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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-02-28; Encina Joint Advisory Committee Ad Hoc; Minuteso ENCINA JOINT POWERS MINUTES OF THE JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 28, 1979 AT THE ENCINA WATER POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITY CONFERENCE ROOM Ed Stiles, Chairman Stanley Mahr, Vice Chairman 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Stiles called the meeting to order at 9:07 A.M. ROLL CALL Present; Vista Sanitation District City of Carlsbad Buena Sanitation District San Marcos County Water District Leucadia County Water District Encinitas Sanitary District County of San Diego JAC Administrator JAC Counsel Encina Joint Powers Absent: City of Carlsbad Guests; Brown and Caldwell C M Engineering Associates Encina Chief Operator Encinitas Sanitary District League of Women Voters Joe Zapotocky, Don Todd Mary Casler Ed Stiles, Bill Dominguez Jim McKay, Stanley Mahr Dick Hanson, Stan Van Sickle Mark Schneider, Jack Filanc Jim Frandsen Ron Beckman Roy H. Gann, Esq. Les Evans, Mary Taylor A. J. Skotnicki Graham Fraser John Murk Clyde Dietrich Jack Kubota Ruth Honnold - 1 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEl^bETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 Guests (continued): Leucadia County Water District Regina Ash, Eric Elliott Lowry & Associates Bob Hanson 2. MINUTES OF JANUARY 17, 1979 JAC MEETING Chairman Stiles asked for the approval of the January 17, 1979 min- utes as submitted. Mr. Zapotocky moved that the minutes be approved as submitted. Sec- onded by Mrs. Casler, the motion unanimously carried. INFORMATION ; 3. DESIGN REVIEW MEETING OF FEBRUARY 6, 1979 Chairman Stiles asked Mr. Evans for his comments of the above meeting. Mr. Evans stated that there were a couple of enclosures which were not in the agenda packet; one of which was a letter from the archi- tects explains the use of various materials. The other enclosure was a scope of work for Brown and Caldwell's contract describing the design of an activated sludge treatment plant rather than bio- filtration and accounts for possible multiple contracts. He continued that the Design Review Committee was now talking about multiple contracts and "fast-tracking" the construction project. Four of the six agencies had approved the 9th Supplement which • is authorization for Vista Sanitation District to enter into contract with Lowry & Associates/Construction Control Services as construc- tion managers. Brown and Caldwell and Lowry s Associates are working together on a report which will describe the proposed schedule of design and con- struction. They will make some recommendations on how the project should be divided and what kind of a schedule we would have to meet to accomplish this. Hopefully, this report would be available in the next week or so. Mr. Zapotocky asked Mr. Evans if, in light of his impending job change, everything would be kept on track through grant administration. Mr. Evans replied that he had discussed this with the City of Carls- bad and Paul Bussey. He felt certain that Carlsbad is not interested in having the grant administration process, design or construction management fall apart. - 2 - f^JOINT ADVISORY ^iMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 He continued that he had accepted the job as City Engineer as of April 1 and didn't feel that the General Manager position could be filled in a month. He said that he had an obligation and felt sure that the City of Carlsbad recognizes that obligation to make sure that there is continuity until this position is filled. Mr. Van Sickle felt there was a present need for building one or more digesters. An additional digester, if only for redundancy, is needed at the present time since eventually it will be needed anyway. He wanted to get the JAC's reaction as to whether addi- tional digesters should deserve top priority at this time and whether we should begin to accumulate preliminary figures about the economic advisability of starting to work toward building one or more additional digesters of modern design immediately. He said he had asked Mr. Evans if we would have to have any addition- al monies other than those allocated in the current budget to fi- nance such a preliminary study and Mr. Evans had indicated that . the extent to which he was requesting a study would not have to be funded outside of our present budget. He continued that some of the agencies might not have any interest in additional diges- ters which might be a problem when it comes to paying for them. He also felt that the odor problem, which has not been resolved, results from obsolete designed digesters and digesters that are not properly operated. He said that Leucadia is taking quite a bit of .the brunt of the odor criticism. Mr. Fraser said the digesters are included in the last group of buildings which consists of the power building, which is an ex- tension of this building and which will include the engine gener- ators, the headworks area, the screenings, the chlorine building, the effluent pumping station and the sludge dewatering facilities. An analysis shown to date that of those five, we could pull out the sludge dewatering building and thickeners into a separate contract. One of the problems in building a digester early is that it's very much tied into the power building. This building is going to have three or four engine generators to provide the power from the plant and take the digester gas to fuel those en- gines. In turn, the heat from those engines would be used to heat the digesters. The power building and engines have to be running to heat the future digesters and this was one problem. He continued that the other problem was that the soils report shows that there is a good degree of settlement in that area and our first contract will be an excavation contract which will dump some soil in that area to give it a preload. What could be done is to build the digester and leave it as a cold digester, with no heating or mixing, which would give us some additional capacity. JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 Mr. Dominguez moved that the matter of the digesters be referred to the Design Review Committee for further discussion and to eval- uate the fiscal as well as the engineering ramifications involved in such an expansion. Seconded by Mr. Mahr, the motion passed. 4. RWQCB STAFF REPORT Mr. Evans said a meeting with the RWQCB staff had been attended on February 26. Essentially, the RWQCB staff believes that we have done what we've said we would do and that we have made every effort to control the odor. The problem we're having now is the raw, undigested sludge which we removed from our sedimentaion tanks each day and, for the most part, dump into Digester No. 3 with no digestion whatsoever. We dewater that sludge in our cen- trifuge and then we have to get rid of it. We cannot take it to any landfill in the County except the Otay Landfill and they will only take three tractor trailer loads/day. Depending on the weather and what's going on at Otay, we're limited on how much we can take there. This raw sludge has built up on us and the drying beds are full of it. Construction work has been completed and Digester No. 1 and No. 2 are back in operation and we're slowly increasing the feed rate to those digesters. We feel it will be from 30 to 60 days before they're capable of taking the whole load of sludge from the sedi- mentation tanks. It will be that long before we will be getting . digested sludge. The RWQCB had no suggestions as to what we could do with the raw, undigested sludge. Chairman Stiles asked how much sludge was in the drying beds. Mr. Evans replied that there was approximately 500 yards. Mr. Schneider asked if we could dig a big hole and bury it to al- leviate the odor problem. Mr. Evans answered that one problem would•be the water table is so high out there and we probably wouldn't be able to dig more than a foot or so before we got into trouble. The second problem is that they are going to start excavation out there in early fall. Mr. Mahr suggested that it be taken to a ranch somewhere. Mr. Evans said we had permission to do this but it was too wet to be disced in now. Mr. Evans said that Mr. Dietrich had worked out a deal with San Diego when we have Digesters No. 1 and No. 2 able to take the full load, we can empty No. 3 and haul the liquid to the Mira Mesa pump station and dump there. - 4 - JOINT ADVISORY C&BMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 The Regional Board agreed that we needed another 60 day extension which was the outcome of the meeting. We have to appear again on April 23. 5. SWRCB GRANT ELIGIBILITY LETTER 6. SWRCB CONCEPT APPROVAL LETTER The State Water Resources Control Board, Division of Water Quality, has reviewed the CPO's Series IV Population Forecasts and they have agreed that these forecasts should be used for the eligibility for the Phase III project rather than the E-O figures we had previously been using. They have projected a population of 170,000 in the En- cina Service Area for 1989 and 230,000 for 1999, which translates into a project eligibility of 17.5 mgd average dry weather flow rather than the previous 13.55. We have also been informed by the State that we are additional 10% eligible for the gas managment sys- tem proposed by Brown and Caldwell. The local share seems to be holding constant even though everything else is rising. Mr. Zapotocky asked if we were still constrained to build to the 13.75 with exception or just constrained period. Mr. Evans said that he had met with the State on February 21 and discussed why the 13.75 mgd keeps appearing in our letters but . verbally the State agrees it has no meaning since there will not be a treatment plant here on the line until after June 30, 1980. We talked about "fast-tracking" and if we start doing grading and excavation in the fall, we're certainly going to grade and excavate for all the secondary facilities and not just 13.75 mgd. Mr. Zapotocky asked what the permit will read and Mr. Evans replied that it already reads 18 mgd. Mr. Zapotocky said if the grease problem could be solved and the odor problems could be solved then, perhaps, rerating is the name of the game. Mr. McKay said that C M's report stated that the only problem in the expanded flow was the solids handling and we've already assured ourselves that we could do it hydraulically. Mr. Evans said we would have to see if it works when the digesters are again in operation. JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTlOblETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 Mr. Mahr asked if we couldn't get a large bag in which to coop up the sludge temporarily to get rid of the odors. Mr. Hanson said their unit ran about $80,000 and held 800,000 gals, Mr. Evans said that rerating would probably happen automatically at such time we were sure that the new digestion system and solids handling system was capable of handling additional capacity. He continued that the engineer has suggested that we need some addi- tional dewatering capability and this is one of the things that could be prepurchased. Hopefully, we can move ahead with that very quickly. Mr. Dominguez asked if we could lease a mobile unit and said that he felt that the JAC felt some kind of constraints about trying to solve the odor problem which was causing a problem for both Carls- bad and Leucadia. He felt that, within bounds of reason, we should try anything in order to get rid of the odors. Mr. Evans said that lime had been ordered to cover the sludge. Mr. Dietrich felt that lime should be used once the bed is cleaned. He said that using Viscquine would not help us but would hinder the operation due to the manpower to cover it and when you pick it back up, you have this sticky stuff all over it. The operators are go- ing to be covered with it and it would be a real mess. ROUTINE REPORTS 7. OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE REPORT Mr. Evans felt that everything is this report had been covered in the prior discussions. Mr. Zapotocky asked whether we had received our temporary laboratory technician. Mr. Evans answered to the affirmative adding that it has been a big help because of the daily and very extensive testing on the digesters trying to bring them in. The cost for the laboratory technician is $8/hr. but it is much less than what we had to pay for an operator to do the work and it freed an operator to go back into the field. 8. EXPENDITURE REPORT Mr. Evans explained that we were having trouble getting the report - 6 - JOINT ADVISORY COWlITTEE MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 through the County mail system. Mr. Evans gave the flows for the month of January, 1979 as follows: Vista 3.368 Carlsbad 3.228 Buena .574 San Marcos 2.853 Leucadia 2.105 Encinitas .542 12.670 million gallons All flows are high and will continue in months with lots of rain. He noted that we spent more money to operate this plant in Janu- ary than we had ever spent before on overtime, special hauling and all of our problems. We are not over budget. He continued that some of our men are working over 35 hrs. over- time a week and that we were losing our effectiveness because of the long hours they are working. We are definitely going to have to get some more help out here. ACTION .9. BROWN AND CALDWELL AMENDMENT NO. 2 Mr. Evans said that this is the agreement that goes along with the Scope of Work which had been mailed to the JAC earlier. The Scope of Work includes the switch from biofiltration to activated sludge. It also incorporates the possibility of up to 12 different contracts in the "fast-tracking" approach to the project. The Negotiating Committee has met several times with Brown and Cald- well and, at the last meeting, agreed to an increase in the cost ceiling of $263,163 and an increase in the fixed professional fee of $38,656 for a total increase and possible obligation to the agencies of $301,819. Approximately $184,000 is related to the multiple contracts and that amount would be authorized a piece at a time as Brown and Caldwell/Lowry & Associates identify to us what contracts should be broken out and prepared separately and advertise for bids. We would authorize Brown and Caldwell to proceed on that for a given amount of money within that $184,000. This amount is a budget and not a blanket authorization for them to proceed. Brown and Caldwell would have to indicate to us exactly what they were - 7 - JOINT ADVISORY OOMMITTEflQbETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 going to do and how much it will cost. The $301,819 relates to the switch in process which will amount to an additional 55 drawings by Brown and Caldwell. The State has been contacted and they agree that there is an increase in level of effort in switching the process and feel that the approach we are taking is not unusual. Also, in the amendment, we have added a few things. 1) a para- graph on page 5 - "The District and the Engineer have agreed that the District will not be charged for nor will be obligated to pay for any additional costs associated with redesign work or time de- lays caused by the process change from biofiltration to activated sludge." Tfae State, our Negotiation Committee and Brown and Cald- well have agreed that the decision to switch processes, any rework or any delays, which might have been caused by the change in pro- cess, will not be borne by us. 2) the Negotiating Committee agreed with Brown and Caldwell that if we were going to "fast-track" the project, time is now becoming more and more critical and certainly the "fast-tracking" approach depends on the design being completed at specific times. 3) on page 5, we added a paragraph which deals with the time schedule Brown and Caldwell must submit to us within 30 days of approval of this contract. It says that "If major mile- stones indicated in the approved design schedule defined in para- graph B.3 are not met by the Engineer, the District may retain up to 25% of the subsequent monthly professional fee payments. 25% retention may be increased to 50% if major design milestones are not met after August 1, 1979." We agreed that this would be a reasonable method of encouraging the time schedules to be met. Mr. Evans recommended that the JAC refer this agreement to the six agencies and recommend that those six agencies authorize the Vista Sanitation District to amend our existing contract with Brown and Caldwell to include this amendment. Mr. Gann explained the Time is of Essence clause and said it would be solely the responsibility of Brown and Caldwell for any delay. If it's not completed on the time agreed, then.you could have a breach of contract and the usual damanges that are attendent to a breach. Mr. Mahr asked if this amendment to the contract will give Brown and Caldwell a lengthening of their contract time. Mr. Gann said he thought it would because there wasn't anything to indicate to him that Brown and Caldwell could do all the work in the same period of time. - 8 - JOINT ADVISORY cfoSklTTEE MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 Mr. Evans referred to page 5. He said we met with the State and agreed that 90% bidable plans would be submitted to the State prior to September 15 and that the complete specs and plans would be submitted prior to December 21. We also agreed that, within 30 days of the execution of this amendement to the Contract a de- sign schedule will be submitted to the District's Project Officer for approval. The design schedule, when approved, will supercede the schedule as defined in the remaining portion of paragraph B.3. With this amendment, the schedule is September 15 for 90% and December 21 for 99% subject to change based on the time schedule that Brown and Caldwell/Lowry & Associates will submit to us. He felt that we could expect, if they are going to break the contract into packages, the design effort will be spread over a longer per- iod of time but we'll actually be starting construction earlier. Mr. Zapotocky moved that necessary action by the respective agencies be taken to authorize Vista Sanitation District to enter into this contract agreement. Seconded by Mr. Mahr, the motion carried. Mr. Hanson asked whether this $302,000 increase was grant eligible. Mr. Evans replied to the affirmative. 10. CAPITAL OUTLAY BUDGET Mr. Evans reported that we are at the time of the year when we need to make our final budget decisions. Traditionally, the JAC made recommendations to the City of Carlsbad on internal changes within various categories of the budget. At this point in the budget year, we have decided that the installation of a grease holding tank, which we had hoped to install as part of a contract for a firm' coming in and hauling grease from the plant, is not practical since the firms that haul grease still are unable to use grease removed from sewage. We don't have use for that tank since part of Phase III is to install a grease holding tank. We feel that the cost effectiveness of installing a tank now is not there. There are some items which have been identified over the past 8 months or so, that we feel would be worthwhile to have and are not included in the capital outlay budget. 1) a portable steam cleaner for clean- ing equipment and insides of digesters;' 2) a diaphragm pump to replace the pump which was lost when we had the thefts. We have a lot of use for this and have been renting a lot of pumps; 3) the gardeners feel that it would be worthwhile to replace our edger and a vacuum sweeper. Mr. Schneider moved that the JAC made the above recommendations for capital outlay purchases to the City of Carlsbad. Seconded by Mr. Zapotocky, the motion carried. - 9 - E>BEIJOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE>BEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 11. RECOMMENDATION FOR ADDITIONAL OPERATOR STAFFING Mr. Evans recommended additional operator staffing based on the suc- cess we have had with our laboratory technician. He felt that the City of Carlsbad would probably hire through one of the local em- ployment agencies for a laborer to assist us out here. He added that these positions can be terminated on a week's notice. Mr. Zapotocky moved that the JAC go through the City of Carlsbad's Personnel Department and hire the necessary laborers through a tem- porary agency. Seconded by Mrs. Casler, the motion carried. 12. MANAGERMENT SUBCOMMITTEE RECOMMENDATIONS Chairman Stiles reported that there had been several Management Sub- committee meetings and the vote on a subcommittee is a majority vote only because it's a recommendation to the JAC. Mr. Zapotocky asked if the JAC felt, in light of the fact that we don't seem to be moving toward independent management, the General Manager position should be filled or go back to what we were former- ly doing. He continued that Vista Sanitation District's position remained unchanged and they did see singular benefits in going with an independent operation but if JAC couldn't achieve that, he felt that we should move forward and approve a method of some kind. Mr. Filance said that Encinitas is for independent management and will continue to explore every avenue to achieve this because they felt this is the only long range, satisfactory solution. He contin- ued that Encinitas is also unhappy that the City of Carlsbad hired the General Manager away from the JAC. It was not obvious to Encin- itas that having Leucadia run the plant will make independent manage- ment any closer. If we separate from the County and Leucadia has a change of attitude within their own political makeup, how would that affect us as far as getting back with the County for operating the facility in the future? Also, if Leucadia operates the plant speci- fically, what would be the realistic savings? He would like to see it documented as to the potential savings we might realize in com- parison with what we have at present. He would also like to see what we will do about the County equipment and services that are available from the County Support Facility that Leucadia does not have now. He asked if Leucadia should be committed to their estimated cost? Chairman Stiles said that Mr. Filanc's points were well taken and he wasn't sure that anyone could answer all of the questions. He asked for a comment from Mr. Frandsen. -.10 - JOINT ADVISORY WlMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 Mr. Frandsen said that the Board had taken the position that it would be up to the JAC to do whatever was necessary and they did leave it open that we could continue as we always have. The con- tract expired some years ago so if the County should continue with the operation, he felt that we would have to come to some kind of agreement on a new contract. Mr. Schneider asked if the County had the personnel to take over the management such as Mr. Evans had been doing. Mr. Frandsen said they would have to look into it but that the County was also down in personnel. If this would be reimburseable, the County can provide that service but again they would have to go to their Board and that would be part of their agreement with JAC. Responsibilities, etc. should be outlined in the agreement. Mr. Hanson said he would like to know how we would go about replac- ing Mr. Evans and, more particularly, what type of person he should be replaced with. His thoughts were that we don't need someone with Mr. Evans1 expertise because he really haven't been able to utilize him at his fullest. He thought that Mr. Evans had been un- able to fill the intent to which he was hired because of the nature of the way the JAC has operated. Although reorganization is fore- most in the minds of most of us and in some manner we will continue to pursue that, during the interim we need someone who is as schooled and knowledgeable or do we need somebody who is more in the category of what we would define as the chief operator? Mrs. Casler said that the Carlsbad City Council did agree with the Management Committee report that Leucadia County Water District be- come the plant operator and she was sure that Carlsbad was still in- terested in reorganization. She believed that, with the problems facing the plant during the next three years, there should be a Gen- eral Manager on board at all times. She personally didn't feel it should be a Chief Operator because the General Manager has much more to do and needs much more training in administration, etc. When some of the City Council heard that Mr. Evans might go to work for the City of Carlsbad, some of them were concerned about the amount of time it would take to recruit someone but they were assured that if there was a crisis at Encina, Mr. Evans would be made available. Chairman Stiles said that we have progressed with a Manager and we had a lot of services that we wouldn't have had without a Manager and we already have the authority to hire a Manager. Mr. Gann agreed that if Carlsbad were to be the administrator, the Manager would be an employee of Carlsbad. If Leucadia County Water - 11 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MINUTES - FEBRUARY 28, 1979 e oiKEETING - • ^ District took over as administrator, then he would become an em- ployee of Leucadia. He continued that he did take issue with one comment made by Mr. Hanson in that the person who was the Manager would be subservient to Leucadia. Obviously, with Leucadia taking direction from the JAC in the event that the Manager became unsat- isfactory, Leucadia would make that recommendation to JAC that the person be replaced. As far as hiring the employees, he felt LeU- cadia should hire upon recommendation by the Manager. Chairman Stiles recommended that JAC voice an opinion in favor of Carlsbad to get a replacement immediately for Mr. Evans; particu- larly in view of the fact that he might be around for a little while and help find that replacement. Mr. Van Sickle moved that the JAC notify the City of Carlsbad to immediately try to find a replacement for Mr. Evans. Seconded by Mr. McKay, the motion carried. Mrs. easier moved to the Subcommittee's recommendation that each of the agencies consider Leucadia becoming the operating agency and if they approve, Leucadia's counsel and JAC's counsel will prepare an agreement. Seconded by Mr. McKay, the motion carried. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:02 A.M. The next regularly scheduled JAC meeting will be on Wednesday, March 28, 1979 at 9:00 A.M. at the Encina Water Pollution Control Facility. Respectfully submitted, Gunn /Taylor PeCary to the JAC - 12 -