WEST WARWICK TOWN COUNCIL ACTING AS

SEWER COMMISSION

 

MEETING MINUTES

 

DATE:  TUESDAY, November 15, 2022     TIME:  6:00 P.M.

 

LOCATION:  TOWN COUNCIL CHAMBERS

1170 MAIN STREET

WEST WARWICK, RI  02893

 

A.        Meeting called to order at 6:05 p.m. by Town Council President Gosselin

 

B.        Prayer led by Councilman Bourget

 

C.        Pledge of Allegiance led by Councilman Licciardi

 

D.        Roll Call

Members present:

Council President Gosselin

Council Vice President Williamson

Councilman Messier (Arrived at 6:08 p.m.)

Councilman Licciardi

Councilman Bourget

 

Participating communities:

Town of Coventry (not present)

Town of Scituate  (not present)

City of Cranston   (not present)

City of Warwick    (not present)

Town of West Greenwich (not present)

 

E.         Quorum on record declared

 

F.         Minutes of previous meeting

SC2022-34: 

 

RESOLVED, that the minutes of the October 18th, 2022 Town Council meeting, acting as the Sewer Commission, is hereby accepted.

 

Resolution SC2022-34 was moved by Council Vice President Williamson and seconded by Councilman Bourget.  All in favor, none opposed and unanimously voted to accept.  (Councilman Messier had not yet arrived)

 

G.        Reports

 

G-1:     Superintendent’s Report – October 2022

 

•     Average daily flow was 4.3 mgd with a maximum of 9.3 mgd and a minimum of 2.0 mgd.

•     CBOD removal was 98% at 2.9 mg/l. 

•     TSS removal was 98% at 2.5 mg/l.

•     Total Phosphorus was 0.04 mg/l. 

•     Total Nitrogen was 5.1 mg/l. 

 

•     Mr. Chapdelaine explained the Wastewater permit is from the beginning of April until the end of October. We ended our Wastewater permits with no violation for the busy season. He congratulated the team for a great job during the stringent permit year.

•     Sludge to Synagro was 518 tons. Sludge to the Landfill was 16 tons. Total Sludge 534 tons.

 

•     There were zero public line backups.

 

•     There was 4 private line block up on:

Wakefield Street

Lenox Avenue

Alden Drive

Clyde Street

 

•     There were 10 odor complaints:

1.   Wakefield Street

2.   (9) Fernwood Drive (same residence)

 

•     There were no facility violations.

 

•     Staffing, we have two new hires that have passed their Wastewater Licensing test and CDL testing. Once they get out of their promotional period they will be full time employees. Mr. Chapdelaine congratulated Steven Abbate and Robert Gomes on achieving their Licenses.

 

•     Councilman Licciardi asked if we are full staffed. Mr. Chapdelaine responds yes as of right now.

 

•     Councilman Bourget asked how long has it been with a full staff. Mr. Chapdelaine checks with Mr. Corrente to verify how long it has been. Mr. Corrente states we were fully staff prior to retirement as of July 1st. Mr. Chapdelaine replies that we did lose 3 after retirement, so we were down for a couple of months. Councilman Bourget said he thought we had been short staffed before and that was even a better job short staffed and still not getting any violations.

 

•     Mr. Hoak explained for the month of October we had 10 odor complains which is down from the previous month of 17 odor complains. Nine of the odor complaints came from the same address on Fernwood Drive and one on Wakefield Street. We have continued to be diligent with the investigation on the source of the odors. We are still waiting on the odor control study to be finalized. We were able to investigate 5 out of the 10 that came in and of which none of them we could detect any odor. 8 had wind direction and speed that where not viable for the odor complaint it was blowing in the opposite directions. Two of them were possible because the wind was coming from the south the rest the wind was coming from the West.

 

•     Councilman Licciardi asked if we think they are coming from the plant when it is blowing. Mr. Hoak said it is possible when the wind is blowing in the directions with the complaint especially the Fernwood Drive, it is West of us so when the wind is blowing out of the West, but the other ones we are not able to detect unfortunately.

 

•     Council President Gosselin said is there something going on somewhere in between the Warwick plants and ours, we do have heavy odors going down 95 specifically towards Warwick and Cranston they are very harsh lately.  Mr. Hoak said they are having issues as well the last he knew they were getting an odor study done also. They were putting some scrubber units in to deal with it. Councilman Messier asked Council President Gosselin if he was asking if they are somehow connected, if we’re all having the same issue. Council President Gosselin said he can tell us that Sunday and Saturday mornings at 7:00 am he passes East Natick toward RT 2 and it is pretty harsh, that is when he notices it. Coming down 95/295 between all 3 plants, all three sections along the highway there is a lot of it. He was just wondering if there is something connected. Mr. Hoak said there definitely could be a correlation. We are continually collecting data and with more data the better picture we will get on that.

 

•     Councilman Licciardi asked if he has a time frame on that. At the same time Council Vice President Williamson asked Mr. Hoak if Warwick was also doing the study as far as he knows they were looking to do the Study. Mr. Hoak responded as far as he knew.

•     Mr. Geremia gave an up date on the study stating that they have talked with Finance and Town Manager, and because it’s a qualification for professional services we solicited 3 proposals. They are due Friday at his office. His office will review them and make a selection and recommendation based on the qualification and cost of each. They were giving specific scopes and have 90 days to complete the study. Once is it awarded, hopefully in December the 1st or 3rd Tuesday in December they will have 80 days. DEM order was to be completed in 90 days.

•     Mr. Geremia explains in the interim what the staff and Mr. Hoak are doing when an odor complaint comes in. They register wind direction, and are trying to take an indication of what is happening the area, and what is happening at the treatment plant. If we are taking one of the containers of sludge out we can note that when an odor complaint comes in. Warwick often gets odor complains off 95, at times the Landfill odors do come in the West Warwick directions from the wind directions.

•     Council Vice President Williamson asked if we will be awarding this in December, will this be the best time to be checking odors. Mr. Geremia said odors happen all the time and its not the best from neighborhood reporting problems but we are looking at odors at the treatment plant. We are trying to find out the readings on each scrubber, and we take that level and putting it down. It might be a general odor. Council Vice Presidents Williamson states there is no doubt there is an odor as she lives on Wakefield Street and travels down Providence Street and the area. She mentions how Council President Gosselin can pin point it at a specific time on weekends. Mr. Geremia states that usually there is nothing go on at the sewer plant on weekends except for this past weekend due to sludge removal. Council Vice President Williamson asked if we use any perfumes to cover over. Mr. Hoak said we do use 6 sprayers that run 24 hours a day.

•     Councilman Licciardi asked Mr. Geremia if he will be managing this project when they have the consultant come in. Mr. Geremia said he will be doing the administration of it with Mr. Chapdelaine. He wants to regulate it to meet DEM requirements. He would like an independent review.

 

 

G-2:     Industrial Pretreatment Program – October 2022

 

Significant Industrial Users

 

•     All of the Self-Monitoring Reports from our Significant Industrial Users were all in compliance.

 

•     Pharmaron Manufacturing Services (US) LLC. Gave us notice that they are discontinue their production line and looking to bring a new product line in and waiting for approval and basically stopping production.

 

 

Private Wastewater Treatment Facilities   

 

•     Met with Showcase Cinema to repair their force main. The plans that were develop did not meet the conditions so they have to go back and look at what repairs need to be done.

 

 

Food Service

 

•     Five Food Services were inspected in the Town of West Warwick, and all were in compliance.

•     Dominos on 957 Main Street did repair their grease recovery device and did pay their penalties, also provided us with their cleaning log. That facility is now back in compliance.

•     Restaurant on 721 Quaker lane did pay penalties but did not supply the plans yet, we are still waiting for that.

 

 

New Construction

 

•     Newbury Building is now connected to the sewer. 

 

 

Plan Reviews

 

•     Re-development of Arctic Mill, residential units 130 and commercial Laundromat, Restaurants and a Micro -brewery. To make sure this project moves forward we did approve the residential components of this and it is underway to begin construction. We did have input to the commercial, but will be working with them on more specific design requirements.

•     Kent Country Water Authority new headquarters in West Greenwich on Technology Way, the plans did not meet the requirements and a letter was sent.

•     38 Aster Street submitted an application without plans or the fees and a letter was sent.

•     43 Aster street submitted a commercial application and the plans weren’t consistent and a letter was issued.

•     1211 Main Street, is a retail space and we did provide them an approval to get their license.   

 

         

G-3:     Financial Report

 

•     Year-to-Date Operating and Debt Expenses for Fiscal Year 2023 through October 31st totaled $4,294,378 which is 46% of the annual budget.

•     Fiscal Year 2023 Sewer Usage and Industrial collections through October 31st totaled $4,176,632 which is 46% of the total billed.

•     Fiscal Year 2023 Sewer Assessment collections through the end of October 31st totaled $198,824 which is 80% of the total billed.

•     Overtime for the month of October was $12,330 which is 8% of the annual budget. FY 2023 Year-to-Date overtime is $48,434 which is 34% of the annual budget. Year to date savings in sewer departments salaries through those positions that were vacant for a while is $27,609 which is helping to offset the overtime expenses for the year.

•     Year-to-date Sludge removal costs through October 31st totaled $268,011 which is 40% of the annual budget. Our year-to-date expense of $29,703 is the difference between what we’ve had to offload at Resource Recovery versus if we would have been able to go to Synagro for every offload since July 1st. A side note to make the council aware, we have to dump at resource recovery this month, Synagro is having issues. Mr. Corrente said he expects that number will increase with sludge removal when he does his report next month.

•     Council Vice President Williamson asked if we need to do this for the entire month. Mr. Hoak stated they have for all but one.

•     Councilman Messier asked how often we dump. Mr. Chapdelaine said at any given week about eight to ten loads will get taken over there or get sent out of the plant.

•     Cash and Investments through October 31st totaled $3,259,797.

•     Council Vice President Williamson states that it is interesting because we are taking so much to Resource Recovery whether that is having an impact on the odors because it is as close as it is. She assumes we are not the only ones taking loads there everyone is.

•     Council President Gosselin said it’s a pretty high hill and Council Vice President Williamson agrees and said it’s not that far away.

 

J.         Public Comment.

•     No public comment

 

K.        Adjourn

 

A motion to adjourn was made by Councilman Messier and seconded by Councilman Licciardi.  All in favor, none opposed and unanimously voted to accept. Adjourned at 6:21 p.m.

 

 

 

To view this meeting go to:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6a5AKkU_XWQPoV26Xmc0qA