Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-05-23; Encina Joint Advisory Committee Ad Hoc; Minutes'• • - • ••'--• -' •' v' •'••-:- -a- --• ^~n.---.y^:i!^jya^^ c o o ENCINA JOINT POWERS MINUTES OF THE JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING HELD ON WEDNESDAY, MAY 23, 1979 AT THE, ENCINA WATER POLLUTION CONTROL FACILITY CONFERENCE.ROOM Ed Stiles, Chairman Stanley Mahr, Vice Chairman 1. CALL TO ORDER Vice Chairman Mahr called the meeting to order at 9:04 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: Buena Sanitation District Guests ; C M Engineering Associates Carlsbad Journal Encina Chief Operator Encinitas Sanitary District Leucadia County Water District Lowry & Associates San Marcos County Water District Joe Zapotocky, Don Todd A. J. Skotnicki, Mary easier Bill Dominguez Jim McKay, Stanley Mahr Dick Hanson, Harold Henning Mark Schneider, Jack Filanc Jim Fraridsen Ron Beckman Roy H. Gann, Esq. Les Evans, Mary Taylor Ed Stiles John Murk, Libby Tortorici Jane Hunts Clyde Dietrich Jack Kubota Eric Elliott, Regina Ash Bob Hanson Tony Lauricha JOINT ADVISORY COMMIlC MlQ[NG MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 Chairman Mahr asked the JAC if they would refrain from speaking while there were train or plane noises since it is most difficult to hear the playback of the tape. 2. MINUTES OF APRIL 25, 1979 JAC MEETING Chairman Mahr asked for the approval'of the April 25, 1979 minutes as submitted. Mr. Hanson referred to Page 9, Item 13, Paragraph 3 of the minutes. For clarification purposes, he suggested adding the following at the end of the sentence: "and that approval of activating the onsite solids handling would have to be obtained from the Regional Water Quality Control Board." NOTE: The master of this particular sheet and the Official Minutes Book at Encina have both been changed to reflect this addition. Mr. Zapotocky moved that the minutes be approved as amended. Seconded by Mr. Hanson, the motion carried. 3. MINUTES OF MAY 9, 1979 SPECIAL JAC MEETING Chairman Mahr asked for the approval of the May 9, 1979 Special JAC meeting as submitted. •Mr. Zapotocky moved that the minutes be approved as submitted. Second- • ed by Mrs. easier, the motion carried. INFORMATION * 4. CONDITIONS OF THE ENCINA PRECISE DEVELOPMENT PLAN Mr. Evans said that the Planning Commission took up our application for a Precise Development Plan. They held a public hearing at which Dan Carr represented JAC and explained to. them what we were about. We had representatives from Altamira opposed because their concerns were if we had more sewage, we would have more odor and they felt Encina should solve the odor problems first. The Planning Commission did approve the plan and recommended it to the Carlsbad City Council.. The Council will also have to hold a public-hearing. The conditions proposed are on pages 3 and 4 in the Agenda Packet. He referred to Condition No. 7, adding that the City of Carlsbad had standard conditions on noise control. They asked that we do a study since we're between the railroad track and the freeway and to make sure - 2 - CO O OJOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING . . MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 that we're not raising the ambient noise level. Mr. Zapotocky asked when the study would be made. Mr. Evans replied that the study will have to be made prior to con- struction. Mr. Evans referred to Condition No. 11 which stated that the City of Carlsbad has standard conditions on off-site improvements. If you develop a piece of property, you have to install improvements such as curb gutters, sidewalks, half a street, extention of existing water sewer drainage systems, etc. There is a 10 inch water line which would need to be extended on Avenida Encinas from our northerly to our south- erly property line. The road would be built outside of our fence line. It will be used for access to the southerly part of the plant and Brown and Caldwell has built this into their design. The railroad has agreed to dedicate the property so half of the ultimate road would be on railroad property and half would come from Encina. There wi.ll be internal roadways and the main entrace of the plant will be immediately north of the flood control channel which will be straightened out. Mr. Zapotocky asked if these off-site improvements were grant eligible. Mr. Evans was not sure but we were working with the State at the present time. He was nearly sure that the extension to the flood control chan- nel would be grant eligible. Mr. Hanson asked what this would cost and Mr. Evans replied that the contract was being worked on at the present time. It should be ready for submission to the State the week of May 28 but the cost information wouldn't be ready for about a month. Mr. Evans referred to Condition No. 17 adding that the Planning Commis- sion was very concerned with sludge disposal. We have several alterna- tives which Bill Dominguez was going to pursue. Sam Mahr has been pur- suing an alternative through Prohoroff. The Planning Commission has asked that we prepare a disposal study and we're already working in that direction. Mr. Evans said that this would be before the Council on June 5 for a public hearing. 5. CONSTRUCTION MANAGEMENT - ALLOWABLE PROJECT COSTS Mr. Evans said that an EPA auditor gave us the advantage of doing a pre- contract audit of Lowry & Associates Construction Management Contract. - 3 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMI MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 MfiQlNG O Q 6. The auditor met with Lowry & Associates and Construction Management * Services and went through their books. He also went through our files at Encina, looked at the negotiating process and told us in advance where our problems might be if any. He identified some areas and we will be slightly amending the Construction Management contract. One thing that came out of this is that the policy of the EPA in dealing with utilities are not grant eligible , all the dealings . with the rail- road and getting permission to bore under their considerable right-of- way and railroad tracts out here or the relocation of a high pressure gas main, the relocation of the telephqne company's major lines and significant power lines - all of this work is not grant eligible. Since April 1, Mr. Evans has let Bob Hanson and Brown and Caldwell handle all relations with utility companies. Prior to that date, he was only involved in meetings and coordination. If the JAC wanted to do this in-house since we're not going to be reimbursed for it, the JAc has to decide now who is going to do it. He asked Mr. Hanson how much time it would take. • Mr. Hanson said it was difficult to tell but it could take from now until the first contract was let or about 10 to 20 hrs./week. Mr. Evans said the biggest problem was with the railroad because it takes a lot of meetings and negotiations. He suggested that Lowry & Associates and Brown and Caldwell continue with this work because it was within the scope of their present contracts even though it will not be grant eligible. . Mrs. Casler asked what this would cost. Mr. Evans estimated it at about $40 to $45/hr. and it would probably run through the end of summer which would run approximately $5,000 depending upon the type of problems encountered. Mrs. Casler moved that Lowry & Associates and Brown and Caldwell con- tinue with this work. Her reasoning being that we have now been with- out a General Manager for two months. Seconded by Mr. Skotnicki, the motion carried. 4 POTENTIAL SOLIDS LOADING TO ENCINA WPCF FROM SATELLITE FACILITIES -CM ENGINEERING REPORT Chairman Mahr called upon Mr. Murk for this report. Mr. Murk referred to Figure #4 of the report. He felt that if these projections were to hold up, it would be a very difficult decision to make whether or not they would have any affect. It was their opinion - 4 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 that the quantity of solids coming to Encina from the satellite treat- ment plant would not be of major significance to either the performance or size of any process systems at Encina. Mr. Evans stated that this assumes that the Lake Calavera Hills plant is planning on having its own digestion system. Mr. Schneider asked how we would apportion these cost for this addi- tional sludge handling. Mr. Evans said that years ago Chuck Oldsen and Leucadia's engineer fig- ured out how. much it would cost to process solids here, figured out what Leucadia was going to add and came up with some figure. He expected that we would have to go through this same exercise again and it would be some kind'of contractual arrangement. Mr. Murk said that Brown and Caldwell would like to see as much untreated sludge as possible come to the plant because it would help their energy balance here at the plant. They would like to see the sludge in its most primitive form so they could put it into the digesters to generate methane and, subsequently, power. When the sludge is transported, it's basically very inert so it's not going to give any odor problems. Be- cause it is a very clean sludge, it would be easier to treat it if it came down undigested. w Mr. Filanc asked if it would take more water to transport it undigested. Mr. Murk said it depended on where you are in the trunk line. You would probably have to get it to a sewer main that was flowing with other sewage. Mr. Frandsen said the County could go either way; undigested sludge or sludge digested on site depending upon the economics. Mrs. Casler expressed concern that it was really a policy issue which had to be determined as to whether or not we should allow satellite plants come in here. Further, she was concerned that those agencies which were .not proposing satellite treatment plants might come in for additional costs which might ordinarily not be theirs. Mr. Henning stated that Leucadia received approval from the RWQCB on May 22 and the approval for reactivating that existing plant was for the operation of that plant without sludge handling. He continued that the RWQCB is well aware that Leucadia intends to put the sludge in line and pump it to Encina. Mr. Gann stated that, if we were going to change the capacity, we would then require unanimous agreement. If we're going to have someone coming on line or change what they're putting into the plant, which will increase — 5 — [T-Ci MEWOJOINT ADVISORY COMMITlW MEWCNG MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 the cost to the other agencies, then we would have to enter into con- tractual arrangement to take care of that cost. Basically, he felt the question was whether or not we were going to increase our capacity into the plant. Mr. Evans said there was a problem in the Basic Agreement where it ad- dresses reclamation. He said that it says that even though you reclaim upstream and the water never reaches the plant, you pay for the sewage you reclaim upstream as if it came to Encina. He felt that section of the Basic Agreement should be rewritten. Also, as long as we were re- writing the reclamation section and amending the contract, perhaps we should put- in some words which would limit the amount of solids that any agency could discharge to the plant and figure out some method of payment. Mr. Hanson thought that Mr. Murk provided JAC with a report which was very enlightening and that it very specifically indicated that the planning that he sees us leaning toward today for this plant to handle the solids through 1990 with those agencies who are planning satellite treatment plants. This plant not only will have the capability of doing so but it's actually advantageous to handle it and if we can read that to-mean that Phase III enlargement is going to be able to handle that, he felt we should move ahead to an Engineering Committee to consummate the agreement that the plant be used in this manner. When we get to Phase IV and there's future planning by some of the agencies, maybe at that time we could* take into consideration additional solids handling at the plant. He didn't know if anything additional was needed in Mr. Murk's report. He felt that they, as engineers, gave an indication that there's not going to be any problem until 1990 based on what they have reported today. Mr.. Zapotocky moved that matter be referred to the Engineering Subcom- mittee for a recommended amendment to whether it's the Basic Agreement . or some subsequent amendment to allow for solids handling and to develop some criteria for determining on what proportion or ration the solids would have to be represented in the total flow. "Mr. Skotnicki said he would go along with the motion provided that the effects of sludge handling as referred to in the' C M report be forwarded to Brown and Caldwell for their assurance to the JAC that the solids from Leucadia's reactivation of its plant and the sludge from any of the potential satellite treatment plants be considered in their design of Phase III to insure the capacity and capability of caring for that sludge whether it's treated or untreated, primary or secondary. Mr. Evans said that Brown and Caldwell have a copy of the C M report and suggested that they attend this first meeting to see if we have a problem. - 6 - JOINT ADVISORY CoHMITTSS MEETING MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 . Mr. Zapotocky amended his motion to include that Brown and Caldwell be» in attendance at the Subcommittee meeting. The motion, as written in paragraph 4 on page 5 of the minutes and continued in this paragraph, was seconded by Mr. Hanson. It was unanimously carried. C M ENGINEERING OPE'RATIONS REPORT , Chairman Mahr called upon Mr. Murk for the Operations Report. Mr. Murk stated that the plant is operating extremely well, the digesters are working well and the operators are doing a good job in maintaining the plant. Mr. Dietrich indicated that we had received no odor complaints and on May 22, an attempt was made to spread some of the remaining sludge on site. One other thing he pointed out was that, during the week of May 14, the fields to the south of us and directly across the highway from Alta- mira were spread rather heavilly with chicken manure and the smell was very strong and, of course, we were blamed. Mr. Evans said that the people in Altamira are still complaining to the newspapers that the odors are still strong. He thought that what the news- papers are probably doing is asking Altamira residents to notify them when they have odors and the newspapers are going out to Altamira to verify it. * Mr. Murk-continued that the grease sample was still in the refrigerator and, to date, they have not come up with a meaningful method of analysis but they will continue trying. As far as the modificaion on Digester #3 was concerned, the contractor had the beams in place but had some problems because the field measure- ments taken on the digester indicated a different dimension than that shown on the drawings. This necessitated re-working the support colums which had been prefabricated in the interest of time. Hopefully, the completion date for this modification will be the first or second week of June. The interim water system bids will open sometime the week of May 28 and after the bids are evaluated, action can be taken as directed by the JAC. Mr. Hanson commented that we are going to continue to get odor complaints even if we don't have odors. He continued that it was very disheartening to realize that the newspapers are getting involved with respect that people are going to call them if they smell something even though it's unrelated to Encina. Assuming that we're going to have good operation now through the records that are kept, through analyses, etc., he ques- tioned how long we would have to operate satisfactorily before we can expect the RWQCB to rescind the Cease and Desist Order. He also asked JOINT ADVISORY COMMI MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 TTBfe MEJMTNG V^r *& if we could start thinking about rerating once the order is rescinded. Mr. Evans said he expected the Cease and Desist Order to be rescinded on June 25 and, as far as rerating was concerned, it would be up to the JAC to recommend same. ROUTINE REPORTS . . . 8. OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE REPORT • Mr. Evans referred to Lowry & Associates' time schedule, adding that we have six prepurchase equipment contract and five construction contracts. The secondary collector equipment, the belt filter presses equipment and the bar screen equipment prepurchase contracts have essentially been pre- pared. The secondary collector and belt filter press contracts have been forwarded to the State for their review. The barscreen prepurchase docu- ments are to be forwarded today. He expected to get a grant offer on Items 1, 2 and 5 by June 30, 1979. The first construction contract is the site preparation, drainage, exca- vation and is also being being prepared and will be ready for the State's review shortly. That contr-act will be submitted for State's approval and he expected to get a grant offer prior to June 30, 1979. 9 June 30 is the key date because after that date, the rules change again. We have to submit a revised financial plan and revenue program which will 'probably not be ready in the new format until August. Brown and Caldwell are essentially on schedule with their design and, if we can get the three prepurchase contracts and the construction contract out, we're still on schedule. One of the minor problems is authorization of the 10th Supplement to the Basic Agreement authorizing Vista Sanitation District to enter into prepurchase contracts and advertize for bids, etc. If we get a grant offer on June 30, then the next step is for Vista to advertise for con- tracts. We need the 10th Supplement -to be submitted to the various boards for approval as soon as possible. The supplement has been amended according to the various comments received from the City of Carlsbad and Leucadia and has been resubmitted. He was hopeful that the supplement would be approved by June 30 so that Vista would not be held up in adver- tising for bids. One problem we also have is that the City Clerk at Vista goes exactly by the book and she wants a original signed document from the agencies in . her hands before she will get Mayor Rappaport to sign on behalf of Vista. JOINT ADVISORY COMMIT^!*! MEETING W*. MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 Mr. Evans asked that the agencies either send the signed documents to Mary Taylor or Jean Brooks at Vista. He continued that we were having the same trouble with the 2nd Amendment to the Brown and Caldwell con- tract. Mr. Evans has told Brown and Caldwell to proceed' even though the 2nd Amendment has been approved by the agencies but not signed by Vista because all agencies have not submitted to the official documentation. He didn't think it was going to be a problem now but it could become a problem 5 years from now when the EPA auditor is going through the books and sees the date that Mayor Rappaport signed the agreement and the dates ton the billings from Brown and Caldwell. He stressed that it was extremely important that the agencies get the signed documents either to Mary Taylor or Jean Brooks as quickly as possible to avoid any problems. Value Engineering - Mr. Evans said the first stage of the value en- gineering took place the first week of May and he attended the first morning and wrap up sessions. It was his first experience with value engineering and Bob Hanson got to attend the-wrap up meeting. He thought the approach was interesting. We should be expecting a report back from the VE team and then, shortly after that, a response from Brown and Caldwell. After this, the Design Review Committee will meet. 9, EXPENDITURE REPORT Mr. Evans said that the first page of the three page Expenditure Report is the flow report which summarizes the flow for each of the agencies for. the entire fiscal year. He noted that the flows were dropping be- cause we had no rain in April and expected that we would be experiencing real dry weather flows in the future. Mr. Todd said that Vista's flows as reported for the next 30 to 60 days would probably be unreliable because the County has installed a bar screen at the meter station. This is a temporary measure while they're by-passing the plant and would probably affect their flow records. Mr, Evans said that we were under what we had estimated for total ex- penditure but, actually, this year we're under by the contingency amount and that's about it. We have spent closer to our budget this year be- cause of all of our problems. He thought when the audit report is in, we will find that this has been a very bad year indeed although we did not exceed the approved budget. He said the .final page was the breakdown for the agencies provided by the County for the consulting work they have done for each agency for _ 9 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITT MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 JEtf MEETING . • ^ ^*. industrial waste monitoring. Again, it's either within budget or very close. ACTION 10. ENCINA FISCAL YEAR 1979-80 BUDGET Mr. Evans said that at the April meeting, the JAC had actually approved the budget subject to some minor changes and we had mailed out corrected pages. It^was brought to our attention that we had made a mathematical error. The two pages contained in the May Agenda Packet are the cor- rected budget summaries and are the official figures. These two sheets should replace any other materials sent out previously. OTHER BUSINESS 11. ELEVENTH SUPPLEMENT TO BASIC AGREEMENT Mr. Zapotocky said that VSD would act on the'Eleventh Supplement on Tues- day, May 29. Mrs. easier said that Carlsbad would also act on May 29. Mr. Frandsen said that the County would approve on June 19. Mr. Hanson stated that the Selection Subcommittee met prior to the JAC meeting to discuss the procedures of hiring.a new manager. He contin- ued that they would again meet on Friday, June 25 to go over the appli- cations and the recommendations made by the consulting firm to the City of Carlsbad. They would try to set up interviews on Thursday, May 31. He said that, based primarily on discussions at the Special JAC meeting, Leucadia was proceeding on the assumption that the Eleventh Supplement was going to be approved. They were doing some work to set up meetings with the Encina personnel, working on the budget, salaries, fringe ben- efits, etc. v .One important concept, that he would like approved by the JAC, is in Section 10 of the Eleventh Supplement. This section provides that Leu- cadia County Water District assume operations July 1, 1979 and that, beginning fiscal year beginning July 1, 1980, they will get into the procedure of having the JAC agree at a time near which the budget is approved as to the overhead charge that is going to be assessed by Leucadia for the administration/operation of the facility. He assumed that, for this fiscal year, Leucadia will primarily operate within the constraints of the approved budget and they would not come back to the .JAC prior to July 1, 1979 with an overhead figure for JAC's ratification. He wanted to know if this was the consensus of opinion of the JAC or if the JAC wanted a firm overhead figure agreed upon prior to the time - 10 - JOINT ADVISORY CWrtMITHE MEETING MINUTES - MAY 23, 1979 _ W that Leucadia would assume administration/operation. Mr. Filanc asked if what Mr. Hanson meant was that Leucadia would use the County's figure for the first year. Mr. Hanson replied that they would use the County's figures for the first year but would work within the 'constraints of the budget. ' * Mr. Zapotocky said that, somewhere in Leucadia's accounting process, they were going to have to bring in a figure from July 1 forward. He asked if Mr. Hanson had any idea what that figure might be. Mr. Elliott said that they did not intend to crank in a figure or a percentage figure but actually accrue the costs and to so note those to the JAC. That was the concept of an overhead charge vs. an over- head rate. They would actually delineate what the JAC was paying for at that time so it would not be a figure that would be applied on July 1 in terms of a percentage override. Mr. Schneider thought that the reason we were going to Leucadia was because the overhead costs are lower and we were going to save some money. Mrs. Casler asked if, at the end of the year, the JAC would receive a rebate. , • Mr. Elliott said that probably Leucadia wouldn't charge the JAC until the end of the year. They would charge as the charges would be de- veloped. Mr. Skotnicki said that, in essence, what Leucadia was doing was go- ing through a trial or test period to see what, in fact, it does cost. He asked if this was the point. Mr. Hanson replied that he hoped JAC would all concur because July 1 was coming up very soon and they may .not be able to make the transi- tion exactly at that time. He agreed that they were going into it cold but that they would like the ability to operate during that fiscal year within the constraints of the budget. He didn't feel he had any problem in telling the JAC that it would be less as re- lated to the overhead charge assessed by the County. Leucadia was still talking about not to exceed 15% but it would be.very difficult to tell the JAC what the overhead charge would be prior to July 1, 1979. He added that, after a full year of operation, it would be very easy to come up with a figure. Mr. Gann said that if we are going to require Leucadia to come up with a flat figure at this time, Section 10 would have to be changed - 11 - JOINT ADVISORY COMMITW idQiNG W W MINUTES - MAY 23f 1979 to read "July 1, 1979" rather than "July 1, 1980", The first time that Leucadia (as Section 10 is now written) would have to come up with a flat figure in advance would be July 1, 1980. Mr. Filanc sarid that he would like to see just how much time it's taking. He felt this information could be obtained.from the records .kept by the staff here, by both Mr. Hanson"and Mr. Elliott and the office. Mr. McKay said that San Marcos had adopted the Eleventh Supplement with the understanding that the overhead charges wouldn't start until fiscal year 1980. He felt that Section 10 should go through as written. Mr. Gann said that the above discussions came about because someone thought that the July 1, 1980 date in Section 10 was in error but it was not an error. He wanted to make sure there wouldn't be any in- consistency when the agencies adopted the supplement. It should either reflect the 1979 or the 1980 date. Chairman'Mahr said that it would not be necessary for a motion and Section 10 of the Eleventh Supplement would remain as originally written. 12. INTRODUCTION OF TONY LAURICHA t Mr. McKay introduced Tony Lauricha who is the Superintendent of Re- ' clamation for the San Marcos County Water District. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:02 A.M. The next regularly scheduled JAC meeting will be held on Wednesday, June 27, 1979 at 9:00 A.M. at the Encina Water Pollution Control Facility. Respectfully submitted, .ylor to the JAC - 12 -