Central Virginia
Rivanna Authorities
RWSA Board of Directors Meeting 9/24/2024
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RWSA Board of Directors Meeting
9/24/2024
Attachments
RWSA BOD PACKAGE 2024_09_24.pdf
RWSA Minutes 2024_09_24.pdf
1. CALL TO ORDER
2. AGENDA APPROVAL
3. MINUTES OF PREVIOUS BOARD MEETING ON AUGUST 27, 2024
4. RECOGNITION
5. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT
6. ITEMS FROM THE PUBLIC
7. RESPONSES TO PUBLIC COMMENTS
8. CONSENT AGENDA
a. Staff Report on Finance
b. Staff Report on Operations
c. Staff Report on CIP Projects
d. Staff Report on Administration and Communications
e. Staff Report on Wholesale Metering
f. Staff Report on Drought Monitoring
g. Approval of Construction Contract Award; South Fork Rivanna River Crossing 24” Water Main – Faulconer Construction
h. Approval To Increase Construction Contingency – MCAWRRF 5kV Electrical Infrastructure Improvements – Pyramid Electrical Contractors
i. Approval of Engineering Services – Rivanna Pump Station Restoration – Hazen and Sawyer Engineers
j. Approval to Increase Design Contingency – MCAWRRF 5kV Electrical Infrastructure Improvements – Hazen and Sawyer Engineers
9. OTHER BUSINESS
Combined Session with the RSWA
a. Presentation: Safety Program Update
10. OTHER ITEMS FROM BOARD/STAFF NOT ON THE AGENDA
11. CLOSED MEETING
12. ADJOURNMENT
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:00
The regular meeting of the board of directors of the Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority.
00:00:07
First item is the agenda.
00:00:08
Are there any changes to the agenda?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:00:12
There are changes.
00:00:16
We have an amended agenda to ask the board to approve remote participation by Ms. Mather.
00:00:26
We need a motion for that?
00:00:29
You will.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:30
We will?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:00:31
Yes.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:32
We need her to state her location.
SPEAKER_05
00:00:34
And her general reason for why not attending.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:38
Ann, can you state your location and the general reason why you are not here?
SPEAKER_04
00:00:45
I am along Route 29 southbound in Fauquier County and was not able to get back in time.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:00:54
Thank you.
00:00:56
Do we have a motion and a second to accept Ann calling in?
00:01:01
So moved.
00:01:02
Second.
00:01:03
All in favor?
00:01:04
Aye.
00:01:05
Opposed?
00:01:06
OK.
00:01:07
Welcome, Ann.
00:01:11
Next item, the minutes from the previous board meeting from August 27.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:01:16
You may want to approve the agenda now, Mr. Chairman.
00:01:19
Oh, I thought that was part of it.
00:01:21
OK. That was just approving.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:01:22
We have a motion and a second to approve.
00:01:25
I accept the amended agenda.
00:01:28
So moved.
SPEAKER_05
00:01:30
Second.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:01:31
All in favor?
00:01:32
Aye.
00:01:33
Opposed?
00:01:34
Okay, we have an amended agenda.
00:01:39
We'll move on to the minutes of the previous board meeting from August 27th.
00:01:44
Are there any comments or changes to those minutes?
00:01:50
Hearing none, do we have a motion and a second to approve?
00:01:53
Move for approval.
00:01:55
second we have motion and second all in favor aye opposed aye motion carries that's how man uh seeing there's no uh recognition this month we'll move on to the executive director's report
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:02:15
Yes sir, thank you sir.
00:02:17
I wanted to also thank Jeff Dumars for joining us.
00:02:23
He's sitting in for Jeff Richardson at this board, correct Jeff?
00:02:28
Yes.
00:02:29
Thank you.
00:02:31
So we brought to our board in
00:02:36
July of 2023, a new organization chart in which we created a director of administration and communications division in support of our succession management plan, but also we created an outreach and coordination coordinator position to be filled in the current FY.
00:02:56
and support our strategic plan to coordinate with the community and get our word out and get our profile elevated.
00:03:05
And so I'm pleased to introduce Theo Waters.
00:03:09
Theo, come on back up.
00:03:12
to the Water and Sewer Board.
00:03:14
Tia comes to us from the Virginia Department of Social Services.
00:03:20
And then prior to that, the Blue Ridge Health District where she was involved in community engagement.
00:03:27
And so she will be our new and first outreach and communications coordinator.
00:03:31
So we welcome Tia to our team.
00:03:34
And did you have any comments?
SPEAKER_01
00:03:36
No, thank you.
00:03:37
Lovely to meet you all again.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:03:40
Get the new faces this time.
00:03:43
So thank you, Tia.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:03:44
Welcome.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:03:46
Secondly, in support of our succession management program, we identified that we might need a new wastewater
00:03:57
Manager in some years and as it turns out our wastewater manager Rob Hack has announced his retirement at the end of October and we'll celebrate with him next month on that.
00:04:08
But we were pleased that through a competitive process that Brian Haney has been selected as our new wastewater manager.
00:04:16
Brian come on up.
00:04:19
So Brian is quite a homegrown success story.
00:04:22
He's been with us for over 20 years.
00:04:26
And they tell me he started as a filter press operator and he has served in this chain of command, I think from near the bottom to supervisor.
00:04:37
He was the assistant manager and now he's been promoted to be our wastewater manager.
00:04:44
So Brian will
00:04:45
manage our four wastewater treatment plants.
00:04:47
And he has 17 employees in his division.
00:04:50
So congratulations, Brian.
00:04:53
Further, before you leave, we and Brian identified that attaining a college degree would be beneficial to his career some years ago.
00:05:04
And Brian has been going to Piedmont Community College and has recently received his associate degree from Piedmont.
00:05:10
So we congratulate Brian on that also, very well done.
00:05:15
Yes, very good.
00:05:16
Thank you so much.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:05:17
Congratulations.
00:05:22
Well, Bill, when you grab the thing, I thought you were going to pull up a picture of Brian one years ago when he started.
SPEAKER_05
00:05:31
Yeah, the exact same.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:05:35
So you looked old then and now you look... Wow.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:05:43
Okay.
00:05:44
We also celebrate that Will Dobson, who is one of our IT technicians, received his
00:05:54
comp TIA security certification, a cybersecurity certification and Jacob Woodson and Jacob's in that room running the program for us here, also earned his comp TIA network plus certification, which certifies IT infrastructure skills for troubleshooting, configuring and managing networks.
00:06:17
So our IT team is growing.
00:06:20
We also celebrate September 17th as National IT Professionals Day.
00:06:27
And we appreciate all that Jeff Southworth and his eight person team do to keep our IT systems going.
00:06:36
Also in that last month, August, we had our quarterly team building event and a breakfast.
00:06:43
And we thank Deborah for sponsoring that and the other folks who helped put that together with her.
00:06:50
September is also National Preparedness Month and last month we got our management team together in the conference room and we reviewed the Rivanna Emergency Operations Plan along with our Emergency Response Plan, the local camp Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan between the three utilities, city, service authority and Rivanna and briefly talked about the city's Emergency Operations Plan.
00:07:18
So again, this is preparing our professionals
00:07:21
for storms and hurricane season as an example and what we do, how do we react if we have a sudden event or a planned emergency event and what our role is within the community to keep our water and wastewater resources and our solid waste resources ongoing.
00:07:47
We've been busy communicating.
00:07:51
We did invite and have Thomas Hetka, the Director of Water and Sewer for Greene County come and visit us and we gave him a virtual tour of our facilities and had a windshield tour of some of our facilities.
00:08:07
We talked with Thomas about the $150 million that Rivanna has invested in its infrastructure over the past 20 years
00:08:15
and about $200 million that we're going to invest over the next five years and that we were available to help support Greene County and their utility department, although we didn't have additional water to share with them.
00:08:31
So we had that discussion with Tom Huttka, the new utility director in Greene County.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:08:39
Was that a good conversation?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:08:40
Yes, sir.
00:08:41
I think they're moving forward with their planning for how they fund their infrastructure and they seem to have a path that went well.
00:08:55
We had a number of staff go to the annual Water Joint Annual Meeting in Virginia Beach at the conference and that is the Virginia American Water Works Association meets jointly with the Water Environment Association so they have water and wastewater at that conference and our own Jennifer Whitaker gave a presentation on our construction program, the number of CIP projects we have coming up
00:09:21
As well, Rob Hack, who's going to retire next month as our wastewater manager, gave a presentation on how he really came up with it, how we could better
00:09:36
saved power by reducing some of the dissolved oxygen that we inject in our aeration basins and the wastewater.
00:09:43
So we're trying to maximize that treatment process and keeping the bugs happy without over oxygenating them and burning a lot of power to do it.
00:09:53
So we appreciate what Rob came up with and he gave a nice presentation in Virginia Beach about that.
00:10:00
Our staff also met with the Rio Community Advisory Committee to give them an update on what's going on in our Rivanna world and the projects we have in their area.
00:10:12
We also met with the county leadership team and gave them an update on our water supply planning efforts, particularly in the northern part of the county.
00:10:20
So a couple of weeks ago, we met with that team.
00:10:24
Our safety manager, you're going to hear from in just a minute, but he did a nice job.
00:10:30
George Cheape did a nice job getting a $4,000 safety grant from the Virginia Risk Sharing Association.
00:10:37
And that is really our insurance company that we're expecting to get payment on the Rivanna Pump Station impacts.
00:10:48
But they awarded a $4,000 grant to us, which we were able to get a number of nice safety devices.
00:10:53
So we thank George for pursuing that.
00:10:57
Let's see.
00:11:00
And there are environmental stewardship priority.
00:11:03
We had students from St. Ann's Bellfield come up to Buck Mountain and help remove the tubes from the trees that were planted many years ago.
00:11:13
The tubes try to give the trees a chance to live and keep the bugs and the deer from eating them.
00:11:20
So we're moving out of that 10 year program that keeps us in that mitigation.
00:11:26
And this was mitigation for construction of the Ragged Mountain Dam.
00:11:30
This is part of the mitigation program.
00:11:33
And so we appreciate Stana and staff coming to help with that.
00:11:39
We are planning to move forward with the sale of 1706 Buck Mountain Road, which is this house and about two acres that we subdivided of the Buck Mountain property.
00:11:50
And if we can get it cleaned up and cleaned out, possibly next month we would issue a request for bids in accordance with the lease and sale procedure that the board approved a year or so ago.
00:12:03
If you recall, we sold one property, the Elliot House.
00:12:07
This is property number two.
00:12:09
This was owned by the Marrs family.
00:12:12
And when Rivanna purchased it in the 80s, they retained a life estate there.
00:12:18
But now both Mr. Andrews and Marrs have passed.
00:12:22
And there were people living there, but
00:12:25
We sent them a letter, talked with Mrs. Morris's daughter, and they have now moved out.
00:12:33
So we're cleaning it up and preparing it for sale.
00:12:37
I'm not exactly sure of all the extent of that, but hopefully, as I said, next month we may have a request for bid and take bids to sell that property.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:12:47
Did you move the driveway, Bill?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:12:49
No, sir.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:12:50
as the driveway, the property looks like it got cut off.
SPEAKER_05
00:12:56
Road has been relocated several times.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:12:59
Oh, okay.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:13:00
The Buck Mountain Road, the state road.
00:13:02
Okay, thanks, Valerie.
SPEAKER_05
00:13:04
It's off the page, but there is a portion of the parcel is to the lower right.
00:13:09
It's separated by the...
00:13:13
Okay.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:13:13
Yeah, and we appreciate Valerie's help and helping us to stay on track with how to subdivide and work with the county through that.
00:13:21
I told you last month that we were making a change to our Corrosion Control Program.
00:13:26
So that's a water treatment chemical that we put in the water to keep metals from leaching from household plumbing and pipes into the drinking water system.
00:13:36
And we'd have been having a challenge in several neighborhoods, Glenmore and Farmington, especially with the precipitate flaking material that was clogging up some of the plumbing fixtures.
00:13:47
And after many months of lab review, we think that by slightly reducing the strength of the corrosion inhibitor product that we can eliminate this precipitate from forming.
00:14:03
So that was implemented on September 12.
00:14:06
And the levels of that orthophosphate product have decreased in our system.
00:14:12
And so we'll be testing and taking samples throughout the system for a while to make sure there's no unintended consequences from that change and that it works.
00:14:22
And it may take a while for this precipitation to flush its way out of people's homes that are having problems.
00:14:29
But we're hopeful that the sediment will not re-form and will be done with that.
00:14:37
We talked with the board about having a commissioning program to help us have experts manage our control, make sure our control systems are designed, installed and tested and operate properly.
00:14:56
and so we have issued two commissioning requests for proposing.
00:15:00
One is for utility buildings and facilities and that proposal is due on Thursday from any interested firms and a second
00:15:11
RFB we issued that's due on October 1st is specifically for industrial controls integration and kind of the high-tech SCADA portion of our control systems.
00:15:22
So we're looking for two experts that can help us make sure that our controls are properly designed, constructed, and inspected.
00:15:33
So we're moving forward with that.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:15:37
Yes, sir.
00:15:38
How do you socialize or publicize these advertisements?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:15:47
We put them on EVA, the state's electronic advertising system.
00:15:52
I believe we had it in the local newspaper.
00:15:55
Anywhere else you think?
00:15:57
And our website.
00:15:58
But EVA goes to many, many, many places.
00:16:03
That's becoming the primary advertising and even now receiving bids in January will be required to allow bidders, construction bidders, to respond and submit their bids through EVA.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:16:17
I'll be interested to hear who will respond.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:16:21
OK, we'll let you know.
00:16:23
And then probably next month, hopefully, we'll have a recommendation to award these contracts.
00:16:32
to some, you know, we identify some firms and we send them specific email to let them know that this has been advertised, but EVA, our website and the local newspapers are usually how we have it.
00:16:46
And in addition, sometimes some other professional organizations if they're applicable.
00:16:52
Okay.
00:16:53
So speaking of bidding, we were thrilled and it's on a part of your consent agenda that we did bid the construction contract to install the pipe under the South Rivanna River, that 24 inch pipe that's going to go under the river and give us two pipes.
00:17:09
And as the consent agenda notes, that bid for just less than $5 million, it's in budget and a local Charlottesville firm bought the construction, was the low bidder.
00:17:20
So we are recommending an award of that contract today.
00:17:24
We expect to receive construction bids for the large project to run a new pipe from Ragged Mountain Reservoir to Observatory Treatment Plant.
00:17:34
and to construct the major pump station in between on the Boxhaven property where we purchased a parcel there from the foundation off of Reservoir Road and that bid, that RFB request for bids, invitation for bids has been issued and bids review October 1st.
00:17:53
So we have fingers crossed that we'll have a successful bid within our budget on that.
00:18:00
We will be talking about drought in the next week or two with the drought committee and someone anticipating will come back to the board in October and recommend that we withdraw the drought watch that was issued a couple months ago.
00:18:16
We've been getting a fair amount of rain.
00:18:18
All the reservoirs are full except for Ragged.
00:18:22
and if we have enough rain, we're continuing to fill Ragged through the pipeline from Sugar Hollow.
00:18:27
It should take about two more months though of filling to get Ragged full.
00:18:32
And now there's the tropical storm Helene out there that may send some rain our way.
00:18:38
So the rain forecast is positive and we're hoping we can work our way through the potential drought issue now.
00:18:48
And we'll check in with that throughout the committee.
00:18:50
Is it just city, service authority, or county representatives?
00:18:55
And that's my report, Mr. Chairman.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:18:58
Thanks, Bill.
00:18:59
Any comments or questions for Bill?
00:19:01
Yes, sir.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:03
The planning, the regime of planning proposal.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:19:07
Local ordinance, yes.
00:19:09
Yeah, that we talked about last.
00:19:10
Amendment to that.
00:19:11
Last month, I guess.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:13
Yes.
00:19:13
Is that still rolling along, I guess?
00:19:16
It is.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:19:16
We've got it.
00:19:18
We've reviewed it.
00:19:19
Actually, we met with the service authority this morning.
00:19:21
We're going to schedule a meeting with you, Lauren, to meet with you and your staff to review what the amendment says.
00:19:29
and we're planning to make comments to the state through its town hall web page.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:34
Because I went online and tried to figure out a way to make a comment that didn't seem very straightforward.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:19:40
I see.
00:19:40
Did you go to town hall?
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:42
I just followed the links.
00:19:44
Okay.
00:19:44
But that's, that's okay.
00:19:46
But we're talking about the same thing.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:19:47
This is the amendments to the local planning supply where we're supposed to join up with Raina, Louisa, Fluban, and Buckingham as a planning unit.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:19:56
So you guys will be sort of coming up with a common voice to
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:20:00
States, for our area we're looking to organize our comments back to the state if any but we expect to have some comments when they submit that.
00:20:11
October the 9th.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:20:15
And will the comments be more like technical nature or would they be more like?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:20:18
Well we're sort of digesting that you know what our comments might be.
00:20:22
One example they
00:20:24
They talk about we should be a 30 year planning horizon.
00:20:27
Well, DEQ permits are only for 15 years.
00:20:31
But the life of the infrastructure that we build is 70 to 100 meters.
00:20:35
So sort of where does this 30 year planning horizon leave you?
00:20:40
It's beyond the permit, but it's within it's under way shorter than our infrastructure.
00:20:45
So
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:20:46
and will you be able to sort of give them kind of general, I'll use the word political, community-based sort of feedback from the board members that we have some concerns like Ms. Malek raised last week about, you know, how we're, what are the expectations that we, you know, frankly subsidize smaller entities that may or may not have been investing in their abilities?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:21:12
We can make those comments if you would like us to.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:21:15
I don't know how you feel, Mr.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:21:18
Chair.
00:21:21
I think hearing that from an elected city official would be important as well, independent of Havana.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:21:31
We can coordinate with you, Brian, if that would be helpful.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:21:34
Yeah, I think so.
00:21:35
I think we need to.
00:21:38
Ann, can you hear us?
00:21:44
You there, Ann?
SPEAKER_04
00:21:45
Yes, yes, I can hear you, thank you.
00:21:47
And I think that having electives from the communities write directly to the link or also to Director Mike Robans by email would be a good way to sort of share the non-technical aspects of it.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:22:03
You said having it directly through the link or to the DEQ director role band either way would be a good way to express the political non-technical view of the proposed amendments.
SPEAKER_04
00:22:18
I've been struggling through the five attachments that are attached in town hall.
00:22:23
And some of them are very short and the others are 50 pages of stuff I can't manage.
00:22:28
But several things did jump out at me when I was reading them, one of which
00:22:32
was the recommendation from the state that this shouldn't have any impact on locality.
00:22:38
And so not to worry, if we give you $20,000, that should cover all of your expenses.
00:22:43
And I don't know what the dollars will be, but I do know there will be significant staff time on the part of Rivanna staff plus whatever the smaller communities send to whoever they send to join in.
00:22:55
So that's a concern I have when the state is pretty glib about passing all the costs and the work down to locality.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:23:03
Would you be able to forward on those links again maybe?
00:23:06
Yes, sure.
00:23:08
I had a difficult time navigating that site.
00:23:10
OK.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:23:11
There's a tremendous amount of information that the ordinance requires, the regulation.
00:23:17
They want to know what your current water use is for the public system, for residential wells, surface water, groundwater, your future expectation.
00:23:30
Where is it going to come from?
00:23:31
By the 9th.
00:23:33
No, by five years.
00:23:37
We'll have five years to build this plan.
00:23:41
And so all of the local governments, as they're defined, which is a city, county, and incorporated towns, and there are six incorporated towns in our unit with Scottsville, Stanfordsville, town of Mineral, town of Louisa, and
00:24:02
Dylan in Buckingham, if they're incorporated towns, they're included in the definition of local government.
00:24:12
And so we're sorting through who's going to be participating on this committee, because then they go on to say it's going to be stakeholders as environmental groups,
00:24:24
development groups, energy groups, a lot of people, and trying to sort through, okay, well, who's officially on the committee and who has a vote?
00:24:34
Because ultimately it's gonna come down to a vote and sure, they hope it's unanimous that everyone agrees, but it's based on a consensus.
00:24:43
It does not require a unanimous vote and the disagreeing localities can make their
00:24:53
comments as part of the plan, but the consensus of the plan would be considered the official local regional water supply plant.
00:25:02
So it would give us five years to pull this all together.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:25:07
So does it make sense for me, for example, for Charlottesville to talk to my colleagues and say, hey, I'm gonna send this feedback to the, whatever, or is it more like, well, the planning process is gonna start regardless of what we have to say and so let's just make sure we have a seat at the table or is it both and kind of thing?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:25:33
That may be up to you.
00:25:35
But as you say, the process is pretty clearly going to go forward.
00:25:39
And we're moving on with this.
00:25:40
We got a letter from them asking for the representatives to be nominated so they can invite the representatives to a meeting, which has to be held before April.
00:25:54
So DEQ is moving on with the process.
00:25:56
They want to know who the representatives are for every locality.
00:26:04
We'll be glad to send you information and coordinate, Brian.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:26:09
So do we trust your representative?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:26:12
Well, I can't be for a Rivanna.
00:26:15
Now, whether the local government of the county and the city, there is an option that the Planning District Commission can be the manager of this whole process for all of us.
00:26:27
So I'm planning to call over to TJPC and see what their thoughts are on this, how they want to be involved.
00:26:35
But the procedure allows them to
00:26:38
sort of run this process for our planning unit.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:26:44
Does our planning overlap with this new planning district in terms of the water?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:26:50
It is the new district.
00:26:52
Albemarle, Green, Louisiana, Pflugbanna, Buckingham.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:26:56
That would be TJPDC.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:26:58
Oh, yes.
00:26:58
It's my understanding, yes.
00:26:59
They overlap, all of us, so that makes it eligible that they could be the lead organizer of this effort.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:27:08
So will we have three members?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:27:13
Well, we have three members.
00:27:16
Go ahead, Ann.
SPEAKER_04
00:27:18
I was trying to say I think it's very important that each community do their own thing.
00:27:25
And certainly with the expertise that Rivanna offers, that is really important that we not hand that off to anybody who is working in a more general planning mode without having expertise about water.
00:27:38
So I would ask each of us to dig deep on that.
00:27:42
Another thing I forgot to mention earlier is that we can request a different district.
00:27:47
So that is something where I hope that, Bill, you and your staff will talk to the board, Rivanna board at the next meeting about your thoughts about that.
00:27:56
And the sort of community of interest that they use for many other things in government that is perhaps
00:28:05
more appropriate than where we have been placed so far.
00:28:10
But I think it's really important that each of our communities stay very actively involved in this.
00:28:17
Thank you.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:28:19
Looking on the TJPDC website right now, they have a watershed implementation plan.
00:28:26
Which connects to the bay, but.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:28:29
Yeah, sure.
00:28:29
You know, they organized the hazard mitigation plan for the whole region.
00:28:34
as an example.
00:28:35
So that's part of their purview is organizing different strategies for the entire region.
SPEAKER_04
00:28:44
Right, but the WIP is for the Chesapeake Bay plan and it's very planning 10,000 foot level.
00:28:52
It's not specific at all about what's to be done.
00:28:55
That's all.
00:28:55
Thank you.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:28:57
For example, the TJPDC includes Nelson, which is not part of what you described.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:29:04
We're going to sort that out.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:08
And it doesn't include Buckingham.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:29:10
Oh, okay.
00:29:13
Mike, you were asking how many voting members?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:14
Yeah, we're going to try to have somebody from the city, the county, service authority,
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:29:22
Right.
00:29:23
Whether we're going to have five being City, County, Service Authority, Scottsville, and Rivanna, could be five.
00:29:34
That would be our best alternative, is to have five of us.
00:29:43
So we'll be working on that and report back to you.
00:29:47
All right.
00:29:48
Thank you.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:49
Thanks, Bill.
00:29:52
Wait, Bill.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:52
Can I ask a question about one of the items on the consent agenda?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:29:57
Not yet.
00:30:00
Okay.
00:30:01
We got to get there.
00:30:03
Okay.
00:30:03
Next item is the items from the public.
00:30:07
So we'll open up the meeting for public comment.
00:30:10
Are there any members of the public here in the room that would like to speak at this time?
00:30:18
Seeing none, are there any online waiting to speak?
Austin Marrs
Engineering Manager
00:30:23
No, sir.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:25
OK, we'll close the items from the public.
00:30:27
Note there's no responses to those comments.
00:30:30
Move on to the consent agenda.
00:30:32
Are there any items on the consent agenda?
00:30:35
Board members would like to pull for questions.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:30:38
I'd be interested in a quick conversation about the MCAWRF5KV increasing construction contingency, the pyramid electrical
00:30:54
We had a quick conversation about the next item, the Rivanna Pump with Hazen and Sawyer.
00:31:01
Okay.
00:31:05
Yeah, I just, so it sounds like the 5KVE project has just been really super hard.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:31:14
Yes, we had existing underground duct banks and they, the new cables, as I understand it, would not
00:31:21
go through the duck banks.
00:31:23
So we had to construct new duck banks.
00:31:26
Austin, come on up.
00:31:29
Austin is our main man on that Friday.
00:31:32
Anything else more to say about the difficulties that the pyramid has had?
Austin Marrs
Engineering Manager
00:31:36
So there is expensive equipment, lead times as well.
00:31:40
Basically, this was initially only supposed to be about a year to 18 month project.
00:31:44
We're pushing three years as what we're likely going to push before construction completion.
00:31:49
As far as the duck bank issue goes, there's a certain amount of bins basically that a cable can go through before it's out of electrical code compliance.
00:31:59
All this was installed in the 1970s and what we found is when the contractor was trying to pull up a giant cable, it would not pass through those bins without exceeding the max pulling tension for us on the cable.
00:32:13
In order to safely replace the cables and kind of complete the job as originally intended and you know get this 50 year old cable out of the system that's unfortunately kind of the price we got to pay to replace it.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:23
Yeah I can appreciate that.
00:32:24
How long of section is that bank that you have to install?
Austin Marrs
Engineering Manager
00:32:27
It hasn't been in place yet but it'll be about 400 linear feet.
00:32:31
It's pretty extensive.
00:32:33
We're working on an alternative alignment with a contractor to hopefully avoid utility conflicts as well.
00:32:40
But yeah, we're hoping to get a change of order wrapped up and that's another contingency increase.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:44
So yeah, this really seems like it'll be a transformative project for this whole complex because you're going to, I guess the 5kV is sort of the backbone for the power?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:32:55
Yes sir, electrical power.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:32:58
All right, thank you.
00:33:00
Okay.
00:33:02
Noor, Rivanna Pump, Station Restoration, Pazen, were they involved in the original design?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:33:13
Yes sir, they were the design engineer of record.
00:33:17
But with this, we've had to go back in and reassess what was damaged and design new equipment, select new equipment and conduit runs and electrical requirements and panels and communication panels and all those things.
00:33:30
So it's a redesign of many of the components in the facility.
00:33:37
And it's been discussed sometimes several times about
00:33:42
Well, was it their fault that it became submerged?
00:33:46
And we've looked carefully at that.
00:33:47
We haven't found any indication of a professional responsibility they would have.
00:33:54
We all grimace a little bit about the duct penetration in the stairwell, which was the path the water came through.
00:34:01
But at this point, we haven't concluded that that was a professional liability issue, that they would have any financial responsibility.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:34:09
And we think it makes sense to use it because they're familiarity with it.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:34:12
That's right.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:34:13
And there's another firm here that's doing the PLC sketch.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:34:18
Is that FCH?
00:34:19
Yeah.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:34:20
Were they involved in the first design?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:34:21
Oh, sorry.
00:34:22
They did the independent assessment for us of what went wrong.
00:34:27
They did that assessment.
00:34:28
So they've become very familiar with the facility.
00:34:31
And they have expertise in the controls and such.
00:34:33
And that's what we hired to do the control last night.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:34:37
Who did the controls last time?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:34:39
Hazen Sawyer.
00:34:40
And I'm Chris Deverham.
00:34:41
Hazen is here.
00:34:43
Chris, do you know who you're sub?
00:34:46
for controls, was that really that house?
00:34:50
Sure.
00:34:52
Chris Danvers, how do you Chris?
00:34:54
Senior Vice President?
SPEAKER_06
00:35:00
Yeah, so that project done a few years ago, we have all the control, basically, details identified in the specification, so what the functional description is.
00:35:11
So that was used by whoever did the integration at the time, especially with the contractor.
00:35:17
But I believe, Bill, you know, that was done by us in house.
00:35:21
And then that information is being used by SEH to help develop their PLC and documentation, potential instructions.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:35:30
So is it going to be essentially like kind of pulling Frankenstein style, pulling the brains out and putting a new brain in, or is it just the
00:35:41
The sort of coding that's changing with this other firm, SCH.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:35:45
Well, I know they're looking at different types of controls.
00:35:48
I don't know if it's a color with the bar that has the float in the bar.
SPEAKER_06
00:35:52
Oh, it is different.
00:35:53
Yeah, there's different types of sensors we could use.
00:35:55
But yeah, that's that's actually a whole lot.
00:35:57
I think we have a separate task order that SCH is pulling together.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:36:01
We have the floats on the on the wires before and they maybe got tangled with the water rose this time it's a static bond but it meets the water level as it goes up so it can't float away it'll get tangled that type thing we're looking at.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:36:21
Remind me where we stand on like the overall sort of forensics for that?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:36:26
We finished the report which said that it was a controlled malfunction
00:36:31
The controls were not telling the pumps to pump fast enough to keep up with the rate of inflow.
00:36:37
And there was, if you recall, the blanking zone that when the water got too high, the electronic control couldn't read properly.
00:36:47
It was giving erroneous information to the operators.
00:36:50
So they didn't know to go down there and turn the pumps on or do something manually.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:36:55
So this other firm will be addressing the sort of- Yes, sir, SEH.
00:37:01
In the integrations, you'll actually get through a contractor, they'll have a subcontractor that does this integration?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:37:08
Usually they have a specialty subcontractor that does control.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:37:12
You'll have a commissioning agent, I guess, to help?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:37:15
We hope to have that firm, yes, to help out with that process, you know.
00:37:22
And the insurance has been resolved now?
00:37:39
No, we haven't heard anything officially from them.
00:37:41
We're still waiting for a response, but all the indications of their receptive to paying for the damage.
00:37:48
Not the new improvements, but the damage.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:37:54
Thank you.
00:37:58
OK, any other items on the consent agenda?
00:38:05
I'm sorry, I have a cold.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:07
Move for approval of the consent agenda.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:11
Second.
00:38:12
Do we have a motion and a second?
00:38:13
All in favor?
00:38:16
Aye.
00:38:17
Opposed?
00:38:18
Aye.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:21
Thank you, Ann.
00:38:25
Okay, so now we need to bring... Is there an opposition?
00:38:32
No.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:38:33
Oh, okay, thank you.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:38
Now we need to bring Solid Waste back in.
00:38:41
Do we have a motion and a second?
00:38:46
bring back solid waste.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:48
Second.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:38:50
Motion and a second.
00:38:51
All in favor.
00:38:53
Okay, fine.
00:38:55
Okay, we are jointly George Cheape safety program update.
SPEAKER_07
00:39:07
Good afternoon.
00:39:09
It's nice to be with you all today.
00:39:10
I'm George Cheape.
00:39:11
I'm the safety manager for both Rivanna and authorities.
00:39:15
And I thought it would be a good idea to give you an update on what we've been doing this year.
00:39:21
I came into this job in December of 2023.
00:39:26
I've been with the company for a little over six years.
00:39:30
My original capacity with the company as an employee was as an engineering technician inspector, project inspector for the company.
00:39:42
I came to this role primarily because of my background.
00:39:46
I want to give you a little bit of my background.
00:39:48
I've got about 35 years of construction experience.
00:39:51
A little over 29 of that is within water and wastewater.
00:39:56
Been certified as a class two operator in both water and wastewater.
00:40:02
I've also extensive experience at maintenance.
00:40:06
and I hold a master electrician and master plumber license as well.
00:40:11
Also been previously certified and getting re-certified to be an instructor trainer for OSHA 10 and OSHA 30.
00:40:20
And I got involved with Rivanna because I was an adjunct professor with PVCC.
00:40:25
I had this training credential and Rivanna had need of OSHA training.
00:40:29
So that's how I, that was my introduction to Rivanna and then eventually became.
00:40:37
So why and how are we doing what we're doing?
00:40:40
Once I came into the job from the time of the interview, and it was a panel style interview.
00:40:46
I'll let the panel know that my vision for what we should do for safety at Rivanna was to create a culture of safety, but do that through building relationships with other people, not just being an office.
00:41:00
You have to do office work, but you also need to be present.
00:41:04
And so we want all Rivanna personnel and contractors thinking and practicing safety at all times.
00:41:10
And my goal is for it to be automatic.
00:41:12
so that we don't have to remind everybody all the time.
00:41:16
We have a very good culture of safety here at Rivanna and all I'm trying to do is improve it.
00:41:22
How do we do that?
00:41:23
I want to do that with a hands-on, helpful approach.
00:41:26
It's real easy for somebody in a position like this to come in wagging your finger and kind of be the police and you know people are in trouble and that kind of thing.
00:41:34
I'm just not one that thinks that that gets a lot of results.
00:41:38
What I would rather do is be present, be on the job,
00:41:42
in departments, on job sites, talking with our people, talking with contractors, building relationships with people, and then using good effective communication so that we can figure out how to accomplish the task efficiently, but then also safely.
00:41:57
We do have to enforce safety standards and when necessary we will have to do that but most of that results in a conversation about okay what can we do differently to make it safer and what can I do to help you make it safer.
00:42:12
Ultimate goal here, zero accidents.
00:42:14
We want everybody just like OSHA states, we want everybody to go home the same way they showed up.
00:42:23
So what is safety?
00:42:24
Safety is a continuous improvement process that protects staff and reduces the number of workplace deaths, injuries, and illnesses.
00:42:31
It is also a part of our strategic plan.
00:42:33
We say this in our strategic plan, so we're going to do that.
00:42:35
So we had set safety goal strategies, again, through site visits and communication with people of all of our stakeholders.
00:42:44
We want to enhance our culture of safety.
00:42:46
And we want to protect our workforce and the public through continually growing the culture of safety.
00:42:51
So I want to expand this job, but I want to expand what we're doing, what we're offering with safety in the company.
00:43:01
So another way we do that, field work.
00:43:04
We're driving a work safety culture here.
00:43:07
I am from day one, I was out in the field.
00:43:10
I'm also in the office, but I was out in the field.
00:43:13
I've been making site visits with Rivanna Solid Waste Authority, Rivanna Water and Sewer Authority, maintenance and operations in the field.
00:43:22
Communicating, attending safety meetings for different departments, asking questions worn out to job sites.
00:43:31
Simple things like going around when it's hot out, checking on employees and things like that.
00:43:36
The Rivanna Pump Station, we'll talk about that a little bit more in a minute.
00:43:41
My role with that right now is ongoing safety coordination for rehab of the pump station.
00:43:46
I will be attending a safety meeting tomorrow.
00:43:48
That's a pre-con for load testing of our VFDs that we're testing to make sure that they're going to be okay.
00:43:56
As you know, we had some failures with the primary clarifiers a little while back.
00:44:02
I got a call about that.
00:44:03
This is a prime example of working with people to try to solve problems in a unique way.
00:44:10
These clarifiers are like 110 feet across, and they're about 10 feet deep, but it's a permit required confined space.
00:44:18
So how do you access that?
00:44:20
And so I worked with the maintenance manager, Greg Marrs, and our lintless personnel to try to come up with a way to safely do that, and we accomplished that on both those clarifiers.
00:44:31
Also doing site safety inspections at our CIP projects like Airport Road Pump Station, South Robana Warplane Observatory, and also the 5KB project.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:44:43
Rivanna Pump Station.
SPEAKER_07
00:44:58
So the Rivanna Pump Station, this incident occurred, I was on the job almost exactly three weeks.
00:45:03
So what an orientation.
00:45:06
I responded the first day and into the next night.
00:45:11
At the time I was performing a dual role as an inspector to inspect the emergency bypass installation, but also working with our Rivanna staff, along with the consulting engineers and contractors to facilitate a safe installation of more pumps
00:45:28
and Pyphing, including collaboration and appropriate and effective fall protection.
00:45:33
So if you look at this picture right here, this is an example.
00:45:36
We had to design a fall protection system where they were going to be able to work at height and that worker right now is suspended in probably 30 feet.
00:45:52
Yeah, this worker right here is suspended about 30 feet above the covers for the wet well portion of the pump stand.
00:46:01
So worked with everybody to design that.
00:46:05
Insured the dry well areas were safe for entrants to perform the initial root cause analysis inspection.
00:46:09
I've been involved in all of that.
00:46:11
And then I coordinated with contractors to get the dry well cleaned and disinfected.
00:46:17
Safety Administration.
00:46:19
So one of the things that we've been able to accomplish this year, Bill alluded to earlier, or talked about earlier, RSWA has a safety grant system.
00:46:30
We are eligible for $4,000 in safety grants for Rivanna, Ward, and Sewer Authority.
00:46:34
We were able to obtain all $4,000 of that.
00:46:37
43 Class III Hyvis vests, company-wide, we're trying to standardize our vests.
00:46:43
three new four gas monitors for the maintenance department and then six chemical rain suits for wastewater.
00:46:49
And then with Solid Waste, I was able to collaborate with David Rhoades, the solid waste manager, to apply the $2,000 grant.
00:46:59
This is a great way of thinking out of the box.
00:47:03
They came up with a project to protect our employees on the tipping floor by installing a gate.
00:47:11
And so the gate had to be fabricated because it's a specialized gate.
00:47:14
I checked with Versa and the $2,000 would be applicable to that.
00:47:19
And that makes our employees safer while they're cleaning the tipping floor because it protects them from vehicular traffic.
00:47:25
We also have been able to create a new electrical safety chapter for the safety manual.
00:47:32
That is something that's a first ever for our safety manual.
00:47:34
I was able to collaborate with UVA Facilities Management for that.
00:47:38
They were very helpful and that's created.
00:47:43
It's just about completely finalized and published.
00:47:46
and I've also been attending meetings along the way with CUA 911, City of Charlottesville, Albemarle County Service Authority, the hot wash for the Sugar Hollow Dam and various things like that, trying to build relationships and be involved.
00:48:03
This is just an illustration of our safety manual.
00:48:06
It's got 25 chapters and you can see number 25 is the electrical safety.
00:48:10
That is going to continue to grow as we go, I'm sure.
00:48:17
Okay, so what's next?
00:48:18
One of the things that I'm really excited about right now is that we are rolling out in the fourth quarter of this year, we will be rolling out a new incident reporting system.
00:48:27
Our incident reporting system has been kind of paper oriented up till now.
00:48:31
and I've been working with a couple of different stakeholders in the company in IT and also in other departments in HR.
00:48:44
And we have found that we can use our current paycheck system that we do our payroll with.
00:48:49
We also do our safety training with.
00:48:51
And once we have that up and running, that's gonna make it so that every employee has incident reporting in their pocket, basically through their phone.
00:49:00
So they'll be able to, if they have an incident or witness an incident, they will be able to document that through our incident reporting system then.
00:49:07
And it also is going to be a more efficient way for us to do data collection so we can zero in on any injuries or types of incidents that we may have.
00:49:15
Also lockout tagout, lockout tagout with an OSHA requirement.
00:49:21
You have to lock out and tag out any sources of energy when you're working on equipment.
00:49:25
and so we are developing a very robust lockout tagout program that will go be incorporated into our City Works asset management program and working with staff on streamline forms and system for review and approval of that.
00:49:40
And then, yes sir.
Brian Pinkston
Member, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:49:43
What have we historically been doing with Lockout Tagout?
SPEAKER_07
00:49:47
So we are doing Lockout Tagout.
00:49:49
We've never not done the work.
00:49:51
What we are doing now is documenting that we're doing the work and we are putting procedures in place so that every employee from day one on the job will be able to have access to what do you do when you're at Rose Pump Station 4 and you're working on pump number 3.
00:50:05
How do you lock that in?
00:50:07
for example.
00:50:08
So as you know, we have just a host of major construction projects coming up.
00:50:15
I will be attending all the pre-construction meetings involved in those with safety.
00:50:20
That's not new.
00:50:21
We've been doing that along, but I'll also be doing onsite safety inspections and working with our construction inspectors on different safety guidelines for those jobs.
00:50:34
That is my presentation.
00:50:35
Are there any questions?
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:50:36
Thanks, George.
00:50:37
Any questions?
00:50:40
Thanks very much.
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:50:44
OK. We have a position probably in the proposed budget for July to add another safety person to help George and to focus on solid waste.
00:50:54
That was mentioned about Solid Waste Board several years ago, if they'd like to have a more dedicated safety resource.
00:51:02
So you may hear about that in the spring.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:51:06
OK.
00:51:08
So I'm going to ask this of both boards, just so that for efficiency.
00:51:13
Are there other items from either boards or staff not on the agenda?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:51:19
Not from staff.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:51:20
OK. Is there any reason for a closed meeting?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:51:22
No, sir.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:51:23
OK.
00:51:24
So can someone make a motion and a second to close the solid waste meeting?
Bill Mawyer
Executive Director
00:51:29
So moved.
00:51:30
Second.
Mike Gaffney
Chair, Rivanna Water & Sewer Authority
00:51:31
All in favor?
00:51:32
Aye.
00:51:33
Opposed?
00:51:34
Okay.
00:51:34
Solid waste is closed.
00:51:36
And would someone make a motion and second for the water and sewer floods?
00:51:40
So moved.
00:51:42
Second.
00:51:43
All in favor?
00:51:45
Aye.
00:51:45
Opposed?
00:51:46
Okay.
00:51:47
We are closed with both meetings.
00:51:49
Thank you.
SPEAKER_00
00:51:50
Thank you.
00:51:51
Very good.