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LFd 09172018 OPS 1 OPERATIONS COMMITTEE MEETING Monday, September 17, 2018 3:30 p.m. Conference Room 1st Floor Present: Richard Solbrig, Shannon Cotulla, John Thiel, Jim Jones, Kelly Sheehan, Heidi Baugh, Star Glaze, Ivo Bergsohn, Chris Stanley Public: None A meeting was held to discuss the following: TOPICS DISCUSSION 1. PUBLIC COMMENTS. None. 2. CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS a) Plant Emergency Generator Replacement (Cal Electro Inc.) • CEI, the contractor, is working on the generator building foundation now. • Staff met with CEI who informed us that they are having trouble with their block submittal and delivery. They have requested to stop work over the winter and resume building construction in early spring. Staff is investigating all aspects associated with this request, including type of block spec’d, impact on staffing and other projects, possibly tenting the site so the block work could move forward, etc. • Regardless of how we decide to proceed in light of this request, all are in agreement that the schedule for the new generator portion of the project will not change. b) DVR Irrigation/ C Hydro (Thomas Haen Co) DVRIIP • Ivo provided a report and handout showing project progress using graphs and photos. • 10/1/15 was our first pay estimate and we have approximately $75,000 left on the contract, which will be $68,000 under the original contract amount. • Ivo reported that the alfalfa is about 18” right now and we will do one cut this season. The cutting, baling and marketing is being handled by Borsini, our farming contractor. District will receive a percentage back. Borsini farms thousands of acres in the Yerington area. We will be collecting samples of this cutting for nutrition testing to check for uptake of nutrients. • Jim has lined up a lab to do this testing for us. • We still have monitoring signals that need to be tied into our SCADA. The electrical engineer (Frische) on this project designed, built and installed these panels. They will be on site this week to bring the flow ratings through SCADA and make any needed adjustments. Ivo anticipates bringing a Change Order to the Board for the installation of these panels. Frische has been extremely helpful throughout this project. He was initially the Electrical subcontractor to our design engineers, Domenichelli and Associates. C-HYDRO. • Last week we completed the application to certify the pre-certification with the Commission; our facility is registered under Liberty’s account with REGIS, the agency that handles issuance of renewable energy credits. • The way we run our turbine generator is via a pressure sustaining valve. Under high pressure we generate electricity; under low pressure mode we use water through the export line for irrigation. We have been in irrigation mode since June 1. So we have only operated the C-Hydro for about two months (March 30, 2018). During these first two months we generated 28 Megawatt hours, 28 credits. This was for only the first two months which included “growing pains”, shutdowns, etc. At this point we don’t have history for average production. When we start back up in October and get it dialed in, it should run more smoothly, and our credits should be more impressive. One of our biggest hurdles is associated with power flickers on Liberty’s end that causes shutdowns. 2 • Ivo provided a handout of annual estimates. Currently, since we have been using effluent in the pivot rigs, we don’t have a cost to pump water, because the effluent is gravity fed off the C-Line. So to date the only thing drawing electricity during that time are pivot motors and the filter system. We should be producing more power than what we consume even if we had to run the turbine pump, which is not likely. • Tomorrow (9/18) we are starting tours for our Operators to see the new facilities so they know what the alarms are about. c) Fallen Leaf Lake (District) • Completed at 4, 8 and 9. John provided pictures to show the progress. • Chris is working on an agreement between the District, Fire Station and the HOA. They have not charged us to have our generator on their pad, but they would like an agreement stating that if their little house generator fails, we would wire something up to our generator to keep them running. • Pump runs crew constructed the 3-sided structure for the generators. • One last component will be to change over the Main Station. Survey work is being conducted on site this month. John will lead the in-house design effort with Trevor and the Pumps crew. We expect to complete the work in early spring before it gets too busy out there. • We continue to field odor complaints. Chris reported that he had been on site and realized the odor was strongest behind the building and coming from the vacuum system filter. Field Ops have installed tablets that have significantly reduced the offensive odor. Jeremy found another set up that can be installed in the wet well that diffuses odor. Chris would like to see if we can get a better handle on controlling the odor at minimal cost before pursuing more costly ideas. d) Water Meters Phase 4 • Contractor has installed 1,550 meters so far. The original contract was for 1,460. The contractor has reduced his crew size, but will continue working for the next month in the High Meadows and Meadow Lakes areas. e) Marlette Waterline (Thomas Haen Co) • All mainline work and fire hydrants have been completed for this project. • Contractor will install services next year for this project, and complete the storm drain change order work for the City. f) Fire Hydrants, Service Valves, Force Main Bypass, Pine Valley PRV aka 2018 Water and Sewer Systems Improvements Project • Thomas Haen Company is installing fire hydrants out in the Meyers area. • Contractor is also working on the force main bypass at Rose and Martin. 3. PLANNING / DESIGN a) Water Projects – Prop 218 • We are looking at all the projects that we know of, which include 40 fire flow; and 50-60 other projects (that include optimization, asset management, etc.). We are developing cost estimates and working to prioritize which and how many can be completed and in what time frame. b) Rocky Point Waterline • This project is being designed in-house, and is at the 95% complete stage. • This is the highest ranked fire flow project on the current waterline priority list. c) Groundwater Management Planning South Y Plume Remediation Project: • Ivo provided a handout of his August 8 public outreach presentation. He explained about the baseline sampling and results identifying contaminants found over a 400 acre area. The sampling started in May and completed in July. The highest level was located in the southeast corner of the area. Sampling involved renting water treatment equipment so we could treat the contaminated water and dispose of it into the District’s sanitary sewer. Between sampling, we moved the treatment equipment to one of the LBWC well sites so 3 they could flush. Prior to flushing the PCE hit was 54ppb, after flushing the PCE hit showed ~60ppb. • Ivo identified the locations of the test wells, the drilling depths, the various zones, and sediment layers especially with respect to the major aquitard between layers c and d. Ivo reported finding trace amounts of TCE which is a byproduct of PCE, which told us that the contamination had penetrated the aquitard. • Ivo is currently working to do well surveys, within the contaminated plume—for both private and monitoring. Lahontan will be notifying the private well owners of the potential contamination. We are looking for wells that penetrate the aquitard (greater than 100’). • We just requested an additional 3 months to pursue remedial alternatives which process is taking longer than expected. We are still looking at types of alternatives and different scenarios involving wellhead treatments; what kind of impacts pumping has on movement of plume; looking at replacement wells. • We are working with Tahoe Keys and Lukins Brothers for preferred well sites to incorporate into the model to see what effects they may have on plume. • We are also considering the Colorado Avenue site for a replacement well, and would like to install a test hole at this location to use this information in design and construct of the well. City has a property back there. • Ivo explained that we need to identify the remedial alternatives and run the model alternatives, before the wheels of the feasibility study will really start turning. • Ivo is planning to have a public workshop (TAC) sometime in late October to discuss defining alternatives and running simulations, and another workshop in early November. • Shannon explained we are on three parallel tracks: 1) Lahontan identifying and perusing the responsible parties; 2) STPUD, Lukins and TKPOA working together on the treatment and cleanup feasibility study; and 3) STPUD, Lukins, and TKPOA pursuing measures to protect the community water supply from being compromised further by the PCE contamination. • Last week (Shannon). 1st part of last week we spent reaching out to a lot of people to raise awareness of the PCE contamination and the advocate for measures to protect the water supply. The most immediate steps being developing a multi-agency emergency action plan and approval of the Lukins funding for treatment on their well. Jen Lukins informed us that she received a call from her application project manager contact at the Water Board who informed her that things were moving (it worked)! Thursday morning District staff along with a staff member from Senator Gaines office, STPUD director Jim Jones, and representatives from TRPA and TRCD attended the Lahontan Regional Board Meeting to advocate for steps to protect our water supply. There was another meeting with Patty Kouyoumdjian to follow up. Then Friday morning while we were on a phone conference briefing Washington DC, we received a message that the State Water Board wanted a phone conference with us at 10 o’clock. They informed us that they want to do a multi-agency application to get an emergency application together and submitted. Jen Lukins got another call from her “Project Manager” at the Water Board telling her that the mountain of documentation that needed to be pulled together to get her application to move forward was being waived and they were moving forward with the funding. • We presented to Lahontan that the community had already expended (and could not afford to) $1.6mil toward someone else’s pollution. We emphasized that our community has other serious needs for this money. • Jen also said that with respect to the Multi-Agency Emergency Action Plan, if we can get this together quickly enough, they may be able to roll that into the programs they are approving for Jen (LBWC) without much ado! Happy dances all around! d) Fallen Leaf • John will work with Trevor and Pumps on the design of the final conversion project over 4 Lake Sewer Improvements the winter for construction in the spring. • When this is complete (early spring) we will need to take care of the force main inspection and continue looking for I&I issues. e) Collection System Assessment • We are on schedule to have data on as many as 660 pipes, about 10% of our system, as representative pipe samples to inform overall condition and potential projects for the Sewer Prop 218 process. f) Big 5 Pump Stations • We are working with Carollo on the predesign. • Met to discuss multiple projects over possibly the next 5 years. Staff has already reduced the total project estimate from $11M to $8.8M. We are continuing to refine the projects and look for more cost-effective solutions, project bundling, SRF funding, etc. • Staff will be meeting later this week to see how best to package these for funding. We are already working on a FEMA application gensets at two of the sites. The gensets cost about $700K. There is a high expectation of success on the applications. g) Emergency Retention Basin - Inundation Map & Emergency Action Plan • Domenichelli & Associates will be up here this week to survey, take measurements, etc. They are compiling Lidar data to populate the model to put together a Dam Study and Emergency Action Plan for our Emergency Retention Basin (ERB). This plan needs to be in place by January 2019. • We will be doing something similar for the Indian Creek Reservoir and Harvey Place Dams that have to be completed by 2021. So we will start on this in 2020. 4. OTHER a) El Dorado County Water Agency Projects • Still working with Ken on developing the MOU. John feels that we are in the final stages. He has about $400K worth of projects waiting to be submitted under the new MOU. b) Sierra Blvd Project, City of South Lake Tahoe • Out to bid. Most of the work will occur in 2019. c) Development Projects • Gondola vista complete from water and sewer perspective. Engineering inspection and approvals are complete. They still need to pay Customer Service for connections. • Bijou – installing water service connections lately. Project is going up fast. • TTD – John met with Russ Nygaard about proposed Final EIR/EIS. John is reviewing and will report back to TTD and provide a report to the Board. TTD is planning to take the Final EIR/EIS to the TRPA next month and start the final public review and certification process. d) Recent Opera-tional Issues • No report. e) Fallen Leaf Lake Snow Removal • Fire chief called a meeting to discuss snow removal. Jeremy, Chris, HOA Rep., and Tom Craven attended. Tom has taken donations to keep the Fallen Leaf Lake Road of snow. He was doing this because he parents lived at the lake year-round and needed to be able to get in and out. His parents have both passed and he has no interest it continuing his snow removal services. Chris feels it is critical that this road be kept clear. • Fire Chief discovered that the property owners pay a tax to the county for this service, but the county has never maintained this road. The county has been approached about adding this to their list for clearing. County has indicated this has gone to their legal department and there won’t be a decision about it until probably sometime in February. • Discussion turned to hiring a outside snow removal contractor, which would triple the expense of the amount paid in the past. ($50-60K) After a couple storms the road will be narrowed down to nothing. • HOA Rep indicated it was really too late in the season to call a meeting and assess a fee for private contractor. 5 • Idea of closing the system was floated but legal counsel has advised that we cannot legally do that as they are paying customers. • Chris Stanley will be bringing this to our next Board meeting. We will looking for advice and direction. o It would be very expensive for the District to do the plowing. We will need to take the loader out on a truck to Saw Mill pond. o If they close the road and we overflow a wet well, this would be considered a “preventable” spill by Lahontan. o Pursue County – push political avenue. o We could just not plow the road and simply use the snow cat. If we chose this option, we would probably need to get a new Snow cat since the one we have is not completely reliable (circa 1984). o Pay private removal service and pursue reimbursement from County. o Pursue Special Assessment District. f) Verizon Cell Tower • We are very close to an agreement. Gary has signed off. We sent it back to Verizon to finalize so we can bring it to the Board. • This will be a $3,000/month revenue to the District. There is a clause in the agreement that says if other carriers want to tag onto the tower they will have to negotiate with us. 5. ADJOURNMENT Next Ops Mtg. Next Operations Committee meeting will be held on Monday, October 15, 2018, 3:30 p.m.