HomeMy WebLinkAbout1979-09-26; Encina Joint Advisory Committee Ad Hoc; Minuteso
ENCINA JOINT POWERS
MINUTES OF THE JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTEE MEETING
HELD ON WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 26, 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 9:05 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
JAC Counsel
Encina Joint Powers
Absent:
Vista Sanitation District
City of Carlsbad
Guests:
Brown and Caldwell
C M Engineering Associates
Encina Plant Operator
Leaugue of Women Voters
Leucadia County Water District
Lowry & Associates
Joe Zapotocky
Mary Casler
Ed Stiles, Bill Dominguez
Jim McKay, Stanley Mahr
Dick Hanson, Stan Van Sickle
Mark Schneider, Jack Filanc
Roy H. Gann, Esq.
Bob Goodman, Mary Taylor
Dan Carr
A. J. Skotnicki
Graham Fraser
John Murk
Clyde Dietrich
Ruth Honnold
Eric Elliott
Bob Hanson
2. MINUTES OF AUGUST 22. 1979 JAC MEETING
Chairman Stiles asked for the approval of the August 22, 1979 JAC min-
utes as submitted.
JOINT ADVISORY
MINUTES - SEPTEMBER 26rn979
Mr. Hanson referred to page 2, paragraph 5, of the minutes and said
that it<should read as follows:
"Mr. Filanc stated that 'it is conceivable that Leucadia, with their
raw sewage plus the introduction of sludge from their satellite plant,
that their contributions would still be less than other member agencies
without satellite plants'."
Mrs. Casler moved that the minutes, with the above change, be approved.
Seconded by Mr. Zapotocky, the motion carried.
ACTION
3. INDUSTRIAL WASTE MONITORING PROGRAM
Mr. Goodman referred to the memorandum in the agenda packet and stated
that County desired to discontinue waste monitoring as of October 1,
1979. Approximately $22,000 would be required for fixed start up costs
a truck, truck and laboratory outfitting, 6 automatic samplers and a
flow meter. We could get simultaneous readings from six industrial
sources or from the six agencies. The annual salary requirement for
this position would be about $22,600 plus 27-30% fringe benefits.
A discussion ensued as to whether it was conceivable that the costs could
be accessed as an annual charge to the industries being monitored.
Mr. Goodman said that Graham Fraser of Brown and Caldwell submitted a
proposal September 26 to develop a revenue program for primary treatment.
Under that program, the costs of and allocation of those costs for the
industrial waste monitoring program would be addressed as part of the
study.
Mr. Gann said that each entity would need to adopt an ordinance wherein
the users would be charged.
Mr. Schneider moved that we hire Jack Thomas. Seconded by Mr. McKay,
the motion carried.
Chairman Stiles noted that this motion and that this recommendation had
to be taken back to the agencies' respective boards because JAC did not
have the authority to hire Jack Thomas.
Mr. Hanson felt it was very important that the Budget Committee (Mr.
Schneider and Mr. Skotnicki) meet with Leucadia as increased costs,
like hiring, must go back to each agency for ratification and approval.
A special budget meeting was set for September 27.
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JOINT ADVISORY COMfOEE MEETING
MINUTES - SEPTEMBER 26, 1979
On response to a request about operating in the interim and personnel
vacancies, Mr. Goodman said that Fred Rowlen was already analyzing all
of the samples that Jack Thomas was bringing in. If we must implement
the program on October 1, Jack Thomas will spend a couple of days go-
ing around with Fred Rowlen to show him where he takes the samples,
where the problems are and introduce him so that we can do it tempor-
arilly. The laboratory equipment proposed is for the proper program
as opposed to the reduced service we are getting today.
In regard to vacancies, Mr. Goodman answered a question posed earlier.
It is proposed that Jack Thomas take the place of one of the operator
vacancies. Two operator-maintenance helpers are proposed as opposed
to operator trainees or Operator I. Also, we are proposing hiring one
additional person in the office because two people cannot keep up with
the grant program which will increase in volume. These are all within
the total number of people. He added that we have been sampling the
influent on weekends and our metals content is increasing on Sunday.
We need someone on the Encina staff who can be sent out randomly dur-
ing the weekend.
Mr. Zapotocky moved that the hiring of Jack Thomas be suspended; that
we request County to continue its monitoring until the Budget Committee
has met with Mr. Hanson and reviewed the total budget. Seconded by Mrs.
Casler, the motion carried with Mr. Schneider abstaining.
The General Manager was instructed to write a request to the County to
continue the monitoring program until January 1, 1980.
Mr. Schneider stated we need to reorganize so that the members don't
have to go back to their respective boards with such problems. He con-
tinued that if we don't reorganize, we will never get anything done.
Mr. Schneider moved that we immediately reorganize even if we have to
go to court. The current method is too cumbersome, we can't make any
decisions and it is very costly. Seconded by Mr. Zapotocky, the motion
carried.
Chairman Stiles asked Mr. Schneider to chair this Reorganization Com-
mittee. His responsibility would include setting up meetings, etc.
4. INTERIM DEWATERING FACILITY
Mr. Goodman referred to his memorandum in the agenda packet.
Mr. Zapotocky moved that the General Manager's recommendation, Alter-
native "A", redesign for a reduced scope of work with a longer con-
struction period be implemented. Seconded by Mr. Mahr, the motion
carried.
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JOINT ADVISORY COMMITTJ^MEETING
MINUTES - SEPTEMBER 26^1979
INFORMATION
5. SOLIDS HANDLING COMMITTEE MEETING OF AUGUST 28. 1979
Mr. Goodman said that the committee requested Brown and Caldwell prepare
a proposed special engineering service under the basic design contract
to develop a revenue program for the operation.
Mr. Fraser presented the proposal which covered two tasks. The basic
task, in which the subcommittee was interested was the Interim Financial
Plan and Revenue Program. The second task of the proposal is to assist
the OAC and various agencies with determining various cost share arrange-
ments .
Copies of the proposal were passed out to the JAC.
Mr. Goodman didn't think this would be cost reimbursable under the grant
program and it will be denied when the final audit is made on this plant
five years from now.
Mr. Fraser said the proposal and the EPA form 5700 are presented as if
it was going to be grant eligible because it could happen that a portion
of it may be grant eligible.
Mr. Goodman said that, in the meantime, it comes from the trust account
plus the grant reimbursement for Step 2 design services that we get from
the State and EPA. We would only be paying 12%% of the cost of the design
right now out of our pocket and then have to pick up the other 87%% pos-
sibly five years from now. The present basic design agreement has a cost
ceiling of $384,000 for special engineering services. We are just about
up to that limit now and have received Amendment No. 4 to the Basic Agree-
ment from Brown and Caldwell which will increase the Special Engineering
Service authorization to a total of $700,000. This will cover all known
services plus an amount for unplanned future engineering services. He
had negotiated the last four special engineering services with Brown and
Caldwell and executed those Special Engineering Services authorizations
on behalf of Vista Sanitation District. These have been submitted to the
State and the State has sent back the procedural conformity approval.
The four services represents approximately $200,000 that has been autho-
rized.
6. SAN DIEGO REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD
MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 24. 1979
Mr. Goodman attended the Regional Water Quality Control Board Public
Hearing on September 24, 1979. The new discharge permit was passed as
an uncontested item for Encina Joint Powers among others. This incor-
porates changes required by the California Ocean Plan and also incor-
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JOINT ADVISORY COMWTjEE MEETING
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porates our current construction schedule. The permit requires approx-
imately 66 individual reporting items on our progress for compliance
towards attaining secondary treatment prior to January 1, 1983. Those
requirements are on top of all the other requirements from the SWRCB,
the EPA and other entities.
He referred to the staff memorandum regarding odors which was given to
the Executive Officer of the RWQCB and formed the basis of an oral re-
port. The Staff did tell the Board that no odors had been detected in
14 inspections. The members were very favorable in their comments but
took no action to rescind the cease and desist order. He spoke with
Mr. Burtman afterwards who said that the Board did not want to lift the
cease and desist order because it's difficult to reimpose it. Their
philosophy is that it's a personal affront that they have to issue that
type of order. They want to wait until the warm weather is over to make
sure that there are no odors present. Then, they will consider lifting
it when the cool weather is here.
7. MASTER SCHEDULE FOR PHASE III
This Master Schedule, within the Construction Management Plan, has been
submitted to the State. Copies of the Management Plan will be provided
to each agency. He continued that we have missed a day or so on some of
the printing. Four of the bid packages have gone to the printer. The
schedule called for advertising bid package #5, bar screens, on Septem-
ber 24, 1979. He provided a copy of the invitation to bid to Mr. Zapotocky
to give to the clerk to the Board of Directors of the Vista Sanitation
District so she could make the appropriate insertion in the newspapers.
Proof of publication in the newspapers is part of the certification pro-
cess when requesting authority to award.
8. DESIGN REVIEW COMMITTEE MEETING OF AUGUST 22, 1979
The proposed LCWD failsafe line was investigated. The depth of the cover
over the existing siphon Ines would be too great. The siphon lines will
now be eliminated and new lines installed as part of the Phase III Project.
Mr. Fraser said there would be a single line to replace the existing
siphons plus allow for future capacity. It will be placed in the road-
way embankment which will eliminate a lot of the maintenance problems.
9. ENGINEERING COMMITTEE MEETING OF SEPTEMBER 26. 1979
Mr. Goodman said the Engineering Committee would meet at 1:00 p.m. to
review the Value Engineering Study B-l and Brown and CaldwelTs response.
Both of these reports have been submitted to each agency. Following this
meeting, we will submit the VE report to the State. We will also be re-
viewing the 100% drawings for the site development contract which went
to the printers September 24, 1979 and will be advertised.
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JOINT ADVISORY COMMIT^ MEETING
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We will also be reviewing the 99% submittal for Bid Package No. 9 for
secondary collectors. This is at the State right now for review and,
upon completion of the State's review and their approval, that will
clear it for offer of a grant offer this month. This is one of the
three grant request packages that were submitted this month. Package
No. 9 is estimated at $11.5 million.
The State has taken the tact again that they want to have the Value
Engineer's comments upon the designer's comments of the study. Mr.
Goodman has sent a letter to the State telling them that their request
is not in conformance with the EPA Procedural Manual for Value Engineer-
ing. Requiring the VE team to comment again will establish adversary
roles between our designer and VE team. This will have an adverse im-
pact upon a design team concept. He has suggested instead that we have
a meeting between the State, Brown and Caldwell, the value engineering
firm and ourselves to discuss the entire design concept. As a result
of the State's position on solids production, we have a $5 million
difference of opinion between what is grant eligible and what is being
designed. We need to resolve this at the earliest possible date. The
longer we delay can be interpreted that we are acquiesing to the State's
position and, therefore, that we agree that it's not grant eligible.
To preclude this, we have presented our objections to their interpre-
tation at each step.
Mr. Fraser said that the solids production is a critical issue and
affects so much of the grant eligibility. He continued that the value
engineering team did review their calculations and their methodology
for coming up with the quantity of solids that will be produced. The
VE team concluded that Brown and Caldwell's calculations were correct.
The VE team's comments will be passed on to the State as well. He felt
we had a fairly good chance of getting a much higher eligibility than
the State now is authorizing.
Mr. Hanson asked Mr. Goodman if had a better estimate today on Phase
III so that they might be able to indicate to their constituents when
we are going to have a Phase HI.
Mr. Goodman answered that our current schedule in the Management Con-
struction Plan shows that we are shooting for a July 1, 1982 earliest
completion of construction if everything goes ideally. The telephone
company is the key right now in our schedule of even achieving the
January 1, 1983 date because they must relocate their cable. They
had indicated to us that it would be a 10 month procurement time and
1 month construction. If they had held to that schedule, it would
have delayed our site grading contract by 6 months and the secondary
facilities by 6 months with a cost of around $770,000. This $770,000
additional cost would be incurred as a result of their delay over a
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JOINT ADVISORY COMlQrEE MEETING
MINUTES - SEPTEMBER 26. 1979
$15,000 item. He felt on September 24 that he had been successful in
getting the telephone company to agree to complete this cable in Janu-
ary, 1980.
Mr. Goodman continued that we have received $4.5 million in grants.
During September, he had submitted grant applications for 5 additional
contracts and received State approval on 4 of the bid packages. This
approval process permits the grant offers to be prepared by the State
and EPA. The secondary facilities package is one that will, hopefully,
be cleared this week. This will result in something between $13 and
$17 million work of additional grant funds to be offered before the
end of September. That leaves 2 remaining grant application packages
to go in. One will go in January for a February offer and the other
one around April for a May, 1980 offer. If a committment were re-
quired as to what a precise date would be for a Phase III project, he
said it would be after we received the last grant offer which covers
the total construction project. Only after receipt of the last grant
offer in May, 1980 is there a committment on the part of the State and
EPA to complete the secondary treatment at 18 mgd. That is the first
time he felt that we would have a really positive point that you could
say that the 18 mgd capacity will be available with construction com-
plete scheduled for not later than January 1, 1983.
ROUTINE REPORTS
10. OPERATIONS AND MAINTENANCE REPORT
Mr. Goodman stated that the Operations and Maintenance Report reviews
events of the past month and thus becomes more of a historical document
than a source of timely information.
He referred to the industrial waste and laboratory portions of the re-
port and encouraged the JAC read this because it goes into a extensive
discussion about the cause of the foaming. The report concludes that
the cause was the presence of the grease with a high metal content.
Mr. Dominguez asked if we were looking towards a universal ordinance
or did we have that now.
Mr. Goodman said he had not reviewed each agencies' ordinances to en-
sure that they would be consistent when we establish our own industrial
waste monitoring program. That would be one of Jack Thomas' responsi-
bilities to make sure that all the ordinances are consistent. If not,
we would have counsel draft one that is appropriate for presentation
to the six agencies which will then make it a universal ordinance, with
whatever delegation of authority to Encina WPCF they want. The enforce-
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ment still has to be by the individual agencies.
Buena Vista Pump Station - On September 13, 1979, the Buena Vista pump
station, which was still under the control of the contractor under a
contract that had been awarded by San Diego County, had a failure when
it was time for the lead pump to start. A 800 amp., 480 volt fuse blew
out from an overload, possibly from a loose connection. We have 2 Solar
turbine generators. The lead generator started up and came up to power.
The second generator, which was required to come in and synchronize,
failed to start. The first generator then shut down because of the
programmed instructions to it when parallel operation could not be
achieved. There was a spill of approximately 200,000 - 250,000 gallons
over a 2 hr. period into the Buena Vista lagoon. This has been reported
to the San Diego County Health Department and to the RWQCB. Solar has
been brought in because they are the supplier and the only firm that has
ever worked on the generators under a maintenance/service contract. They
found a defective starter motor on #2 generator which we replaced. We
installed the new starter and tried to start the turbine. The Solar
representative noticed sparking in the generator proper. He concluded
that there is a short in the windings as well as the bearings on that
generator need to be replaced. The bearing alone are about $1,200.
We are out of the warranty period which was established by the original
construction contract, however, that unit has less than 60 hrs. of oper-
ation on it. It is an expensive item and repairs could run anywhere
from $5,000 to $15,000. That is one of the items that is not covered
within the budget.
Brown and Caldwell is presently designing between 12 and 15 installa-
tions in the State that call for Solar gas turbine units. Mr. Goodman
stated that he would get together with Brown and Caldwell's Chief En-
gineer and Solar's Vice President and discuss Solar extending their
warranty to cover all costs. The lever, basically, being Brown and
Caldwell not specify Solar installations at any other location. We are
trying to determine if there was a manufacturing defect.
Mr. Gann asked if it could be a defective installation.
Mr. Goodman said that, if it was a defective installation, we would
have to come back to the original contract and ask JAC counsel what
legal remedies we may have, if any.
Mr. Gann said it depended on the cause and the statute of limitations
on a written contract was 4 years if you have a breach of contract.
If you have a written contract with the installer and it can be estab-
lished that installation was responsible for causing the failure, then
you could conceivably have a breach of contract.
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11. EXPENDITURE REPORT
Mr. Goodman said the report was delivered by the County on Septem-
ber 25, 1979 by George Long who was taking it back to the County be-
cause we could not follow through the logic on the figures. It will
probably be November before we find out the total expenditures for
the last fiscal year.
Chairman Stiles asked Mr. Hanson if Leucadia had any expenditure re-
port for the plant operation for the past couple of months.
Mr. Hanson said that there was none to date but he was sure they
would have an Expenditure Report for the next JAC meeting after they
had time to look at the budget.
Mr. Murk asked if there was anything being done at present on rerating.
Mr. Goodman answered that no action has been taken by the JAC to apply
for rerating of the plant to anything greater than 13.75. The indica-
tions are that the RWQCB would not entertain any application until such
time as they lift the cease and desist order.
OTHER BUSINESS
12. ATCHIESON, TOPEKA AND SANTA FE RAILROAD AGREEMENT
Mr. Goodman said he had received a copy of the Railroad Agreement which
will be sent to Vista Sanitation District for execution. He said that
Mr Gann is reviewing them to see if there is any problem as it was
drafted by the railroad and reflects agreements that have been developed
over a 4 to 5 month period.
Mr. Gann commented that on the 10" license, it gives them the right to
terminate within ten days. It was his understanding that the pipeline
was going in on a permanent basis. The other license gives them the
right of termination of 30 days.
Chairman Stiles asked if the railroad could enforce the termination
clause.
Mr. Gann answered that since we are a public agency, we could probably
keep them from doing it because it would drastically affect the health
and safety of the citizenry at large.
Mr. Zapotocky asked if we could condemn the use of that property if
necessary.
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JOINT ADVISORY COMMIT^ MEETING
MINUTES - SEPTEMBER 2671979
Mr. Gann stated that he thought we could.
Mr. Goodman asked Mr. Gann to review the documents and provide written
comments.
ADJOURNMENT
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 11:04 a.m.
The next regularly scheduled JAC meeting will be held Wednesday, October
24, 1979 at 9:00 a.m. at the Encina Water Pollution Control Facility.
Respectfully submitted,
Mary Gunn Taylor
Secretary to the JAC
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