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RE_ South Y Area - Access to Sanitary Sewer for CCTV Video SurveyFrom:Shannon Cotulla To:"Kvistad, Gary"; Richard Solbrig; Chris Stanley Cc:John Thiel; Ivo Bergsohn; Melonie Guttry; Shelly Thomsen; Robitaille, April Subject:RE: South Y Area - Access to Sanitary Sewer for CCTV Video Survey Date:Wednesday, December 12, 2018 10:49:42 AM Chris pointed out that we have allowed third parties to cctv our system in the past. Here are some possible edits. Shannon Cotulla Assistant General Manager South Tahoe Public Utility District Office: (530) 543-6206 Cell: (530) 208-8939 From: Kvistad, Gary [mailto:GKvistad@bhfs.com] Sent: Wednesday, December 12, 2018 9:54 AMTo: Richard Solbrig; Chris Stanley; Shannon CotullaCc: John Thiel; Ivo Bergsohn; Melonie Guttry; Shelly Thomsen; Robitaille, AprilSubject: RE: South Y Area - Access to Sanitary Sewer for CCTV Video Survey All, below is the suggested response to Peter Gorman of PES. Please feel free to edit the draft response, no pride in authorship. We are available if you would like to discuss. Mr. Gorman, The District has considered PES’ request to access certain wastewater collection pipelines owned by the District. The access would be to perform a closed-circuit television (CCTV) video survey of the sewer lines located in Tucker Avenue, Glorene Avenue, and Lake Tahoe Boulevard which would require hydro-cleaning prior to performing the video survey. We understand from your communications that the proposed work is required by the Responsible Parties work plan submitted to the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) pursuant to an order issued by the Water Board (Cleanup and Abatement Order R6T-2017-0022). While the District supports of the Regional Board’s efforts to obtain remediation of the PCE plume, the District cannot provide hydro- cleaning services as that would be considered a gift of public funds which is prohibited by California law. The District does not allow third party hydro-cleaning of it’s facilities for health and safety reasons. As I am sure you are aware, CCTV’ing of sewer mains without hydro-cleaning in advance is ineffective and occasionally leads to equipment being stuck in the sewer main. For these r3easons, the District us unable to allow access to it’s facilities. the District does not allow third parties to access it wastewater collection system for health and safety reasons. Further, even if the District were to allow PES access to the wastewater collection system, the District could not provide the requested assistance as that would be a gift of public funds which is prohibited by California law. While the District is not inclined to allow PES access to its wastewater collection system, the District can provide information to PES to satisfy the Regional Board’s request regarding preferential pathways, at least with respect to the District’s wastewater collection system. In 1997, the District retained Agra Earth and Environmental to perform an investigation in response to a Regional Board request in the mid-1990s to determine if the District’s backfilled trenches for its wastewater collection pipelines were acting as a conduit to spread PCE in the South Y area. A copy of the study is attached to this email. As you will see, no PCE was detected in the backfill material around the wastewater collection pipelines. As a result, NO PCE could be leaking into the wastewater collection pipelines. This investigation was performed at a time when the PCE contamination was much more localized and concentrated in the immediate South Y area as compared to the significantly enlarged plume today. If the District’s backfilled trenches for its wastewater collection pipelines were acting as a conduit to spread PCE, the higher localized concentrations of PCE would more likely have been detected at that time due. However, no PCE was detected in the wastewater collection pipelines. We believe that this information will satisfy the Regional Board’s request to investigate preferential pathway at least with respect to the District’s wastewater collection system. The District is providing a copy of the 1997 study to the Regional Board for their information and reference. As to one other related matter, PES has contacted various individuals at the District with respect to its PCE investigation efforts. The District requests that all future communications with the District be directed to Ivo Bergsohn, the District hydrogeologist. He can be reached at (530)543-6204 or Ibergsohn@stpud.dst.ca.us. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us, Chris Stanley From: Richard Solbrig [mailto:rsolbrig@stpud.dst.ca.us] Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 2:45 PMTo: Chris Stanley; Shannon Cotulla; Kvistad, GaryCc: John Thiel; Ivo Bergsohn; Melonie Guttry; Shelly ThomsenSubject: RE: South Y Area - Access to Sanitary Sewer for CCTV Video Survey The District has a PDF file from an investigation that Ivo performed for the District while he was employed at Agra Earth and Environmental in 1997. The purpose was to determine if the District’s sewers were the source of spreading the PCE in the South Y area. No evidence was uncovered to support this contention. This information should be shared with PES as part of their Public Record Act request, as well as with the LRWQCB. The District performed the study in response to the LRWQCB staff requesting this information back in the 1990’s. A PCE contamination case had occurred in believe in Lodi where the Central Valley Regional Board held Lodi at least partially responsible for the contamination due to PCE traveling along the sanitary sewer lines(despite what Doug Smith said at our meeting last week). Since the District determined that our sewers are not an issue, staff believes this is a wasted effort for PES; we don’t want them in and around our sewer lines to begin with; and will allow the LRWQCB staff to keep the focus on PCE cleanup rather than what role they can get the District to play in its cleanup(I felt that Doug Smith’s answer was too quick in responding that the District had no liability). From: Chris Stanley Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 2:24 PM To: Shannon Cotulla; Richard Solbrig; Gary Kvistad (gkvistad@hatchparent.com)(gkvistad@hatchparent.com)Subject: FW: South Y Area - Access to Sanitary Sewer for CCTV Video Survey I received this just now. From: Peter D. Gorman [mailto:pgorman@pesenv.com] Sent: Tuesday, December 11, 2018 2:16 PMTo: Chris StanleyCc: Kyle S. Flory; Andy Safford; Grey, Brian@WaterboardsSubject: South Y Area - Access to Sanitary Sewer for CCTV Video Survey Dear Mr. Stanley, I am following up on previous conversations and a voice mail message regarding a request for access to sanitary sewer pipelines owned by the Public Utility District. The access is for the purpose of performing a closed-circuit television (CCTV) video survey of the sewer lines located in Tucker Avenue, Glorene Avenue, and Lake Tahoe Boulevard. We spoke twice on November 14th regarding PES’s request for access and I explained this proposed work is required by a work plan approved by the Regional Water Quality Control Board (Water Board) pursuant to an order issued by the Water Board (Cleanup and Abatement Order R6T-2017-0022). The Water Board is requesting we complete this work as quickly as possible. Based on our initial conversations, I understood that there would not be any issues in accessing these lines. On November 16th, I received a voicemail from you indicating that STPUD had concerns regarding access, and that we should expect a letter from STPUD shortly thereafter. As of today, we have not received that letter. Could you please describe the concerns/questions and let me know when we will be receiving the aforementioned letter? We would like to resolve any issues and continue with the work required by the Water Board as soon as possible. Thank you, Peter D. Gorman, C.HG. Associate Hydrogeologist PES Environmental, Inc. 7665 Redwood Boulevard, Suite 200 Novato, California 94945 Office: 415.899.1600 Fax: 415.899.1601 pgorman@pesenv.com This email message has been delivered safely and archived online by Mimecast. This email message has been delivered safely and archived online by Mimecast. 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