SC Minutes
Burrillville Sewer Commission
Regular Meeting of June 13, 2023
Board Room of the BWWTF
Members Present: William Andrews – Chairman
Richard Nolan – Vice Chairman
Gary Rouleau – Commission Member
Daniel Joubert – Commission Member
Also Present: Steve Richtarik – Beta Engineering
Michael Emond – Superintendent
Stacey Richard – Office Manager
Agenda Item – The question of accepting the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 9, 2023 and the Public Hearing of May 23, 2023 and the question of dispensing with the reading of said Minutes.
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to accept the Minutes of the Regular Meeting of May 9, 2023 and the Public Hearing of May 23, 2023 and to dispense with the reading of said Minutes. The motion was seconded by Mr. Joubert. All in favor, so voted.
Public Comment – None
Correspondence: 23-11-01 – Email from Linda Bebe, 265 Sayles Ave Unit 14, Historic Pascoag Grammar School, regarding changing the billing from the Association to the individual condominium owners.
-Email from Tim Kane – Attorney for the Commission regarding changing the sewer use billing for the condominiums.
-Email from Andrew Akers – President & Secretary, HPGSCA, regarding a resolution changing the sewer use billing.
-Resolution #106-004 Sewer Billing Responsibilities from the Historic Pascoag Grammar School Condominium Association.
Mr. Andrews stated that Attorney Tim Kane’s legal advice is to bill the individual unit owners. There was some discussion on this matter.
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to table the issue until the July Meeting, with further advice from Attorney Tim Kane. The motion was seconded by Mr. Joubert. All in favor, so voted.
New Business: Adoption and Implementation of the Operations and Maintenance Budget for FY24.
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to adopt and implement the Operations and Maintenance Budget for FY24 in the amount of $3,468,116.00. The motion was seconded by Mr. Joubert. All in favor, so voted.
Adoption of Exhibit A (fee schedule) of the Rules and Regulations.
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to adopt Exhibit A (fee schedule) of the Rules and Regulations as presented. The motion was seconded by Mr. Joubert. All in favor, so voted.
Recommendation by Superintendent, Michael Emond, for Award of Bid, Wastewater Treatment Process Chemicals.
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to accept the recommendation by Superintendent, Michael Emond, for Award of Bid, Wastewater Treatment Process Chemicals. The motion was seconded by Mr. Joubert. All in favor, so voted.
Memo from Stacey Richard, Office Manager, regarding selecting charity/ies for $1,000.00 donation from SBA Tower Rental per terms of agreement.
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to split the donation, with $500 to go to the Burrillville Backpack Program and $500 to go to Between the Cracks. The motion was seconded by Mr. Rouleau. All in favor, so voted.
Discuss and take possible action on comparison of RAS pump price quotes from various vendors.
There was some discussion on this matter.
Old Business – None
Invoices – None
Engineer’s Report: RIIB (Account CW # - BURR-CW-FY22)
RI Infrastructure Bank – Pay Request #16 in the amount of $3,490.00
Exhibit A – Project Payment Requisition Form
Exhibit F – Wage Rate Requirement Certification Form
Exhibit G – Certification Regarding Debarment, Suspension and Other Responsibility Matters
Exhibit H – American Iron and Steel Certification
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to approve and pay RI Infrastructure Bank Pay Request #16 in the amount of $3,490.00, including Exhibits A, F, G & H. The motion was seconded by Mr. Rouleau. All in favor, so voted.
PAC Pilot Study Letter Report
Voted – Mr. Nolan made a motion to accept the Engineer’s Report. The motion was seconded by Mr. Joubert. All in favor, so voted.
Attorney’s Report:
The Attorney was not present at the meeting.
Superintendent’s Report:
Report for the month of May, 2023
1. WWTF OPERATIONS
Influent to Treatment Facility – MGD
Average Daily Flow = 0.9079
Maximum Daily Flow = 1.4300 on 01-May
Minimum Daily Flow = 0.6150 on 28-May
Percent Average
Removal Concentration
Biochemical Oxygen Demand
EPA / DEM Permit Requirement = 85.0% min 10.0 mg/L
May achieved = 98.9% 2.2 mg.L
Total Suspended Solids
EPA / DEM Permit Requirement = 85.0% 15.0 mg/L
May achieved = 98.9% 3.6 mg/L
Total Phosphorus
EPA / DEM Permit Requirement = N/A 0.1 mg/L
May achieved = 100.0% 0.00 mg/L
Total Ammonia
EPA / DEM Permit Requirement = N/A 5.1 mg/L
May achieved = 49.5% 3.6 mg/L
Total Copper
EPA / DEM Permit Requirement = N/A 8.0 ug/L
May achieved = 97.4% 3.5 ug/L
Disposed Sludge
Dry Tons Disposed of = 23.55
Number of Loads Removed = 23
Average Dry Tons / Load = 1.02
Permit Excursions
There were no permit excursions to report for May 2022.
The most recent permit excursions were two permit excursions reported in the month of October 2022, both for daily maximum Copper. The first excursion was on October 6th and the second on October 13th with the results reported as 16.1 ug/L and 11.4 ug/L respectively. The daily maximum Copper limit is 10.6 ug/L.
Callout Alarms
There were four (4) callout alarms at the wastewater treatment facility for May 2022.
5/1/23 – Raw Pump System Alarm – Raw pumps clogged. Pumps cleaned and system returned to normal.
5/5/23 – High Final Chlorine Residual – Cleaned and flushed analyzer, checked zero. All OK. Flushed sample line at the wall. Analyzer reads 400 ppb bisulfite. Sample titrated to 650 ppb bisulfite in lab.
5/6/23 – High Final Chlorine Residual – Cleaned and flushed Final analyzer. Full of Ferric. Bumped CI2 pump down, bumped up Bisulfite pump.
5/27/23 – High Final Chlorine Residual – Cleaned and flushed Final analyzer and probe.
2. COLLECTION SYSTEM OPERATIONS
There were three (3) after hour collection systems call-in responses for the month of May 2022. Find the call-in table below:
Date
Location
Nature of Call / Alarm Condition
Issue Found
5/7/23
Rock Avenue ES
High Wet Well
Rags in clapper. Back-flushed and pumped until clean and empty.
5/13/23
Beach Road ES
High Wet Well
Suction clapper valve held open with paper. Back-flushed pot several times to clear restriction.
5/26/23
School Street PS
Power Failure
Power bump caused generator to run. Off when crew arrived. Verified all with station was normal.
3. OTHER ACTIVITIES & CURRENT ISSUES
5/1/23 – Low level ammonia permit limit begins.
5/2/23 – Received call from John Somyk of Seminole Development who is doing the project on the corner of East Ave and Rt. 102. He wanted to take a look inside the manhole on East Avenue to locate the depth of the main that they will be tying into, but he could not get the cover off. Steve Menard and Dan Coffey were dispatched to site to lift cover. John called me back and he had questions about the configuration of the pipes because there were two pipes in the manhole. The second pipe was about 4 feet above the invert (8 feet below grade). I went out to check the issue. I then called James Dyment to discuss. He looked at plans and explained that the pipe above the invert was the cleanout for the drop. The main had a drop outside the manhole, rather than inside, therefore, the connection is 8 feet below grade, not 11-12 feet.
5/11/23 – Superintendent’s Meeting at RIDEM in Providence. Meeting lasted from 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM. Longest discussion was from Henry Lieboeitz of DEH et al. which covered the results of the Biobot Covid testing that several municipal WWTF’s have participated in, Burrillville being one of them. He also talked about the reporting of all results nationally on CDC dashboards and then expressed the view that “we”, that is local governments use this information to anticipate outbreaks and form strategies to minimize casualties. CDC proposes to keep doing this testing at least another 5 years, but wants to add many other parameters to the testing and more participants nationwide for purposes of Public Health and preventions. Next speaker was Mike Tetrault on Cyber Security, which the bad guys are getting more and more creative and intrusive with AI being used to blackmail municipal entities and everybody else in their sights to get huge payouts to release their ceased data. Next speaker was Matt Puglia who talked about certification applications not being completed properly and he also talked about SSO reporting on CDX becoming a reality soon and will be looking for volunteer facilities to beta test.
5/23/23 – Received a call from John Fogarty of Boyle & Fogarty regarding dig-safes for a property near the vicinity of Lake Shore Drive and Beach Road and leading to the ejector station. We will meet John, Pascoag Water and homeowner Thursday 9AM.
5/25/23 – Met with John Fogarty of B&F, Harold & Chris Perry and neighbor Charles, along with Jonesy and Dan, and then later Pascoag Water crew, to try to figure out where our gravity and force mains are so that a possible water pipe repair can be made. The Perrys and neighbor lose water service due to breakage by freezing in the winter. The water line is only 15-18 inches in the ground because of ledge.
5/31/23 – Sludge disposal remains an issue. Primary clarifier sludge blankets depths have increased to 5 to 7 feet causing higher than normal solids and BOD in the primary effluent, which has formed longer aeration times to process the loadings. Synagro hauled 21 loads from the Burrillville WWTF in May, well short of what was needed to maintain proper sludge blanket depths of 1 to 3 feet. No information from Synagro or RIDEM has been offered except that communications between parties at the highest level have been initiated to resolve current issues.
4. PERMIT LIMIT REPORT
Refer to the following pages imported from plant data management system.
Limit Summary: (**designates values exceeding limit)
1 value exceeding limit____________________________________________________________
Location/Parameter Units Limit Actual_
INFLUENT – INFLUENT
Flow Mgd – Flow Rate
Average MGD 1.5 0.8789
Minimum, 4/22/2023 MGD 0.7400
Maximum MGD 1.1840
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Bod 5 – Bod 5 Day
Average MG/L 30 2.3
Max Weeky Avg (Wed Rule) MG/L 45 3.4
Maximum, 4/16/2023 MG/L 50 7.2____
EFFLUENT BOD – EFFLUENT BOD
Loadings – Loadings in Pounds
Average LB/Day 375.3 16.5
Maximum, 4/16/2023 LB/Day 625.5 46.8___
RAW INFLUENT – RAW INFLUENT COMPOSITE
Bod 5 – Bod 5 Day
Average MG/L 207
Maximum, 4/25/2023 MG/L 289___
INFLUENT BOD – INFLUENT BOD
Loadings – Loadings in Pounds
Average LB/Day 1513.0
Maximum, 4/25/2023 LB/Day 2306.6
EFFLUENT BOD – EFFLUENT BOD
Percent Removal – Percent Removal
Average (Lower Limit) % 85.0 98.9__
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Solids TSS – Total Suspended Solids
Average MG/L 30 2.8
Avg Weekly Avg (Wed Rule) MG/L 45 2.7
Maximum MG/L 50 6.0___
EFFLUENT TSS – EFFLUENT TSS
Loadings – Loadings in Pounds
Average LB/Day 375.3 20.8
Maximum LB/Day 625.5 59.2
RAW INFLUENT – RAW INFLUENT COMPOSITE
Solids TSS – Total Suspended Solids
Average MG/L 261.8
Maximum, 4/23/2023 MG/L 480.0_
INFLUENT TSS – INFLUENT TSS
Loadings – Loadings in Pounds
Average LB/Day 1968.3
Maximum, 4/23/2023 LB/Day 3711.0
EFFLUENT TSS – EFFLUENT TSS
Percent Removal – Percent Removal
Average (Lower Limit) % 85.0 98.8__
EFFLUENT GRAB – FINAL EFFLUENT GRAB
Solids Settlbl – Settleable Solids
Maximum, 4/1/2023 ML/L 0.0___
EFFLUENT GRAB – FINAL EFFLUENT GRAB
Enterococci – Enterococci
Average #/100 ML 54 6.6
Maximum, 4/29/2023 #/100 ML 175 38.4__
EFFLUENT GRAB – FINAL EFFLUENT GRAB
TRC – TRC Daily Average
Average UG/L 22
Maximum 4 UG/L 39 ______
Location/Parameter Units Limit Actual_
EFFLUENT GRAB – FINAL EFFLUENT GRAB
pH1 – pH1
** Effluent Minimum pH S.U. 6.0 6.23
Effluent Maximum pH S.U. 9.0 7.22___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Phosphorus – Phosphorus Total
Average MG/L 1.0 0.03
Maximum, 4/20/2023 MG/L 0.06___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Ortho Phosphat – Orthophosphate Total
Average MG/L 0.00
Maximum, 4/6/2023 MG/L 0.00___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
TKN – Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen
Average MG/L 10.7
Maximum, 4/6/2023 MG/L 11.6___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Nitrate – Nitrate Nitrogen Total
Average MG/L 3.69
Maximum, 4/20/2023 MG/L 4.43___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Nitrite – Nitrite Nitrogen Total
Average MG/L 0.15
Maximum, 4/20/2023 MG/L 0.20___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Nitrogen – Nitrogen Total
Average MG/L 10.97
Maximum, 4/20/2023 MG/L 15.33_
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Ammonia – NAmmonia Total
Average MG/L 20.0 11.1
Maximum, 4/6/2023 MG/L 103 12.9___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Copper – Copper Total
Average UG/L 8.0 4.4
Maximum, 4/20/2023 UG/L 10.6 5.1____
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Lead – Lead Total
Average UG/L 1.1 <0.5
Maximum, 4/6/2023 UG/L 27.5 <0.5___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Zinc – Zinc Total
Average UG/L 68.3 17.7
Maximum, 4/20/2023 UG/L 68.3 19.0___
FINAL EFFLUENT – FINAL EFFLUENT COMPOSITE
Iron – Iron Total
Maximum UG/L
Mr. Emond gave a brief summary of the Superintendent’s Report.
Voted – Mr. Joubert made a motion to accept the Superintendent’s Report. The motion was seconded by Mr. Rouleau. All in favor, so voted.
Sewer Use/ Sewer Assessment Write-Offs – None
Chairman requests Executive Session of the Commission, pursuant to Rhode Island Open Meeting Law (42-46-5 (a)(1)) to discuss the job performance of three (3) employees – positions. Note: The three (3) affected parties were duly notified in advance, in writing, of this request for Executive Session; they were notified and advised that they could require that the discussion be held at an open meeting.
Mr. Andrews announced that there was one vote taken in Executive Session.
Adjournment – Mr. Joubert made a motion to adjourn the Meeting. The motion was seconded by Mr. Nolan. All in favor, so voted.
Respectfully Submitted,
Jacqueline Batalon
Financial Aide
I have read the Minutes of the previous pages and hereby ratify the same.
__________________________ _________________________ ___________________________
William Andrews Richard Nolan Gary Rouleau
Chairman Vice Chairman Commission Member
__________________________
Daniel Joubert
Commission Member