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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-03-28; Encina Joint Advisory Committee Ad Hoc; MinutesENCINA JOINT POWERS MINUTES OF THE JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY, MARCH 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 9:06 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 K Absent: San Marcos County Water District Leucadia County Water District Guests: Brown and Caldwell C M Engineering Associates Encina Chief Operator Encinitas Sanitary District L. A. Times League of Women Voters Joe Zapotocky, Dan Carr A. J. Skotnicki, Mary Casler Ed Stiles, Bill Dominguez Stanley Mahr Stan Van Sickle, Eric Elliott Mark Schneider, Jack Filanc Jim Frandsen Ron Beckman Roy H. Gann, Esq. Les Evans, Mary Taylor Jim McKay Dick Hanson Graham Fraser John Murk, Jerry Frieling Clyde Dietrich Jack Kubota Nancy Ray Ruth Honnold, Jane Skotnicki - 1 - E"'«EJOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE"'«EETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 _ Guests (continued); Leucadia County Water District Regina Ash Lowry & Associates Bob Hanson Vista City Attorney Nancy Jones Vista Press Gordon Murray 2. MINUTES OF FEBRUARY 28, 1979 JAC MEETING Chairman Stiles asked for the approval of the February 28, 1979 minutes as submitted. Mr. Zapotocky moved that the minutes be approved as submitted. Seconded by Mrs. Casler, the motion unanimously carried. INFORMATION 3. LETTER FROM SWRCB - DUAL PLANNING/OCEAN WAIVER PROJECTS Mr. Evans stated that the philosophy of an application for a modification of secondary treatment requirements continues to be complicated. The EPA has admitted that their final regulations on filing this application are still not close to being ready. The State has written this letter to all agencies who are on the EPA list of agencies interested in applying for modification. This is to notify us that if we're interested in doing 'dual planning which means going ahead with the design of the secondary facility but also proceeding with design of a facility to meet the State Ocean Plan (which would be something less than a secondary facility) that it would be grant eligible and we could continue with it. The alterna- tives seem to be to continue as we are doing with design of a secondary treatment facility, build a secondary facility and forget an application for modification of secondary requirements. If we build a secondary plant, we're not going to get a modification. i Another alternative is that we can design something less than a secondary treatment facility. We can proceed with the design of a facility that would meet the State Ocean Plan. It would be something more than we now have but it would be less than a full secondary plant. It could probably be accomplished by building half the secondary facilities that we planned on and blending a combination of primary treated sewage with secondary treated sewage and discharging it into the ocean to meet the Ocean Plan. The State said we could operate a plant here, that would meet the less than secondary treatment plant, until the EPA acts on our application and makes a decision. If the EPA says yes to our modification, then we would .have a treatment plant here on line to meet that standard. If they say no, then we would have to add those secondary facilities that would bring the entire plant up to the secondary requirement. The State has indicated that, if we make the decision to go less than secondary now and if we 2 — JOINT ADVISORY COMMITO^ MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 fail to get approval from the EPA, the additional secondary facilities to bring the plant up to a full secondary plant would be grant eligible. Mr. Filanc asked if it were possible to have a secondary treatment plant of 18 mgd and if we were allowed to have this modified primary secondary in the future, could* we use that plant at a greater capacity without ad- ditional construction. Mr. Evans replied to the negative adding that this was not an option. If we decide to go secondary and build a secondary plant here, we are no longer eligible to submit an application for a waiver. Chairman Stiles asked if it wouldn't be better to continue on as we were. Mr. Skotnicki said that this matter had been.discussed by the JAC some time ago at which time the consensus was exactly what Chairman Stiles had said. He continued that in view of the time and future reclamation, it would appear to be the better course of action to proceed with the design of a secondary plant. Mr. Zapotocky agreed with Mr. Skotnicki that we had agreed to go concur- rently with the design and waiver request. Mr. Schneider said that, in regard to the secondary plant over the primary plant, in all probability the chances of controlling the odors would be a great deal better than with a secondary plant. He felt that we should forget about trying to get a waiver for secondary and quit wasting that effort. That effort should be put toward getting Phase III going. Chairman Stiles said that it was the concensus of opinion that we continue on in the path we are now following. . Chairman Stiles introduced Nancy Jones, the Vista Attorney. 4. ENCINA FISCAL YEAR 1979-80 BUDGET Chairman Stiles referred to Mr. Evans for his comments on the Encina Fis- cal Year 1979-80 Budget. Mr. Evans stated that by May 1st of the year, a budget had to be prepared estimating the amount of money required for the maintenance and operation of the plant. This year, the budget is based on the continued operation of the plant by the County. In the event Leucadia operates the plant, he was hopeful that the budget would be less. Mr. Zapotocky asked if it was the intent to draft the budget and then meet with the Budget Committee. Mr. Evans replied to the affirmative adding that the budget would be avail- able the week of April 2, 1979. - 3 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 Chairman Stiles suggested that the same people, who were on the Budget * Committee in 1978, again meet to review this 1979-80 budget prior to the next JAC meeting. Members of the Budget Committee are: Dan Carr Stan Mahr Ron Beckman Eric Elliott Jim Frandsen Mark Schneider 5. MEMO TO COUNTY AUDITOR - VISTA TRUST FUND Mr. Zapotocky said that Don Todd was meeting with Oscar Martinez today to get a better grip on Vista's position. He also acknowledged the cash flow development prepared by Mr. Evans. Mr. Evans handed out a Cash Flow, which he felt was realistic, based on the design and construction schedules worked out by our consultants. As of right now, our six agencies have spent $323,780 out of the Vista Trust Fund. By mid-April, they will have spent $403,780. During the design period, we are able to ask for one grant payment at anytime we want. We then have to wait until our design is complete before we can ask for a final grant payment. He assumed grant reimbursements as early as we can get them (in the sec- ond column from the end) and deducted the grant reimbursement from the local cash flow. The far right hand column assumes regular grant reim- bursements beginning in August, 1979 and the cash flow is an actual indi- cation of local money that we have committed. He worked up the cash flow in the Construction Management plan, which was approved by the JAC in September, 1978, and this flow is approximately the same as was discussed in September. Chairman Stiles asked if there wasn't some reserve from Phase II and IIA. Mr. Evans answered to the affirmative adding that on the third page of the memo in the agenda packet, the left hand column shows the amount each agency has in the VSD trust fund as of 4/30/78. For Encinitas and Buena, the money in the VSD trust fund is a significant amount compared to what they are going to have to put up for Phase III. San Marcos and Leucadia have already had to add more money to the fund. By the end of this year, Vista and Carlsbad are going to be talking about some large sume of money in the neighborhood of $1 million or so which will have to be available if we continue on this schedule. Vista's share is 30% of $9 million which is $2.7 million by June 15, 1980. Mr. Schneider asked what will happen to the project if one of the agencies does not have the money. - 4 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITrlsf MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 Mr. Zapotocky said that their estimate right now is $1.7 million in re- serve but they were trying to confirm those figures today. One of the problems VSD is faced with is that three years ago certain projections were made and they were able to get a tax override approved, increase their annual service charge and connection fees which would have gener- ated $4.2 million which would accommodate a $2.3 million instead of a $2.6 million then. VSD lost the override since Proposition 13 so they do have a cash flow problem. Chairman Stiles said that the balance of the agencies would have to con- tribute in the event that one of the agencies couldn't come up with the money either on a loan basis or sell sewer capacity they didn't need. He said that this had been discussed a long time ago and that the other agencies would contribute. He referred to Mr. Gann. Mr. Gann said it would not change the ownership rights without agreement and if it were a loan situation, it would not have any effect at all. Mr. Dominguez said that right now would not be too early to start plan- ning contingencies for a short fall by making inquiries with the EDA or the County's revolving fund or what the availability of short fall money would be. He felt these avenues should be investigated just in case we wind up with a short fall. Mr. Skotnicki felt that since we are.all independent agencies and recog- nize our responsibilities, he didn't think it was the joint sewage agencies responsibility to start financing the individual member's requirements. He . felt that the parent agencies have to make the necessary provisions. He didn't feel that Carlsbad, as far as he was concerned, would care to have somebody else worry about it. Mr. Dominguez said that some avenues of exploration should be made avail- able. 6. LETTER FROM BROWN AND CALDWELL - PHASE III DESIGN SCHEDULE Mr. Evans said that this letter included a design schedule and identifies bid packages and dollar estimates that go along with the bid packages. Essentially, this letter and advice from our Construction Manager and Brown and Caldwell was used to develop the cash flow. He referred to page 2 describing the bid packages on which the first six items were all equipment prepurchases. Although a lot of that money would be encumbered, approximately $2.7 million would not necessarily be spent during the next fiscal year because these are long lead-time items which we would be iden- tifying and for which plans and specs would have to be prepared in order to proceed with purchase during this summer. However, that equipment might not be received for two years. - 5 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 He referred to Item 7 - site Preparation, Drainage and Miscellaneous Structures and said that this is the first actual contruction contract and the design is scheduled to be completed in July. Hopefully, the grading and excavation would be under way before we enter next year's rainy season. The first big contract is Item 9 - Secondary Facilities with design com- plete by September 1. By the time it is approved by the State, actually out to bid and contracts have been awarded, it would probably be early in 1980 before we will be making payments to the contractors. It's that $11 million that raises the cash flow to the agencies and it's in that time frame (spring of next year) when the agencies would have to start coming up with the big money. Item 11 - Balance of Project is fairly hazy at this point and may become more than one bid item. One of the things we will have to do is an eval- uation of whether we build a digester earlier than Item 11. At present, Item 11 includes the digesters, the majority of instrumentation, the blower equipment and gas management system. Chairman Stiles asked what an additional digester would cost. Mr. Evans replied that it would run about $1 million and would not be grant eligible. .Mr. Schneider said he felt sure that some of the agencies, who are going to build satellite treatment plants, would like to see as much sludge handling facilities down here as possible. He added that if we're going to become a sludge handling facility, we would have to have adequate digesters to accommodate same. Mr. Skotnicki suggested that we pose the question of the extra digester to Brown and Caldwell as to whether the cost benefit was there. Chairman Stiles asked Mr. Murk if this was feasible. Mr. Murk said that it was feasible as to cost but didn't know if putting in $1 million as this point would be worth that much money. He felt that there was enough capacity in the three digesters, when they're all modi- fied, to handle the sludge between now and such time if you don't look at increasing it beyond potential rerating capacity of 16 mgd. He felt the weak link in the chain right now is the dewatering equipment and not the digesters. He also felt that for the million dollars, it would be better to spend it on dewatering equipment and not a digester. Mr. Dominguez asked if we will have the dewatering backup when Phase III is completed. * 6 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTED MEET ING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 Mr. Evans replied to the affirmative adding that Phase III called for * four belt filter presses which would give us four times the dewatering capabilities we now have. We are proposing to put this backup dewater- ing system into next year's budget. • Mr. Pilanc said that, at one time we'had a criteria from the State on the deadline of October 1 to have 90% of Phase III submitted, there was a tremendously large item being submitted on April 1, 1980 which is be- yond the date and which puts us less than those prescribed percentages. He wanted to know if this made any difference. Mr. Evans said it did not because the schedule, has been submitted to the State and they recognize what we're trying to do and why the design sched- ule worked out this way. What they really wanted from us is to know how much they would be able to obligate against this project but they are not going to interfere with how we are going to manage our project. The con- tract with Brown and Caldwell said they would have 99% bidable plans and specs complete by December 15, 1979 or, if the JAC agree on a different time schedule, then that would be substituted for the December 15 date. ROUTINE REPORTS 7. OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE REPORT Mr. Schneider asked how the digesters were working. Mr. Dietrich said they were outstanding and that both digesters are in and we are now feeding them 100%. Hopefully, on April 2 we can start emptying Digester No. 3. Mr. Schneider asked why we were still using vacuum trucks if we're feed- ing 100%. Mr. Dietrich said that we're lowering the level on Digester No. 3 so that if we do have to use it for some unforeseen reason, we'll have capacity without supernating and we don't want to centrifuge out of it. Today or tomorrow will be the last day for the vacuum strucks. « Mr. Skotnicki said that he noted, under Paragraph C in the report, the modified cover leaks gas and that pressure lifted the cover. Mr. Evans said we still have some problems with Digester No. 1 and the contractor has not yet decided how he's going to correct this. It is not interfering with the operation of the digester. There was urethane foam that actually sealed the little space between the walls of the tank and cover. After it was put in, we noticed bubbles coming up through it but it's not like a huge leak and there are no odors. We also found out - 7 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEW1EETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 if we weren't careful and put too much liquid in Digester No. 1, we * could blow the cover off. Mr. Schneider asked if we hadn't paid some engineer to solve this prob- lem and if they were working on it.• Mr. Evans answered to the affirmative adding that it was more of a contractor problem than an engineering problem. Mr. Evans said that plant-wise, everything was just about back to normal. 8. EXPENDITURE REPORT No significant remarks were made about the Expenditure Report. ACTION 9. TENTH SUPPLEMENT TO THE BASIC AGREEMENT Chairman Stiles asked for the staff report on this item. Mr. Evans indicated that Roy Gann, JAC Counsel, Don Todd of the Vista Sanitation District, Oscar Martinez of the County Auditor and Controller . Office, Bob Hanson of Lowry & Associates and he had met the previous week to discuss the need for an Agreement to facilitate the Phase III Construction. Present agreements authorize Vista Sanitation District to apply for and accept Clean Water Grants for engineering but do not dis- cuss construction. Mr. Gann discussed the form the Agreement would take and authorization for the Vista Sanitation District to enter into major contracts up to 15% over the engineer's estimate would be included. MX. Gann proposed a process for entering into mini-contracts with a ceiling on the total amount which Vista could obligate without going back to the agencies. He indicated that VSD would not have to return to the six agencies for concurrence prior to awarding contracts. The agreement will also include the ownership rights after Phase III, how local shares will be determined and the disposition of leftover funds. On motion by Mr. Dominguez and second by Mr. Skotnicki, JAC Counsel was requested to prepare a Tenth Supplement to the Basic Agreement authorizing the Vista Sanitation District to apply for and accept construction grants and contract for Phase III construction. The motion was unanimously approved. - 8 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTE S - MARCH 28, 1979 10. VISTA SANITATION DISTRICT PROJECT OFFICER FOR PHASE III Mr. Zapotocky moved that Mr. Evans be appointed Vista Sanitation Dis- trict "Project Officer" during the period that the position of Encina General Manager is vacant. The motion was seconded by Mr. Dominguez. Mrs. easier was asked if this arrangement would be suitable to the City of Carlsbad and she indicated that it would. The motion was unanimously carried. 11. SLUDGE DISPOSAL ' Chairman Stiles asked Mr. Evans to comment on this item. Mr. Evans indicated that sludge disposal was a potential problem and that it would be advantageous to develop a local land disposal site to dispose of sludge that could not be given away. He indicated that several local property owners were interested in leasing property to the Encina Agencies for this purpose if assurance could be given that the future use of the land would not be restricted by Health Department or Regional Water Quality Control Board regulations. Mr. Evans said that he would like to budget $25,000 for fiscal year 1979-80 for con- sulting services to determine if land disposal at specific sites would be feasible. Mr. Dominguez indicated that he thought we could work through the local universities to develop the information we needed at much lower cost. Mr. Mahr reminded the JAC that Prohoroff Poultry Farms was presently in the fertilizer business and may be interested in taking excess sludge off our hands. He indicated that he would contact them and report back. Mr. Fraser said that Brown and Caldwell had recently completed a major study on this subject for another client and would be happy to provide applicable portions of the work to the Encina staff for their use. Mr. Murk said he was familiar with some work in this area by the Los Angeles Orange County Sanitary Districts and could get us a copy of that report. Chairman Stiles appointed Mr. Dominguez as a committee of one to look into the possibility of receiving assistance from the local colleges and to report back to the JAC. 12. CAPITAL OUTLAY BUDGET The JAC recommended the purchase of a tape recorder at an approximate price of $300 for use at Encina for the JAC meetings and transcription - 9 - oJOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 o of minutes. There was no need for a motion since the approved capital outlay budget had funds remaining. OTHER BUSINESS 13. LEUCADIA COUNTY WATER DISTRICT AS OPERATOR OF EWPCF Mr. Elliott said there was going to have to be a lot of one and one with Leucadia and the County employees and he was quite familiar with the County system, specifically in its dealing with Encina, Leucadia had spoken with the County employees here and felt they had come to some pretty good understandings. He felt that there was more fear within the JAC than there is within the staff itself. Mr. Dominguez asked if it would take another supplement ratification to transfer the operation. He felt that it would take a draft, a review . and parent agency approval. Mr. Schneider said "We've got to go independent," Mr. Elliott asked if they could get clearance from the other two agen- cies, could they go ahead and set up a committee meeting before the next JAC meeting. Mr. Gann thought there was probably more apprehension, that will prove to be justified in later time, and didn't feel that getting a working agreement would be that difficult. He felt that the most delicate prob- lem was the employee problem. Mr. Zapotocky said one of the concerns of VSD is that, under the present agreement, it would take a unanimous vote to achieve it and a unanimous vote to undo it if there is an agreement. VSD's position will be that it should not take a unanimous vote because, obviously if Leucadia wanted to stay in the business, we couldn't get them out. He would want to have that safeguard worked in. Mr. Gann said that, when it came to voting on certain items such as re- moval of the operating agency", Leucadia would not exercise a-.vote in that. Mr. Dominguez asked if Leucadia needed approval of concept by the agencies. Mr. Gann said that, once he is instructed by the JAC that everyone has ap- proved in concept, he would contact Dick Hanson and go over some of the ideas to clear up some of the concepts so they would be willing to do what the JAC members .want done. If the JAC agreed, he would prepare a draft for this entire committee. - 10 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 Mr. Dominguez said he was a little nervous that the Board of Supervisors should probably take a specific action in approval of concept because he didn't know what the reading of the majority of the Board was at this point. Mr. Mahr asked if this was going to be administrator/operator or just operator? Mr. Gann said it was his impression that it would be both administrator and operator somewhere down stream. However, not at this time because the JAC shouldn't do anything to foul up, change, alter or amend any pro- cedure or process that will affect Phase III. His understand was that, if Leucadia became the operator, VSD would be the administrator for the contracts. What would be more preferable, subject to everyone's approval, is to have VSD be the total administrator rather than have Leucadia, Carls- bad and Vista involved until Phase III is totally completed. Mr. Zapotocky raised the question of why, if we're going to have an ad- ministrator/operator, do we need a manager? Also, wouldn't this be solved by going to the reorganization concept we started with and get- ting this all behind us? Mr. Elliott said that the original outline Leucadia brought to the JAC earlier included the concept of being the operator and administrator. As it developed, they felt that the administration should stay with Vista. Chairman Stiles appointed a subcommittee to discuss the detailing of the ' program as far as Leucadia was concerned. Members of this committee are: Joe Zapotocky Bill Dominguez A. J. Skotnicki Stan Mahr Mark Schneider Mr. Dominguez said he had asked Mr. Frandsen to supply the committee with a copy of the original contract with the County. Mr. Elliott asked if the JAC had authorized Mr. Gann to prepare a dis- cussion draft. The JAC agreed. Chairman Stiles said that, since Mr. Dominguez was chairing this com- mittee, he would let the committee know the meeting date. 14. BURROUGHS COMPANY INVITATION TO INSPECT PLANT Mr. Kubota said that the Burroughs Company has extended an invitation to the Water Conservation Water District to inspect their plant on Friday, April 20, at 2:00 P.M. If any of the.JAC members would like to attend, he would be more than happy to ask Burrough to extend the in- - 11 - 1&*XEJOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE**BEETING MINUTES - MARCH 28, 1979 vitation to our group. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:03 A.M. to the Miramar Restaurant for Mr. Evans1 roast. The next regularly scheduled JAC meeting will be on Wednesday, April 25, 1979 at 9:00 A.M. at the Encina Water Pollution Control Facility. Respectfully submitted, M. Gunn [Taylor Secretary to the JAC - 12 -