro plastics – indicating that they are coming from sources other than wastewater treatment plants. This grant will allow characterization of the type of plastic. Cynthia asked how effective are our water treatment plants in removing micro plastics from our drinking water? Jose replied that he does not know and that this is not part of his study. Rich asked about the waterfront zoning. Cynthia replied that the City updated the zoning to the waterfront. The wastewater treatment plant legislation was not included but was written in as a whereas – there is a commitment to include it in the near future. There is a recommendation to have this as part of some sort of setback. It has been requested that at every property transfer the buyer sign a disclosure stating that they are aware of potential odors within a certain proximity of the plant (1,200 feet). Cynthia will reach out to the attorney’s office. Rich moved to adjourn. There was no longer quorum. All were in favor. Meeting was adjourned @ 2:08 p.m. The Next Meeting is September 13th, 2017, 12:30 pm.