by Neil Richard
Editor's Note: I arrived approximately ten minutes late to the Service Authority meeting due to a prior commitment to serve on the Landfill Advisory Board earlier in the evening.
The Service Authority Board of Directors began their meeting with Ruby Brabo conferencing in via video chat from out of town. According to Eric Gregory, County Attorney, the Service Authority Board of Directors does not have a policy to allow Directors to attend via remote participation. Unlike the Service Authority, the Board of Supervisors does have a policy allowing this. Because of this lack of a policy, Brabo was allowed to observe but was not allowed to participate.
Bennett suggested that perhaps the first order of business at the next meeting was to have a policy for that ready to adopt.
There were no amendments to the Agenda.
Jim Lynch opened Public Comment by asking if Ruby Brabo was a member of the Board. Mike Bennett, Chairman, said that she was a member of both the Service Authority Board of Directors as well as the Board of Supervisors.
Christopher Werle began his report by saying he attended budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th. On February 27th he attended the South Potomac Community Relations Council Meeting in Waldorf. On March 5th he contacted Debbie Messmer from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) regarding the status of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) review of the Fairview Beach project. Werle said that FEMA was still reviewing the plan but has not asked any questions yet which Werle felt was encouraging.
Richard Granger reported that he attended the budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th.
Cathy Binder reported she also attended the budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th. Binder said she also attended the Agenda meeting on March 8th.
Mike Bennett said he also attended the budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th. On February 22nd, Bennett also attended a meeting with Dr. Neiman Young, County Administrator, and Cliff Parker of AQUA. Bennett said that Parker provided a number of charts and graphs related to the water and sewer rates in Virginia. Bennett attended the hearing before the Wetlands Board on February 28th related to the riverbank stabilization project in Fairview Beach. He said the Wetlands Board was concerned about some of the plans, specifically back up plans, should construction interrupt water and sewer service. Bennett said that as far as he knew, the backup plans have always been to run temporary lines on the surface during an outage like that. He felt that during construction, the Service Authority needed to be better prepared for an emergency like that should they be damaged during construction. Bennett added that there were several photos of the impacted area that showed the drainage and erosion issues, included new areas that had eroded since the last set of photos had been taken. He also said that VDEM sent the project to FEMA during the recent government shutdown and that was a likely cause behind their delay. Bennett ended his report saying that he attended the Agenda meeting on March 8th.
The Consent Agenda was approved.
The County Attorney, Eric Gregory, had no report.
Next on the Agenda was a discussion of the Utilities Master Plan, Phase I by Wiley-Wilson. Bennett said they would hold a preliminary meeting with himself, Jonathon Weakley, General Manager, and Travis Quesenberry, County Engineer, to prepare for the presentation to the whole Board later. Bennett mentioned that one of the things Wiley-Wilson surveyed for their plan were pump stations and how to get them into compliance with Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Jonathon Weakley began his General Manager's report by first asking if Ruby Brabo could hear him. She stated she could. Weakley's report followed in the footsteps of his previous reports by covering the same three general topics. Under water, he said that the consumer confidence reports are in progress, lead and copper sampling plans are being worked on, and Fairview Beach flow data was prepared for the Insurance Service Office (ISO) Rating. He said that the hydrant testing was not done at every hydrant. Weakley said that the scheduled system flushing would be announced via KGAlert and highly recommended that everyone sign up for the alert system. For the Hopyard water system, Weakley said the air compressor motor will need to be replaced and that parts are on order. For Fairview Beach, he said that well #3 is still offline but should be running by the end of the month. He added that the faulty switch in Cleydael was replaced.
Under the waste water side of operations, Weakley said they held interviews earlier in the day and the pool of candidates was promising. He said required compliance documentation was sent to DEQ but it apparently did not meet the state's needs so he was working with them to determine what the next step would be. Bennett asked how many pump stations were in compliance and Weakley said four out of the 35. Bennett reiterated much of what was discussed during the budget work sessions that DEQ required some contingency plans for the pump stations and that much of the estimated $700,000 cost was associated with generators. In reviewing their inventory, it was discovered that three generators could be used to fill some of the gap at the eight stations that needed them. Two pump stations had no room for generators. Bennett said that regardless of how many generators needed to be purchased, it was still a large amount of money. Weakley concurred and added that part of his response was to ask for a Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) due to the confines of many of the pump stations. He said there were other options for a contingency plan besides a generator but many required land that may not be available. There was additional discussion about the Wiley-Wilson report meeting the requirements from DEQ regarding the compliance documents. After reviewing the Consent Order and consulting with Eric Gregory, it sounded like the Wiley-Wilson report should meet the requirements but Weakley said he was still going to contact DEQ to work with them to determine what else was needed. Bennett again reiterated that the Service Authority has limited resources and to come up with $700,000 right away would be too much, not to mention the implementation of installing generators right away. Werle commented that he was afraid DEQ's response would be that low interest loans are available but said the Board wouldn't want to do that.
Weakley continued his waste water report by saying he looked into three (3) phase power at the Ferry Dock pump station and it was too expensive. He said instead he would look into a submersible pump to see if that would work better at a lower cost. In reviewing the Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs), Weakley noted that the Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) amounts were looking okay at all WWTPs except Purkins Corner. He said there was an overload of influent over three days which caused the Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) to exceed the weekly and monthly limits. Weakley said the goal at each WWTP was to keep the numbers low to act as a buffer. He said the idea was to "not keep yourself up at night, or in my case, keep myself up at night." Bennett asked if the exceedance at Purkins Corner would result in a violation notice. Weakley said it could result in a Notice of Violation (NOV) or a warning letter. He said that DEQ may assess points as well, similar to points on a driver's license, but said that points are typically reserved for more excessive issues. Werle added that compliance points could result in DEQ taking punitive action if they get too high.
Under the other information section of his report, Weakley said Draper Aden would be presenting their decommissioning study later this month. He invited John Jenkins and Jeff Bueche to attend as the decision impacted all of King George. There was some discussion about what version of the report to send out prior to the meeting because the final determination had changed at the last minute. Weakley then broke the bad news that he had finally received the assessment for Dahlgren and Fairview Beach WWTPs regarding their Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF) grant violation. He said the repayment amount for Dahlgren was $58,260 and Fairview Beach was $2,272 for a total of $60,532. Werle asked what the deadline was for repayment and Weakley said 90 days. Bennett said he felt like this was a case of double jeopardy where the Service Authority was being punished twice for the same thing. Bennett said he understood that they were different but it hurt to pay this amount on top of the $82,000 fine they already had to pay DEQ. Werle said he was doubtful Bennett would be successful in arguing that. Gregory agreed and said that Bennett knew they were two different matters entirely. Bennett said that it's because of issues like this that the Board has asked Weakley to give monthly updates on nutrient amounts. He apologized to the audience if they fell asleep but said they never knew this information in the past. Werle said the Service Authority has had to repay portions of the WQIF grant in the past and clarified later in the meeting that the total amount repaid since 2009 was $162,330, not including the amount from tonight. Bennett said it made him afraid to go for another grant if you can't comply. Weakley's finished his report by saying he was still looking for the white paper Brabo had asked for at a previous meeting regarding the study done that showed lower nutrient levels could be achieved.
The Board then went into Closed Session at 8:10pm and invited Jeff Bueche and John Jenkins to attend.
Bueche and Jenkins left the Closed Session at 8:04pm.
The Board returned from Closed Session at 8:10pm.
Weakley noted the dates and times of upcoming meetings, including a budget work session on March 18th, a regular meeting on March 19th, and another budget work session on the 27th.
The meeting adjourned at 8:11pm.
Meeting Attendees:
Christopher Werle (Board of Directors)
Jonathon Weakley (General Manager of Service Authority)
Richard Granger (Board of Supervisors)
Michael Bennett (Chairman, Citizen)
Cathy Binder (Board of Supervisors)
Neiman Young (County Administrator)
Eric Gregory (County Attorney)
Absent:
Ruby Brabo (Board of Supervisors)
present via video chat and was allowed to watch and listen but due to a lack of policy allowing video conference attendance, she was not allowed to vote on anything
Meeting Agenda
Next Meeting:
The Service Authority will next meet on March 18, 2019 at 6:30 pm at Company 1.
Previous Meeting:
Read about the previous Service Authority Meeting.
Editor's Note: I arrived approximately ten minutes late to the Service Authority meeting due to a prior commitment to serve on the Landfill Advisory Board earlier in the evening.
The Service Authority Board of Directors began their meeting with Ruby Brabo conferencing in via video chat from out of town. According to Eric Gregory, County Attorney, the Service Authority Board of Directors does not have a policy to allow Directors to attend via remote participation. Unlike the Service Authority, the Board of Supervisors does have a policy allowing this. Because of this lack of a policy, Brabo was allowed to observe but was not allowed to participate.
Bennett suggested that perhaps the first order of business at the next meeting was to have a policy for that ready to adopt.
There were no amendments to the Agenda.
Jim Lynch opened Public Comment by asking if Ruby Brabo was a member of the Board. Mike Bennett, Chairman, said that she was a member of both the Service Authority Board of Directors as well as the Board of Supervisors.
Christopher Werle began his report by saying he attended budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th. On February 27th he attended the South Potomac Community Relations Council Meeting in Waldorf. On March 5th he contacted Debbie Messmer from the Virginia Department of Emergency Management (VDEM) regarding the status of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) review of the Fairview Beach project. Werle said that FEMA was still reviewing the plan but has not asked any questions yet which Werle felt was encouraging.
Richard Granger reported that he attended the budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th.
Cathy Binder reported she also attended the budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th. Binder said she also attended the Agenda meeting on March 8th.
Mike Bennett said he also attended the budget work sessions on February 25th and March 7th. On February 22nd, Bennett also attended a meeting with Dr. Neiman Young, County Administrator, and Cliff Parker of AQUA. Bennett said that Parker provided a number of charts and graphs related to the water and sewer rates in Virginia. Bennett attended the hearing before the Wetlands Board on February 28th related to the riverbank stabilization project in Fairview Beach. He said the Wetlands Board was concerned about some of the plans, specifically back up plans, should construction interrupt water and sewer service. Bennett said that as far as he knew, the backup plans have always been to run temporary lines on the surface during an outage like that. He felt that during construction, the Service Authority needed to be better prepared for an emergency like that should they be damaged during construction. Bennett added that there were several photos of the impacted area that showed the drainage and erosion issues, included new areas that had eroded since the last set of photos had been taken. He also said that VDEM sent the project to FEMA during the recent government shutdown and that was a likely cause behind their delay. Bennett ended his report saying that he attended the Agenda meeting on March 8th.
The Consent Agenda was approved.
The County Attorney, Eric Gregory, had no report.
Next on the Agenda was a discussion of the Utilities Master Plan, Phase I by Wiley-Wilson. Bennett said they would hold a preliminary meeting with himself, Jonathon Weakley, General Manager, and Travis Quesenberry, County Engineer, to prepare for the presentation to the whole Board later. Bennett mentioned that one of the things Wiley-Wilson surveyed for their plan were pump stations and how to get them into compliance with Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ).
Jonathon Weakley began his General Manager's report by first asking if Ruby Brabo could hear him. She stated she could. Weakley's report followed in the footsteps of his previous reports by covering the same three general topics. Under water, he said that the consumer confidence reports are in progress, lead and copper sampling plans are being worked on, and Fairview Beach flow data was prepared for the Insurance Service Office (ISO) Rating. He said that the hydrant testing was not done at every hydrant. Weakley said that the scheduled system flushing would be announced via KGAlert and highly recommended that everyone sign up for the alert system. For the Hopyard water system, Weakley said the air compressor motor will need to be replaced and that parts are on order. For Fairview Beach, he said that well #3 is still offline but should be running by the end of the month. He added that the faulty switch in Cleydael was replaced.
Under the waste water side of operations, Weakley said they held interviews earlier in the day and the pool of candidates was promising. He said required compliance documentation was sent to DEQ but it apparently did not meet the state's needs so he was working with them to determine what the next step would be. Bennett asked how many pump stations were in compliance and Weakley said four out of the 35. Bennett reiterated much of what was discussed during the budget work sessions that DEQ required some contingency plans for the pump stations and that much of the estimated $700,000 cost was associated with generators. In reviewing their inventory, it was discovered that three generators could be used to fill some of the gap at the eight stations that needed them. Two pump stations had no room for generators. Bennett said that regardless of how many generators needed to be purchased, it was still a large amount of money. Weakley concurred and added that part of his response was to ask for a Preliminary Engineering Report (PER) due to the confines of many of the pump stations. He said there were other options for a contingency plan besides a generator but many required land that may not be available. There was additional discussion about the Wiley-Wilson report meeting the requirements from DEQ regarding the compliance documents. After reviewing the Consent Order and consulting with Eric Gregory, it sounded like the Wiley-Wilson report should meet the requirements but Weakley said he was still going to contact DEQ to work with them to determine what else was needed. Bennett again reiterated that the Service Authority has limited resources and to come up with $700,000 right away would be too much, not to mention the implementation of installing generators right away. Werle commented that he was afraid DEQ's response would be that low interest loans are available but said the Board wouldn't want to do that.
Weakley continued his waste water report by saying he looked into three (3) phase power at the Ferry Dock pump station and it was too expensive. He said instead he would look into a submersible pump to see if that would work better at a lower cost. In reviewing the Waste Water Treatment Plants (WWTPs), Weakley noted that the Total Nitrogen (TN) and Total Phosphorus (TP) amounts were looking okay at all WWTPs except Purkins Corner. He said there was an overload of influent over three days which caused the Total Kjeldahl Nitrogen (TKN) to exceed the weekly and monthly limits. Weakley said the goal at each WWTP was to keep the numbers low to act as a buffer. He said the idea was to "not keep yourself up at night, or in my case, keep myself up at night." Bennett asked if the exceedance at Purkins Corner would result in a violation notice. Weakley said it could result in a Notice of Violation (NOV) or a warning letter. He said that DEQ may assess points as well, similar to points on a driver's license, but said that points are typically reserved for more excessive issues. Werle added that compliance points could result in DEQ taking punitive action if they get too high.
Under the other information section of his report, Weakley said Draper Aden would be presenting their decommissioning study later this month. He invited John Jenkins and Jeff Bueche to attend as the decision impacted all of King George. There was some discussion about what version of the report to send out prior to the meeting because the final determination had changed at the last minute. Weakley then broke the bad news that he had finally received the assessment for Dahlgren and Fairview Beach WWTPs regarding their Water Quality Improvement Fund (WQIF) grant violation. He said the repayment amount for Dahlgren was $58,260 and Fairview Beach was $2,272 for a total of $60,532. Werle asked what the deadline was for repayment and Weakley said 90 days. Bennett said he felt like this was a case of double jeopardy where the Service Authority was being punished twice for the same thing. Bennett said he understood that they were different but it hurt to pay this amount on top of the $82,000 fine they already had to pay DEQ. Werle said he was doubtful Bennett would be successful in arguing that. Gregory agreed and said that Bennett knew they were two different matters entirely. Bennett said that it's because of issues like this that the Board has asked Weakley to give monthly updates on nutrient amounts. He apologized to the audience if they fell asleep but said they never knew this information in the past. Werle said the Service Authority has had to repay portions of the WQIF grant in the past and clarified later in the meeting that the total amount repaid since 2009 was $162,330, not including the amount from tonight. Bennett said it made him afraid to go for another grant if you can't comply. Weakley's finished his report by saying he was still looking for the white paper Brabo had asked for at a previous meeting regarding the study done that showed lower nutrient levels could be achieved.
The Board then went into Closed Session at 8:10pm and invited Jeff Bueche and John Jenkins to attend.
Bueche and Jenkins left the Closed Session at 8:04pm.
The Board returned from Closed Session at 8:10pm.
Weakley noted the dates and times of upcoming meetings, including a budget work session on March 18th, a regular meeting on March 19th, and another budget work session on the 27th.
The meeting adjourned at 8:11pm.
Meeting Attendees:
Christopher Werle (Board of Directors)
Jonathon Weakley (General Manager of Service Authority)
Richard Granger (Board of Supervisors)
Michael Bennett (Chairman, Citizen)
Cathy Binder (Board of Supervisors)
Neiman Young (County Administrator)
Eric Gregory (County Attorney)
Absent:
Ruby Brabo (Board of Supervisors)
present via video chat and was allowed to watch and listen but due to a lack of policy allowing video conference attendance, she was not allowed to vote on anything
Meeting Agenda
Next Meeting:
The Service Authority will next meet on March 18, 2019 at 6:30 pm at Company 1.
Previous Meeting:
Read about the previous Service Authority Meeting.
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