HomeMy Public PortalAbout20061109WSCommMinutes.docWater and Sewer Committee Minutes for November 9th, 2006
The regular meeting of the Water and Sewer Committee was called to order at 6:00PM on November 9, 2006. Attending were Chairman Eddie Crone, Wanda Doyle and Paul Wolff. Also attending
were Diane Schleicher, Jan Fox, Bill Lovett and George Reese.
Wolff moved to approve minutes for October 12, 2006, Ms. Doyle seconded and the vote was unanimous.
Crone asked Mr. Reese if he was at the meeting when we discussed swapping the old water lines on So. Campbell?
Reese said yes but they haven’t started yet. He said they have four rookies to train. We are going to work on it. Try to have it finished within six months.
Crone- Where do we stand on the sewer plant?
Reese - The aerator that we borrowed will not work.
Lovett – After doing some research, the aerator that you got a quote on is in our opinion the best. The price is reasonable. My recommendation is to consider this a sole source for
these aerators.
Lovett - No one designs aerators for waste water treatment plants anymore. You have to put brush aerators back in. Puts oxygen back in the water helps break down the pollutants. Also,
keeps the water flowing. Keeps racetrack going. The speed of the racetrack is directly proportional to the size of the solids that the water will support. Need new aerators in your
treatment plant.
Schleicher - Is it a matter of space limitations to go to a different technology to accomplish the same thing? Would you have to rebuild the whole basin and redesign everything from
the ground up? And that is a significant investment?
Lovett-With the plant expansion, you will put additional aeration in that same basin. Will be 3 years before the new plant is on line. Must maintain the current plant for the next 3
years.
Schleicher- Will you be incorporating the new technology in the expansion?
Lovett-We will incorporate the new technology and fused air in the new expansion.20 year investment.
Fox- 80,000 covers the 3 aerators that we need.
Reese - Lovett-yes.
Schleicher - In how you are designing the plant, can we add more diffused air in 20 years.
Lovett- Yes and this is nothing against the firm that designed this plant. It was the technology of that age.
Reese - Plant was built in 1974.
Lovett - There has been an upgrade done. It was not an expansion. It was just to give Reese better operating procedures. You will have to get a bigger plant that is permitted by EPD
to treat more waste water. Higher capacity.
Crone - Get rid of useless non-working equipment.
Lovett - You will need to get the grit separator working.
Reese - Has two rebuilt aerators from the upgrade of the plant. Losing racetrack capacity. Needs air motion. No violations from EPD so far. Waste water reports are fine.
Lovett - 6-8 weeks delivery on equipment that was quoted.
Lovett - Doesn’t know what else to do. Council needs to make a decision to purchase the aerators for $81,000. No other alternative.
Fox - Looking at budget for 2007.
Reese - Odor control unit. We can put a grip system in there.
Fox - There is $20,000 in budget that will cover it. Is that sufficient?
Reese- No. The back-up sludge pump is $15,000. The real price is $17,000. $30,000 should do it. Take $40,000 off the aerators. Move that over. That will give $70,000. Should cover it.
Lovett - We use a figure of $15,000 a year for the city to own operate and maintain a pump station. A lot of people use this amount when budgeting.
Fox - Is there a list over at water and sewer on the age of the equipment so that we can get some kind of budgetary amount.
Fox - $25,000 in budget for Lift station #7 and $40,000 for lift station #6. We can do a budget adjustment to get Lift Station number #9 now.
Doyle - Are we doing what we need to do now?
Lovett - What I hear is the pump stations are down because they are waiting for Reese’s people to go over there and fix them. Reese’s people are more reactionary than proactive. They
are going to have a water or sewer line burst somewhere. They are going to get off that pump station and go fix the problem. Reese has his hands full.
Reese - We have prices on it right now.
Fox - We can move money for aerators or lift Station #9. Not enough money for both.
Reese- We need to do #9 first.
Fox- Needs to go to council to get budget adjustments for the aerators.
Doyle - Work on budget adjustment. This should be done during down time.
Lovett - Looking at permit. This is what EPD is concerned about. If you go back to October through April, you are bumping your permit all those months. Go back and look at October thru
February of ’04 and ‘05. Well below permit. But 12 months later you see the effect of year round residents. EPD is saying what is it going to be like in October of 2006 and April.
2007. Don’t have October’s numbers yet. Schleicher will be setting up meeting with Steve Estes of EPD. We have done the right thing by requesting a waste load allocation.
Wolff - Where do we stand on our request to increase our water permit and is that connected with the sewer discharge in any way?
Lovett -Yes. That is connected with the sewer discharge in that they are not going to give you ground water withdrawal increase if you can’t treat it at your waste water treatment plant.
They look at numbers and want to know what you are doing. One thing that they are looking at is how many building permits have been approved that are not in the current numbers.
Crone - 318, I think.
Lovett - Check these numbers against the wells.
Reese - After Hwy 80 is complete, I’ll have a complete list.
Lovett - Make sure when you flush hydrants you need to put a meter on them. You need to have a meter on every service whether you bill them or not, so you can account for the water.
Crone - Do the best you can.
Lovett – Wayne Johnson is coming to walk through plant.
Crone - Is it numbered in order by priority?
Lovett - Yes.
Schleicher - Proposal from Hussey, Gay and Bell for the Ft. Screven project to finish up that plan. Any questions? Will be at council tonight for approval.
Lovett - Jan and I thought it would be best if we bring this contract to council.
Doyle - Update on 80 Hwy?
Everything is updated.
Wolff - Moved to adjourn, Doyle seconded. Motion passed w/unanimous.
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