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
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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.
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f^JOINT ADVISORY ^iMITTEE MEETING
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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.
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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
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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
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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.
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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.
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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.
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JOINT ADVISORY WlMITTEE MEETING
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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
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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
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