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HomeMy WebLinkAbout07.a.6) Written Announcements7.a.(P) Board Meeting of August 4, 2011 Written Announcements: District Events /Conferences a) Margaret Orr to Attend California Association of Sanitation Agencies Conference in San Diego from August 10 — August 13, 2011 Director of Operations Margaret Orr will be attending the California Association of Sanitation Agencies (CASA) Conference in San Diego from Wednesday, August 10 through Saturday, August 13, 2011. Project Related Updates b) Advertisement of the Primary Structures Demolition, District Proiect 7255 Construction work for the Primary Structures Demolition Project, DP 7255, will consist of removing the original undersized and abandoned primary tanks, piping, and equipment from the 1950s allowing for future expansion of the primary area. The project will also consist of demolishing the abandoned lime storage building and the four lime silos within, along with associated pneumatic lime piping. This project will be advertised in August. Bids will be opened on August 31, 2011. The construction cost is estimated at $1,000,000. More information will be presented when the Board is asked to approve the construction contract. General Updates c) Margaret Orr Assigned to National Association of Clean Water Agencies Committee Director of Operations Margaret Orr has been asked by the National Association of Clean Water Agencies ( NACWA) to serve as co -chair of the Biosolids committee, with assistance from Senior Engineer Randy Schmidt. NACWA has engaged the largest legal consortium in its history (the District is one of 45 agencies from around the country funding this issue) to petition the Environmental Protection Agency concerning sewage sludge incineration and the definition of solid waste rules. District staff has been integral in providing comment to the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), both Written Announcements August 4, 2011 Page 2 of 3 publicly and in written form, to influence the new regulations and will now have the opportunity to work side -by -side with NACWA in the legal drive to change the rules that were promulgated in March 2011. d) State Water Board Releases Whole Effluent Toxicity Policy that Changes Toxicity Assessments The State Water Board (SWB) released a draft Toxicity Assessment and Control Policy in late October 2010 that made significant changes to the way toxicity assessments are conducted. District staff provided public comment in November 2010 at a workshop in Sacramento followed by written comments to the SWB in February 2010. In May, a Bay Area Coalition of Water Agencies (BACWA) team, including District staff, met with individual SWB members. At that time, the SWB members directed SWB staff to meet with BACWA technical team members. In July, a team of BACWA representatives and Dr. Dan Gallagher, P.E., a Professor hired from Virginia Tech, led a technical discussion with SWB policy writers and Dr. Deborah Denton, chief author of the policy from USEPA. Much of the discussion focused on the statistical error rate using the new method to evaluate results and the real world impact of increase permit violations "due to the error rate that the current proposed State -wide Toxicity Policy would cause. SWB staff requested the BACWA team come back to Sacramento in August or September to discuss another method suggested by BACWA, the IC25. BACWA will hire another technical expert to discuss the IC25 method with SWB staff. BACWA continues to strive for the integration of good science in the policies adopted by the SWB. e) Recent Environmental Protection Agency Plant Inspections The EPA historically has hired consultants to perform Annual Plant Inspections of Publicly Owned Treatment Works (POTWs). A recent plant inspection of Novato Sanitary District conducted in October 2010 indicates future Annual Plant Inspections may be more critical than the District has experienced in the past. This October Inspection resulted in the new facility designed by RMC Engineers receiving the grade of "Unsatisfactory" in five categories, leading to the issuance of a Notice of Violation (NOV) by the Regional Board with regard to plant operations. The Regional Board recently withdrew the NOV after consultants for Novato San provided substantial additional information relating to the plant design and operations. The relevance of these actions relate to the surprisingly critical nature of the original Inspection Report and the fact that one of the "Unsatisfactory" ratings was based in part on Novato using the same method for calculating bacteria results after UV treatment as has been used by this District for some years. The EPA consulting firm carrying out the Inspection was Tetra Tech which has Written Announcements August 4, 2011 Page 3 of 3 performed both plant and pretreatment inspections at the District in the past and may do so in the future. Although the NOV was withdrawn, the tone of the withdrawal letter suggests that in the future these inspections may be more focused on finding technical discrepancies in operations than has occurred in the past.