03/22/2012 - Minutes (2) flit-(o
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RECEIVED
Salt Lake City MAY 2 2 2012
Public Utilities Advisory Committee Minutes CITY RECORDER
March 22,2012
The Public Utilities Advisory Committee meeting was held at 7:00 a.m. March 22, 2012 at 1530
South West Temple, Salt Lake City, Utah. Committee members present were Jan Striefel, Dick
Gaddis, Dwight Butler, Dixie Huefner, Allen Orr and Larry Myers. Salt Lake City Public
Utilities employees present were Jeff Niermeyer, Tom Ward, Jim Lewis, Florence Reynolds,
Chuck Call, Sybilla Dalton, Justin Stoker, Brad Stewart and Zee Smith. Also in attendance were
Lehua Weaver, SLC Council Office; Rusty Vetter, SLC Attorney's Office; Claudia Wheeler and
Mike Wilson, MWDSLS; Alan Taylor, J-U-B Engineers; Keith Larson, Bown Collins &
Associates; Jim Schwing, CH2MHi11; and Jim Olson, HDR.
Approve Minutes of February 23, 2012 Meeting
Committee member Dick Gaddis moved and committee member Dixie Huefner, seconded the
motion to approve the minutes of the February 23, 2012, meeting as amended. Committee
member Allen Orr abstained from voting. All other members present voted aye.
Financial Report—Jim Lewis
Mr. Jim Lewis briefed the Committee on the financial report for the period ending February 29,
2012. Mr. Lewis stated that all three funds are currently doing very well and are in good financial
positions at this time, even with the wetter summer. He stated that the Department had budgeted
for a poor spring, but did not count on the wetter summer. Currently water deliveries are below
last year by six percent and water revenues are below last year by $3.3 million as we continue to
have lower water sales during the winter period. He also presented the water conservation chart
showing lower water usage for the past two months.
The next slide presented was a comparison of revenue for all three funds versus budget. Mr.
Lewis stated that two of the funds, Sewer and Storm Water, are higher than last year with water
below last year due to weather conditions. The Water Utility is currently $3.3 million below last
year, Sewer $847,000 higher, and Storm Water at $400,000 higher than last year.
The next slide presented was a comparison of operating costs, comparing last year with the
current budget amounts. Mr. Lewis stated that operating costs for the Water Utility are even with
last year. The Sewer is above last year by $450,000 and the Storm Water is just slightly below r—I
last year by $4,000. The Department has been doing a very good job of controlling expenditures
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over the last couple of years.
The last slide presented listed the capital improvements for each of the funds as compared to
budget. The Water Utility has expended $6.3 million in capital improvements with $6.3 million
encumbered at the end of February. The Sewer Utility has expended $13.7 million with $13
million encumbered. The Storm Water Utility has expended $3.7 million with $8 million
encumbered. Total for all three funds equal $23.7 million expended and $27.3 million
encumbered as of the end of February 2012.
Street Lighting Update—Jim Lewis
Jim Lewis stated the City Council continues to discuss the street lighting issue. The department
has presented information to the City Council on three occasions, and presented information to
both the Downtown Alliance and the Business Advisory Council over the last month. The
Downtown Alliance has recommended that the city delay including the current SAA's (Special
Assessment Areas) into the new fee structure. This proposal would charge the same base fee to
all customers on an equivalent residential unit basis of$3.73 per residence per month, or for
business and commercial properties the charge would be $3.73 for each 75 feet of front footage
per month. At this time the City Council has not set a public hearing date to discuss the issue.
Project Updates
Folsom Ave—Justin Stoker
The Folsom Avenue Storm Drain is a run of about 3800 linear feet of 12-foot by 4-foot
reinforced concrete box culvert that, when finished, will run from 50 South at about 750 West
along the old Folsom railroad corridor westward to the Jordan River. The project is well under
way. The project was awarded on January 11th and the contractor is on schedule to have the
culvert substantially complete by May 1st
This project is important to improving our ability to handle City Creek runoff. Everybody is
aware of the floods of 1983 when City Creek water was running down State Street. A lot of work
has been done since then to ensure that it doesn't happen again. More recently, the mobile
standpipes, commonly referred to as "rocket cones" have been used to help prevent flooding in
times of high runoff. Rocket cones like this were used as recently as last spring. With the
construction of the Airport TRAX line along North Temple, some adjustment had to be made to
continue to prevent flooding from City Creek.
When the Department began design on this project over a year ago, the department knew there
would be a number of issues that needed to be addressed. Because it was an old railroad corridor
we realized early on that we were dealing with contaminated soils. Luckily, that contamination
was limited to the soil a few feet from the surface.
We also had a number of utility crossings that we needed to work with, including a 4" high
pressure gas line, an 18" intermediate high pressure gas line, a 24-duct communications
backbone line, and a 30-inch water transmission main. N
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One of the other difficulties that we have had to work with is the proximity to Union Pacific
Railroad Tracks. To avoid dangerous situations with heavy equipment working near active trains,
we have had to work closely with Union Pacific to avoid any undesirable problems. Typically
work crews are put on hold and moved out of the way about 10-minutes before a passing train
and not allowed to return for several minutes following that train. This past Monday we had 14
passing trains that required work stoppage, 8 developed further.
In the meantime, a hydro-mechanical device is being installed next to 1000 West to treat the
runoff before it continues on to the Jordan River.
In all,the construction of the 12 by 4 box culvert is impressive and is well on its way to
completion. At the meeting on Tuesday, the project stood at 70% completion. Even with some
special improvements were made to the 30-inch water main, the project is still about $84,000
under its original contract amount.
We look forward to its completion and the abilities that it will give us to help in flood control as
we move forward.
Orange Street - Chuck Call
The following steps have been completed on the Orange Street Project:
Step 1) Clean the existing sewer line 2) Create sewer access points in various locations 3)
Remove sections of the existing sewer pipe. The project team has also completed major
rehabilitation activities at 900 North, Star Crest Drive and 700 North. Additional work still needs
to take place at all of these intersections. Crews will begin inserting new sewer pipe inside
existing pipes. Re-establish residential and business connections to new sewer lines. Close sewer
access points, rehabilitate manholes and perform final restoration activities including
landscaping and paving. The initial schedule for the project has construction crews completing
the entire project my mid-June.
Due to field issues and the condition of the existing sewer features,the project has changed. The
overall project schedule will remain the same with final project completion in mid-June.
However, slip lining, sewer reconnections and manhole work will continue later into the spring.
Valve Replacement—Bob Sperling
The Valve Replacement Program, Phase I involved replacing 167 valves. Phase II involves
replacing 109 valves in the Salt Lake City Water Distribution System including Salt Lake City,
Holladay, Cottonwood Heights, Murray, and unincorporated Salt Lake County.
Bob Sperling is the Project Manager for the replacement program. Randy Bullough, Water
Distribution Supervisor decides which valves will be replaced. The Valve Runners complete the
shut downs by closing selected valves. The Contractor is BD Bush. The Permitting Agency
grants permission to perform construction and the inspector approves the surface restoration.
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The valve that is to be replaced must be isolated and they mark the valve with a blue dot. The
permitting municipality works with the contractor for traffic control. The Utilities inspector
determines when the valve will be replaced and special consideration is given to businesses,
schools, hospitals, etc. There is a 48 hour notice given to residents.
They use a map which shows which valves must be closed to complete the shutdown. The shut
down usually results in about 30 services being interrupted. If the valves do not operate
correctly, then they must show down valves in a larger area. Generally the shutdowns last a
couple of hours.
Mr. Sperling then a showed some pictures showing the steps in replacing a valve. Sometimes
there are values which are buried and need a backhoe to expose them.
2011 Customer Service Survey Report—Sybilla Dalton
Telephone Report
The Department had just over 110,000 calls come into the call center last year of which just over
12,000 of those calls were lost calls. One of the challenges we faced were that we had three of
our employees expecting babies in our division. One was born in April, July and October which
left our department short one employee for 6 months during the busiest times of the year.
Walk In Customers
We helped 10,000 walk-in customers this past year. One of the reasons there was an increase in
this area was because we started offering different size garbage cans and a lot of our customers
wanted to physically see how big the cans were before ordering a smaller can at a reduced cost.
Bankruptcy Write Offs
We handled 97 bankruptcy filings totaling $17,271, which averages about $178 per account.
Average Delinquent Dollars
The average delinquent dollar amount is $235,702 or one quarter of one percent compared to the
total budget.
Internet Payment Hits
There were 122,729 customers that paid their bills through the interne last year, which means
about 12% of all the monies paid to us are being paid through Internet access.
Red Cross—Collections and Disbursements
$28,697 was donated to our Red Cross fund of which $20,000 were donated by Salt Lake City
Public Utilities Department. The Department had to close the program for 3 months because
there were no funds left in the program. We have also had to reduce the assistance amount from
$200 to $100 in order to assist a larger number of customers. This is not unique to this
department. Other utility companies are finding themselves in the same situation.
Survey Results
Our department sends out surveys randomly to customers. The survey has eight questions. They
are rated on a scale of 1-5 with 1 being excellent and 5 being poor. We ask if our customers can
reach us, how prompt we are, are we knowledgeable and courteous, do we have answers to their
questions, and how is our follow-up, and the convenience of our services overall rating? Last
year's scores were excellent. rci
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New Disinfection By Products Testing& Reporting—Florence Reynolds
Salt Lake City Requirements
➢ System serves 400,000 people
➢ Consecutive to 2 wholesalers
➢ Produce 60% of chlorinated flow from independent City owned treatment system
➢ Required initiation of sampling on the same schedule as wholesalers
➢ Size required schedule 1 anyway
➢ Communication between entities critical
DBP Compliance
➢ EPA first regulated total trihalomethanes (TTHM) in 1979 at 100 parts per billion (ppb)
for systems serving at least 10,000 people.
➢ Revised by Stage 1 Disinfectants and Disinfection by products Rule (Stage 1 DBPR) in
December of 1998. MCL for TTHM was set at 80 ppb and set a MCL for five haloacetic
acids (HAA5) at 60 ppb. These standards had to be met by the end of 2002 for surface
water systems serving 10,000 or more people and by the end of 2004 for all other
systems.
➢ Stage II DBPR finalized December 15, 2005, to further reduce exposure to DBPs and
decrease potential cancer, reproductive, and developmental risks.
➢ State II sets locational running averages rather than system averages.
Meeting Phase II Requirements
➢ Continue Phase I monitoring
➢ 'Conduct an evaluation of the distribution system, Initial Distribution System Evaluation
(IDSE), to identify the locations with high disinfection byproducts concentrations.
➢ 2012, Use the sampling sites for Stage II DBP rule compliance monitoring
➢ Compliance with the maximum contaminant levels for TTHM and HAA5 will be
calculated independently for each monitoring location in the distribution system.
IDSE Options
➢ Qualify for a Very Small system (VSS) Waiver
➢ Meet 40/30 certification requirements
➢ Conduct a System Specific Study (SSS) using existing monitoring results or a hydraulic
model
➢ Conduct Standard Monitoring
Salt Lake City IDSE Requirements
➢ System size required sampling 24 locations
➢ Sites were selected based on pressure zone and anticipated levels from Phase I sampling
➢ Phase I sampling of 20 sites continued through Phase II testing
➢ THM and HAA samples were collected at all sites
➢ Sampling initiated January 2008, every 2 months (60 days)
Sites Selected for Stage II
THM
• Site 4 Stage 1 38.7 ppb
• Site 16 Stage 1 36.1 ppb
• Site 20 IDSE 36 ppb 141
HAA eto
• Site 20 Stage 1 49.4 ppb
• Site 15 IDSE 29.3 ppb
• Site 16 IDSE 27.7 ppb
• Site 6 Stage 1 26.8 ppb
• Site 5 IDSE 24.9 ppb
• Site 12 Stage 1 23 ppb
Total of 12 sites
Sites chosen by EPA protocol
Final Submission
• :5 high THM concentration
• 4 high HAA concentration
• 3 Stage I sites
Regulation 80/60 ppb LRAA
➢ The phase II limits will remain at 80/60 ppb THM/HAA
➢ Compliance will be determine by Locational Running Annual Average
➢ EPA recommends a 20% margin of safety to assure compliance (64/48)
➢ Systems will monitor levels and investigate for necessary changes if limits are exceeded
Compliance
➢ Biggest concern
System Detention Time
➢ Jordan Valley's installation of Chlorine Dioxide (operational, being tested now) and
chlorine booster station (Fall 2012)
➢ Community view of locational data
Adjourn
Meeting Adjourned at 8:58
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