SHARON WATER MANAGEMENT ADVISORY COMMITTEE (WMAC) MEETING MINUTES FOR 12/11/03
Prepared by Paul Lauenstein
Present at meeting:
WMAC Chairman Rory McGregor; WMAC members Lealdon Langley, Michael Birschbach, Richard Mandell, Len Sekuler and Paul Lauenstein; DPW Superintendent Eric Hooper; Water Supervisor Dave Masciarelli; Finance Committee member Charles Goodman; Conservation Agent Greg Meister; Lake Committee Chairman Cliff Towner; Conservation Commissioner Kathy Roth and citizen Alice Cheyer
Also present: Sharon High School senior Jeffrey Staruski and Margaret McCarthy of the consulting firm Weston and Sampson
Summary of Minutes for the 12/11/03 WMAC Meeting
1) Reviewed and approved minutes of November 6 meeting as amended.
2) Radio read water meters
Eric Hooper hired consultants Weston & Sampson to prepare an RFP for purchasing a radio read water meter system, which involves equipping each home and building in town with a transmitter mounted on the water meter. Margaret McCarthy of Weston & Sampson compared the RFP process with a low bid process as a purchasing strategy. Dave Masciarelli described the existing water meters and how they can be modified or replaced in order to interface with a new radio read system.
Rory McGregor appointed Jack Sulik, Paul Lauenstein and Len Sekuler (chair) to the radio read meter system subcommittee.
• ACTION ITEM – Eric Hooper will provide WMAC members with copies of the Radio Read Meter System RFP as soon as it is available.
3) New well sites
Paul Lauenstein made a motion to recommend to the Selectmen that they conduct pump tests of four possible well sites. After considerable discussion and modification, a motion to recommend exploratory test wells at these four sites was passed unanimously.
A Water Source Site Subcommittee was established, co-chaired by Lealdon Langley and Roger Thibault, with Michael Birschbach and Richard Mandell as members.
• ACTION ITEM – Lealdon Langley will email site screening forms to the WMAC members.
• ACTION ITEM – Rory McGregor will inform the Water Commissioners of the WMAC’s recommendation to conduct exploratory well tests at the four designated sites, as well as the formation of the Water Source Site Subcommittee.
4) Rattlesnake Hill
Eric Hooper explained potential financial impact of providing $1.5 million of Water Department funds to the purchase of Rattlesnake Hill on departmental cash flow. He concluded that the Water Department would be able to afford all foreseeable capital projects in spite of this additional outlay.
5) Metcalf & Eddy report
The Metcalf & Eddy report modeling the water distribution system for the town and giving an opinion on the High Pressure Service District proposed for the Hampton Road and Mountain Street areas will be available by January.
6) Primer on hydraulics
• ACTION ITEM - Roger Thibault will present a 20 minute "primer on hydraulics" as it relates to the water distribution system in Sharon for the benefit of WMAC members lacking a background in engineering at the January 15 meeting.
7) FY ‘05 capital spending plan review
• ACTION ITEM - Eric Hooper will email the Water Department’s updated
FY ’05 capital spending plan to WMAC members, who will come to the January meeting prepared to debate and vote on spending priorities to recommend to Selectmen.
8) Report from the conservation subcommittee
• ACTION ITEM - The conservation subcommittee will prepare recommendations and a budget for water conservation in FY ’05 for the January 15 meeting.
9) EOEA Water Assets Inventory meeting
• ACTION ITEM - Paul Lauenstein will email a summary of the meeting to all WMAC members.
10) Next meeting: Thursday, January 15 at 7:30 at Sharon Town Hall
Detailed minutes for the 12/11/03 WMAC Meeting
1) REVIEW AND APPROVE MINUTES FROM NOVEMBER 6 MEETING
The November 6 meeting minutes were reviewed and approved with the following alterations:
• Clarification that Eric Hooper’s comment about a few hundred dollars for tests referred to water quality tests, not pumping tests.
• Clarification that the $50,000 for well site testing is a preliminary figure. These funds would be used for testing of potential in-town water sources.
2) RADIO READ WATER METERS
Eric Hooper described the existing water meters as nearing the end of their useful life, from both a functional and a technological standpoint. He suggested that since many need to be replaced anyway, the town should upgrade them to a radio-read system to save meter-reading labor and streamline the billing process.
Dave Masciarelli described the process of meter reading. Water meters in use today consist of an indoor brass body with an encoder head that communicates via wire to an odometer on the exterior of the house which a Water Dept. employee reads periodically and logs into a meter book. The data is taken back to the Water Dept. and manually keyed in to a computer for billing. Problems with this system include:
• It is labor-intensive. Two full-time meter readers are required.
• There are several ways to introduce human error, leading to customer complaints.
• Significant discrepancies sometimes arise between the indoor meter and the outdoor odometer. When the house is sold, the difference must be reconciled, which can result in an unpleasant surprise to the seller, although it is unusual that the discrepancy is large.
• It takes six months to read every meter in town.
• Bad weather such as a blizzard can interfere with data collection.
The brass meter bodies are durable, but the encoder heads and the outside odometers have a life expectancy of roughly 10 to 20 years. About half of the 5,600 meters in town are over 10 years old.
A radio read meter uses the same brass meter body, but the encoder head transmits a radio signal instead of sending an impulse by wire to an odometer on the outside of the house.
Margaret McCarthy of Weston & Sampson described the Request For Proposal (RFP) method of soliciting proposals and contrasted it to a low bid approach. She explained that an RFP has two parts: technical specifications and price. After all the proposals have been received, the technical specifications are reviewed to see which proposal best suits the town’s needs. Then the price of the proposal deemed most appropriate is revealed. If the price is within the pre-established budget, it wins the contract. If the price is too high, the price bid of the next best proposal is unsealed, and so on. The result is that the town may purchase a system that best suits its needs without violating state procurement laws, even though the low bidder does not necessarily win the contract.
Several points were made:
• Compatibility with a variety of manufacturers such as Nepture, Itron and Schlumberger is desirable to allow for competition on future replacement parts bids.
• The RFP as written does not exclude fixed network solutions wherein the data would be transmitted directly via radio relay units to the Water Dept. as opposed to sending out Water Department personnel with a radio receiver in a car to drive through neighborhoods taking readings.
• The RFP will be made available to WMAC members when it is ready, probably within the next month.
• There is only a small number of manufacturers who provide these systems.
• The proposals will be reviewed by Weston & Sampson, Eric Hooper, Dave Masciarelli and Town Administrator Ben Puritz. Input from WMAC members and interested citizens will be welcome, particularly from those having expertise with radio data transmission.
Paul Lauenstein asked whether a cost/benefit analysis had been done to evaluate the payback on this million dollar investment. Although a pilot installation in one sixth of the town has been approved, the balance has yet to be approved by Town Meeting.
Dave Masciarelli said it could take a year and a half to complete the pilot installation unless outside installers were hired. He said an appointment must be made with each homeowner, usually in the evening or on a weekend.
Lealdon Langley and Michael Birschbach asked how the pilot installation would be evaluated in order to decide whether to go forward with the balance of the town. Margaret McCarthy and Eric Hooper said that the technology is known to be reliable and the benefits would be immediately apparent.
Rory McGregor appointed Jack Sulik, Paul Lauenstein and Len Sekuler (chair) to the radio read meter system subcommittee.
• ACTION ITEM – Eric Hooper will provide WMAC members with copies of the Radio Read Meter System RFP as soon as it is available.
3) NEW WELL SITES
At the Board of Selectmen meeting on November 25, also attended by Michael Birschbach and Paul Lauenstein, Rory McGregor was asked by the Water Commissioners to recommend sites for a new town well as soon as possible. On the following Saturday, November 29, WMAC members Michael Birschbach, Roger Thibault, Rory McGregor and Paul Lauenstein, together with Lake Management Chairman Cliff Towner and Conservation Agent Greg Meister, inspected a number of potential well sites around Sharon. WMAC member Richard Mandell subsequently made a similar tour of inspection.
Based on information presented on the tour, Paul Lauenstein introduced the following motion, seconded by Richard Mandell:
Motion:
The WMAC recommends to the Board of Selectmen that pump tests be conducted as soon as possible at the following sites, in order of priority, to determine their suitability as well sites:
1. Gobbi gravel pit
2. Canton Street
3. Blair Circle
4. Maskwonicut Street
The WMAC also recommends that Conservation Agent Greg Meister, who has a great deal of experience negotiating with landowners in Sharon, be requested to approach the owners of the above listed parcels to obtain permission to conduct these pump tests.
Lealdon Langley began discussion of this motion by challenging the advisability of conducting full blown pump tests requiring an 8” bore to be pumped for a week or more while sampling an array of monitoring wells without first completing site screening documents and drilling less expensive 2.5” exploratory wells. He said he would email the site screening forms to the WMAC members. He suggested that a review should be done of the results of past drilling in the vicinity of the proposed sites.
Eric Hooper pointed out that a 2.5” exploratory well would not prove that a well site had an adequate rate of recharge. He also said that it would not necessarily verify the water quality that could be obtained from sustained high volume pumping, whereas a bona fide pump test would do that.
Len Sekuler suggested that the motion was premature, and the issue of where and when to test possible well sites should be left to a subcommittee working with Eric Hooper.
Alice Cheyer requested that a spreadsheet be prepared listing the relevant attributes of all potential well sites in Sharon.
Dave Masciarelli suggested that the Maskwonicut Street site should be purchased regardless of test results. He said it would be a suitable site to relocate Well #4 should that become necessary. He also said the price for this 30-acre parcel was reasonable.
Rory McGregor suggested tabling the motion pending further review by Eric Hooper and a water sourcing subcommittee.
Charles Goodman inquired how the five irrigation wells bored recently differed from a pump test. Eric Hooper explained that both the quantity of water needed for an irrigation well (under 100,000 gpd), as well as the standard of quality, is considerably lower than that needed for a municipal drinking water well.
Cliff Towner stated that a well field at the Gobbi gravel pit or a well at Blair Circle would tap an aquifer that does not feed any other Sharon wells. Therefore, it would be useful in winter to rest some of the other wells and aquifers in town, and allow them to recharge.
Richard Mandell suggested modifying the motion by specifying exploratory test wells instead of full blown pump tests, and deleting the recommendation that Greg Meister be called upon to negotiate with site landowners to conduct the tests, saying that the Selectmen could use their own judgement on this.
Mike Birschbach felt that there could be no harm in passing a motion as amended by Richard Mandell, as long as the site screening proposed by Lealdon Langley were completed also for the four proposed sites. He said he thought the data collected from the site screening and the exploratory well tests should be obtained as soon as possible to better evaluate the potential of these four sites.
The following motion was passed unanimously (6-0):
Motion:
The WMAC recommends that the Board of Selectmen conduct exploratory test wells as soon as possible at the following sites, in order of priority, to determine their suitability as well sites:
1. Gobbi gravel pit
2. Canton Street
3. Blair Circle
4. Maskwonicut Street
Eric Hooper expressed his misgivings regarding who would select the exact locations for drilling the exploratory test wells. In response, Rory McGregor appointed a new water sourcing subcommittee consisting of Michael Birschbach, Richard Mandell, and co-chairs Lealdon Langley and Roger Thibault, and charged them with working as a team with Eric Hooper and other knowledgeable parties to ascertain the best places to locate the test wells.
• ACTION ITEM – Lealdon Langley will email site screening forms to the WMAC members.
• ACTION ITEM – Rory McGregor will inform the Water Commissioners of the WMAC’s recommendation to conduct exploratory well tests at the four designated sites, as well as the formation of the water sourcing subcommittee.
4) RATTLESNAKE HILL
With the passage of the Conservation Commission’s Rattlesnake Hill purchase proposal at Town Meeting on December 9, there will be a debt exclusion secret ballot held within the next three months. If that passes, the ConCom will have to negotiate the other $7.5 million of the purchase from the state. If they are successful, the Water Department has agreed to supply $1.5 million of the $15 million price tag.
Eric Hooper expressed confidence that the reduction in cash flow of the debt service on this commitment would not be great enough to hamper any planned Water Department projects in the foreseeable future.
Charles Goodman suggested that there might not even be a need to borrow the $1.5 million needed for Rattlesnake Hill given the Water Department’s strong cash position and profitability. He said waiting as long as possible before borrowing the money would minimize interest expense.
Eric Hooper replied that he had only one chance per year to get approval from Town Meeting for borrowing large sums of money. He thought it best to plan ahead in order to avoid running out of funds during the year.
Alice Cheyer thanked the Water Department for their financial support of the Rattlesnake Hill acquisition initiative.
5) METCALF & EDDY REPORT
The Metcalf & Eddy report modeling the water distribution system for the town and giving an opinion on the High Pressure Service District proposed for the Hampton Road and Mountain Street areas will be available by January.
6) PRIMER ON HYDRAULICS AS IT RELATES TO THE WATER DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM IN SHARON
At the November 6 meeting, Roger Thibault agreed to make a 20-minute presentation at the next WMAC meeting, but due to his absence, this presentation was postponed until January 15. Paul Lauenstein requested that the presentation be relevant to actual projects. He cited the 16" pipe replacement project on Depot Street, the 2,000-foot water main replacement project on Morse Street, the Pine Street loop project, and the replacement of A/C pipe and pressure reducing valves in the vicinity of Edge Hill Road and Tiot Street as examples.
• ACTION ITEM - Roger Thibault will present a 20 minute "primer on hydraulics" for the benefit of WMAC members lacking a background in engineering at the January 15 meeting.
7) FY ‘05 CAPITAL SPENDING PLAN REVIEW
The committee began a line-item by line-item review of capital spending items proposed by the Water Department for FY ’05, which begins on July 1, 2004.
At the top of the list was a proposal to spend $25,000 each to evaluate the respective costs of constructing the pipelines and valves, and obtaining the necessary permits to import water from MWRA and the future Aquaria desalination plant in Dighton.
Eric Hooper gave this item his highest priority, saying that he felt Sharon will ultimately be forced to import supplemental water, and that there are long lead times associated with establishing the connections needed to obtain it. Rory McGregor and Paul Lauenstein both questioned the urgency of doing these studies.
Richard Mandell voiced support for establishing an emergency hookup to the MWRA by connecting to Stoughton’s 12” main at Cobb’s Corner, an item not listed in the Water Department’s capital spending plan for FY ’05. He felt that such an emergency hookup would be a good interim step in preparation for importing supplemental water from MWRA in the future, and would provide short-term insurance against catastrophic failure of one or more wells in Sharon.
Dave Masciarelli informed the Committee that the Water Department is preparing a state-mandated Vulnerability Assessment and Emergency Backup Plan which should be completed within six months. Eric Hooper commented that the Emergency Backup Plan is the more important of these two evaluations.
Due to lack of time, Rory McGregor deferred discussion of the majority of the FY ’05 capital spending plan until the January 15th meeting. The WMAC’s recommendations to the Water Commissioners for capital spending in FY ’05 are due next month.
• ACTION ITEM - Eric Hooper will email the Water Department’s updated
FY ’05 capital spending plan to WMAC members, who will come to the January meeting prepared to debate and vote on spending priorities to recommend to Selectmen.
8) REPORT FROM CONSERVATION SUBCOMMITTEE
Paul Lauenstein reported on the conservation subcommittee's meeting of December 1. He said the subcommittee is working toward completing a water conservation plan and associated budget by January 15.
• ACTION ITEM - The conservation subcommittee will prepare recommendations and a budget for water conservation in FY ’05 for the January 15 meeting.
9) EOEA WATER ASSETS INVENTORY MEETING
Kathy Roth, Dave Masciarelli and Paul Lauenstein attended a presentation by Massachusetts E xecutive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA) at the Stoughton Library on Friday, December 5 from 9:00 AM until noon. The purpose of the meeting was to provide Water Department personnel in a number of towns in our area with data collection forms, maps and instructions as part of an assessment of water supply preparedness for future population growth and development of 131 towns in the Route 495 corridor.
• ACTION ITEM - Paul Lauenstein will email a summary of the meeting to all WMAC members.
10) NEXT MEETING: THURSDAY, JANUARY 15 AT 7:30 AT SHARON TOWN HALL
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