HomeMy WebLinkAbout1977-03-29city council minutesBook 18 Page 86
SPECIAL MEETING
March 29,1977
7 :30 P.M.
The Meeting was called to order by Mayor Pasley.
The,Roll of the City Council was called with the following
members present: McCluskey, Williams, Raymond, Banks, and
Bauman. Absent: Olesen.
(PUBLIC-HEARING ON UPDATING CALDWELL WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT)
The Mayor opened the hearing by explaining that this was the
date set for the Public: Hearing on the update of Caldwell's
present wastewater..treatment,.pla The Mayor requested•that
those who spoke.dur.ing.the, hearing to please state theix,
names and who the resent
y represent so it would be on the r ecoxds.
Also he explained that.there would be a ten day grace period
for anyone to present written testimony.to be included in the
public record of.this.hearing...
Before the Mayor asked for participation, from the audience, he
requested that Glen Hollis, Wendel Friend, Joe Franklin,.,Jerry
harness,, and Chet Simpson come, forward. The Mayor stated that
these were the gentlemen that operate Caldwells Wastewater
Treatment Plant. At a Wastewater Meeting in Pocatello a few
weeks ago, - Mx. Hollis who was - superintendent of the Plant, was
presented an award. Mr. Hollis explained that they received
the award fox operations maintenance plant. Caldwell has one of
the oldest plants in the state of-Idaho., Dave Baker, the Assistant
Engineer, explained further that the award was presented at the
Wastewater Short School_ held at Idaho State University on March
15, 16, and 17. Tom Johnson, of the Environmental Protection
Agency in Seattle, presented three awards that all went to Idaho
cities. Caldwell's award was for outstanding operation of their
sewage treatment operations. The other two cities receiving
awa -'rds had treatment plants that were only four years old __'
and seven years old as compared to Caldwell which was twenty
years old. Mx. Johnson congratulated Caldwell for knowing
how much the industries were putting into the wastewater". He
also thanked Caldwell's City Council., the, Mayor, and the City
. Hall, for their cooperation in making this very fine and efficient
operating plant.
The Mayor also thanked Jim Oates, who was in the audience, for
questioning the costs of the previous' facilities plan and was the
one who started the City down the correct path in the
program..
The Mayor then introduced George Capestany, representing
Parametrix, who was hired by the City Council to present a plan
of updating the treatment plant.
Mr. Capestany then presented to the City Council and the audience
their..plan_Lor..the update of the.Wastewater,T'reatment Plan as
follows: In 1976 the City of Caldwell, through the Corps of
Engineers, had a facility plan prepared. Subsequent to that
report, Parametrix of Seattle was retained by the City of
Caldwell to analyze the chemical and biological conditions of
the Boise River and to provide an analysis of the•waste' treatment
facilities. It was felt desirable to take a second look at the
wastewater facility plan in an effort to obtain a compromise
between the requirements of Public Law 92 -500, the existing
waste treatment facility at Caldwell, and the present status of
infiltration /inflow in the overall city system. This update of
the facilities plan was presented in draft form and made available
to the public on March 1, 1977. The purpose of this meeting was
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Page 87
to obtain input from interested parties both for and against the
proposal in order that the most cost effective solution can be
implemented for the City of Caldwell. The original plan presented
by the Corps of Engineers was basically an activated sludge
system designed for around fifty -five hundred pounds of BOD a-
day.
The general philosophy that underlies the updated facilities plan
was: (1) To obtain maximum utilization of existing facilities;
(2) to meet the proposed Environmental Protection Ager..cy and
Health and Welfare standards; and (3) To minimize cost of
waste treatment. In accordance with the philosophy I have just
explained, the draft update analyzes three different conditions
from which the present facilities can be updated to provide the
required effluent concentrations. One alternative was what could
be done in the event that no infiltration /inflow reduction was
accomplished. The other three alternatives were for varying
degrees of inflow and infiltration reduction.
Essentially, the treatment facility was updated on the basis of
adding whatever units,were necessary to meet waste treatment
criteria and to meet what was called Class II reliability as
defined by Environmental Protection Agency. In addition to the
units that were added, existing units were modified to maximize
their ability to process the BOD and suspended solids coming
into the plant.
Preliminary treatment was suggested with grit removal and
comminution. Primary treatment will be accomplished in the same
way that the plant was presently operating. However, by addition
of a second secondary clarifier, the plant has the capability,
if necessary during repair, of bypassing the primary and using
one of the secondary clarifiers thus providing Class II: reliability.
Chlorine contact chambers_do. not exist in the present plant. The
two existing digesters were modified to function together in
what is called a Torpey recycle which includes a recycle of
digested sludge through the primary digester to improve,the
efficiency of both units. The heart of the secondary treatment
facility,. either activated sludge, trickling filter or bio- disk,.._
is a mass of microorganism that are either suspended or attached
to a fixed media. In this case, the Caldwell plan calls_ for
a. trickling filter, a process that has been used for as many as
seventy years. That process fell in disfavor in the last twenty
years particularly in the United States.. The high cost of building
very large filters required to provide adequate treatment was
the,reason for this disfavor. However, using plastic media,
trickling filters fifteen to twenty -five feet in depth were now
being constructed. And one advantage is the stability of the
system (ability to take shock loading). Less power is needed
to run a filter than an activated sludge plant and more
comm' are taking a second look at installation of a
trickling.filter systems. I should add that in Europe,- particularly
in England, the philosophy of the trickling filter was considerably
more advanced, perhaps because they felt the effect of power
shortage sooner than we did. We felt that the existing filter
could be increased in depth substantially by the use of plastic
media. By adding two and a half feet of this plastic media, we
could provide considerably more surface area than that..of the
present filter. I should say that under normal conditions this
treatment should satisfy all of the requirements normally
placed upon a- secondary.waste..treatment facility... The resulting
concentrations...of BOD and suspended. solids from, -the plant would
not be detrimental to .the Boise.River.. So.you -ask why we went
beyond that design. The intent of Public Law 92 -500 was to
protect the receiving water. Secondary treatment was defined as
85% removal of BOD and suspended solids in treatment waste.
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Page 88
Public Law 92 -500 provided limits that different industries were
forced to meet under Best Practical Treatment in 1983. Best
available treatment for Meat Packers and the Dairymen's is in the
neighborhood of 97% , cif removal of BODs and suspended solids.
Therefore, the town of Caldwell was forced to provide treatment
of flows to provide an effluent quality of ten parts per million
of BOD and suspended solids which was much below the level that
normal secondary treatment can provide. In order to meet the
criteria following a fixed media treatment operation, we round it
necessary to provide a sand filter which was essentially a
mixture of gravel, sand, and Anthrocite coal to "polish" the
effluent from the trickling filter. We must still comply with
secondary reliability standards which under emergency conditions
means that one half of the flow must be given secondary treatment
while the other half was given the best treatment possible. We _.
felt that a trickling filter provides extreme reliability with
little potential for failure. We think that it was unjustified to
build another trickling filter just to provide for secondary
reliability. Therefore, we have proposed in the facility plan to
provide a physical / chemical backup. By that I mean we could add
a coagulant to the flow at the primary' clarifier, prior to the
trickling filter or prior to the final treatment in case of an
emergency. We felt that this would provide a secondary
reliability just as well as an additional trickling filter. If
anything ever goes wrong with the rotary distributor in the
trickling filter, we have provided a stationary distributor so
that when repairs are being made to the rotary distributor the fixed
distributor will allow the filter to continue in operation.
However, in order to satisfy the regulatory agency in its Class
II reliability requirements, we feel that the physical /chemical
.mode is required and is a safety factor. As was mentioned
before, the City of Caldwell has input from two major industries
into the sewage system. We are requiring that industry enter
into a cost recovery program so that it doesn't end up with the
public or the City financing an industry. We went through the
calculations and have provided a cost of BOD and suspended
solids and in addition to that Have established a cost for
maintenance and operation of the treatment facility. We Feel
that the industries responsibility should be directly proportional
to the amount of and suspended solids that they contribute.
Idaho Meat Packers at the present time provides a pre- treatment
of their wastes. Dairymen's at the present does not provide any
kind of pre - treatment. We feel in the report that Dairymen's
should be required to provide pre - treatment in the form of
equalization. We feel that since neither of the industries are
introducing toxic wastes i,?to the system; it was necessary that
they only provide equalization, of the flows into the system, We
have discussed this and there is still more discussio-, required
with the industries.
The system as designed should provide adequate treatment for a
population of 22,000 and the projected load from both population
and industry through the year 1983.
The Mayor thanked George Capestany and then opened the Meeting
for comments from the audience.
Mr. David Milan of Tudor Engineering was recognized and made
the following comments:
First; I would like to say that both the proposed capital
cost recovery schedule and the user charge allocation presented
in this facilities plan appear to be fair to Dairymen's Creamery
Association. The only point of contention I have with this report
is the requirement that Dairymen's construct a flow equalization
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system. A flow equalization system is a form of pre- treatment,
and while the Enviromental Protection Agency requires that an
industry which discharges to a municipal sewage treatment plant
must pre -treat its waste, this requirement only applies to a new
industry. An existing industry that is currently using a
municipal treatment plant, as is Dairymen's case, does not fall
into this category. The Environmental does, however, state
that the total industry share of the cost of the treatment facility
must be:reccvexed. This is to avoid indirect government subsidy
of a private industry which uses a municipal treatment facility
to treat its waste. The capital cost recovery schedule and the
user charge allocation are designed to meet this requirement,
and Dairymen's is prepared to pay its fair share. The implication
is that the City's Engineer should design the treatment facility
to accommodate the industry's waste and then the City should
charge the industry for the costs of the additional capacity.
Thus, I feel that the requirement' that Dairymen's construct a
flow equalization system is unreasonable and request that it
be deleted from this facilities plan.
Mr. Frank Krone, the Manager of Dairymen's, was then recognized
and stated as follows: First, let me congratulate the Mayor,
the Council and Parametrix for the wastewater facility plan
designed to meet Environmental Protection Agency requirements
at a substantial saving under the plan the City was once prepared
to pay. It does illustrate ,that . there are ways to meet legal
requirements and thankfully at less cost to domestic and
industrial users.
As has been stated many times, the wastewater treatment
requirements established by the Federal, Government and the State
of Idaho are extremely difficult for communities and industries to
meet with reasonable costs.
The economic hardships of meeting similar standards were
illustrated recently in Jerome, where it was a major
factor recently in liquidation of Idaho's second oldest dairy
corporation Idaho Gem Dairy,when this proposed merger with Cache
Valley Dairymen.':s failed -due principally to the economic
commitment required in that community to comply with E.P.A. The
producers lost their investment and are now shipping to Dairymen's
Creamery;Association. To meet these guidelines, industry must
incur added costs and these have to be reflected in increased
prices to the consumer and in lowering profits to dairy plants.
The pressure on the dairy industry is a realistic pressure. This
was best illustrated when the Department of Agriculture stated
that by 1983 one half of the dairy plants operating in the United
Stated in 1972 were expected to be closed. The employment in
dairy processing reduced almost 25,000. Over 2,200 communities
were effected. The pollution crunch will take its toll. E.P.A.
themselves project that cheese plants will drop from 800 to 406;
butter plants from 360 down to 159. These reductions effect not
only industry, but employees, communities, dairy farmers and their
cooperatives. Objectives will be, for example, to reduce BOD
from 2,000 pounds daily to eight pounds daily and reduce suspended
solids from 1500 pounds daily to 15 to achieve 99% removal.
We appreciate the cooperation we have had from the City of Caldwell.
We are concerned about our future. We are projecting a decline
in dairy farmers and milk production Caldwell has been
recognized as one of the world's largest creameries, but its volume
is down. Now we are faced with a commitment for thirty years to
fund capital expenditures in our community and we are asked to
make additional capital investments in a sewage storage basin
to equalize our flow into the municipal plant. Our business
has been selected for an investment with no recovery -of cost
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Page 90
available. Engineering judgment seems to prevail with the
burden of proof of whether or not storage of our effluent is
needed or not needed resting with.us. It is not a pre- treatment
facility that is requested, as I understand it; E.P.A. cannot
require that.. But your consulting engineer has proposed to ask the
City Council to pass an ordinance requiring Dairymen's to equalize
the flow. The pressure is evident that we have no choice but
we object to this type of cooperation. With all the authority
E.P.A. has, it can't require an industry to do what the City
Council will be asked to do. It is further recognized by Paramctrix,
the City Officials, Dairymen's and Tudor Engineering that figures
quoted -in the report are based on limited information and will
have -to be further qualified -as the project devehopes.
We appreciate the opportunity to'be on record for our reaction
to the facility plan proposed. We have made improvements. We
need to make more and - vye will make more. We must cooperate with
the conu=uinity and the City. We can't.go it alone. As Idaho's
oldest dairy cooperative, we have been a part of Caldwell since
1925. We hope we can be part of Caldwell's future too.
The Mayor thanked Mr. Drone and stated that the City Council was
on the side of the industry and was only trying to do what the
government requested.
Mr. Lewis,'the City Engineer, emphasized that the government must
finance all of -this project by grants or the City- o'f'Caldwell will
have to start all over again to try to meet the 's andards as set
forth.
Mr. Dave Sanders, of the State Department of Health'and Welfare was
recognized and informed the Council and audience that the Idaho
Health and Welfare Department has not made a determination as to
what part of the project will be eligible. There may be some
problems with the eligibility of a certain part of the
rehabilitation of some of the interceptor lines for replacement.
A determination was not made as yet and they had asked for
additional information from Parametrix before a. determination
would be made. He stared that the determination would be made as
soon as possible.
The Mayor declared the public •hearing closed and,thanked
all who had attended and .made comments.
There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at
8:50 P.M. .
APPROVED AS wr THIS 5th DAY OF April ; 1977.
0
Codliaivf / J Councilman
ounci1ma - - Councilman
Councilman. Councilman-
ATTEST:
City Ci- ;
During the ten day period following the City Council hearing on t *.e
update of the Wastewater Treatment Plant, no written testimony was
received. Copies sent to Mr. Capestany, E.P.A., H & W, Dairymen's,
and Meat Packers. City Clerk