WATER POLLUTION CONTROL COMMISSION
Regular Meeting
October 19, 2016
Present: Todd Eubanks, David Pattee, Rich Regan, Amy Atamian & John Fisher.
Also Present: Katherine Stauffer, Julia Pemberton, Eugene Burke & Matthew Bernardini of Veolia Water
Mr. Eubanks called the meeting to order at 7:33 pm in the Hearing Room of the Town Office Building
APPROVAL OF MINUTES of September 21, 2016
Mr. Pattee pointed out that under UV lamps: A REVISION should be made from “VOD” to “BOD”.
Motion: Move that the minutes of the September 21, 2016 meeting be accepted with the clarifications noted. T. Eubanks, A. Atamian. No discussion. Motion approved unanimously.
REPORT FROM VEOLIA WATER
The monthly written report was reviewed.
Discussion on the following delivered by E. Burke and M. Bernardini:
- As of Sept. 2016, everything is in working order. Receiving a tremendous amount of capture. Showed photos, amounts in 2 days (in 80 gallon drum). Very heavy, 150-200 lbs. Discussion about the screens included why screens work well: more pitch. Changing maintenance starting in November. Materials are really reacting well. Grinder pumps make refuse that is taken away. Biggest concern: are the mop strings, which are either from restaurants and Meadow Ridge (since it dumps directly to the plant). Are macerators being inspected?
Discussion: Perhaps the document –what is being found in the plant—should be sent around to everyone with some amendments regarding some language? Include sanitary wipes, disposable gloves. Get approval and send around. K. Stauffer will have all copies of photos but send the mop string photo. Also Veolia may make field trip to check out macerator at Meadow Ridge and include the mop photo with the mop strings with the letter. Veolia’s grinder pumps are working perfectly.
- Have a rental forklift, 2nd month. J. Pemberton shared information on forklift purchase/lease opportunities: $4,000 leases annually, $21,000 new. The question came up if it was propane fired? Town will look into it. Veolia said they looked into pricing as well. Came up with buy out option: $9.900…to buy outright; with 6 month warranty, maintenance free for first year, is being held for Veolia. Sufficiently large to handle needs. Send quotes around to all board members and J. Pemberton.
- Still doing energy study…came up with long list, ways to cut and save power.
–Influent pumps (make sure they are efficient—run times and hours).
–UV Lamps, upgraded to 20-amp service. With it running 24/7, 365 days, Veolia is doing more than permit demands (continuing from Nov. 1-April 30). Only run on one bank. One bulb has a life of 8,760 hours per year. But if run permit time—the 5,136-hour requirement—one bank could run for 2 years (vs. 1 year).
Discussion: Need to find out cost of wattage hour (which will inform how long we should run the lights). Tests can be run then sent to labs. Cost might be as much as $6,000 per year.
More discussion on why there is a continuous run of the lamps. The history, according to D. Pattee was that Redding wanted to be good citizens, because people utilize the river all year round (fishing and occasional kayaker that overturns) not just during permit season. There is a watch group that sends volunteers from Westport to collect data about bacteria count…though they never find bacteria count high, south of our plant. During summer it is done once every couple of weeks. Go to mouth of river to length. 3 plants dump in the river.
Veolia’s view: continue to test and if results are still the same after shutting some off, then perhaps we should use only a few. Discussion ensued. J. Pemberton reminded the group that since 2014, Eversource has done energy benchmarking. Use at the sewage plant has been reduced by 11%.
–Blower use is lower too.
–Membrane room however, freezes. Veolia is considering creating a hole in the wall and run an A/C duct so that there is passive warm air coming through from the blower room. Would reduce a lot of discomfort, cold and freezing in that room, which is where the vacuum pumps are (and their housing has a lot of plastic in them—they want to eliminate cracking). Looking into cost with electrician. Get done before it gets too cold.
–Surprise visit by CT DEEP last Thursday. Excellent visit. All documents and books were in good order. No issues whatsoever. She was very pleased with the cleanliness, operation and level of expertise at the plant.
–Membranes are in good order.
–Meters: met with Mulvaney Plumbing. Need access to residences. K. Stauffer will send out letters as soon as all contacts, etc. are in order. Ensure that the meters are accurate.
- Phosphorus (PAC) In house samples are run every single day. April 1-Oct. 31. Mg. per liter. Our pump is at 14%. Use just .34 lbs. per day (vs. the allowed 1.08 lbs.). Our number is so below the permit. D. Pattee asked about flow rate. What is influent rate? 50,000 gal. Per day (20% of capacity). And if flow rate goes up, we can handle it.
Discussion: The goal to take the total numbers in the result and divide—then give the state that number. PAC works like saturation, not like a chemical “shot”. Running pump leanly. So far, so good. Use 9.71 gallons (average total) a day of PAC. The price is $2.61 per gallon $30 per day, $200 per week, perhaps $5-7,000 year. Today used just 7 gallons. Talked about other plants that have “died” from PAC/”bug” imbalance…because of what people dump.
Heating System for PAC Tank is in working order and operational. Don’t want product to freeze (1,000 lbs. minimum—batches are made in this increment). Getting a quote (no power going to it now). This is a priority. Needs to be taken care of. Maybe build a permanent structure around it in the future.
Ethanol Tank is empty (it is flammable). Maybe have 20 gallons left. Looking into a different carbon source called “Micro C”. A simple 5-gallon drum of the mix (could last 6-8 months) or sugar (but this is tricky). Nitrate has spiked a bit but is level.
FINALLY:
Will take any recommendations the board decides. The board responded with running tests on the lights (after season), once PAC is done. Please call Veolia any time. Will forward all info discussed in meeting tomorrow.
Veolia reps departed at 8:53 pm, wishing everyone a good night.
UPDATE ON GEORGETOWN (GLDC): Julia Pemberton, First Selectman
Summary of Judgment…town won motion as 1st in lien priority. The next status conference is on Nov.16, with a new judge. Ruling is not in favor of taxing district that is controlled by the developer. Order of priorities are: 1st in lien priority, the Town/Fire districts; 2nd is the Taxing District; 3rd Sewer; 4th Banks. Will know more after Nov. 16th meeting.
Discussion:
Appeals might occur but only after certain actions.
What is not part of discussion: Grant money still there for road improvements but need $60 million of investment in order to leverage that $5.6 million.
However, with the judgment, there is pecking order.
Where is USDA in this decision? The Town owns sewage plant…the taxing district took out the loan. Technically, the loan agreement does not read like a loan. Would like taxing district to ask OPM to enter bankruptcy (but not likely to do so).
Would foreclosure wipe out GLDC contract? Currently, there is reserve of 175,000 gallons per day…
Ridgefield interested in plant for TOD (Branchville)…for higher density housing (south of intersection).
175,000 gallons are meant to be reserved for development in the future.
The old plan however, does not make sense at this time. SO, until new plan is developed, how much water will actually be needed?
What is the case for the appraisal?
There is a TD bank appraisal (2013) for the clean portion that states: it is worth around $15 million. Highest and best use…not respective with contamination.
There is still around $10 million estimated for waste clean-up (as of 2008).
The Board thanked Julia for her report.
FINANCIAL STATUS AND ACTION OF INVOICES
- There is $66,000 in bank account. Haven’t received money yet from Meadow Ridge –expecting around $80,000.
- Uncleared checks: 0 (none).
- Approved: list: Aquarion Meter readings: $17.50 & $50.31, Aquarion Monthly: $122.82, Eversource: $2,179.06, Frontier: $285.44, Quality Data Bills: $74.45, Town Clerk: $30.00, Transcanada: $3,417.27, W.B. Mason: $16.74, Veolia CBYD Sept: $15.00, Veolia Reimbursement-July: $3,040.39, Veolia Monthly Sept: $26,850.50, Veolia Meter: $454.04.
- Not Approved: Veolia Monthly Oct: $26,850.50; Veolia August: $11, 644.11.
- Net out Oct: Pay $36,553.22.
Motion: To pay all bills except Veolia monthly Oct. 2016. D. Pattee, R. Regan. Approved. Unanimous.
DISCUSSION and ACTION on INVOICES AND FINANCIAL STATUS
K. Stauffer noted:
- Meadow Ridge—deducts to 2014. Reviewed and found errors resulting in: A $45 fee, transpositions, typos…we have to reimburse them for $294.31.
- Auditors: purchase orders. We don’t have a purchase order policy. Here are 3 selections by the auditors: 1) Plowing 2) Dept. of Energy (DEEP) 3) Eversource bill
Discussion: The state (DEEP) thing is a fee—a gov’t agency; plowing you can’t predict and yet is reasonable; Eversource is the only power company. Perhaps review with Steve Gniadek and ask how we review our landscapers, or maybe estimate the cost and times to plow? Do we have purchase orders on similar behaviors? We do purchase orders for physical things. Anything under $1,000 does not require a purchase order. There might be something in the town’s language about this.
Katherine will send a P/O policy to the group.
COMMISSION MEMBER OR PUBLIC COMMENT
None.
ADJOURN
Motion: move to adjourn the meeting. Regan, Pattee. Approved. Unanimous.
The meeting adjourned at 9:21 pm
Submitted by Alice Smith