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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-04-25; Encina Joint Advisory Committee Ad Hoc; Minuteso ENCINA JOINT POWERS MINUTES OF THE JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25, 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 9:03 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; C M Engineering Associates Encina Chief Operator League of Women Voters Leucadia County Water District Lowry & Associates San Diego Union Times-Advocate Joe Zapotocky, Dan Carr Mary easier Ed Stiles, Bill Dominguez Jim McKay, Stanley Mahr Dick Hanson, Stan Van Sickle Mark Schneider, Jack Filanc Bob Maynard Ron Beckman Roy H. Gann, Esq. Les Evans, Mary Taylor A. J. Skotnicki John Murk Clyde Dietrich Ruth Honnold Eric Elliott, Paul Duvel Bob Hanson Neil A. Ball Tony Knight JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEJ^EETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, 197? 2. MINUTES OF MARCH 28, 1979" JAC MEETING Chairman Stiles asked for the approval of the March 28, 1979 minutes -as submitted. Mr. Zapotocky moved the minutes be approved as submitted. Seconded by Mrs. Casler, the motion unanimously carried. 3. MINUTES OF THE MARCH 23, 1979 SPECIAL JAC MEETING Chairman Stiles asked for the approval of the March 23, 1979 Special -JAC meeting. Mr. Zapotocky moved the minutes be approved as submitted. Seconded by Mrs. Casler, the motion unanimously carried. SPECIAL ELEVENTH SUPPLEMENT TO THE BASIC AGREEMENT Although this was not an item scheduled on the April 25, 1979 agenda, it was brought up by Chairman Stiles when he said that he had just re- ceived his copy of the Eleventh Supplement. He referred to Mr. Zapotocky, : Chairman of the Management Subcommittee, to review this proposal and pre- - sent the findings at the next meeting. Mr. Zapotocky set a meeting for the Management Subcommittee on Monday, • April 30, 1979 at 9:00 A.M. at Encina and Dick Hanson was added to the committee. He gave out copies of his concerns on this supplement. He said his concern was the relationship of the manager, if there is to be one, to Leucadia. Also, if there should or should not be a manager. He saw no need for a manager. Mr. Schneider felt that this matter should be placed before the entire JAC committee for guidance to the Management Subcommittee. He agreed with Mr. Zapotocky that there was no need for a full .time manager. Mr. Zapotocky felt that there was no reason to hire a manager except to do the grants administration. The administration of the plant would be Iieucadia's responsibility and to whom would a manager report and to whom would he give direction. Mrs. Casler said that the agreement was to have Mr. Evans continue on the project until a new manager was hired. Carlsbad felt that there should be a professional who could not only do the grant work but also manage -the plant. She asked Mr. Evans how much of his time was spent in admin- istrative work. - 2 - cO:JOINT ADVISORY COMMr«*JE MEETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, 1979 Mr. Evans said he was spending about 25% of his time on Encina which added up to about 30 hrs. a week. Just keeping the grant administra- tion going, he calculated as 22% of his time for the past three weeks. He continued that a manager's responsibilities depended on what the JAC wanted. If the JAC didn't want a manager talking at the RWQCB meetings, reporting to the JAC on what's going on at the plant, do budgets, man- agement construction contracts, etc., he felt you would only need a part time manager. There were a lot of things he was going to do as manager; i.e., updating a financial plan, updating the construction management plan periodically and managing the capital projects we have at Encina. If we had 'a part time manager here, we would still have to contract to get some of these other things done. He didn't, however, see a manager independent of Leucadia. Mr. Mahr felt that Leucadia and the JAC should be involved in hiring of the manager. Mr. Hanson suggested that the applications be turned over to the Inter- view Committee and that recommendation for hiring would be the joint recommendation of the JAC with Leucadia doing the recruitment and hiring of the individual. Leucadia would use whatever applications were being held by the City of Carlsbad rather than start new recruitment in order to meet the turnover date of July 1, 1979. Mr. Van Sickle said, as a home owner, he would prefer to see the plant over-staffed even if he had to pay extra sewage bills. He personally, and not as a member of the Leucadia County Water District, was in favor of having a full time manager. Chairman Stiles said that one of the important things of having a full time manager was continuity. He also reminded the JAC that almost every two years we have a member on the JAC who will come up with an idea which, unfortunately, had been discussed many times before by the JAC. He felt the need for the manager to be running the plant. Mr. Hanson said he assumed the County was maintaining the pumping sta- tions and, if that system was satisfactory, Leucadia would continue to do so. Mr. Gann pointed out one section of the agreement which he felt was un- satisfactory for everyone. If the five members wanted Leucadia out, we have provided that the five members can replace Leucadia and it would take a unanimous vote to designate the replacement. Obviously, the effect of that is to give Leucadia a veto vote so you could never replace them if they didn't like the replacement. From a legal point of view, he felt that there should be a percentage vote for replacement. Mr. Carr said he was under the impression that the only reason the JAC was - 3 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEStoflEETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, 1979 seeking a change was for the economic savings and, unless that subject was addressed, he thought VSD would have a hard time approving the sup- plement. Mr. Hanson said that if the agreement were to go forward prior to July 1, Leucadia would submit their overhead charges for this next fiscal year to the JAC. He added that it would be less than the County. Mr. Elliott said that Leucadia was probably talking about matching what the County calls overhead charges which.are 40%. Leucadia could probably provide those specific overhead figures in the neighborhood of 15% of direct labor. Here again, what Leucadia proposes is not to talk about percentage figures but to give a flat fee and actually outline what the fee covers. Mr. Gann said that the above was what the agreement provides; i.e. that Leucadia would submit a flat dollar figure for the year's overhead to each agency for their approval. Mr. Van Sickle said with a fixed fee charge, there was a lot more oppor- tunity to be innovative in doing things better and cheaper than if it was being done on a percentage basis. He added there's very little in- centive when you're being paid a percentage. Mr. Zapotocky felt that the above discussions were quite beneficial to ' the JAC and the subcommittee who could now come back with some kind of a meaningful report. INFORMATION 4. MINUTES OF APRIL 10, 1979 DESIGN REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING Mr. Evans said the committee discussed the possibility of moving up the construction of the fourth digester. Brown and Caldwell indicated that it would be very difficult to build the fourth digester without building all the gas management system and the heating systems that would make it operate and felt that early construction would result in more problems than it would resolve. The committee agreed that the digester should be left in the construction sequence as recommened by the engineers. 5. CARLSBAD SPECIFIC PLAN STAFF REPORT Mr. Evans said that tonight (April 25, 1979) at the regularly scheduled meeting of the Planning Commission, the issue of the Precise Development Plan would be before the Commission for public hearing. He would not be surprised if the meeting resulted in a continued public hearing or for referral to City Council for determination on policy questions. - 4 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMll^^E MEETING .MINUTES - APRIL 25, 1979 The primary concern is the Environmental Impact Report on the project which was prepared and certified in 1975. The Planning Commission is concerned that the scope of the project may have changed and some of the conditions that were examined in 1975 when the EIR was being pre- pared may have changed. He said that the Altamira Homeowner's Association was notified that this was a Public Hearing and he expected there would be opposition to the ex- pansion of the plant. Mrs. Casler thought this was all settled. «, . • • Mr. Evans replied to the negative adding that, first of all, we had to have a zone change before starting to process the Precise Development Plan. You couldn't start the Plan until you got through with the design of the project. Mr. Zapotocky said that if the issue was presented to the Planning Com- mission as one of upgrading rather .than expansion, it seemed that we were asking for opposition. He felt that it should be stressed that what we were doing is an upgrading and we're really bettering an existing situation. Mr. Evans said the Planning Staff is aware that it is an upgrading and he felt they would present it fairly to the Commission although there has been quite a bit of feedback on this issue from the Commission. He would not be surprised if this process took several months. Mr. Evans asked that the JAC concur that since the EIR was prepared 1) there had been no subsequent changes in the project which require a major revision of the EIR due to involvement of new environmental impacts not considered in the previous EIR; 2) there have been no substantial changes occuring with respect to the circumstances under which the the project is undertaken such as substantial deterioration in the air quality where the project will be located which will require major revisions in the EIR; 3) no new information of substantial importance to the project has become available. "Mr. Beckman suggested that the JAC concur with Mr. Evans' request. The only changes that have occurred in the project have been to eliminate elements of concern; the elements of concern being that we have substi- tuted activated sluge for biofiltration. The primary objections were that the biofilters were visual obstruction and were a more prominent source of odor. Mr. Carr moved that the JAC concur eith Mr. Evans1 request. Seconded by Mr. Mahr, the motion unanimously carried. - 5 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITT^^EETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, 1975*^ 6. RWQCB STAFF REPORT •« The RWQCB met on Monday, April 23, 1979 and staff reported the progress we were making under our Cease and Desist Order. They agree there have been diminished odor problems and the odors which were occuring now were more of digested and not raw sludge and seem to be related to the clean- ing of Digester No. 3 which was completed on April 18. He continued that the operators have the plant running the way it should be and that very shortly, the digestion system will be modified to the system that C M Engineering designed. Hopefully, this will prevent the problems we have had during the past few years of losing all of the di- gesters at the same time. The Regional Board was very understanding but felt they couldn't lift the Cease and Desist Order at this time. They asked us to come back to the June 25, 1979 meeting and again report on odor complaints and RWQCB inspections. . 7. C M ENGINEERING OPERATIONS REPORT Mr. Murk explained that there were two problems which occurred in April; 1) low temperatures in Digesters 1 and 2 and, after much discussion, it was decided that the malfunction was in the boiler room. The necessary parts are on order at the present time; 2) when Digester 3 was taken put of service for cleaning, the grease was put to Digesters 1 and 2. During the next several days, the digesters started to get upset but this has been corrected. No grease is being fed to the digesters and an agreement has been worked out with one of the sewage haulers to haul it away. They are going look at what is in the grease to cause this upset since grease is usually considered a benefit. Mr. Dietrich said the grease was being hauled to Otay twice a week to a total of 36,000 gallons. ROUTINE REPORTS 8. OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE REPORT Mr. Evans said that the only highlights of this report had been covered by Mr. Murk and Mr. Dietrich. 9. EXPENDITURE REPORT Mr. Evans pointed out that we should start getting more meaningful flow now that the rains seemed to have stopped. - 6 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMlWlE MEETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, 1979 ACTION 10. TEMPORARY DEWATERING DEVICE Mr. Evans referred to the letter from C M Engineering Associates which was attached to their Operations Report. Last year.about this time, .C M Engineering had made some recommendations which included conversion of the three digesters to primary digesters, upgrading the heating and mixing system all of which is now essentially complete. They also recom- mened that we needed some kind of backup system for the existing dewater- ing device to facilitate any rerating of the plant. We included a budget item in the 1978-79 budget to purchase or lease such a device. The Budget Committee felt that this put the budget up so high that we should delete it and perhaps take it up as a contingency item later in the year. The digester modification has nearly been completed. C M has done some investigation and has determined that we could purchase or lease a de- watering device with an installation cost as high as $40,000. Mr. Evans felt he needed a recommendation from the JAC on 1) whether they were interested in going ahead with a dewatering device now; or 2) whether they wanted to wait until Phase III which will take care of the dewatering problem. Also, if the JAC wants to go ahead with this prior to Phase III, did they want 1) to proceed now utilizing the contingency funds; or 2) ' to wait until the budget is adopted for the next fiscal year. Chairman Stiles asked if this were crucial that we do this. Mr. Evans replied that our centrifuge has been worked right into the ground and needs to be taken out of service and completely overhauled. He doubted whether our centrifuge would last until Phase III. The operators here would feel more comfortable having a backup device. Also, some of the agencies have indicated they would- like to apply for rerating as soon as the Cease and Desist Order is lifted. If we made a decision now and purchased a piece of equipment and wanted to make sure it was compatible with Phase III, then Brown and Caldwell might have to specify some kind of specific equipment and we might have to pay a premium price for this compatible equipment. Mr. Van Sickle said that he had read that the City of Los Angeles was put- ting their completely digested sludge into the ocean outfall. Mr. Murk said that they had two separate outfalls; one of which is a sludge outfall and goes seven miles out and down. -. 7 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTaQflEETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, 1979 Mr. Mahr asked who would be responsible for the repair of the lease de"- vice and Mr. Murk said that we would be responsible. Mr. Zapotocky moved that we authorize contingency funds and begin making arrangments for the installation and lease of a dewatering device immedi- ately. The lease would have to be •cancellable on short notice. Seconded by Mr. McKay, the motion unanimously carried. Mr. Evans said we would ask the Carlsbad Purchasing Department to get bids on the lease on a monthly basis with the 30 day cancellation notice. The lease money would be applied to the purchase. 11. ENCINA FISCAL YEAR 1979-80 BUDGET Chairman Stiles stated that a Budget Subcommittee had been held and the budget in the Agenda Packet is the one proposed by the Subcommittee. Mr. Evans stated that, in the original budget, we revise our contract with Walker and Gann to reflect $75/hr. for legal fees which would be more in accord with what other agencies are paying for the same service. The Budget Committee felt that the raise from $50 to $75/hr.'in one in- crement was excessive. Mr. Evans spoke with Mr. Gann and Mr. Gann pro- posed that the time spent at JAC meetings would be at $60/hr. and the time spent preparing agreements, writing supplements, reviewing Brown and Caldwell agreements and contractual documents would be at $75/hr. Mr. Evans proposed this as a change to the budget before the JAC. A motion was made by Mr. Dominguez to change the budget to reflect a legal fee of $60/hr. for Mr. Gann's attendance at JAC meetings and a fee of $75/hr. for Mr. Gann's other activities. Seconded by Mrs. easier, the motion carried unanimously. The additional dewatering devise was discussed and assuming that we could get a lease for $2,000/mo., Mr. Carr moved that we change the $50,000 al- located in the proposed budget to $24,000. He further moved that the JAC approve the 1979-80 Encina Facilities Bud- get if the above two motions were incorporated into the budget. Seconded by Mrs. easier, the motions unanimously carried. OTHER BUSINESS 12. THINGS WHICH COULD DELAY PHASE III a. Coastal Permit Conditions - Mr. Evans said that before we can get any - 8 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMI^k MEETING JMINUTES - APRIL 25, 1979 construction grants and before any constructions can start, we have to comply with the conditions of the Coastal Permit. These condi- tions apply to both Carlsbad and Leucadia and they are aware of same. b. Air Quality Condition - There is also an air quality condition imposed on us by the Environmental Protection Agency. Mr. Evans passed out a letter which was an inquiry from'the SWRCB to the CPO for comments on how we .have complied with these air quality conditions. Verbally, everybody seems to be satisfied that this isn't going to be a hold up but, eventually, the EPA is going .to- have to sign off that we have complied with the air quality maintenance strategy condition. c. Brown and Caldwell Financial Plan - Mr. Evans said as the project keeps dragging on and on, there have been many changes in the laws and rules and the financial plan, which was prepared by Brown and Caldwell in 1975 and. updated since then, is no longer in compliance with the rules. It will have to be revised before we can receive the grant offer for Step 3. d. Specific Plan - This is a building permit through the City of Carls- bad and is still pending, 13. REACTIVATION OF LEUCADIA'S -EXISTING WATER RECLAMATION FACILITY Mr. Hanson said this is a 750,000 gal./day facility and will not be oper- ating in excess of that. Leucadia has appeared before the Coast Region Commission and, by unanimous vote, gave their approval for that location for the development permit. The RWQCB will tentatively hear their appli- cation for waste discharge requirements on May 21. An integral part of that reactivation concept, with regards to solids handling, is that those solids be diverted to the Encina facility for treatment. Mr. Hanson con- tinued that they knew Leucadia would have to consummate an agreement and negotiate a fee and asked the JAC to give conceptual approval. Mr. Schneider asked Mr. Hanson is the operator of the plant determines that Encina is having a sludge problem, would Leucadia have the capability of activating their digester. Mr. Hanson answered to the affirmative adding that it would take a little time to do so. Mr. Evans said that this had been discussed in general terms by the En- gineering Committe and they reported that it would be feasible if Encina was to become a solids handling facility. As far as handling solids now when the JAC was interested in rerating, he asked Mr. Murk how it will affect the plans for the rest of the agencies to get more capacity. Mr. Murk said the solids handling system should not be affected at all. -. 9 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEWlEETING MINUTES - APRIL 25, He added that without looking at the numbers, it probably wouldn't make any difference. Mr. Dominguez felt that Mr. Murk should work up the numbers for the re- assurance of the committee. Mr. Beckman thought it would be advisable if we're looking for rerating because basically we're talking about 16 mgd of sludge in this plant plus an additional 750,000 gals, from Leucadia. If our concern is the limitation of the solids handling facility > he thought we should be able to assure ourselves and the Regional Board that we can handle it. Mr. Mahr thought that Mr. Murk should look at the overall picture as to what's going to happen if this becomes a sludge disposal plant as far as the rest of agencies are concerned. JAC unanimously gave Leucadia County Water District conceptual ap- proval for reactivation of their existing water reclamation facility. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:15 A.M. The next regularly scheduled JAC meeting will be on Wednesday, May 23, 1979 at 9:00 A.M. atthe Encina Water Pollution Control Facility. Respectfully submitted, i. Gunn [Taylor Secretary to the JAC - 10 -