HomeMy Public PortalAbout02012016 PW Committee Report_Stormwater_Collins CenterWatertown Town Council
Committee on Public Works, Meeting February 1, 2016
Report: February 23, 2016
The Committee met at 7:15 pm in the Third Floor Conference Room. Present were: Aaron Dushku, Chair,
Anthony Palomba, Vice -chair; Susan Falkoff Secretary; Town Councilor Vincent Piccirilli, DPW Superintendent
Gerald Mee; DPW Director of Administration and Finance Dennis Sheehan, Town Engineer Matt Shuman; Mary
Haley, DPW; Tom Tracy, Auditor; David Elmer, Weston & Sampson; Ernesta Kraczkiewicz, Chair of the
Stormwater Advisory Committee; Nancy Hammett, resident.
Stormwater Ordinance
Mr. Shuman prepared a PowerPoint presentation.
The PW committee previously met on 9/28/2015 to discuss the draft ordinance and recommended that the
document be approved by the Town Council. (UPDATE: Subsequent to this meeting, a first reading of the
ordinance was held at the 2/9/16 Council meeting and it will be on the agenda for a vote on the 2/23/16 Council
meeting. All applicable construction projects submitted to the town since the 9/28/2015 committee report to
council will be held to the requirements of the ordinance should it be passed by the Town Council.)
Mr. Shuman talked about EPA's new National Pollution Discharge and Elimination System (NPDES) permit that
will set new standards for Municipal separate Stormwater Sewer Systems (MS4), pursuant to the Clean Water Act.
The old permit expired in 2008 and the new one has gone through drafts. The final permit is expected within
weeks now, and scheduled to take effect in July 2016. The Town will be required to present a Stormwater
Management Plan within one year. The new permit is expected to continue to require quarterly reports on the six
"Minimum Control Measures": public education, public involvement, Illicit Discharge Detection and Elimination
(IDDE) program, construction runoff control, post -construction monitoring, and pollution prevention that includes
catch basin cleaning, but much more detail will need to be added.
The permit will establish a new Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for the Charles River. Overall, the Charles
River Watershed needs to reduce the phosphorus by 42% but in Watertown a reduction of 53% will be required.
We will be given five years to develop a 20 -year plan, with five-year milestones. Hopefully, some of the
improvements we have already implemented will count toward our responsibility and DPW is in the process of
cataloging these but it a labor-intensive effort to pull the files from all of these kinds of projects.
Phosphorous (P) is difficult to control since it reaches the river through leaf litter, car exhaust, etc. Progress is
documented by identifying corrective measures and changes in land use, not by measuring the actual P reaching
the river. EPA has estimated that the cost to remove one kilogram of phosphorous is $41,000. To reach the target,
Watertown will need to remove 613 kilograms per year. Using that formula to approximate costs, that would mean
a total cost of $25M dollars over the 20 years.
Watertown has a 604B planning grant for green infrastructure that will be used to produce a tracking database for
green infrastructure projects. This will involve a lot of labor to comb through records of public and private
projects and the Department is considering using interns for this project.
Watertown also received a 319 implementation grant to set up a pilot project to add green features to the lower part
of Edenfield Avenue —one of the roads recommended by this committee for a 2016 reconstruction. A
neighborhood meeting will be held this spring to provide more detail on this pilot.
DPW representatives met with the regional EPA director in October 2015 to review Watertown's Illicit Discharge
Detection and Elimination (IDDE) permit. It was a productive conversation. Some difficulties in detection are
that our sewer and storm drains can be connected in a complicated way, problems can be intermittent, and our old
infrastructure is constantly deteriorating. Also, communication problems between the contractor that does the
testing and Stantec, the firm that does the analysis, have been only recently resolved. The Boylston/Nichols area
will be having sewer repairs this spring. The town has been considering ways to assess more fully the sanitary
sewer system and to modify accounting procedures to better track expenditures on these matters. $37M are in the
town's Capital Improvement Program for `Stormwater Infrastructure Improvements' with a funding source TBD.
Collins Center Report Follow-up
Councilor Dushku referenced the Collins Center's Recommendation #15 that the committee discussed on
10/30/2013, and #7 discussed on 11/19/2013, concerning consolidating town and school facility maintenance.
Councilor Piccirilli mentioned that Jay Francione, school facilities manager, recently resigned, leaving a vacancy,
so this would be a good time to address this recommendation. After discussion on the best process, Mr. Tracy
volunteered to speak with the school Business Manager as a first step.
Councilor Dushku next mentioned Recommendation #6 from the 11/19/13 minutes, regarding enhancements to
customer service. He asked about the use of SeeClickFix, a program whereby residents can send the Department
photos of potholes and track their repairs. Mr. Sheehan reported that on January 1, a state grant for this software
was extended to expand the software to other issues than potholes. Also, on January 1, the Department began
using a new work order system that uses GIS to map work order requests. Mr. Sheehan hopes to integrate this
program with SeeClickFix. However, there are issues with SeeClickFix and Mr. Sheehan said it might be helpful
to devote an entire other meeting to discussing this program. Councilor Dushku was in support of this.
Mr. Sheehan is meeting on February 2 with the DPW website administrator to help integrate service requests
through the website. The Department is waiting to install new vehicle maintenance software until a new motor
Supervisor is hired since he/she may have a preferred program. A security upgrade for sensitive information is
underway.
The meeting adjourned at 9:20 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Susan Falkoff, Secretary
DPW committee minutes for 2/1/2016 Page 2 of 2