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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06.a.1) General Manager Announcements6-0. 1) Board Meeting of July 31, 2014 Written Announcements: LAFCO ELECTION UPDATE a) Update on Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO) Special Election held July 21, 2014 A special election was held on July 21, 2014 in to fill the regular special district seat on LAFCO created by the recent passing of Dwight Meadows, who was re- elected last April. Earlier this month, the District's Board supported the nomination of Mr. Igor Skaredoff, who subsequently was elected to fill Mr. Meadows' unexpired term ending May 7, 2018. PROJECT UPDATE b) Bid Results for Survey Monument Replacement Contract, District Contract No. 41799 The District uses contractors to restore survey monuments that have been removed during construction projects. Survey monuments are structures used by surveyors to perpetuate property boundaries. Surveyors rely on them to prepare property descriptions and to locate points in the field. State law requires their replacement when they are removed. The monuments are removed during sewer construction projects where the replacement sewer is designed through the monument's location — both tend to be located in the middle of roads. The bids were opened for the price agreement contract on July 22, 2014. Two bids were received and the low bidder was Crisp Company with a bid of $72,000. The Engineer's Estimate was $75,000. The General Manager awarded the contract on July 24, 2014 as this contract value is within his signature authority. OUT -OF -STATE CONFERENCE ATTENDANCE c) Employees to Attend Water Environment Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) in New Orleans, Louisiana from September 27 - October 1, 2014 The 87th Annual Water Environmental Federation Technical Exhibition and Conference (WEFTEC) will take place at in New Orleans from Saturday, September 27 through Wednesday, October 1, 2014. The following District employees will be attending: Written Announcements July 31, 2014 Page 2 of 3 Bruce Dobey, Shift Supervisor Dan Frost, Associate Engineer Dana Lawson, Senior Engineer Edgar Lopez, Senior Engineer Sasha Mestetsky, Senior Engineer* Nate Morales, Senior Engineer Jean -Marc Petit, Director of Engineering Paul Seitz, Collection System Operations Division Manager Justin Waples, Assistant Engineer Alan Weer, Plant Operations Division Manager WEFTEC is the premier water quality conference which provides state -of- the -art information at a reasonable price. Attendees will have the opportunity to participate in workshops, technical sessions, facility tours, and view exhibitions. Senior Engineer Dana Lawson will be presenting at one of the workshops on Asset Management. Dan Frost and Justin Waples are on committees. *Expenses paid by Northern California Pipe Users Group (PUG). REGULATORY MATTERS d) District Funding Suisun Phytoplankton Growth Study The recently- adopted Bay Area Nutrient Watershed Permit calls for monitoring, modeling, and embayment studies related to nutrient loadings and transformations. It specifically requires Dischargers, such as the District, to collaborate with other regional stakeholders to support the development and implementation of a science plan identifying studies needed to implement the San Francisco Bay Nutrient Management Strategy. The information generated from these studies will be used with modeling to support consideration of future management actions, including the development of nutrient water quality objectives. The Bay Area Clean Water Agencies (BACWA) is representing wastewater dischargers on a Steering Committee formed to provide oversight and decision - making regarding prioritization and funding of the science plan studies. While the science plan is in development, projects recommended in the draft Conceptual Model Report and reviewed by the Core Science Team have been prioritized for funding by the Steering Committee. One such study that was reviewed by key scientists working as advisors to the Steering Committee is the Suisun Phytoplankton Growth: Continuation of Pure Culture Experiments by Dr. Mine Berg of Applied Marine Sciences. Dr. Berg was seeking $60,000 in funding to finish a study entitled Physiological Assessment of the "Bad Suisun" Phenomenon: Light and Nutrient Interactions, which had initially been funded by the Interagency Ecological Program. This study would provide the Regional Board with timely information on the relationship between phytoplankton, nitrogen source and irradiance and will truly challenge the current hypothesis in Suisun Bay that ammonia is Written Announcements July 31, 2014 Page 3 of 3 inhibiting the growth of phytoplankton since Dr. Berg is conducting the study on phytoplankton collected from Suisun Bay. In the study Dr. Berg will be testing two hypotheses: 1) if native phytoplankton harvested during transects of Suisun Bay show changes in growth associated with nitrogen source (ammonia vs. nitrate), and 2) what is the interactive effect of the nitrogen source and irradiance on phytoplankton growth rates. Although considered a high priority, Dr. Berg's study was not selected for funding by the Steering Committee in the current fiscal year due to limited funds available through the pooled funding resources. However, due to the key information it will generate, District staff feels strongly that this study should be completed and timing is important. Savings associated with set up and operating costs (e.g. culturing phytoplankton species, coordinating with another study's use of boat) would be lost if the District did not step in to provide funding. To ensure that this study and its results will be appropriately considered in the larger context of nutrient management decisions, District staff solicited and received support from both the Regional Board and the Steering Committee's Science Program Manager David Senn (San Francisco Estuaries Institute) before moving forward with contracting to fund this study. All key stakeholders support the District providing funding to complete this study. Therefore, the District will proceed to contract with Dr. Berg for approximately $60,000 to complete her study. Results are expected mid -2015.