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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1999-10-28 Water and Sewer Advisory Committee MinutesWater Supply Advisory Committee Meeting October 28, 1999 The meeting was convened at 7:40 p.m. at the Parker Middle School Cafeteria, 45 Temple -Street, Reag.esent were committee members Will Finch, Gail Wood, Steve Oston, Dick Howard, Richard Moore, and Mary nmmer. Also present were Assistant Town Manager Russell Dean, and Public Works Director Ted WW, ,ire. Hil Gail Wood moved the minutes of August 12d'. Dick Howard second. It was noted to change the 14%o to reflect the total charge of water and sewer bills -not just water. Motion carried 6-0-0. Gail Wood moved the minutes of September 23`d. Dick Howard second. Will Finch noted it should read that from December to May, the Ipswich should be pumped, all other times it should be MWRA. Motion carried 6-0-0. Gail Wood moved the minutes of October 7d'. Dick Howard second. Motion carried 6-0-0. Gail Wood moved the minutes of October 146'. Dick Howard second. Dick Howard suggested the table should be amended to eliminate the last option. Also, bedrock was going to be used to offset MWRA source not the Ipswich. Richard Moore said to add the words "environmental issues" to the sentence mentioning a cop-out. Motion carried on the minutes 6-0-0. Russ Dean said there were two issues from a policy perspective to deal with. First was the amount recommended to be purchased from the MWRA - .6 mgd. Second was the issue of bedrock wells and whether the committee would recommend moving forward with that option. Gail Wood said if you bought in a lower amount, you could find out if you need it, and then you can go up. With all the financial constraints, it all comes out of people's pockets. Russ Dean asked the committee to look at the cost of the MWRA buy-in fee. The real question is, is there an issue with the .6 mgd? Is that the right amount. Steve Oston said there were other reasons to choose the MWRA besides the Ipswich. It's also an insurance policy. It is used to offset peak demands. Russ Dean said he did not think there was a sentiment with the committee to change the .6 mgd buy-in. Gail Wood said she couldn't imagine having a hard time buying more. Will Finch said this amount is for low flow periods to guarantee a measurable difference. Gail Wood said she doesn't want to pay a 3 million dollar difference. Russ Dean said he identified three things from the discussion that indicated reasons to go MWRA. The Ipswich River - to relieve stress on the river, as an insurance policy, and to address the vulnerability issue to some degree. Will Finch asked about recommending a range. It would give leverage to environmental groups. The meeting moved to the teacher's lounge. Richard Moore moved to ask for.6 mgd from the MWRA. Dick Howard seconded. Richard Moore said the 600,000 was reflective of the peaking numbers. Gail Wood said you've already heard her view and she'll vote against it. Steve Oston wondered if the committee was premature. Had it done its homework? Dick Howard said the consultant has looked at it. .6 mgd would lop off the peaks. People can understand the number. Richard Moore said it was a compromise fro the IRWA - recommend no draw off the Ipswich until November. Will Finch said it could go a lot lower on water. Richard Moore said the price scale is affected at the plant at any point above 600,000 gallons per day. Gail Wood said Will Finch told her about a meeting at DEP and she went. It presented a modeling of the Ipswich. One of the main problems with drawing water from the river started when the river went down. If it is not dry, then pumping is not going to affect the river itself. You don't want to pay for what you don't need. Will Finch said prior studies showed the river would be dry every 1 in 7 years. Richard Moore said if .6 could be the maximum without an economic effect on the plant, then .3 leaves room to grow. Dick Howard said if you take .3 people will ask why. Richard Moore said there is a reduction in what you can take from the watershed. 1 in 7 days is MWRA water. Over 365 days you can lessen the impact on the river. Gail Wood wondered about backup information from the DEP meeting - no pumping could still result in stress. Russ Dean reminded the committee there were three items behind the MWRA recommendation: insurance policy, vulnerability, and stress reduction on the river. Steve Oston asked if it was possible to study what is the proper amount of withdrawal and work the issue with CDM - to study the number and present a better number in December? Richard Moore said the Ipswich River is a good political issue. We need to find out from the MWRA what they're willing to do. Dick Howard said the.6 can be adjusted when the USGS model is complete. Maybe it goes to.4 or.7. Gail Wood said it is easier to go up. The MWRA is not going to give money back. Russ Dean and Ted McIntire discussed the MWRA timeline. If the Town wanted to join the MWRA, we would, have to approach them - to put in a call to the community liasion. We would meet with them and see what we needed to do. Chances are a buy-in process would take around 2 years to complete. So it's not like we'd be writing a check tomorrow. But it would be appropriate to bring them a number. Richard Moore said he would like to review the MWRA withdrawal amount once the USGS study is completed. Steve Oston said we shouldn't wait for the USGS - models tend to end up badly. Chances are greater than half that it will be disappointing. Motion carried 3-2-1. Mary Grimmer abstained because she wasn't sure. Ted McIntire said CDM looked at 5 'h years of data on the river, and that is what generated the chart showing peak demand. The 600,000 number came from the data compilation and what it would take to lop off the peak demand. Mary Grimmer voted in the affirmative. Final vote was 4-2. The bedrock issue was then discussed. Will Finch said it wasn't worth spending honey on exploration. We may Gail Wood said she wants this committee to leave the bedrock issue to the Water & Sewer Advisory committee. We could use the dollars to help pay for the MWRA buy-in fee. If you were to find a good well, that was not drawing from the Ipswich, it's a good option. Ted McIntire said we would know the answers on bedrock well viability within 8-12 months. Steve Oston said it was worth spending the money. We will always have a database available. Thinks this committee has spent about 150,000 to date. Not sure of the number from the consultant on bedrock well yield. Of all the options, Ipswich plus bedrock was the best cost/benefit choice. Ted McIntire explained the process. There are sites in Bare Meadow and the Town Forest. Exploration wells will be put in. The rationale for bedrock well exploration came out of the gas spill - when the Town wanted to look for additional sources. D.L. Maher looked at gravel packed wells - they weren't viable. We needed to find other places in Town to develop wells. DEP will not allow creation of other wells that add on to the draw. Dick Howard asked how bedrock would be used? To reduce draw on the Ipswich River? The committee agreed, yes. Richard Moore said he was a big fan of bedrock wells because you can treat the raw water easy and it would lower the overall cost. He is scared of the plume pollution down into the bedrock. You may draw this into the wells. Ted McIntire said this wasn't an issue for D.L. Maher, but was an issue for CDM. Dick Howard said he would favor spending money on Bare Meadow. Gail Wood said Nancy Eaton said there is a legal issue with conservation land. It's not supposed to be used for production wells. Russ Dean said he thought the committee consensus was to spend the 200,000 on bedrock wells. Ted McIntire said the next step is to do another site walk with the Water and Sewer Advisory Committee and the Conservation Commission. Will Finch asked if the $200,000 will give us quality and yield? Richard Moore said we may get a recharge problem from the bedrock well. Will Finch said a pump test won't tell you that? The committee then reviewed the changes to the draft handed out by the Assistant Town Manager. The following changes were made: Under the first bullet under recommendations, Dick Howard suggested adding language describing the .6 mgd. Also it was noted to highlight the 4-2 vote on the .6 mgd. Language change "more costly with less perceived benefit" on bullet 2 was approved. On bullet 3, the last line "and perhaps make it the best overall option for the community" was stricken. It was noted to leave in the fact that bedrock wells would reduce the vulnerability factor on Route 93. On bullet 4, it was noted to add "per year" after "per household." Russ Dean passed out a financial chart showing the rationale for conservation financing. Gail Wood said we didn't do anything on a 20 year schedule. Russ Dean said the rationale for the financing assumptions was uniformity and the concept that conservation would be rolled into an overall bond package that likely would require 20 years to finance. Gail Wood said she understood but we never have done it that way. On bullet 2 under "considerations for implementation" the committee added language noting it took other communities up to two years to complete a transaction into the MWRA. Under other considerations, bullet 1 was stricken which talked about a revenue neutral option of selling water rights. t Russ Dean mentioned Bob Salter had requested two items on stormwater recharge and regional solution on eliminating interbasin transfers be added. The committee agreed to add these two recommendations to the end. The last bullet about working with Mass Highway was discussed. The committee approved the stronger language regarding wellfield protection and asked that remediation be added as a separate bullet. Russ Dean then went through the findings. Under quality, Steve Oston asked if something was missing. The language under quality would stay the same. Under bullet 2, Environmental Impacts, Steve Oston said he didn't like putting "In 1998, the Ipswich River was not on the same list." It was decided to leave this as it was approved by the full committee. Under bullet 2, Vulnerablity, language "is being detected" was added and "PCE's" was added to line 2. Under bullet 3, Vulnerability, language "from North Reading and Route 93" was added and "Concord Street area of' was added to understand that contamination is not coming from all of North Reading. Russ Dean mentioned that MWRA entry is contingent upon approval of the governor. Russ Dean highlighted an add-on mentioning Andover and the interconnection, as well as the amendment to the Interbasin Transfer Act. Under bullet 1, control, the words "and bedrock wells" were to be added. Under bullet 2, yield, it was decided to add the words "exploration. will reduce uncertainty." Under bullet 1, cost, it was decided to add the words "in the capital plan" after 9.24 million dollars. Under bullet 2, cost, it was noted to set up the scale on the MWRA buy-in fee as so:.3 mgd,.6 mgd, 1.0 mgd, and 2.269 mgd. Under bullet 2, cost, it was noted to add language stating the MWRA buy-in fee was not currently in the FY2001 capital plan. Russ Dean highlighted the Andover add-on which discussed the capital cost of 13.1 million dollars. Under the last bullet, re: alternatives for water supply, Russ Dean said he would check the $45 per year per household increase to meet the Safe Drinking Water Act changes. Russ Dean discussed there would be no meeting Saturday or Monday. The presentation to the Selectmen would go as scheduled on Tuesday. The committee should attend that meeting - there is no time as of yet posted. Russ Dean would let the committee know. John Gall will do the presentation with assistance from Russ Dean. The committee will help out, especially with the question and answer from the Selectmen. Dick Howard moved to adjourn. Steve Oston second. Motion carried at 9:50 p.m. 6-0-0. -,AL ~o Russ Dean 6. ssistant Town Manager