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MN-SJC-2018-01-18 SJC minutes.doc 1
SJC MEETING
January 10, 2018
SJC Members Staff
Cynthia Brock, Chair Steve Thayer
Supervisor Bill Goodman CJ Kilgore
Dave Warden Erik Whitney
Tee-Ann Hunter Scott Gibson
Supervisor Jason Liefer Jose Lozano
Laura Lewis
Absent Guest
MaryAnn Sumner (Dryden Alternative) John Graves – Ithaca Community Energy
Rich DePaolo Wade Wykstra – Ithaca Community Energy
Brian Davis
Cynthia called the meeting to order at 12:34 p.m. Quorum was obtained at 12:35. Introductions
were made. Cynthia mentioned that the agenda that was posted to the website lacked discussion
item “c” - proposed open-loop water-based heat pump to reduce heating and cooling costs at the
IAWWTF. She added a meeting time and date change request discussion and she corrected the
next meeting date to February 14th.
Tee-Ann MOVED to accept the December 13th minutes. Seconded by Dave. Approved 6-0.
Financial Report – Steve Thayer - 2017 Activity through December
There will be more payable and receivable activity to post over the next two months.
Revenues – we have received in excess of $320,000.00.
Sewer service activity - we have received all three owner’s quarterly payments.
Debt service – has been received by all three but only two have been posted.
Interest will be posted either later this month or early next month.
Expenses – overall to date we are ok - we did plan for a deficit of $150,000. Steve expects us to
do better than expected because of the many open salary lines.
We have four accounts that are over budget –
Contracts 5435 – $41,000.00 - Johnson Controls expenses were more than in previous years.
Equipment Parts 5477 – $45,000.00 mostly due to piping and drain line expenses.
Treatment Supplies 5495 - $50,000.00 due to increased usage and chemical cost increases. CJ
added that has addressed some of the causes of increased usage.
Keep in mind that all expenses do not follow the calendar.
Capital Projects – there were no expenditures last month.
Capital Project 422J was established for the GHD Project upgrades $420,000.00.
They are still waiting for the signatures from the Town of Dryden.
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Bill added that a PIO is not necessary for this project.
The monitoring station capital project 414J was an existing project and has been amended- all of
the required signatures have been obtained.
Operations and Engineering Report – CJ Kilgore
1. Plant Maintenance & Operations
a. Chemical Bulk Storage Tank replacement – CJ has been researching options to replace the
thirty year old failed tanks and is leaning towards wooded stave tanks (with liners). Welliver (the
GC for the water treatment plant) will be providing Scott with additional company names. An
official bid is required. They plan to purchase tanks with less than 10,000 gallon capacity.
Tanks exceeding 10,000 gallons must be inspected by an outside Professional Engineer every
five years.
b. Johnson Controls – micro turbine and boiler performance and re-sequencing – This is
ongoing to optimize energy use and production.
2. Facilities Maintenance & Operations
a. Monitoring Stations – the proposal has been signed. He will be meeting with Tim
Carpenter Monday 1/15/17.
3. Staff Management –
WWTP Operator/Trainee openings have been posted – open statewide.
Senior Operator positions and Maintenance Worker position resolutions are complete.
CJ hopes to interview in February.
4. Reporting -
5. Business, Long Term Development –
a. Lystek – It was collectively deemed that the payback time was fairly extensive.
CJ informed them that we are not interested in moving forward at this time. He is planning to
look into different technologies.
Cynthia added that her additional concern was that this is a proprietary product that would have
bound us to only Lystek. The economic and long term benefit concerns along with the increased
staffing responsibilities did not seem to make sense. We will continue to have discussions as to
how to address our sludge handling/disposal.
6. Energy Production Statistics – provided by CJ.
Discussion Items –
The reports of non-compliance included in the agenda were discussed last month.
a. Joint Sewer Agreement, Plant to Plant Agreement, Intermunicipal Agreement – Bill
and Cynthia did not meet.
MN-SJC-2018-01-18 SJC minutes.doc 3
b. EPA regulations and impacts on storm and sanitary connections Update –
Erik said that the EPA is our overall enforcement for both our collection system for the sanitary
sewer and the plant. We had an inspection two years ago – he will send the results to Cynthia.
We are under orders to have a program to address roof leaders, sump pumps connections and I/I
throughout the sanitary system. These diluted wastes use capacity and energy (for pumping) and
they are more difficult to treat than a more concentrated waste. The EPA estimates that about
half of the I/I (nation-wide) is from storm leaders and sump pumps.
The Town of Ithaca is re-ling their sewer mains while the City is replacing theirs. The City is
working on expanding the availability of the storm sewer system as roads are rebuilt.
Cynthia said that we will be under pressure to address our I/I from a regulatory perspective and
added that we will have to address how our residential use is managed. Municipalities are going
to be required to take some type of action to require homes that are currently tied in to the
sanitary sewer system with sump pumps or other discharge to compel them to tie into a storm
system.
Erik said that he checks if there is a storm sewer available and our engineering staff looks for
alternatives. New plumbing connections and re-connections are now required to run an
additional line to the storm sewer prior to issuance of a permit. City code and Pre-treatment
dictate that sump pumps are not to discharge into the sanitary sewer system.
Our North-South blocks have storm sewer but many of our East-West streets do not.
Our existing storm drains are designed for a ten year storm event – there are some spot locations
that need improvement - Streets and Facilities department cares for the storm sewers.
c. Proposed open-loop water-based heat pump –
Jose said that this is a proposal to save energy. There are existing opportunities working with
Ithaca Community Energy (ICE) to get this project off the ground. A heat pump will extract the
energy from the effluent water to be used to create heat in winter and to cool in the summer.
ICE will help with the preparation of grants to NYSERDA and the US Department of Energy.
Heat pumps have the potential to put out three times the amount of energy that is put in. Jose is
looking for approval to go ahead with a pilot plan - the grant includes a 10% to 15% cost share.
This project will help bring us closer to our goal of being energy self-sufficient.
He expects that ICE will send out requests for qualifications and that the company’s will come
here and emulate the situation and help us to prepare grants for full implementation. There
should not be any costs associated with this pilot study and added that only if the grant is
awarded will this pilot move on to become a full size project.
Jose added that there are only a handful of these projects in the States.
Dave offered that Taitem might be a useful resource.
This pilot would be an open loop – it is more efficient and reduces heat transfer interface. The
energy content of the effluent water is very significant. This will be working with lower
temperature differentials - this is where the heat pump technology comes into play. Jose expects
to be able to use a thermal process as he thinks he will be able to heat the water to or close to the
boiling point. Our end product will be heat.
Wade interjected that this technology is fairly simple and easily adaptable to wastewater plants.
Tee-Ann requested an update and review of the Johnson Controls Energy project at some
time/meeting in the future to discuss the energy use, energy production and the energy
consumption.
Is it paying for its self – where are we in the process - are we benefitting from the project – what
is the financial situation.
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CJ responded that he hopes to put together a brief summary of their most recent report and
provide it to the members. He added that we have fallen short of expectations but have achieved
a significant amount of cost avoidance.
Part of the shortfall can be attributed to our expanded septage receiving facility – additionally we
fell short on our gas production projection.
CJ believes that the heat control adjustments should result in improved performance and reduced
gas usage. The air exchange system in septage receiving has been put on a timer and should
result in savings.
Erik suggested inviting Gerry Aloi (Johnsons Controls) to a special meeting (in March) to
address questions about how the report was written and explain the basis of the report - how
baseline costs were estimated and how the initial cost savings estimates were derived.
Wade remembered that shortly after the energy contract was signed the cost of Natural Gas
dropped substantially.
Cynthia summarized - we have a lot of potential both in terms of the energy that is in the effluent
water and the energy that is in our micro-turbines in terms of heat. We are looking at a pilot
program specifically to look at benefitting from using the effluent water both in terms of
temperature and volume. The pilot will allow us to learn more about the capacity and the
possibilities within the plant itself. She added that she was surprised by the variability of the
temperature of the water (50° to 80°). Will we have the capacity to export it?
Jose responded that he believes the plant will only need 40% (if we can extract the full potential).
They plan to extract the latent energy associated with the temperature of the water and the flow
of the water through the tanks will allow a greater amount of heat to be extracted.
Bill asked if there will be environmental impacts.
CJ thinks that putting out cooler water is not an issue with the DEC.
Wade added that our existing situation is good - with CHP and directional drilling we should be
able to pump the water a mile.
Jose asked for the go ahead to send a letter to a dozen or so heat pump manufacturers. There will
be no costs associated with this. .
Laura asked the timeline – Jose thought three to four months.
Tee-Ann MOVED to authorize Jose to send out Requests for Proposals. Seconded by Dave.
Approved 6-0.
Announcements/Other Business –
Cynthia requested that the meeting date be changed from the SECOND WEDNESDAY to the
THIRD WEDNESDAY of each month at 1:00 – 2:30 – beginning March 21st.
Tee-Ann moved to adjourn. Seconded by Dave. All were in favor. Approved 6-0. Meeting
was adjourned @ 1:53 p.m.
The Next Meeting is February 14th, 2018, 12:30 pm.