Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-SJC-2019-01-16MN-SJC-2019-01-16.doc 1 SJC MEETING January 16, 2019 SJC Members Staff Cynthia Brock, Chair Steve Thayer Supervisor Bill Goodman CJ Kilgore Rich DePaolo Scott Gibson Ray Burger (Dryden Alternative) Jose Lozano Laura Lewis Ed Gottlieb Absent Guest Dan Lamb (Dryden Alternative) Dave Warden Tee-Ann Hunter Supervisor Jason Liefer Brian Davis Cynthia called the meeting to order at 1:01 p.m. She added “c”- co-digestion and granting opportunities to Presentation/Discussion. Rich MOVED to accept the December 19th minutes with corrections. Seconded by Laura. Approved 5-0. Financial Report – Steve Thayer - 2018 Activity through December is preliminary – we have a good month of revenue and expenses to book. Revenues – we have surpassed our budgeted figure of $380,000.00 and have collected almost $417,000.00 in septage service. We have collected all 4 quarters of payments and have collected all of the debt payments from all owners. Posting of 2018 interest will happen in about a month. Steve is working on improving interest rates. Revenues to date exceed $4,000,000.00 – we have already exceeded our 2018 budget amount. Expenses – we are running slightly under budget. Salaries, contracts and utilities are under. We still have payables to book. Treatment supplies and sludge disposal are over budget. Health Insurance includes all 12 payments posting employee contributions will bring that just about to budget. We presently have a $36,000.00 deficit - we budgeted for a deficit of $250,000.00 for 2018. Keep in mind that all revenues and expenses do not necessarily follow the calendar year. Capital Project 414J – Flow Meters – approximately $1,200.00 for design services. Capital Project 422J – Plant Improvements – $33,000.00 in engineering services. This project has been amended by $7,190,000.00 for construction activity. Steve included the 2019 budget - a first look before activity is posted. MN-SJC-2019-01-16.doc 2 Bill asked about bonding the $7,190,000.00. Steve replied that we will issue bonding mid-February 2019 - short term (one year) notes. The first payment will be in 2020. Operations and Engineering Report – CJ Kilgore 1. Plant Maintenance & Operations a. Wet Weather Event – December 21 and 22 – 3.1 inches of rain in 3 hours. We lost much of our microbiology – we did not violate our permit. All was back to normal after a couple of days. Scott added that we were supposed to report a New York alert incident within two hours – we got the notice out late (within four or five hours). We will probably receive a notice of violation for not reporting in time. b. Sludge Hauling Contract - is being finalized and should be in place shortly. 2. Facilities Maintenance & Operations a. Ithaca Beer – final drawings have been approved – we will be receiving updates and progress reports regularly. Cynthia and CJ offered that tour opportunities may be available. b. Monitoring Stations – 3. Staff Management – 4. Reporting - 5. Business, Long Term development – GHD Grit Removal and Misc. Improvements – has passed all three municipalities. We are in the 30 day public comment period. The final design may have to be modified to account for changes required for the new grit removal as it uses quite a bit more water. Other aspects of the project may have to be put on hold in order to upgrade our effluent water system. 6. Energy Production Statistics – provided by CJ. Voting Items – Election of Chairperson – postponed until the March meeting. Bill offered to be Chair if Cynthia would assist him but added that he would prefer that the Agreement be modified. The current agreement includes a secretary but no mention of a Vice- Chair. Bill will get in touch with Susan Brock to discuss (with Cynthia) modifying/amending the agreement. He thought that four (or five) consecutive one year terms might be suitable. He asked that the members think about/decide the length of time the Chairperson should serve in order to have a resolution ready to present at the March meeting. Presentation/Discussion Items - a. Presentation of protocols/procedures for new and existing businesses - commercial/industrial requiring discharge permits. – Ed Gottlieb MN-SJC-2019-01-16.doc 3 He discussed the required and recommended changes as a result of the EPA Audit of the pretreatment program in 2017. They recommended doing a more formal investigation for industrial users and provided a guide for doing so. Ed consulted other cities to put the program together and redid the industrial survey form/questionnaire creating a short form in addition to the long form. EPA recommends that the survey form be resent with some regularity to cover changes that may have occurred since completion of the initial/previous survey. A certified statement indicating that nothing more than domestic waste is being discharged is acceptable. Ed said that he needs to be notified by the individuals responsible for issuing plumbing permits in cases where there is non-domestic wastewater being produced at or prior to the issuance of their building permit - prior to the final design so he can review it to be sure it meets local law. Bolton Point and the City have agreed to indicate non-domestic and hazardous waste on their building permits. The federal government requires significant industrial users to be permitted – industrial user is defined by the local municipality and must be at least as strict as the federal. We might want to revise our definition to include more types of businesses (auto-repair, car washes and food service establishments) as they are not presently included in our pretreatment permitting process. Ed added that he is just about to begin the process of re-writing the sewer use ordinance. Cynthia asked if we charge a permitting fee. Laura wondered how other municipalities pay for their pre-treatment program. Cynthia requested an analysis of standard practices of municipalities for the members to use as guide if they decide a fee structure is appropriate. Ed clarified that we issue very few permits but we might wish to charge fees for inspections. He offered to bring information to the board in a few months – he will aim for three months. b. Joint Sewer/Plant to Plant/Intermunicipal Agreement – Bill said that the next quarterly meeting of six will be after the draft report of the Town of Ithaca engineering study is received - late February or early March. At the October meeting they spoke of the implications of future growth and development on both the agreement and the coordinated system between the two plants and the six municipalities. c. Co-digestion and Granting Opportunities – Jose spoke of meeting with the County about the possibility of grinding non-pump-able waste but after speaking with Erik and reviewing the numbers - the total max potential gain to pursue non-pump-able waste is hardly justify-able. The best strategy is to favor sources of pump-able waste. Jose stated that he does not wish to apply for the DEC grant at this time. CJ added that taking in food waste can be problematic – it is labor intensive – he agreed that pump-able food waste (slurry) is preferred. Announcement / Other Business - Ed mentioned that he put together a nutrient recycling presentation at the Atkins Center at Cornell (a month or so ago) that was well received. Bill MOVED to adjourn. Seconded by Laura. All were in favor. Approved 5-0. Meeting was adjourned @ 2:22 p.m. The Next Meeting will be February 20th, 2019, 1:00 pm.