October 19, 2026 – Wastewater Management – Video & Transcript
October 19, 2026 - Wastewater Management
I don't have a third member. We had a lead, but we're all here. So I will call the October 19, 2026 meeting of the Wastewater Management District Commission to order. This is a remote access only meeting. The access agenda was...
submitted to the town clerk on October 13th. Log in to the meeting was noted there. And with that, Mike Gitten, present, participating remotely. Darren Bock, participating remotely. Okay. Do we have any public comment? There's nobody in the attendees section. Okay. We were a hot commodity there for a while. No one cares now.
Then we'll hand it over to Jared, monthly operating report. Yes, not a bad month for us. The pack pump won, the inner tubing failed, which was a simple replacement. Time Bond was on site here to evaluate the plant for potential flow capacity. We had Pride install a new diffuser clean actuator valve.
And they also cut new conduit channels for the anoxic mixers. The old conduit had rusted and rotted away and wasn't really able to be reused. So we have a new safely wired mixers. But similarly, or on the same subject, anoxic mixer one failed.
And so that is currently with Pride. They're taking it to be evaluated to see if it could be rebuilt or if we need to get a new one. But to be able to retrieve that, they had to empty the tank. So we did have a few extra thousand gallons of pumping this month. But yeah, that should be good going forward. Nice. Can't be a meeting without asking about flow. Yep.
Yeah, really like 38,000 is about our average. Wow. We got some nice 40, 42s and still get some 35s and occasionally like a 32, but yeah. So we're now 38. Yeah, consistently. Consistently. That's up a good eight. That's great.
Hopefully the plant's liking it. Yep, it's doing fine so far. So the item that failed really quick, and then we'll talk about fog because we always got to talk about fog too, but this item fix is that one of those items we expect to fail and didn't get caught during a normal pulldown of the tank, i.e. you said we had to do an extra pulldown of the tank because of this unplanned. So is this something that we look at to be planned in the future of like, okay, when we do a pulldown, we check this?
Yeah, so this wasn't like part of our normal tank drawdowns or anything. This just, with like the mixer had failed, so we had to draw the tank down to be able to access it at the bottom. Okay. But going forward, they'll also attach a chain to it. So if it fails, again, for whatever reason, they should be able to lift it up without having to get into the tank itself. Okay, good. All right.
As long as we always have learnings from them, right? Make it better next time. Yeah. All right. So that's awesome. 38,000. Wow. Fog, what about latest coming from, I don't even know what we call it now. River's Edge, what's it called? Alta Oxbow. Farming Complex. Farming Complex. Thank you. Buy the Waste Management. Go ahead. Yeah, so we had it pumped out recently. So it's nice and clean.
And then we had a meeting with Oxbow and their engineer trying to see if we could come up with alternatives for them, see what could work and what they offered some solutions that they wanted to see if we were comfortable with.
Abby definitely has more information on this. I think she was having some microphone issues. Yeah, she just signed off, and I'd imagine she's probably coming right back on, so we could... All right, so we'll wait for that. Yeah. Outside operations, so. All right, so wow, sounds like a good month then, overall. I'd say so.
I was just, I did read the minutes from last month that just promised me just a few questions. The SCADA behaving appropriately for you? Yeah, it's been behaving appropriately. No issues. Haven't had to reset it or anything. It does the test alarm every day. Haven't had any issues with that. And I feel very comfortable with where we are.
Before we go too further, Abby, I'm not sure if you heard. I missed part. Can you hear me now? Yes. I'll go back. Jared, when we were talking about the mixer, I just wanted to...
Say that I think when it failed, we did have a spare on hand and will we end up with a spare going forward? Yes. The spare we had, we had, it had previously been in one of the tanks. We, it was when we were having these electrical issues that we weren't sure if that had truly failed or if that was part of the electrical issues.
So back then, we just, we had Pride come in, so we had them put our spare in, and we then kind of hoping, we were hoping that that was just because of the electrical issues, not an issue with the mixer. So this one failed recently, we tested that, and they both are out of commission, so they're both going to be evaluated for being rebuilt.
And we will end up with a spare on the shelf. Yes. Is this like a small part, like in the budget type thing, or is it a get up to a capital purchase type? I don't know how much a new mixer goes for, but I can't imagine it's that big. I feel like it would be small cap. They would be in our, yeah, our asset management fund. Yeah, the 105. Yeah. And then we went on to talk about the fog.
We did meet with representatives from BlackRock and Alta Oxbow and their engineer to talk about the fog issues. We asked them to kind of continue two trains of discussion, including a design of pretreatment. They haven't really done that. It's something they're not really interested in doing.
In addition to sort of taking up part of the parking area, it also blocks off space to their parking garage. I think that to them, additionally, a high O&M cost is preferable to a capital investment. So they've really kind of pressed upon us to consider two different options.
So, we.
So that we would look into potentially, I know that when we did the town center permit increase, we were able to get that $75,000 for the treatment plant evaluation and then use that as a peer review fund.
I don't know if we can get funding from them, from BlackRock, under a similar funding mechanism, where there's funding available for us to draw upon, and then essentially work with Whitewater or a similar contract operator to create an operations and management schedule that would include maybe monthly pump-outs.
Weekly Inspections on their part and sort of get this off of Jared's table under a different operator situation. So that's one alternative. Another alternative they've asked if we would consider is if they took over ownership of that pump station and then they would do the operation and maintenance of the pump station.
I said that that was really dependent upon making sure we had an O&M plan with them that was agreed upon. Additionally, that there was a place to get a testing port after the pump station, but before our treatment plant, so that we were continuing to test that.
What was coming out of their pump station was under the 100 milligrams per liter concentration of fog. If they were to do regular operation and maintenance at that pump station, I think it's probable that the effluent coming out of that would not have the fog concentrations that we're seeing.
As the influence to the treatment plant, the pump draws from the bottom of that pump station. And it's been part of our hypothesis as to why they get low.
Fog numbers when they test because they test the bottom of the wet well and we get high fog concentration because we test the influent in the top of the wet well. So if we were only getting what was the effluent from that pump station and they owned the pump station, I do think that they would meet the criteria, although that would be a lengthy conversation with town council, et cetera.
So we didn't, I said that I would bring it up to you guys and get your sense of what we should pursue. From an operational issue, we like testing the way we test because the way they're testing might not accurately, is this correct, that it would not accurately be an indicator of the stress on our equipment and other maintenance?
Is that kind of the difference in the way they approach it versus them? That's a difference in the way they approach it. It also is a difference upon the definition of where our collection systems start. Does our collection system start coming into their pump station or would then the collection system start coming out of the pump station?
So coming into the pump station, the concentrations of fog are very high. Coming out of the pump station, the concentrations of fog are most likely less, particularly if you keep up with the O&M schedule. But I thought the issue of the fog in there was that it was causing the float to like get gummed up and not know how to shut off or turn on. And so like that.
So it's not like the fog is reaching our treatment facility. I mean, some of it is, but it's just the maintenance of that entire thing just starts failing because of the float. I'm going to call it the float. And then therefore the pump doesn't know when to turn off and on and this and that. And you start gumming up stuff and all this and that. That's correct. So, yeah. So, yeah, you can measure the outlet and it will look good.
But now we have to have all these issues of like, hey, your well is not turning off and on well. That's right. Yeah. That's correct. And also that if you don't, at some point, you would have enough fog in there if you weren't cleaning it that would start to get to the treatment plan. Right. You got to measure at both ends to know, hey, you're eventually going to run into a problem if you don't. Right.
Exactly. And the consequence of, you know, not maintaining, you know, the maintenance schedule, they're the ones that would feel that result. I mean, it would back up and they're the ones that would experience the negative impacts of that. That's right. Yeah. What happens if it doesn't turn on or shut off and we don't supply us? What eventually happens? It backs up and then do they have an EPA issue?
They would have what they would call a sanitary sewer overflow, which is defined any time that sanitary sewer escapes, leaves the infrastructure that it's intended to stay within. It has to be reported to the DEP. And, you know, we have them.
Rarely now, if ever, but in my prior, you know, career, I dealt with them regularly and the DEP takes these things very seriously. I bet they do. Yeah, yeah. So it would be a real problem for them. So it would, I mean, this does appear to be an attractive option, you know, to, and I think.
You know, obviously our first stop is with this commission to get a sense of, you know, your thoughts on it. There was a land disposition agreement back when Alta Oxbow was being negotiated that I believe was signed by the select board. So I think ultimately if we were going to transfer ownership from the town to Alta Oxbow of this pump station, it would likely require an amendment to that agreement and it would probably, you know, an endorsement by...
staff and by the Wastewater Commission, but I think ultimately it would probably require a select board signature and support. On the sanitary sewer overflow, if that type of issue were to happen, who would the state look to? Would it be us or would it be the Oxbow?
It would be Alt-Oxpo because the sanitary sewer overflow would be caused by their infrastructure, their pump station at that point. Right now, if it happened today, it would be on us. And that's why we are so keen on having this maintained regularly, pumped down, fog removed. You know, it's a big deal for us right now. A minute.
Yeah, no, it kind of makes sense for this last option. You know, like I said, our responsibility starts at the inlet to our system, we'll call it, right, and the outlet of their pump station. And that's where the measuring point is. And if it's prior to that, it's theirs. If it's after, then it's ours. And as long as they stay under 100, whatever it is, and I apologize, I didn't get the terminology what the 100 was, then they're meeting it.
This test point, is it off the line or does it need its own wet well to allow sampling? There's a little dry pit right after, right, Jared? Sort of right after the pump station. We were going to confirm with them that we can take samples from there, but there's a little dry pit after so that you can get in there to sample. So setting it up. It sounds like it'd be cleaner. It might take more effort to set up versus the business, just the money deal. But long term, the effort could be worth it. And our return doesn't go through this. Our return back to the absorption, that still is ours. However, that arrangement is a separate path. That's right. Yeah, because they added to our ability to... Like it's greater than what our plant can even do, right? If I remember correctly, our outlet to the river? No, this is the outlet back to the absorption on their property. Right. But that's still ours. Okay. Yeah. That's still ours. It would just be the inlet. Okay. Yeah. We would still have some collection pipings of the force main that's on their property. Okay. Yeah.
So we have three options to force an engineering fix that they're going to fight us on more. The business deal, which just doesn't solve the distraction to what we need to do. And this, this sounds good. The last one. And when we get in the weeds, I would want somewhere in there our ability to Advise them or somehow say we're seeing something you need to act on. I don't think anyone wants a problem to occur. Yeah. You know, I told them I would want to agree on an O&M schedule, a testing schedule, that we would still have sort of an easement or access within the agreement. And then we would still have their permit so that, you know, if they continue to have problems downstream of what would now be their pump station, they would still be subject to the same. District Rules and Regulations. Yeah. And would we have the ability, if we needed to, to shut off their endos? Like, would that include a valve outside the pump float? Like, that would be kind of like, hey, you're at 120 or, I don't know if 120, yeah, whatever you're at, right? Turning them off creates a public health issue. It's very difficult to actually do that, yeah. So it's really more just like, here's what you need to do. How about the ability under the easement to, if Jared is allowed to peek in and do a quick test if he has time, he could bring in his own person to service it if they're not doing it properly. I didn't know how it worked. Yeah, yeah. And the burden would be on them to prove that we overreacted. Yes. Yep. Right. Yeah. Okay. I like that. I do too. I like the idea of the asset transfer ownership. Because they have an incentive. That's in their... Where is that pump station? Is it in the front of the Council of Aging or is it on their property? No, it's on their property in the back of the condos. So nothing else would probably connect to this thing in the future or anything like that, right? No. But they'd be motivated. Their tenants would be the first ones to notice if there was a sanitary sewer overflow. That's right. They are motivated on many levels. Yes. Yeah. I like it. Okay. All right. I'll pursue that. Do we need a motion or you just need our pulse, that option with the caveats that we discussed? I don't know the rules. I think at this point in time, I think just getting a sense of the membership that you're supportive of Alternative 3, whereby ownership is transferred to Alta Oxpo, we can then pursue that with Alta Oxpo. And I think... You know, many of your points would need to be included in an amendment to this LDA. And, you know, I think at some point in time, a formal motion and vote would be required. But I think today just getting a favorable sense from the membership that you'd like us to pursue that I think is fine. Okay. Okay, well, it'll be good to not be talking about, either way, we're going to continue to talk, but it'd be good to be talking about a solution versus a conflict. That's right. Look at the notes, I guess, I'm assuming then that we didn't talk about phosphorus, that was a one-time excursion, it's not an issue. Correct, yeah. We thought it was tied to the mixer situation. I think that was separate. Oh, okay, sorry. It was really just seemed like our influent was higher strength on the phosphorus, and we were just slowly increasing the chemical we were using because if you go a little too hard, then it drops the pH out. So, yeah, so we were just kind of chasing it for August, and we have not had any sort of issues. We've actually been able to, you know, bring the pump speed back down and use less gallons per day. Nice. And I heard you say that the tie and bond team is now focusing on the system optimization review, whatever we're calling that. That's right. Yes. So we have a couple different funding sources going on right now. One is the wastewater evaluation for the treatment plant. As it currently stands. And Time Bond has started that. We did a site visit for them where we looked over the unit processes. We had a meeting last week to talk about data analysis. They had some questions about numbers that Sarah tried to help them with, and we're confirming some flows with Whitewater. But they went right into exactly what you've been asking about, Mike, with the differences between the Title V design flows and actual flows. Now that we have a few years of the Alta-Oxpo flows, we can kind of see where a better design point might actually be. They had started to do a desktop study of Hydrogeo if we were going to expand the treatment plant where... Some more discharge sites might be. And they've started to go equipment by equipment to look at each unit process. And when do we... I guess that's a good... Okay. What's the... Another month or so or month and a half or what's the... A little bit timeline. That's a good question. I don't know that I got a timeline. I mean, we haven't had any requests for services, so it's not like we're... That's right. Or maybe we do. I don't know. We haven't got to that part of the meeting. Yeah, no, I don't have any requests for new services. The fact that we are out of design flow has helped us get things like the MassWorks grant for now. So we're not pressured to find new flows right this moment. All right. But hopefully we know in like a couple of months and then we see what kind of plant we got. Yeah, exactly. I'd also like to get a little bit more. flow data from terrain and see how much flows and what those flows are going to look like going forward. It would be good to be prepared, too, because we have three more restaurants reportedly coming online in the next four months, and they're a heavier user burden on the system than a resident. That's right. Okay. And that was a good segue. So that grant that I read about, congrats, I think. Yes. Yes. Thank you. What is it for? That was the Mass Works grant we had talked to. The developers down doing the apartment complex by the Longfellow Tennis Club and also Town Center did a letter of support and it is to support an increase at the treatment facility so that we would be able to support. the MBTA Housing Initiative and the commercial development around Town Center. So we'll be using that money to hopefully design an expansion of that treatment. Great. We also had gotten the town received a congressional appropriation for sewer expansion of $200,000. And we've been reviewing the Dudley Pond area and had a firm, ECT, review the need for sewer in that area. So we were going to use some of that congressional appropriation money to consider an expansion to the Dudley Pond. We heard from them before and it had been discussed to at least get it through this initial thing to keep it under this commission. The initial enabling act of the commission does include some wording for the Dudley Pond area. Okay, great. And then finally, our permit renewals. I think that's an operating. Is that perfunctory or is that real work? Are the schedules real? One of them is perfunctory. One of them is not real, and it will require real work. So right now, our surface water discharge, that includes an automatic extension this time, so we don't have to, that one will automatically review. I did send DEP sort of confirmation of all this, so I haven't heard back from them, but Our language includes sort of an automatic continuity in the surface water discharge permit. For the groundwater discharge permit, during COVID, there was a real backlog, so there was a permit extension act for those groundwater discharge permits, and that moves the expiration date to December 30th, 2028 for our groundwater discharge permit. Are we reporting groundwater quality sampling on that? That's part of quarterly or semiannual reporting? Yeah, the reports that we get from whitewater that we submit and show the flows that we get, they also get that quality data. And nothing of concern. So the surface water, that's the one that's controlled more by the EPA and the DEP kind of overlays something on it, the surface water? Yeah, they both work and link together on that, yes. And the groundwater discharges the Oxbow and we're maybe using a quarter or a third of that? That's right. Yeah, depending on the day, but yes. Enough to keep it? From going stale? That's right. And technically, we have a third groundwater discharge permit. Technically, we still have the discharge permit for the area next to Town Hall. Oh, okay. But it was not a very significant, it was another $10,000 or something like that. It was a lot of money for not a lot of flow.
We didn't have the creative thinkers that we have now. That's right. Well, a lot on operating. Darren, anything? I think you covered all the different parts right there, Mike. Okay. Next is a monthly financial report. So we do not have Sarah today, but if you'll indulge me, I'll share the screen. And can everybody see that? Now it just came up. Just came up. Okay. Yeah, so just I can give you some, you know, kind of highlights here you'll see in the top left corner. So this report was produced on September 30th. So we're 25% through the fiscal year. And what I do is I, as a, as a, at a glance. I always look over at the total percent spent. It's just to the left of kind of the bold vertical line there. You know, so I try to match up anything that jumps out at me. And you'll see that all of the items that are exceeding 25 percent You'll see that they have encumbrances against them, meaning that there are a handful of purchases throughout the year, throughout our budget, that we can actually put money aside, kind of lock it in, encumber the funds so we're certain that they're safe and protected and not to be used elsewhere. So you'll see, you know, that encumbrance. balance and budget balance. So that's really what that shows you. And so we are, you know, by all appearances, we're in fine shape. The one thing that I did know, and actually Sarah wanted me to point this out as I scroll down, if I take a look at Total revenue, you'll see here looking at figure, you know, 72 in year-to-date revenue versus what we're projected. Although we're 25% through the fiscal year, we're at about 39%. of revenue, meaning that we're taking in more revenue. And I think that that goes to, it matches up with what Jared was describing earlier, that we're now at 38,000 gallons a day. We've got a number of new users that are contributing to the plant that are not only getting the base fee, but also being charged by volume. So I think that that trend will likely continue. Okay. Which should help, you know, for the next year from a rate. And as we look at that. Absolutely. Because, you know, that increase, you know, in revenue would then, you know, improve our retained earnings balance and all of that. So then you're able to use that when setting FY28 rates. Right. Yeah. And then the only other thing I remember asking Sarah last time, too, was just the forecast. But it hasn't been updated yet. So I just I think by by, you know, come December, we should really start narrowing in that forecast column, the last two columns. Yeah, right here. OK, because we're still at 80 percent down below in the orange line or whatever color that is. And I know that, yeah, it'll be higher than that. So I just think we got to start dialing that in, taking into account what you just said on the incumbent. Right. So. Okay. And then how about past dues? Do you have anything good there? Do you know? So you're referring to liens? Yeah. Yeah. I want to say that she had offered a figure. I don't know. We just went out with lien notices. And I think that those equate, I think she said $7,000. I hope I'm not misstating that. But I don't. I'm not sure what the actual, you know, lean revenue is at this point in time. So I guess I'll probably have to wait until November and get her to provide information on that. Well, the other one was that sludge disposal, right? 31%, 112%. I mean, I remember we had that last year as well. I'm just curious, are we underestimating sludge disposal every year? And do we need to relook at that next year? Is that related due to the thousand pump out and all that? I'm going to scroll up to see that. I'd say it could be a mix of both. We certainly are having our sludge tank pumped out on a nearly weekly basis. I think that's just from the flows increasing. Okay. And yes, I think I'd say it's probably a mix of both the increased flow and then the event last month. And that also includes the Oxbow. We get reimbursed for some of that, right? I don't know if she would put that under sludge because it's fog and might be under a different... Yeah, I think it's down below. Okay. Yeah, I'm not sure where she's taking those. When we pay the Vactor Company, where she takes that, and then, you know, when we then send the invoice or whatever to Alta Oxbow, that those funds get credited to a revenue line. I'm just trying to, I'm not sure exactly where she puts that. This one does say fog pumping, but. So it would be interesting. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, maybe it is there. So no, it'd just be interesting, like you said, Tom, you know, we have the extra flow, we're at 38,000 now, we're seeing it in revenue, but costs are also up due to that, right? So is it offsetting? It should be interesting if you could somehow triangulate the cost up above with the 6,000 lift, I think we were 30, 32, now we're at 38. How much of that is due to that? And does the revenue offset it? I'm just curious. I know that might be hard to triangulate, I realize, right? Yeah, I know, but it's a fair consideration, yeah. So I do think as we look at this next year, if we are expecting sludge because of increased volume or chemicals or all these things that do go up due to more flow, we just need to be cognizant of like, yeah, this will be over, but it's fine because it's being shown on the revenue, right? Yep. I understand a lot of that. It's just, well, on the sludge, I'd be curious, has the unit price that they're charging us changed significantly? Because in my day job, I'm seeing very high things going up a lot for sludge and waste disposal. I don't think, I don't remember them increasing the rate. I think it's still at 16 cents a gallon, but we can definitely confirm that. And just that the utilities are all, that's like, I can understand electricity, we're using more if things are running more, but all of them are, we've already, if I'm reading this correctly, we're already at our budget. So something to just keep in mind. I mean, that can't be reserved for me. If I'm reading this correctly. I think the forecast is going to start, I think we got to start dialing that in. Yeah. Assume 38,000 and let's see what that thing comes to. Yeah. But overall, smooth system operation and increased flow covers most, if not all of this. Right. And again, it can be over 100% at that point. Provided the revenue is there. My invoice, my purchase orders, because all of this happens quite a lot. And no sign of any purchase. Anything else, Darren, on the financial? I'm good. Okay. Anything to discuss requests for service that we're aware of? Not that we're aware of, no. Yeah. That gets us to the minutes that came out from... I read my comments. I think we're good. That's what jogged me on the 80%. Yeah. No, they... No, it does prompt me to just send her new business to Tom, if you could just, if there's anything more on the capital and... Improvement Planning Committee or did you do your dues? And we're done for a couple of months. So I have no comments on the minutes. Darren, you said. I'm good on the minutes. You know, one of the things that was in the minutes, I mean, the minutes are good. So I proved the minutes. But in the minutes, we did talk about how, you know, when I joined, it was, hey, is there a different way that we could bill, right? Is there a different way we could separate residential from commercial? I think when we get the, Result of the Whitewater time bond who's ever doing the 75,000, you know, research, right? When we finally get that, I think we should have a discussion then of like, okay, this is what we have. How could we possibly start doing this differently? Not wait for the rate setting period. Not wait for the rate setting and just come up with some ideas. Okay. I know it's hard. I'll stay focused on the minutes, though, and then we can go on to new ones. Yep, understand. Sorry, sir. No way. No, no, all good. I make a motion to approve the September 14, 2026 meeting minutes as circulated. Darren Bock, second set. Okay. Mike Gitten, yes. Darren Bock, yes. Okay. Now, topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair that are prompted by reading the minutes. Yeah. Mine of how do we start possibly looking at how do we do different billing methodology, right? Or residential versus commercial, which I think we're going to have to include also system changes because I think that's what was one of the things preventing us. Was that the system didn't know how to build differently and, you know, we're not have to look at full cost of that. But I do think we should start looking at some models. What do you mean by system changes? If we went with a three-tier rate structure or, you know, like, or, you know, who knows what it is, right? Whatever billing type of thing that is our current billing system only know how to do certain methodologies. The accounting system you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Muniz. And whatever we do is going to be tied to the drinking water. Right. Okay. And one thing we might want to do, I just, Mike's predecessor, or maybe a couple of predecessors before Mike, a fellow named Fred Knight, are you familiar with his name? He was, you know, on board during the inception of the Wastewater Commission, and I think it was him who was instrumental in kind of developing this billing system, and it's probably the most complicated I've ever seen. And so we might, you know, consider even if we, you know, aside from our monthly meetings, almost maybe have a workshop whereby we invite him in and a bunch of us sit around the big conference room table here and maybe hear a little bit about, you know, what caused him to develop this the way that he did. And, you know, it might be informative. Yeah, that'd be great. I mean, because I've never seen it or and I don't know how these accounting billing systems and water work or any of that. So I would I would volunteer for that time. Yeah, it also prompts as part of that exercise just to pull our peer communities that have I would look whoever has the same general permit that we do with with. With the DPPA and see, get their rate structures just for concept. I recall it being so complicated because that the total expense of wastewater management fell on so few accounts, 139 accounts at the time. And, you know, and I think it was for that reason that this complexity was, you know, was caused. Yeah, I remember some of that, which leads to the base fee being really what's important and everything else not quite. But yeah, it's in the meeting minutes. And then anything else, Darren, on that? Nope. And the other brain jogged the memory. Is there anything for us to do under the capital improvement? No, at this point in time, the committee, I think just late last week, submitted its required report to the town manager's office and the wastewater, you know, budget is intact and, you know, nothing different than what I presented, I think, at our last meeting. So rather than do anything with it in October, I think the practical thing to do is we'll begin having Capital Budget Meetings staff and the finance team. And then once we get affirmation from the finance director and Michael McCall that they're comfortable with what we've provided, I can bring it back to the commission, explain that, and then we'll take a formal vote. Okay. Darren, anything else? I'm good. I'm good. Okay. Next meeting, we do have... We have meetings scheduled for November 16th and December 14th. Yep. Leave them for now and hopefully we'll be hearing more about the time bond study and something maybe more than a concept on Oxbow. Okay. I'm good. Everybody enjoy your week. Yep. I move we adjourn the meeting. I second that. Okay. Mike Gitten adjourned? Yes. Darren Bock in favor, yes. Okay. Alrighty. Thank you all. Thanks, Abby, for moderating.
This test point, is it off the line or does it need its own wet well to allow sampling? There's a little dry pit right after, right, Jared? Sort of right after the pump station. We were going to confirm with them that we can take samples from there, but there's a little dry pit after so that you can get in there to sample. So setting it up. It sounds like it'd be cleaner. It might take more effort to set up versus the business, just the money deal. But long term, the effort could be worth it. And our return doesn't go through this. Our return back to the absorption, that still is ours. However, that arrangement is a separate path. That's right. Yeah, because they added to our ability to... Like it's greater than what our plant can even do, right? If I remember correctly, our outlet to the river? No, this is the outlet back to the absorption on their property. Right. But that's still ours. Okay. Yeah. That's still ours. It would just be the inlet. Okay. Yeah. We would still have some collection pipings of the force main that's on their property. Okay. Yeah.
So we have three options to force an engineering fix that they're going to fight us on more. The business deal, which just doesn't solve the distraction to what we need to do. And this, this sounds good. The last one. And when we get in the weeds, I would want somewhere in there our ability to Advise them or somehow say we're seeing something you need to act on. I don't think anyone wants a problem to occur. Yeah. You know, I told them I would want to agree on an O&M schedule, a testing schedule, that we would still have sort of an easement or access within the agreement. And then we would still have their permit so that, you know, if they continue to have problems downstream of what would now be their pump station, they would still be subject to the same. District Rules and Regulations. Yeah. And would we have the ability, if we needed to, to shut off their endos? Like, would that include a valve outside the pump float? Like, that would be kind of like, hey, you're at 120 or, I don't know if 120, yeah, whatever you're at, right? Turning them off creates a public health issue. It's very difficult to actually do that, yeah. So it's really more just like, here's what you need to do. How about the ability under the easement to, if Jared is allowed to peek in and do a quick test if he has time, he could bring in his own person to service it if they're not doing it properly. I didn't know how it worked. Yeah, yeah. And the burden would be on them to prove that we overreacted. Yes. Yep. Right. Yeah. Okay. I like that. I do too. I like the idea of the asset transfer ownership. Because they have an incentive. That's in their... Where is that pump station? Is it in the front of the Council of Aging or is it on their property? No, it's on their property in the back of the condos. So nothing else would probably connect to this thing in the future or anything like that, right? No. But they'd be motivated. Their tenants would be the first ones to notice if there was a sanitary sewer overflow. That's right. They are motivated on many levels. Yes. Yeah. I like it. Okay. All right. I'll pursue that. Do we need a motion or you just need our pulse, that option with the caveats that we discussed? I don't know the rules. I think at this point in time, I think just getting a sense of the membership that you're supportive of Alternative 3, whereby ownership is transferred to Alta Oxpo, we can then pursue that with Alta Oxpo. And I think... You know, many of your points would need to be included in an amendment to this LDA. And, you know, I think at some point in time, a formal motion and vote would be required. But I think today just getting a favorable sense from the membership that you'd like us to pursue that I think is fine. Okay. Okay, well, it'll be good to not be talking about, either way, we're going to continue to talk, but it'd be good to be talking about a solution versus a conflict. That's right. Look at the notes, I guess, I'm assuming then that we didn't talk about phosphorus, that was a one-time excursion, it's not an issue. Correct, yeah. We thought it was tied to the mixer situation. I think that was separate. Oh, okay, sorry. It was really just seemed like our influent was higher strength on the phosphorus, and we were just slowly increasing the chemical we were using because if you go a little too hard, then it drops the pH out. So, yeah, so we were just kind of chasing it for August, and we have not had any sort of issues. We've actually been able to, you know, bring the pump speed back down and use less gallons per day. Nice. And I heard you say that the tie and bond team is now focusing on the system optimization review, whatever we're calling that. That's right. Yes. So we have a couple different funding sources going on right now. One is the wastewater evaluation for the treatment plant. As it currently stands. And Time Bond has started that. We did a site visit for them where we looked over the unit processes. We had a meeting last week to talk about data analysis. They had some questions about numbers that Sarah tried to help them with, and we're confirming some flows with Whitewater. But they went right into exactly what you've been asking about, Mike, with the differences between the Title V design flows and actual flows. Now that we have a few years of the Alta-Oxpo flows, we can kind of see where a better design point might actually be. They had started to do a desktop study of Hydrogeo if we were going to expand the treatment plant where... Some more discharge sites might be. And they've started to go equipment by equipment to look at each unit process. And when do we... I guess that's a good... Okay. What's the... Another month or so or month and a half or what's the... A little bit timeline. That's a good question. I don't know that I got a timeline. I mean, we haven't had any requests for services, so it's not like we're... That's right. Or maybe we do. I don't know. We haven't got to that part of the meeting. Yeah, no, I don't have any requests for new services. The fact that we are out of design flow has helped us get things like the MassWorks grant for now. So we're not pressured to find new flows right this moment. All right. But hopefully we know in like a couple of months and then we see what kind of plant we got. Yeah, exactly. I'd also like to get a little bit more. flow data from terrain and see how much flows and what those flows are going to look like going forward. It would be good to be prepared, too, because we have three more restaurants reportedly coming online in the next four months, and they're a heavier user burden on the system than a resident. That's right. Okay. And that was a good segue. So that grant that I read about, congrats, I think. Yes. Yes. Thank you. What is it for? That was the Mass Works grant we had talked to. The developers down doing the apartment complex by the Longfellow Tennis Club and also Town Center did a letter of support and it is to support an increase at the treatment facility so that we would be able to support. the MBTA Housing Initiative and the commercial development around Town Center. So we'll be using that money to hopefully design an expansion of that treatment. Great. We also had gotten the town received a congressional appropriation for sewer expansion of $200,000. And we've been reviewing the Dudley Pond area and had a firm, ECT, review the need for sewer in that area. So we were going to use some of that congressional appropriation money to consider an expansion to the Dudley Pond. We heard from them before and it had been discussed to at least get it through this initial thing to keep it under this commission. The initial enabling act of the commission does include some wording for the Dudley Pond area. Okay, great. And then finally, our permit renewals. I think that's an operating. Is that perfunctory or is that real work? Are the schedules real? One of them is perfunctory. One of them is not real, and it will require real work. So right now, our surface water discharge, that includes an automatic extension this time, so we don't have to, that one will automatically review. I did send DEP sort of confirmation of all this, so I haven't heard back from them, but Our language includes sort of an automatic continuity in the surface water discharge permit. For the groundwater discharge permit, during COVID, there was a real backlog, so there was a permit extension act for those groundwater discharge permits, and that moves the expiration date to December 30th, 2028 for our groundwater discharge permit. Are we reporting groundwater quality sampling on that? That's part of quarterly or semiannual reporting? Yeah, the reports that we get from whitewater that we submit and show the flows that we get, they also get that quality data. And nothing of concern. So the surface water, that's the one that's controlled more by the EPA and the DEP kind of overlays something on it, the surface water? Yeah, they both work and link together on that, yes. And the groundwater discharges the Oxbow and we're maybe using a quarter or a third of that? That's right. Yeah, depending on the day, but yes. Enough to keep it? From going stale? That's right. And technically, we have a third groundwater discharge permit. Technically, we still have the discharge permit for the area next to Town Hall. Oh, okay. But it was not a very significant, it was another $10,000 or something like that. It was a lot of money for not a lot of flow.
We didn't have the creative thinkers that we have now. That's right. Well, a lot on operating. Darren, anything? I think you covered all the different parts right there, Mike. Okay. Next is a monthly financial report. So we do not have Sarah today, but if you'll indulge me, I'll share the screen. And can everybody see that? Now it just came up. Just came up. Okay. Yeah, so just I can give you some, you know, kind of highlights here you'll see in the top left corner. So this report was produced on September 30th. So we're 25% through the fiscal year. And what I do is I, as a, as a, at a glance. I always look over at the total percent spent. It's just to the left of kind of the bold vertical line there. You know, so I try to match up anything that jumps out at me. And you'll see that all of the items that are exceeding 25 percent You'll see that they have encumbrances against them, meaning that there are a handful of purchases throughout the year, throughout our budget, that we can actually put money aside, kind of lock it in, encumber the funds so we're certain that they're safe and protected and not to be used elsewhere. So you'll see, you know, that encumbrance. balance and budget balance. So that's really what that shows you. And so we are, you know, by all appearances, we're in fine shape. The one thing that I did know, and actually Sarah wanted me to point this out as I scroll down, if I take a look at Total revenue, you'll see here looking at figure, you know, 72 in year-to-date revenue versus what we're projected. Although we're 25% through the fiscal year, we're at about 39%. of revenue, meaning that we're taking in more revenue. And I think that that goes to, it matches up with what Jared was describing earlier, that we're now at 38,000 gallons a day. We've got a number of new users that are contributing to the plant that are not only getting the base fee, but also being charged by volume. So I think that that trend will likely continue. Okay. Which should help, you know, for the next year from a rate. And as we look at that. Absolutely. Because, you know, that increase, you know, in revenue would then, you know, improve our retained earnings balance and all of that. So then you're able to use that when setting FY28 rates. Right. Yeah. And then the only other thing I remember asking Sarah last time, too, was just the forecast. But it hasn't been updated yet. So I just I think by by, you know, come December, we should really start narrowing in that forecast column, the last two columns. Yeah, right here. OK, because we're still at 80 percent down below in the orange line or whatever color that is. And I know that, yeah, it'll be higher than that. So I just think we got to start dialing that in, taking into account what you just said on the incumbent. Right. So. Okay. And then how about past dues? Do you have anything good there? Do you know? So you're referring to liens? Yeah. Yeah. I want to say that she had offered a figure. I don't know. We just went out with lien notices. And I think that those equate, I think she said $7,000. I hope I'm not misstating that. But I don't. I'm not sure what the actual, you know, lean revenue is at this point in time. So I guess I'll probably have to wait until November and get her to provide information on that. Well, the other one was that sludge disposal, right? 31%, 112%. I mean, I remember we had that last year as well. I'm just curious, are we underestimating sludge disposal every year? And do we need to relook at that next year? Is that related due to the thousand pump out and all that? I'm going to scroll up to see that. I'd say it could be a mix of both. We certainly are having our sludge tank pumped out on a nearly weekly basis. I think that's just from the flows increasing. Okay. And yes, I think I'd say it's probably a mix of both the increased flow and then the event last month. And that also includes the Oxbow. We get reimbursed for some of that, right? I don't know if she would put that under sludge because it's fog and might be under a different... Yeah, I think it's down below. Okay. Yeah, I'm not sure where she's taking those. When we pay the Vactor Company, where she takes that, and then, you know, when we then send the invoice or whatever to Alta Oxbow, that those funds get credited to a revenue line. I'm just trying to, I'm not sure exactly where she puts that. This one does say fog pumping, but. So it would be interesting. Oh, yeah. Okay. Yeah, maybe it is there. So no, it'd just be interesting, like you said, Tom, you know, we have the extra flow, we're at 38,000 now, we're seeing it in revenue, but costs are also up due to that, right? So is it offsetting? It should be interesting if you could somehow triangulate the cost up above with the 6,000 lift, I think we were 30, 32, now we're at 38. How much of that is due to that? And does the revenue offset it? I'm just curious. I know that might be hard to triangulate, I realize, right? Yeah, I know, but it's a fair consideration, yeah. So I do think as we look at this next year, if we are expecting sludge because of increased volume or chemicals or all these things that do go up due to more flow, we just need to be cognizant of like, yeah, this will be over, but it's fine because it's being shown on the revenue, right? Yep. I understand a lot of that. It's just, well, on the sludge, I'd be curious, has the unit price that they're charging us changed significantly? Because in my day job, I'm seeing very high things going up a lot for sludge and waste disposal. I don't think, I don't remember them increasing the rate. I think it's still at 16 cents a gallon, but we can definitely confirm that. And just that the utilities are all, that's like, I can understand electricity, we're using more if things are running more, but all of them are, we've already, if I'm reading this correctly, we're already at our budget. So something to just keep in mind. I mean, that can't be reserved for me. If I'm reading this correctly. I think the forecast is going to start, I think we got to start dialing that in. Yeah. Assume 38,000 and let's see what that thing comes to. Yeah. But overall, smooth system operation and increased flow covers most, if not all of this. Right. And again, it can be over 100% at that point. Provided the revenue is there. My invoice, my purchase orders, because all of this happens quite a lot. And no sign of any purchase. Anything else, Darren, on the financial? I'm good. Okay. Anything to discuss requests for service that we're aware of? Not that we're aware of, no. Yeah. That gets us to the minutes that came out from... I read my comments. I think we're good. That's what jogged me on the 80%. Yeah. No, they... No, it does prompt me to just send her new business to Tom, if you could just, if there's anything more on the capital and... Improvement Planning Committee or did you do your dues? And we're done for a couple of months. So I have no comments on the minutes. Darren, you said. I'm good on the minutes. You know, one of the things that was in the minutes, I mean, the minutes are good. So I proved the minutes. But in the minutes, we did talk about how, you know, when I joined, it was, hey, is there a different way that we could bill, right? Is there a different way we could separate residential from commercial? I think when we get the, Result of the Whitewater time bond who's ever doing the 75,000, you know, research, right? When we finally get that, I think we should have a discussion then of like, okay, this is what we have. How could we possibly start doing this differently? Not wait for the rate setting period. Not wait for the rate setting and just come up with some ideas. Okay. I know it's hard. I'll stay focused on the minutes, though, and then we can go on to new ones. Yep, understand. Sorry, sir. No way. No, no, all good. I make a motion to approve the September 14, 2026 meeting minutes as circulated. Darren Bock, second set. Okay. Mike Gitten, yes. Darren Bock, yes. Okay. Now, topics not reasonably anticipated by the chair that are prompted by reading the minutes. Yeah. Mine of how do we start possibly looking at how do we do different billing methodology, right? Or residential versus commercial, which I think we're going to have to include also system changes because I think that's what was one of the things preventing us. Was that the system didn't know how to build differently and, you know, we're not have to look at full cost of that. But I do think we should start looking at some models. What do you mean by system changes? If we went with a three-tier rate structure or, you know, like, or, you know, who knows what it is, right? Whatever billing type of thing that is our current billing system only know how to do certain methodologies. The accounting system you're talking about. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, Muniz. And whatever we do is going to be tied to the drinking water. Right. Okay. And one thing we might want to do, I just, Mike's predecessor, or maybe a couple of predecessors before Mike, a fellow named Fred Knight, are you familiar with his name? He was, you know, on board during the inception of the Wastewater Commission, and I think it was him who was instrumental in kind of developing this billing system, and it's probably the most complicated I've ever seen. And so we might, you know, consider even if we, you know, aside from our monthly meetings, almost maybe have a workshop whereby we invite him in and a bunch of us sit around the big conference room table here and maybe hear a little bit about, you know, what caused him to develop this the way that he did. And, you know, it might be informative. Yeah, that'd be great. I mean, because I've never seen it or and I don't know how these accounting billing systems and water work or any of that. So I would I would volunteer for that time. Yeah, it also prompts as part of that exercise just to pull our peer communities that have I would look whoever has the same general permit that we do with with. With the DPPA and see, get their rate structures just for concept. I recall it being so complicated because that the total expense of wastewater management fell on so few accounts, 139 accounts at the time. And, you know, and I think it was for that reason that this complexity was, you know, was caused. Yeah, I remember some of that, which leads to the base fee being really what's important and everything else not quite. But yeah, it's in the meeting minutes. And then anything else, Darren, on that? Nope. And the other brain jogged the memory. Is there anything for us to do under the capital improvement? No, at this point in time, the committee, I think just late last week, submitted its required report to the town manager's office and the wastewater, you know, budget is intact and, you know, nothing different than what I presented, I think, at our last meeting. So rather than do anything with it in October, I think the practical thing to do is we'll begin having Capital Budget Meetings staff and the finance team. And then once we get affirmation from the finance director and Michael McCall that they're comfortable with what we've provided, I can bring it back to the commission, explain that, and then we'll take a formal vote. Okay. Darren, anything else? I'm good. I'm good. Okay. Next meeting, we do have... We have meetings scheduled for November 16th and December 14th. Yep. Leave them for now and hopefully we'll be hearing more about the time bond study and something maybe more than a concept on Oxbow. Okay. I'm good. Everybody enjoy your week. Yep. I move we adjourn the meeting. I second that. Okay. Mike Gitten adjourned? Yes. Darren Bock in favor, yes. Okay. Alrighty. Thank you all. Thanks, Abby, for moderating.