Sewer Authority board of directors
meeting this Thursday September 12th
2024 we have six
announcements first is a question uh
does any board member know of a conflict
of interest or potential conflict of
interest with respect to any item on the
agenda
tonight looks like the answer is
no um the next announcement is welcoming
our new board member Michael Hughes um
Michael is an Orange County appointee
and took his oath of office on July 3D
welcome Michael thank you it's good to
have you here um and on June 17th the
chapel Hilltown Council reappointed Todd
to the aasa board of directors for his
second three-year
term nice job
Todd and we have uh two meeting
updates the first is that over the
summer aasa hosted two Community Chats
on the topic of pest on June 27th the
community chat focused on paying for p
mitigation which was held at the Chapo
public library and on July 30th another
chat was held at lza Cafe in carboro
both events were well attended with
about 20 to 25 members of the public at
each and fostered informed and engaged
discussion staff are working on plans
for two additional Community chats this
fall and then in August aasa hosted a
briefing on aasa's P action plan for
state senator Greg Meer state
representatives Alan boy Renee price and
a representative from US Representative
Valerie fi's office um in addition we
had a really good showing from local
elected officials local government staff
and the Press uh staff and our
consultant walked attendees through the
details and challenges of dealing with
pasas including a really well attended
tour of the pasas treatment pilot
project at the water treatment plan we
had an enlightening conversation about
ideas for pursuing federal and state
funding and staff for following up on
some of the leads that they provided
would anybody else like to provide any
additional Reflections or takeaways on
the
briefing okay and now this is an
exciting announcement um Monica Dodson
has been named aasa's new Deputy
executive director and Todd Taylor will
provide the
introduction yes it's my distinct
pleasure to interv Monica doson as our
new Deputy executive director um we had
a very competitive Nationwide search for
this position and uh got to interview a
lot of interesting candidates but uh
Monica bested them all as our homegrown
uh candidate here and uh you know her 20
years of experience here at aasa leading
both our water resources and waste
management teams are going to serve her
very well uh in this position not to
mention her leadership style her
commitment to continuous Improvement and
her unwavering support for the aasa
staff will all pay dividends to us uh
down the road as she uh transitions into
this new role so please join me and
congratulating Monica on this promotion
and we very much look forward to working
with her
[Applause]
thank y'all um I've had a very exciting
career at AA so far um and I'm honored
to be able to uh continue to serve this
community can serve um the organization
and our employees you know when I
started a Wasa 20 years ago I was a
young woman less than a year out of
college and still very much trying to
figure out what I wanted to do what my
place was and so I feel very blessed to
have found a Wasa um I learned early on
that this was a place where I knew I
could learn and grow and one where I
could have a positive impact not only on
the organization and the community but
also the employees um aasa is full of
talented hardworking dedicated employees
and um they are certainly a source of
motivation and inspiration for me and so
I'm excited to continue to support them
um to advance the organization and
ensure our community our our our success
um within the community especially with
all the important work that we have
ahead of us so o want to say thank you
all um if it wasn't for your support we
wouldn't be able to do what we do so
thank
you thank you
very thank you Monica we're looking
forward to working with you in your new
role um and now our final announcement
uh Mo Rashid PE has been named aa's new
utilities engineer and Alison Spinelli
will provide an
introduction thank you I'm excited to
introduce MO mois rased he prefers to go
by Mo so Mo has nine years in the water
and wastewater industry he has a
background in both uh variety of
Consulting as well as technology vendors
most recently um Mo comes to us from a
consulting firm called with's Ravenel um
where he was doing a lot of facility
type projects um he has a bachelor's
degree from NC State and is a licensed
PE here in North Carolina uh interesting
enough he is a native of Chapel Hill so
it's kind of fun to bring somebody back
into the fold here with us um Mo joined
us at the beginning of August and it's
been a really great and seam list from
that point on and so we're really
excited that Mo's here and joins the
Capital Improvements team and just want
to welcome Mo as part of our our new
engineering team as one of our newest
utility Engineers
Mo thank you for that very generous
introduction um yeah I'm excited to be
here I look forward to serving the
community and my dad is already asking
me a whole bunch of questions
about but thank
you thank you we're looking forward to
working with you too and my parents also
ask me a lot of
questions um are there any other
announcements by board
members are there any other
announcements by staff
no um we're moving on to petitions and
requests are there any petitions and
requests from the
public um are there any petitions and
requests from board members I know of
two Bruce and myself are there any
more okay start with
Bruce okay I have a
um proposal that I'd like the board to
uh consider uh uh discussing uh
regarding how the uh budget alternatives
are presented to us uh each year when we
go through the budget cycle um and I
bring it up uh now so that we can
discuss uh if this is something we want
to take seriously and perhaps at the
next board meeting we can go into some
details on on uh uh what the proposal
should should look like unless board
members want to just um discuss it now
and make a decision at this point
um the um typically what happens is in
December uh we start the budget cycle at
least as far as the board is concerned
and Stephen presents uh What uh the
schedule will look like and what we'll
be doing at each each board meeting uh
and then in the spring we get uh
typically a a uh base proposal and then
one or two
Alternatives uh uh that uh would allow
for lower uh rates um
and those uh alternatives are pretty
detailed in terms of the cost savings
but my frustration has been that they're
not detailed at all in terms of the
additional risk that we're taking on by
pushing projects out or not doing
projects uh um and
um uh so what I would like to do is uh
see if the Bo is in uh agreement at
least in part uh with respect to that
frustration and if so uh requests that
uh management produce board altern or
budget Alternatives uh that include some
assessment in a quantitative sense of
what the the risks are that we're taking
on in those Alternatives uh I understand
that it will probably take a couple of
Cycles to get to that point uh uh um
because we will be asking management to
to uh um project out unknowns and and
and try to quantify some some unknowns
but I think we can get there and and
there will be some uh projects where
we'll just have to say we we we don't
know what it is it's it's just too too
unclear um I I brought this up uh just
before this this topic up just before
the
pandemic uh we did a little bit of work
on it Stephen in particular did did work
on it pandemic came and we made a
decision to keep rates fixed for a
couple of years uh so that essentially
forced our hand in terms of what the
Alternatives would be and uh never
really restarted it but I think it's it
it would I think it's an important
Initiative for us to look at seriously
um so anyway uh i' be curious to hear if
other folks share that
frustration uh and if so uh if if we
should move forward with a discussion on
what uh uh what a proposal would look
like uh yes I think it would be nice if
we have that proposal in in that or that
presentation in that manner because that
way it will be easier for us to assess
and make a decision at the end so I
think it's a it's to toward the benefit
of the board and Wasa
so would anybody else like to
weigh I have a question for Stephen oh
go ahead somebody over sure I'll say an
additional benefit is that it would help
um provides communicative value to the
elected officials and and the general
public um as well just like it does for
us I mean it seems totally reasonable to
me I my question for Stephen is is that
feasible is there anything that you
would need is that something that you
can work
in um so the last time we tried this
this may have been
staff's picking the wrong thing to start
with we tried with in the operations
department so we looked at the
collection system and were trying to say
trying to determine well if we spend
money doing these things or don't spend
money doing these things you know how
will that impact the performance of the
collection system and it was not a very
satisfying uh exercise for us and I
don't think for the board either um but
when I uh Bruce gave us a little bit of
heads up that he was going to bring this
up tonight when I read your comment in
your email for some reason hit me
differently and um if we were to if you
intended and and I would advocate this
to focus on CIP projects as opposed to
the operating group I think we could
come closer to uh to something like that
and as you know we've we've we've done
that kind of at a not a very detailed
level the last couple of budgets um I'm
a little uh heartened by the fact you
say it's going to take more than one
budget cycle uh Todd and I were talking
a little bit briefly this afternoon and
our asset management
program uh is is making some Headway but
it's a long-term project that's going to
take
another two years give mind plus or
minus a year um and I think that it will
be able to to help us answer those types
of questions not only um you know if we
don't do this project kind of what are
the what are the risk associated to but
what what will we have to spend in
maintenance as because we didn't fix it
and that sort of thing so um I think we
could make some to answer your question
M I think we can make some steps um this
year and and hopefully bigger steps as
we as we go
along with
you I I think on the CIP projects
projects I think that's basically where
I'm um I like to have more info on that
so and and as we talked before um we C
staff certainly feels we have more
flexibility in the CIP program as a as
opposed to the you know the operating
expenses I I think it's a good idea for
us to as a board to understand the
budget all of it not just the CIP but
the operating Basics well yeah
discussion we have at least a session
that we had talked about a little bit
before of having a session so that
everybody gets on the same page and
understand where we are and why we are
where we are would be helpful
just to bring the new people up and the
old people to where we are and why we
are where we are especially since there
were things or I would say um
circumstances that got us here from
previous board
activity or board decisions that pushed
us
to this outrageous percentage Inc that's
my opinion and I've been is that
different than what Bruce is suggesting
are you suggesting no it's not I'm I'm
supporting what he's saying okay but are
you asking for something additional as
well just want to be all inclusive okay
yeah and and my my only point is
um the risk assessment will be um I
think more meaningful on the CIP side
but I I take your point Didn't mean to
apply we wouldn't we would just ignore
that
part anybody else have a does that seem
good with that sounds reasonable I mean
I I agree also that long term we should
cover operations as well and and I I do
see a a path to getting to operations
but uh walk before we run yeah um so
does it make sense then for
maybe uh Stephen and I or Steph and I
and Todd I'm not sure who the group
would be to get together and and put
together a proposal we can talk about at
the next board meeting is that
reasonable yeah that seems okay that
seem to with you time yeah I think
that's fine I just want to make sure
we're getting it the expectations set
out so that we don't go off and come
back again with no I think it should be
very narrowly scoped initially just so
that we can respond I think as I Echo
Steven's comments if we can focus on the
CIP that makes sense maybe we you know
we can discuss this maybe we even focus
on a part of our overall C like we're
focusing on the distribution system or
something like that maybe run that out
kind of see if are we getting before we
do a whole lot of work and then yeah
that makes complete tense just to kind
of scope it so I think our Our intention
would be that next meeting is kind of a
conversation I think it's great that
maybe we could get together kind of come
up with a framework and then maybe
discuss it see if we're hitting all the
points of the next me that works okay
cool you good with that yeah great all
right um and then I also have a um
request and this is to the board um for
whether this is something we're
interested in having aasa look into or
investigate for its impacts to aasa um
and so I'm just going to read from
something that Kirk Ross who's a local
journalist wrote uh earlier today um so
on July 31st UNCC Chapel Hill filed for
a permit modification for its Cameron
Avenue co- generation plan that would
allow it to um conduct a year-long test
of replacing coal with pellets made from
a mix of wood paper and plastic scraps
if successful the change to the new fuel
conversion would become permanent and
the vendor making pellets would likely
build a facility to gather and process
manufacturing scraps to supply it likely
by rail um testing provided by the
vendor said that the percentage of
plastic in the pellets runs from 15 to
40% an additional appendix included with
the application shows that the pellets
also include varying amounts of P
compounds um so far um the North
Carolina Department of Environmental
Quality shows that a public hearing and
public comment period has has not been
scheduled aside from a UNCC press
release two weeks after the permit
modification uh public discussion has
been minimal um there are lots of
reasons to discuss this and the reason
that I think that our board would be
interested in this um is that um there
is both
um um most studies that they have shown
and that were in this report that they
released looked at groundwater and
waterways um but there's also the issue
of potential um contamination of Wells
crops and lakes downwind of the plant
and our water source University Lake um
could potentially be affected by these
plastic pellets being burned at the
co-generation plan um and
so um the university says that it will
monitor the pasas to make sure that
levels are acceptable um but experience
tells that they should also have to
monitor emissions which they have not
said that they would do yet um and so
this would be introducing pasas into a
process that would be being burned at a
downtown facility um surrounded with by
schools hospitals and our nearby local
water supply so it does seem like
something that we as a board should be
aware of and potentially ask aasa to
investigate so um when I first read
about this it was uh buried on the UNCC
website um and journalists brought this
to the attention of the public and so
this is more of a conversation for the
board on whether we are interested in
having a Wasa look at this or to ask for
more information from UNCC so that we
can be better informed about the test
that UNCC plans to
conduct go
ahead the question I have is about the
remediation or the cost of cleaning up
the psp4 when it hits to water is there
a cost attached to the contaminant
Organization no there's no process not
not in the report that has been released
so far so being part of the discussion
that we had with the legislators and
people like that would lend one to think
that going forward there might be a
process where you can actually have the
people that are contaminating the water
pay for it's clean up at some point yeah
that that is not on the UNCC website and
that has that topic is not included
not so my question is who will oversee
besides
UNC as far as how much pasas is been
released because I know if UNCC has
interest in it who else would be
overseeing you do we know I we don't
know but that is something that we could
ask aasa to have a conversation with UNC
we could ask aasa if there's going to be
a public hearing on this topic um this
is this is a board discussion is this
topic like something that we are
interested in asking aasa to investigate
further so that we as a board can learn
more about this planned um pilot study
and what it might do to our
community Kim yes I think so
um I'm shocked that anybody's even
talking about burning Plastics at any
level anywhere
yeah and
um yeah it should be investigated okay
other people I I think the dialogue
would be useful um I think to answer
your question this is DQ that manages
this whole thing oh yeah my
understanding is Department of
Environmental Policy yeah and my
understanding is that the
um uh they're also the ones that like
manage public hearings associated with
that so
um but this is in theory to increase you
know air quality so I think it's good to
have the dialogue yeah would anybody
else like to I mean I I think that it
would be useful to have the dialogue and
for aasa to enter this conversation um
because um just from doing you know the
reading and talking to reporters who
have been looking into this um my fear
is that it would affect University
lake so I I I agree with the dialogue I
would like to add dialogue with a
purpose yeah what is the expectation
from this
dialogue yeah
um my thought would be that uh we would
reach staff reach out to UNC just to
learn more about potential impacts to
aasa as far as the water and wastewater
are concerned and then report back to
the board on what we have learned and
that be the first step and then we can
take take it from there as to how we
want to proceed once we know a little
bit more this is kind of hot off the
presses we we haven't had a lot of time
to talk to anyone about it or plans are
so I would say give us if if the board's
interested refer it to staff give us the
opportunity and we'll report back on on
what we find it is there
um an an industry in existence now that
does this are there um it's small and
it's in um very specific places in the
United States as far as I'm aware
they're not usually in population
centers the way that our Coen plant is
on in the middle of a neighborhood
okay um my reason for asking was uh less
about sort of the sighting but more um
are there other places where we can get
information on what the emissions are so
if the inity already exists we the
University of Missouri is doing this
okay so may may make sense also Todd to
do at least a little bit of research and
see if we can get some information from
ex you know existing
operators that's a good point yeah did
the excuse me did the article say if
this is in Li of switching to natural
gas because for a time they were going
to switch to natural gas it seems like
this is the pilot that is going forward
this mixture of wood plastic and paper
they can't switch entirely to natural
gas because you'd actually have to crank
up the size of the pipeline okay
Mill did they give any indication on the
percentages of each of those components
they did and there's a really detailed
report that I can send everybody and you
know if you're interested in this I
don't know off the top of my head but
yes there is a percentage of each one
yeah that'd be great if we could have
yeah I'm happy to share that and uh with
respect to Bruce's comment about
emissions I'd be surprised if there
weren't data on emissions and my
goodness I can't imagine getting that
permitted without an understanding what
the permissions are
yeah I mean they they they do have
everything listed out are are the
concern of the reporters is that it's
been disaggregated and the way that they
burn these products is not
disaggregated so so um I think getting
more information is a really good first
step and I appreciate staff looking into
this does anybody else want to say
anything on that topic mam chair for as
a matter of History the University
uh
emissions have ended up on top of within
the resources of and
um without question have adversely
impacted the community during all the
years since I've been in Chapel Hill
since
1963 you know if the things that PO to
mind immediately are the collash under
what used to be the police station still
is but um it's it's always been amazing
to me that conversation about that
collash has not included the University
where it came from agree if you go to
the other end of the pipe to the steam
generating plant that has deposited Ash
on the houses of the people who lived
around that plant ever since I've been
in the community and long before
that uh I can't imagine
that the university would even apply for
such a permit without a widespread
Community conversation about this
because what it does is that Coen
plan has impacted the community in an
adverse way for so many years promises
have been made over and over again and
broken over and over again by the
university to switch to fuel sources
that were less harmful to the community
uh and it's it's astonishing to
me that
uh the community would have
learned about this
proposal only by reason of the diligence
of reporters who don't have a newspaper
to write anything in the traditional
sense the process for getting the
permit uh is managed by
DEQ under rules that are in place those
rules permit the public to request
public
hearings before the permit is issue and
I would think at the very least
University ought to be advised that the
community community is going to insist
on uh public
hearings where information can be
developed analyzed considered and where
the community can come to a consensus
about whether or not you want another
impact like the CO as impact or like the
impact of the Coen plant for all the
years uh I see my friend braxon sitting
here braxon uh fushi has led a community
effort for many years to try to get
folks who lived around that plant for so
many years relief from what the
University was doing to them we're in a
different era now yeah but we're
still I mean I can't imagine that there
that they're considering doing this
without a fullsome community involvement
so that's my herang about it me for
jumping in but I think please don't
apologize I appreciate the historical
context and I agree with you I mean I I
think that this is something that as far
as I'm aware it has not come up before a
public board prior to tonight and um I
would encourage the people here to both
contact the two town councils and see
what we can do to um encourage the
university to have a very full community
conversation about
this and now you said you'd be sending
us that article yeah I'm happy to send
you the three articles that have been
written by journalists as well as the
report that UNCC has put out um and I
will send that to you as
well um okay does anybody else want to
say anything on that topic and thank you
for taking the time on that I appreciate
it I do have a question who issues the
uh permit the town of
no the DQ the the Department of
Environmental environment quality yeah
so it's it's a state level
decision so um just wanted to make
people aware and um happy to work with
you on next steps um we will now move on
to the consent agenda there it's a
really really big consent agenda so bear
with me and let me know if you'd like to
pull something from the consent agenda
there's 13 items um I'll just read all
of them and if you want to pull it tell
me um afterwards uh one is a report for
material procurement for the Clark Lake
Road water main replacement project two
is a report for chemical procurement for
water and wastewater treatment
processes three is an annual report on
disposal of surplus personal property
four is um the update from the diversity
Equity inclusion and belonging program
and equal employment opportunity for
fiscal year 2024
five is the Capital Improvements program
semi annual
report six is the pre preliminary
financial report for the 12-month period
ending uh June 30th
2024 seven is the quarterly report on
attendance at board meetings eight is
the fiscal year 2024 budget
amendment nine is the review proposed
work plan for aasa's executive
director 10 is the resolution accepting
lead and copper rule revision
funding 11 is the resolution accepting
an increase in state revolving Loan Fund
for the West Cameron water main project
12 are the minutes of the June 13 2024
meeting of the board of directors and 13
are the minutes of the June 13 2024 Clos
session of the board of directors are
there any public comments on any of
these
items okay um are there any questions
comments or would a board member like to
pull an item from the consent agenda
number four number four number four is
the diversity Equity inclusion and
belonging program update and equal
employment opportunity for fiscal year
2024 would anybody else like to pull
number five number five from Michael
that is the Capital Improvements program
semiannual report um anybody else should
we um have a motion for the remaining
items and then we can pull those opers
so I have a couple of questions and
comments comments that
are uh that don't rise to the level of
pulling the items which items do you
want to question or
comment um and
I item two I have a comment
on uh that one is going to be
pulled um why don't we pull them so we
can um motion the rest and then we can
okay okay and what are the other ones uh
this one is the no that one's already
been pulled uh that one's been
pulled uh
the financial six month Financial I have
a question on what number is that
um is it the preliminary six okay okay
and then this one is number nine number
nine okay so here's what I'd like to do
I'd like to make um a motion in a second
to approve
1378 10 11 12 and
13 and then I would like to pull 2 4
five six and
nine for discussion did I do that
correctly uh it would be more
appropriate for another uh member to
make the motion okay and a second from a
board member okay then I will just date
them and I will ask for a motion thank
you may I please have a motion all right
Todd makes the motion may have Myra
second all right um all those in favor
say I for the list that I
just I okay those opposed say
nay okay great the motion passes for the
items that I just outlined let's do
these in numerical order to make it easy
so we're going to start with two which
is the report for chemical procurement
for water and wastewater treatment
processes and Bruce has a question okay
it should be pretty simple um the uh
aluminum sulfate is this a
commodity is that a commodity
chemical I want
to I'm Kelly safield Director of Finance
Monica
I'm uh Monica doson Deputy executive
director I'm not sure what you mean by
commodity um okay here's my my concern
there's a pretty wide range of prices
here and you normally wouldn't expect
that for a commodity they'd be really
tightly um grouped together um which
leads me to
believe uh is something funny going on
like for example the product we'll get
from
usco is not of the same quality as the
others it just looks funny those numbers
so the the winning bid was actually the
current product we've been using um for
several years so certainly don't have
any concerns with um with the quality of
it maybe it's because we had an existing
relationship and yeah that's fine that
answers it okay that's
fine just recognize a lot of these
chemicals that we use are specific that
you can put it into water drinking water
so they are not like you know you just
couldn't go buy a raw aluminum sulfate
somewhere it actually had you know okay
standards there that other things aren't
in it okay that could contaminate the
water so okay but presumably that the
chemical from all four of these
suppliers are those requirement um but
if if it's working for us and it's the
same stuff then that answers the
question okay question on process would
it be appropriate to list that fact like
this is a current supplier in the future
I think that would be useful think so
that yeah all right let's move on to
number four which is the diversity
Equity inclusion and belonging program
update an equal employment opportunity
for fiscal year 2024 Al my okay
a couple of questions here with regard
to when did the position become vacant
exactly because you said you're in the
process of um you filling it October
November yes that was in July I believe
okay so what's the process I mean I read
what you said you were doing did you
have an exit interview with the person
that left we did
and other than he left for more money is
that that's the story at a higher level
position yes a higher level position
then our position is titled diversity
equ Equity inclusion and belonging
Specialists and he took a director level
position so what what kind of of um
promotional opportunities there are none
for existing positions since this was
the first time you had a had a DB person
and so there's no growth within that
road as far as promotions or counter
offers or anything like that um
specifically the person if they're
interested in the Director of Human
Resources position that would be an
Avenue for them um to to be promoted oh
I mean I'm just mean in in position in
title there's no growth opportunity
within a position if a person if you
wanted to keep a person that was already
here without giving them somebody else's
title you don't have any professional
development built and that's not just
for that position but for any position
for growth we do have professional
development opportunities with entitle
yes but that wasn't for this for the de
position well I would say that every
position has professional development
opportunities the person that we're
speaking of um took a the E Cornell
diversity Equity inclusion certification
program while they were
here I think specifically El Mar you're
talking about is there like a one two or
three or a an opportunity for that well
you counter offer people to keep them if
they're doing a good job sure without
without them having to leave to go get
something else I I know the E Cornell
stuff well yeah unfortunately we we we
don't have that for this much for this
position as far as you know TI other
titles or things like that we can offer
so what about can you explain the
belonging portion of your de I and
what's actually happening here with the
B part sure um we just want to cultivate
um a sense of fulfillment for people a
sense of um being included and being
engaged being um invited to um
participate in things that maybe are not
on their job descriptions whether it's
serving on one of our committees on
interview panels attending training and
things that um would be out there for
them that maybe are not specific to
their role so if they're say a treatment
plan operator it may not have anything
treating water but they would be able to
uh to gain experience now for employees
we are we have a program um it's a bonus
pay program for additional
certifications that are above what's
required for your position and sometimes
they very much align with the job
description and sometimes they're um I
would say valid or or accurate for
another position or maybe other skills
project management that sort of thing so
for the current opening that you have
for the deib person and you're going to
hire in October November so you have
candidates that you're bringing in now
absolutely we uh got a great response to
our recruitment we're currently um
screening we're doing telephone
interviews with 15 individuals and are
going to narrow that down
um and do inperson panel interviews
those are scheduled for the first week
of October okay it may bleed into the
second week of October
too one other question what may one
other question that I have with regard
to the the chart that's on page nine
that list the note at the bottom says
you know decline people declined the
offer or you failed the post offer
process what's the post offer process um
so all of our positions require a
physical as well as a drug screen as
well as background
checks verifying their education that
they put on their resume that sort of
thing oh
okay and back background checks I'm just
interested what would keep a person from
getting a job here if they fail a drug
screen if they um say they got a degree
somewhere and they
didn't it doesen it does
okay I I was just interested in in
knowing what that was have you ever had
a board member participate in any of the
interview
processes I don't think that's ever
taken place to my
knowledge that has not not ever been
suggested forly in a board meeting there
have been occasions where
conversations there have been occasions
where conversations about that have
taken place and we've always
um uh made sure that we reminded the
board to remind its relationship with
the executive director Personnel matters
are matters that are generally within
the authority of the executive director
and uh the extent to which a board
member might be interested in
participating uh would suggest a
dilution of the uh executive director's
auor authority over hiring U and firing
so for that reason our advice has always
been it would be inappropriate to have
member okay I was just interested to
know how how brought diversity into the
process because I don't see a whole lot
of diversity in staff sure so we always
make sure we have you generally have a
four sometimes five but mostly four um
member panel for each Recruitment and um
there has to be
um minority representation as well as
representation from outside the
department okay what about
Community
people we've done that at times where if
we've had a position um one comes to
mind um it was our director of
Information Technology and we used a
member of the another municipality
another local entity um that had um
extensive Information Technology um
experience and understanding and they
were on the panel so we've other used
other municipalities that sort of thing
okay CU I was just thinking about people
that have knowledge of the community and
the diverse nature of the clientele that
the board serves as not a board member
that could participate in helping in the
process whether or not
that's outside of any rules or prohib is
prohibited I don't know if any law La
that prohibits it but some of the same
um concerns that were expressed about
board members about the delici of the
executive director's Authority okay we
tried very hard to maintain a pretty
bright line uh between U board member
conduct and Community conduct and the
executive director's authority over the
staff
okay I truly appreciate your interest in
questions thank you wait wait there one
oh I'm
sorry how are you no wor is good uh
silly question I was looking at your
graphs on page S8 kind of sort of and I
was wondering if all the interviews for
your positions are done in
person we try very hard for that um but
if there are people you know throughout
the the country and Beyond um sometimes
they are um virtual
interviews
okay on page nine I couldn't help but
notice and I don't know if this warrants
much analysis but when you look at the
hired percentages distribution across
the
categories they're very disproportionate
with the percentage of applicants in the
categories I'm sorry say that again I
just got to the right page sorry page
page nine sure
if you look at that last row on the
hired percentages by the categories
they're just they're disproportionate
with respect to the pool of applicants
in each of the categories sure we've
discussed that before and there's
probably a lot of reasons for that but I
just want you know paid attention thank
you on page
10 um could you help me understand what
a protective service worker is and what
they do the definitions of the EO
categories of a protective service
worker yes I don't have that that
information in front of me I can let you
know um there are definitions that that
the eeo puts out for each classification
and I know in years past I have emailed
those to the board and I can do that
this time just curious sure thanks
that's all I
got thank you yes
yeah not yet
uh the uh Apprentice program that was
started in 2023 that's fantastic that we
got three folks as permanent absolutely
that's wonderful um
the uh on retention that would be on
page 10 of the package or page five of
the report
um uh do you have
um sort of historical retention number
maybe that you could send
around last five years seven years
something like that
um uh I
know the last few years we've had some
some difficulty
recruiting uh I don't know what why if
that's if there's been a retention
problem as well but that'd be useful to
to send around and and maybe include in
in you know future reports like this
sure uh do you have something specific
in mind or no just you know is is there
a pattern there uh are certain position
are we losing people in certain
positions uh more than others or uh
certain age age ranges were losing or I
you I don't know just it'd be
interesting from a pattern recognition
Point sure so I think I'd have to get to
the right page um we did spell out
information on the 20 people that we
left in this reporting period is that
the type of information that you're
looking for ex but but historic maybe
that's a normal those numbers are normal
but if they're uh abnormal relative to
history then that's a signal there's
something going absolutely yeah we can
certainly speaks to to the belonging
piece if your largest on on that
particular chart on page 10 if the
majority of your people that are leaving
everybody it's percentages and stuff
people that the retention number is
extremely high white and it's extremely
low for everybody
else so the belonging program could
probably use
some oh I think our work will never be
done and and the last one on uh page 11
of the report 16 of the package so
there's a drop off in women in the last
three years or so uh is is that
consistent with numbers that other
Municipal municipalities have or other
organizations in the state or the region
any sure any color you can shine on that
I can look into that I I don't have that
information with me um the one thing
that um with this report it's one day
out of the year it's June 30th and we
look at the data on June 30th and that's
what we report to the board and so we
fluctuate so much throughout the year
but if we had um two three people leave
in the prior month it you know and then
we increase it the next month once we
recruit it just it's whatever it is on
that June 30th date and that's always
kind of yeah you know okay hurt my bell
a little
bit I have I have one question um it it
seems like you got a lot more
applications I'm just curious what you
did what did you do that Chang that well
I think it's it's in the report we went
to a lot of different um um events and
things like that I think you know we
attended the minority participation
program and learned a whole lot more
about how we can can recruit women we
went to the veterans and water Workforce
um the Central Carolina women and
business career focused event um I
personally went to several of these and
I attended the triangle Dei event one of
the best things I've ever attended in my
life and career on how to support
re-entry and re-engagement into the
workforce for those leaving
incarceration um they started it off
with a
2hour um exercise where we played the
role of trying to get our social
security card and catch the bus to go
get all the documentation that we needed
and then try and get an interview and
how do we get to the interview if we
don't have any money and it it was one
of the best things I've ever attended so
all sorts of things and at those things
you make um networking opportunities and
and find out about all sorts of things
so we've got our new deib plan in place
and we're looking forward to to grow in
it even more um in the next
months thank you very much does anybody
else have any okay great thank you thank
you so much I appreciate the interest
okay and now we will move on to we have
three more excuse me the Capital
Improvements program semiannual report
um Allison and
Michael hey Elison hey Michael question
what do we use permanganate for at
University Lake we permanganate could
too control iron and
manganese so there's iron and manganese
in the reservoirs and when they reach
certain levels they can cause
um coloration of the water or taste and
odor issues and so we treat at the lake
and so that helps to allow enough
contact time for the iron and maganese
to interact with the oxidant to bring
that out of solution and then we remove
it during filtration great answer do we
have like a sump or something that we
add the chemicals to and then pump them
up here I mean what's the
process are you referring to the process
at Cane Creek or the process at
University Lake University Lake okay
perfect so at University Lake we have a
bulk tank of permanganate a sodium
permanganate Solution that's um now
housed in a a new building we used to
feed it out of chemical totes within the
existing Pump Station okay um but we've
now created a more reliable sustainable
solution that has it fully inclosed away
from the public all of that and so we
meter in the sodium permanganate into
the actual raw water line that comes out
of the pump station and that mixing that
happens from the pump station where it's
in injected into that raw water line it
it travels and mixes that whole way down
jonesberry road back to the water
treatment plant and then it enters into
the rest of the treatment facility and
there it it oxidizes out iron and
manganese and then that's captured
through the rest of the process like
infiltration cool thank you um might
have another question
sure um yeah so this is about on
page well it says two at the top but
this is kind of directed to the
engineering group I
think
that you know we say a conservable
amount of CIP work was accomplished
despite Staffing challenges which
continue through the year and to combat
this temporary project management
support from Jacobs um was provided I'm
just curious what what they did for us
they served as an acting project manager
so they sat here in our office at least
one day a week and then did ancillary
work um either at their home office or
um in the field doing Project work as if
they were assigned as a team member on
my team okay how many staff did you have
from Jacobs just one uhuh one
part-time cool daffer all right and kind
of one last request sure table
one I'm wondering if you all could
provide that spreadsheet form or some
other way that you know it's legible
when either we print it out or we want
to study it sure we were so effective
and productive there's so many on this
list this year so yeah we can definitely
do that so I I printed it out on tablet
paper so I can read it but I can't and
uh you know it'd be well suited to um
you know if I could get it into Excel
and split the screen and you know keep
column and Rose where I could have a
hard look at it' be great sure that's
how I produce it so it's easy enough for
us to share it thank you yeah no problem
thank you thanks okay two more um and
these are both Bruce so the first one is
number six the preliminary financial
report for the 12-month period ending on
June 30th
2024 okay um s excuse uh so on the
system development fees dollars are not
large but there's a huge variance uh the
the actual is 2.7 million the budget was
1.0 I may show my ignorance here but it
would seem to me that we have pretty
good visibility into um the the system
development projects we're going to do
uh so why is it off so much is there
something else going on or it's uh I may
not be the best person that answer this
and I'm looking around and I think the
person that is might not be here no he's
he's oh sorry on the wrong side of the
room uh fish nuk and gather director of
engineering so system development
projects we do track them and try to
provide as good you know as good of a
forecast as we can um just like our own
CIP projects they're so many of them are
subject to you know changes and delays
accelerations and I think this there was
one project in particular that was
accelerated if I'm okay if I'm
remembering correctly so we actually
don't have very good visibility into
what's going to happen okay that's fine
that's fine okay I I you know I'm a
pattern matcher type of person and when
I see big variances that I always wonder
if there's something hidden behind it
but that okay that's
great anybody else have anything on that
one and then this our last one um number
nine the review proposed work plan for
aasa's executive director okay and Todd
this one on on uh item number two for
you Financial Management number B says
monitor financial and fraud management
as well as customer building monitor
sounds too weak to me I sure would like
to have something like you know ensure
that we have the proper controls in
place rather than just monitoring what's
going on does that make sense absolutely
okay is that
so I wrote ensure that proper controls
are in place for financial and fraud
management as well as customer billing
performance it's on page 42 of the
package can I can I ask one question
from page 43 um do you know when we'll
get an update on care to share and in
coming in house I think we're planning
on if I'm correct yeah it's like January
February time
great about that all right so here's
what we're going to do now we pulled
items two four five six and nine and if
there are no additional questions or
comments may I have a motion and second
to approve 24 five six nine I'll make a
motion great thank you
Michael Bruce all right we have a motion
by Michael and a second by Bruce all
those in favor please say I I I I okay
the motion for those items on the
consent agenda um passes
unanimously we will now move on to the
regular
agenda and this first item is
exciting um it is a resolution honoring
the service of Mary Dar to the Chapel to
the carboro Chapel Hill Orange County
Community um so I'm going to read this
out loud would you like to come to the
podium
love okay so I'm going to read from here
and then I will come to the podium
whereas after working more than 30 years
as an aasa professional engineer Mary
Dar will retire on November 1st 2024
from her present position as Deputy
executive director and the board of
directors wishes to thank her for her
work as an essential Public Employee in
service to our community and whereas
Mary began work for aasa in
1994 as a utilities engineer where she
soon became known for her willingness to
undertake and complete the difficult and
often complicated projects necessary to
guide the operation and support the
replacement and new construction of
water and sewage infrastructure vital to
the life of our community she was
promoted to serve as operations engineer
director of engineering and planning and
then as general manager of operations
and she will retire having most recently
served as Deputy executive director of
aasa and whereas Mary well and
Faithfully performed her
responsibilities including management of
aasa's water supply water distribution
and Wastewater collection systems its
water and wastewater treatment plants
its reclaimed water system along with
its Laboratories and maintenance
operations she will be remembered by her
colleagues for her warm smile and
enthusiasm in service with all of them
and her willingness to notice and then
to help those who needed a lift or a
hand up or some thoughtful suggestion to
help them through their day indeed it is
remarkable that even with so many
responsibilities Mary always found time
to help whoever needed her encouragement
and whereas throughout her career she
was instrumental in planning and
executing projects such as the
preparation of aasa's sewage use
ordinance which today protects aasa's
sewage sewer infrastructure from
dangerous and damaging inflows she was
in charge of various award-winning
projects that brought National and
international recognition to aasa
including the 2005 partnership for Safe
Water directors award and the 2011
excellence in water treatment award she
was also project manager for the
construction of the operations center a
building intended to build relationships
between the engineering and operations
staff and whereas Mary Dar has earned
the admiration and respect of co-workers
at aasa our local governments the
University of North Carolina at Chapel
Hill and other professionals within the
National Water and Sewer industry her
character and her work will now serve as
her Legacy to aasa and our
community now therefore be it resolved
that the board of directors of the
orange water and sewage Authority hereby
honors and expresses its sincere
appreciation for the distinguished
Public Service of Mary Dar PE to aasa
and the people of carboro Chapel Hill
and Orange County and the Border
directors extends our best wishes to
Mary for good health and happiness in
your retirement may I have a motion and
second to approve the
resolution P
Pedro
Bruce okay we have a motion by Pedro and
a second by Bruce I'm getting teary all
those in
favor all those in favor please say
I the motion passes unanimously and the
resolution is approved congratulations
thank
you that was
[Music]
[Laughter]
are there any public
comments there is
one I'm going to get my
water okay yes so um Ed Kerwin really
wanted to be here tonight he was a
wasa's executive director from 1996 to
2020 um and again he very much wanted to
deliver his remarks about Mary Dar in
person at tonight's meeting but he's
under the weather and asked me to read
his um comments on his behalf so I'm
doing this all for Ed so it sounds like
he's right here
you're welcome all right I join the aasa
board of directors general counsel and
staff in acknowledging and thanking Mary
Dar for her 30 years of progressively
responsible and truly impactful Public
Service Mary has always worked very
effect effectively with others
throughout the organization and
Community to ensure aasa successfully
fulfills its critically important resp
responsibilities to provide Chapel Hill
carboro the university and Southern
Orange County with high quality and
reliable water services around the clock
in doing so Mary always displayed
genuine caring for others she's a true
team player Mary's very knowledgeable
and experienced in nearly all aspects of
aasa's operation and she has freely
shared her knowledge support and
guidance with others
if I
had if I had to pick and highlight just
one of Mary's many accomplishments that
would that will continue to benefit our
community in the years ahead it is the
inspired leadership role she had guiding
our team to further improve our drinking
water quality this resulted in aasa
becoming the only becoming only the
ninth water treatment plant in the
country and the first in North Carolina
to be awarded the Excellence in water
treatment award by the partnership for
safe water in 2011 the partnership for
Safe Water comprises six organizations
including the EA and the American
Waterworks
Association this award acknowledged that
a the aasa team was operating a fully
optimized water treatment process the
aasa team has suain sustained this level
of drinking water and treatment
optimization for over 10 years Mary
would be the first
to give full credit to all her
co-workers for this
accomplishment please know that Mary
effectively LED our very inclusive
process with Frontline staff and many
others throughout aasa this initiative
was an important part of our overall
work building a culture of teamwork
continuous Improvement and performance
Excellence I'm so proud of how this
initiative has been successfully
expanded by the aasa team and Water
District distribution Wastewater
collection treatment and reuse Mary
would also be quick to give credit to
the board for providing employees with
competitive pay benefits and for
supporting policies and funding to keep
the organization sustainable I work
closely with Mary and I could always
count on her to share her ideas and how
we can improve especially when there
were they were different than
mine which which makes for a healthy
work envir ironment Mary it was a true
pleasure and privilege working with you
and I thank you so very much for your
dedicated service wishing you all the
best and good health and retirement Ed K
and
Andy thank you
Ed my turn yeah wow
okay um anyways I just want to thank you
Mel for the resolution that was lovely
um I just want to thank the board this
board and the previous boards for the
last 30
years I'm not gonna make it through
retirement um for all the support I want
to thank Bob Todd Ed K Andy and all the
staff um for the support through all the
years um um AAS has been a great place
to work staff supports one another we've
heard that over and over again tonight
um and the board support staff and
that's really important so thank
you Bob say
something anyways I really do truly
appreciate all the opportunities I've
had um and I also appreciate um that the
board's allowed me and AAS has allowed
me to give back to the professional
organizations and the industry um
through volunteer work and uh presenting
at conferences and all the Innovative
stuff that aasa does so thank you very
much that was great
so the board will now move on to
information and reports thank you Mary
um we will get a update on the service
line inventory and replacement program
Mary tiger the director of community
relations and Jesse duclaw the director
of distribution and collection we'll
provide a 15minute uh
presentation all right that was a very
inspiring presentation to follow up on
so um I just want to start this
presentation tonight by acknowledging
the massive team effort that this whole
program is and preparing for uh the
compliance with the lead and copper rule
has been um I stand here as one person
why the director of community relations
is talking about it is that this whole
program is getting ready to take a turn
for a very public facing phase um and so
we want to make sure that the board is
up to date on the what and the wise of
what we're talking about when we talk
about the service line inventory and
this pending replacement
program I also want to acknowledge that
massive team effort it's led by aliceon
Spinelli um our engineering manager for
capital
projects so before we jump into the
details of this program I do want to
assure the board and the public that's
watching we're not talking about this
because aasa has a problem with lead um
this is a national requirement for all
Water Systems um that is above and beond
beyond the existing lead and copper rule
which aasa is in full compliance with um
that original rule was passed in um
1991 so the water leaving our water
treatment plant has no lead in it and we
have no known lead pipes in our
distribution system that being said lead
can enter drinking water through
Plumbing um this diagram here on the
screen is a one that's put out by EPA
that shows how lead can enter drink
drinking water through private Plumbing
we add um Ortho and polyphosphate to our
water to prevent the corrosion of pipes
and plumbing fixtures um kind of coats
the pipes um this is a consistent
practice with um state and federal
guidelines additionally every three
years we collect 30 samples from homes
with copper pipes and Lead solder and
since 2008 we have only detected lead in
six of these sample sites and only one
of those was above the um Action level
and then for that one particular site
that home had no other um lead detects
and it was cleaned out once they cleaned
out their air Rader um so again we're
not talking about this because we have
an issue it's a it's a national
requirement in December of 2021 the EPA
finalized the revised lead and copper
rule which enhanced the existing
regulation in a number of ways
so for the purposes of our discussion
tonight we're really going to focus on
three major aspects of this regulation
and that is the lead service line
inventory public education and Outreach
and the lead service line
replacement and a big driver of this
kind of Latter um topic the lead service
line replacement program is the lead and
copper rule improvements or what we call
the
LC so this is a proposed revision to the
revised rule that is currently in draft
form so it is not finalized yet we
expect this rule to be finalized anytime
now um but it impr it enhances or
improves the the new rule and so it's a
it's a bit speculative in nature but
most in the industry are expecting it to
be passed as drafted again later this
year so we have folded in the
requirements
of that proposed rule into our
preparation for the
LCR and the when we talk about the
replacement program the LC is actually
requiring replacement of any lead or
galvanized lines that are requiring
replacement within 10 years of going
into effect so it kind of enhances that
replacement requirement um on top of the
LCR so just to pause and Define what
what is a service line when we talk
about service line inventory service
line replacement so a service line is
the extend of pipe that connects the
water m to the building Plumbing the
portion of that line that between the
water man in the meter is a wasasa it's
owned by aasa we put it in the ground
the portion of the pipe that's between
the meter in the home is the
responsibility and under the ownership
of the property owner um so up until the
LCR Water Systems really had no no
knowledge of the private side of the
service line or responsibility for
it the lead and copper rule revisions of
the LCR requires Water Systems to take
inventory of all the service lines in
their service area there's really four
buckets that we want to put those
service lines into in this inventory
first bucket is lead status unknown this
is a completely valid category for the
initial inventory that's due next month
that we just don't know the second
category is pretty self-explanatory lead
service line so a portion of the pipe is
made out of
lead the third category is a galvanized
service line now galvanized service
lines in and of themselves are not an
issue but if they were ever Downstream
of lead pipe they could have collected
lead particles which could be freed up
if there's a disruption in the
distribution system so if there is a
loss of pressure uh a meter is changed
out service is cut on or off um if a
galvanized line was ever Downstream of
lead pipe it could have collected
that if the utility if aasa cannot prove
that a galvanized line was never
Downstream of a lead pipe we have to
assume that it some point it was so it's
a out of an abundance of caution that we
are considering galvanized service lines
as galvanized requiring
replacement and then this final category
non-led um non-led could be any number
of materials U most commonly copper or
plastic and ultimately the goal of all
of this all of the regulation and aasa
efforts are to get all of the service
lines into that last category that's the
that's the goal um so how are we doing
with this incredible really really in
incredible um aasa's efforts to to
bucket the utility or the the service
lines so a little bit about how our
process went of how we went about doing
that we first looked at um historical
work orders and Records to identify the
service line
materials then we looked at the size of
the line and the date of the
installation so service lines that are
greater than three in are non-led we
know that categorically so and any
service line that was installed after
March of 1987 we can categorically rule
out as as not L because a ban went into
place at that time so once we have this
historical a after we had this
historical information we begin an
iterative process of doing field
verification and machine learning so
doing statistical analysis using those
field verifications to draw conclusions
about what the service line material is
and this is a practice that's accepted
in the state we've turned over our
methodology to the State and they have
approved our statistical um verification
method so to date um over 6,000 customer
side services and all of the 78 unknown
aasa side Services have been inspected
and in fact aasa was awarded a $1
million no interest interest loan from
the bipartisan infrastructure law
drinking water State revolving fund Leed
service line replacement funds to fund
our inventory work um and effectively
reimburse aasa for this work you guys
actually um approved the acceptance of
those funds um in the consent
agenda so if this sounds easy it
absolutely was not and so I'm going to
invite our director of distribution and
collection Jesse duclaw to acknowledge
the team that put in the work that got
us to this incredible
place thank you Mary I'm Jesse duclaw
distrib director of distribution and
collection I want to start by saying in
my February March budget present a about
some of the challenges this is one of
the challenges we talked about and how
big of a task this is and how big of a
challenge it is um it would not be
successful without the team that I have
as well as Alison spelli as the champion
of the whole Le copper rule um
addressing as well as uh Communications
and Community rations department and
what they've done but specifically I
want to say Marcus Fuller if you stand
up Marcus is our crew Supervisor over
valve maintenance and him and his team
have went under more than
5,000 um as you see Josh patzer in this
uh in this picture right here under
5,000 crawl spaces in identified this so
they have the leg work behind all this
but also Nick Rogers if you would stand
up he is uh the orc of our distribution
system and he's been working with the
teams to uh you know put this to the
front of our goal and in front of our
list to get it tackled in time so I want
to say thank you
thank you Marcus thank you
Jesse so where do we go from here so the
initial inventory is due to the state by
October 16th um and it must be available
for all customers so we will be posting
this inventory on our website and then
within 30 days of posting that we will
be sending um direct notification to all
of our customers that have the
galvinized requiring replacement lines
which didn't actually talk about so we
have
110 um lines that that we estimate and
we determine to be galvanized requiring
Replacements the rest are non-led um so
our um because of the work of Marcus and
his crew um at narrowing that down we
really are focused only on these 110
galvanized requiring replacement lines
and
customers so we'll be sending Outreach
to them about what it means to have a
galvanized requiring replacement line um
and and where we're going from here um
this is a sneak peek at what the what
the inventory is going to look like
that's posted on our website um so
customers will be able to enter their
address and zero in but they'll see from
a a broad scale all of the service lines
in the community um and then colorcoded
based on is it lead status unknown
non-led Le or galvanized requiring
replacement and it's amazing that we can
pull up a map that says you know as many
non-ls um as we do if somebody types in
their address they'll zero in um and be
able to see a DOT at their property um
and it will show there's two sides of
the circle one is the Utility side one
is the private side um and it'll say
what we what the material is of both
sides and how we got that information so
this particular address the Utility side
material is copper the private side
material is unknown but we determined it
to be not Le um the source of the
Utility side how we got that information
is through historical records and then
how we um determine the private side is
through that predictive modeling so we
will also have information on our
website about what is predictive
modeling and how did we get there how
did we get to
that this one which on that screen is
worse than on this screen
so is what the dot will look like for
one of the 110 households that has a
galvanized requiring replacement so
they'll zero in on their property and be
able to see that and then we will have
information for those customers about
again what exactly does that mean what
is the risk of having a galvanized
requiring replacement what can they do
um as a property owner or a tenant to
reduce that risk and then what are our
plans moving forward on the replacement
program what we know now and then how we
will communicate about what we know in
the
future I see some yeah I I was gonna say
can you just tell us briefly what the
plan would be going forward for those
110 folks I will get there yes yeah are
they clustered in a certain geographic
area are they kind of spread out they
are so more so in the downtown area
because they're the older homes like we
can there is but there's no kind of
pattern Trend actually turn it to
Allison who's been looking a lot more at
the the data the prevalence because this
is a sneak peek I say because we really
are like doing this machine learning um
kind of hot off the
presses did I
answer um Mary answered it appropriately
a lot of it is clustered very closely to
where we have older sections of town and
maybe areas that haven't been
revitalized or redeveloped where um the
service lines would have been renewed
for another reason so it's a lot of
older homes or um just areas that have
an experience for
development both both I'm curious uh
using a predictive model uh you'd have
to train that on positives so if there's
so we would never predict lead in our
predictive model because we will never
find lead because we have no known lead
sources of any pipe in our distribution
system now we have found through all of
the work that Marcus's team with Jesse
and Nick have done over 78 um service
lines on the private side that have been
galvanized which is training the model
in those certain areas that we may be
more likely to see galvanized we also
did have some galvanized showing up in
some of our original records so that's
also been training the model too um one
of the slides Mary showed earlier was
there was the bar graph that showed from
last June till now thank thank you um
that there was an initial goal of 2,000
that was the initial training set that
we used so we needed to get 2,000
physical inspections done on service
lines in order to have enough data to
run the model for the first time and
then based on that model it gave us the
next sets of data that we needed to try
and find to fill the gaps where we
didn't feel like we had the right level
of um accuracy in terms of predictions
a question on the model that sort of
feeds it to how we communicate this to
people is was the
model like a traditional statistical
model where you have parameters that are
variables that have coefficients that
are predicting something some number or
it was it more of a neural network and
you don't really
know what the what led to a particular
house being
flagged it is more of a neural network
if I understand um so we using a
software called lead cast and a lot of
it is being done by their data analytics
we are feeding the model through our
work but I am not as familiar as some of
the background data that might be in
there
okay one of the positives and bit on it
that we do have in the model or the
galvaniz requiring replacement as she
said we don't anticipate any lead but
that would be the positive in the
model are you still do you still have
slides uh okay why don't we hold
questions until the
end
sorry so a little bit about the kind of
communication that we do with these 110
customers so I mentioned that we'll send
a letter within 30 days of publishing
the inventory and then we will send
those customers a letter annually
reminding them about their service line
we also will send any new customer that
moves into that um household information
about that once as we figured out out
the replacement program we'll be
communicating directly with those
customers as well um and then also if
post disturbance so if we have a water
line break if we do a disconnection or
um any sort of um instances that could
free up potential lead in those lines
we'll be communicating with those
customers um about steps that they can
take to minimize their risk and in some
cases when there's a major disturbance
we will be providing them with uh
pictures picture filters um and six
months of
filters so I want to point out here that
the Outreach for customers with unknown
service lines this would be the
requirement for our communication with
customers so in with a Wasa setting a
goal of having no unknowns it really
minimizes a lot of necessary
communication and kind of red flag
raising for our community so it's a
really important thing that aasa did and
um having zero
unknowns so beyond this where do we go
so when we think about the lead and
copper rule improvements so the
requirements around that in the
replacement program so that rule is
going to require that you utility submit
a baseline inventory to the state we're
estimating around October
2027 and that Baseline will set the 10%
replacement rate that's required over
the next 10 years so from that point
forward every year utilities will be
required 10% to replace 10% of their
Leed galvanized requiring replacement or
unknown service lines um and so that
sets the um sets the Baseline of how
having any unknown um and then so then
10 years later than that all known lead
and galvanized requiring service lines
must be replaced um with
non-led is that the private service line
or public service private service line
are going to be required to be
replaced and aasa absorbs the cost of
that it is not required in the
regulation that the utility pay for the
replacement of the service line we do
have we'll go to the next slide so our
five-year CIP a budget to replace those
service lines and at that point time we
were estimating that we had more than we
had over we were estimating that we
would have over 300 lines and so that
3.2 million and the 5year CIP was for
that um we do estimate that it's about
$110,000 per service line to replace
that service line one of the reasons why
we're making the recommendation to move
move forward with aasa paying for the
service line replacement one is that
it's compliance with regulations we will
be held to that 10% replacement rate um
and so it's incredibly important that we
comply with that regulation one is it
helps to ensure that it's Equitable in
terms of when the service lines are
replaced um if you can pay for a
replacing a service line you're going to
do it early if aasa can pay for it we
can ensure that it happens um in a in a
fast Manner and that it's done in an
equitable way um and further it reduces
the operational and contractual
challenges so if we were to drag it out
we are looking for a timeline of between
2025 and 2027 of replacing all those 110
service lines um and we want to do it in
that tight time frame because we
anticipate that contractually that will
be more attractive to anybody bidding on
on this project um and then further it's
going to reduce you know operational
challenges when we talk about
communicating with customers time and
time again about having these galvanized
lines um if we can knock those out and
we can turn in that Baseline inventory
in 2027 then we can kind of put this
behind us and and move forward um so
right now our estimated program costs
based on the 110 galvaniz requiring
lines that we um estimate to have is
about $1.3 million
we have some things to figure out this
is a atypical project for us right
that's on private property um we do know
that we are going to need ride of entry
from the customers we're going to need
their permission to um come and replace
their service line we anticipate that
we're going to do this work through a
general contractor that will work with
licensed plumbers in the region we're
going to have an open house on October
11th here in the community room to talk
with local General Contractors local
plumbers local plumbing supply houses
about the program and get some of their
feedback um that will be considered in
the bid package so we can put something
attractive out that will actually get
bid on um but we know we have a lot of
important things to consider to in
setting up this replacement program the
order of replacement although we want to
do it in a pretty timely manner someone
has to go first we can't replace 110
service lines in one day so there there
will be an order and and how that is
ordered um we've got to consider how to
handle customers that don't want to work
with an aasa contractor but are still
going to be part of that you know
requirement and then how how to handle
customers that maybe recently replaced
their galvanized service line and now
you know they footed the bill and and
now a Wasa is paying so there's and
there's a list of other considerations
that we need to think through as we
design this program luckily we're not
first um a lot of Utilities in the
Northeast um and Out West have already
gotten started on similar programs
Raleigh down the road has gotten started
on their replacement program so we have
some peers that we can look to for some
lessons learned
um so um with that you know we will
certainly be informing the board as we
figure out those details of the
replacement program and no action is
asked of you all tonight but again it is
a very public facing we're moving into
this public facing phase and wanted to
make sure that you all had the
opportunity to ask questions and really
understand um what is going on so I'll
turn it back over to Mel and yeah team
is happy to answer questions thank you
all three of you for that great
presentation
um what what questions do we
have Kyle and then Pedro yes amyra Kim
um two questions uh one probably minor
is this document says there were 180 at
most and now here's 110 does that mean
like they were flagged you check them
and
70 at the time of writing the memo that
was the estimate and as the machine
learning the last iteration of the
machine learning has come through that's
um been able to be tighten down a little
bit gotcha and then um
maybe it's not I'm guess I'm just
curious like if I were to go to this map
I like and I see unknown notled if I'm a
cautious person I might be
like so like is is the map going to be
behind a wall that explains the
categories first or can there be like a
tool tip on on that one that explains
like if it's three inches of 1987 and
why I should trust
those things we will be providing
information about the categories and how
we arrived at the information
yes my question I'm sorry I lost a
little bit of the presentation as I went
to the bathroom and apologize for that
um I need to
go anyway uh my question is on on regard
of the uh service line is that after the
uh
meter the piece of service line that we
are going to replace
which is considered private is that what
we're talking about yes that's what
we're talking about we have um no known
galvanized requiring replacement on the
on our side of the meter and so we're
really going to be looking at that the
property owned side service line thank
you okay thank you regarding the
selection of the contractors that's
going to replace that portion of the
line that was is going to pay for is
there a bid
process that you use to select the
people the different contractors that's
going to come go out and um make these
changes thanks alar that's a good
question so we are going to use a
typical bidding process that we would
for any other construction project it
will be based off of a set of
specifications the contractors will be
given the different 110 locations with
the requirements for each location and
based off of that they will provide I'm
not 100% sure it'll be a single lump sum
or if it'll be like unit price bidding
but they'll provide a number and low bid
will be inspected to see if they're
responsive responsible safe kind of our
normal procedure so you expect to have
one company do all of it or can you have
multiple companies it would be our
preference from a Contracting standpoint
to do one contract um with a general
contractor who then could choose to have
several different
plumbers yeah there there are some
complicating factors we've looked we've
looked into that as well of areas where
we can um invite um underutilized
businesses minority businesses
women-owned businesses um there will be
some specific State revolving fund
requirement loan requirements
potentially so we're just going to make
that very clear when we have the
contractor openhouse so anybody who can
meet those requirements of um certified
um payroll living wage Davis bacon able
to there there's a a few things that we
want to make sure that we consider if we
go down that path but we would be
welcoming to any small business to be
supporting that process well I'm just
thinking of the diversity equity and
inclusion part of bidding on contracts
when you have small businesses that are
in the area uh plumbers Etc that can do
this kind of work but don't have the
magnitude of a big contractor to be able
to bid on 110 different projects but my
other question is the rates the is the
payment for these Services part of the
rates that we are going to be
paying yes it's currently included in
our budget um and just one more thing
with the open house scheduled for the
October 11th we are including every
local plumber that we can get a contact
for so we're trying to connect General
Contractors with those plumbers so that
they can build those relationships and
have have those as subcontracting
opportunities okay so the small business
person or Plumbing would have to work
under a general contractor which is what
your preference is for awarding the
contract correct and we're we're open to
different teaming opportunities so if a
general contractor wants to have five
different local plumbers working for him
or if he wants to have one that's going
to be up to them for how they want to
manage what what their bid looks like
but we're looking into having a pretty
open dialogue with those contractors and
plumbers when they come here for a visit
so we can learn what type of solution
works
best please consider expanding what you
require them to do so that they can
actually work with some small business
people in the community absolutely yeah
or use some of the small business people
I would say as a previously working in
the contractor world there's a a
requirement that aasa has for soliciting
and reaching out to local underutilized
businesses minority companies and it's
not a it's a goal but it's also a
requirement to show where they did reach
out where they have solicited for
assistance on these projects well
whether they use them or not you can ask
but you still don't have to select a
requirement or something that they
actually have participation and the
state has verbiage in there that
requires that you to not like the very
first one is you can't dismiss somebody
because of you know any reason and why
you chose them and why you didn't chose
them so it's a it's a pretty robust
program that the state runs that aasa
aderes to okay thank
you
Kim I'm just wondering I don't know who
to ask or who would even know but if
there's any evidence on the flip side of
this issue are there doctors in the area
finding kids that seem to have lead
poisoning is that just a non-issue in
our area or if it was a non-issue if it
was an issue would we
know not specifically related exactly to
that question but one of the slides that
Mary had showed earlier was the whole
breadth of what the letting copper rule
revisions is trying to do and part of
that is school sampling and so that's
another piece of this that um could play
into that but we might not be privy to
all of those results at this
moment to Kim were you done
okay Todd so what is what is the legal
enforcement mechanism for the state on
aasa to have private lines like what if
people just don't or what if we like
oasa didn't pay for this we would be in
non-compliance with a regulatory
requirement so there could be fines or
there could be a notice of violations
fin because of private inaction
the state has not released guidance yet
on so I I I asked this because exactly
because I mean from my perspective aasa
has taken a hard stance against
connecting people to Wastewater even
though there are lots of people not
connected to Wastewater within the
service area and that has potentially
horrible impacts on the community and
like our water quality but for 110
houses some of which may be incredibly
wealthy in able to pay themselves we're
gonna shell out like $1.3 million after
raising rates like three years in a row
so I think this this could be a very bad
look honestly down the road um if you
know especially now that like if word is
out hey aasa is going to pay for this
like none of these people are going to
pay for their
own to put some context in it we've been
having conversations with our neighbors
so Raleigh is paying for it Carrie is
paying for it uh General consensus this
is the only way that we will reach
compliance well you could turn them
off I mean I I just I I I can't imagine
how you
know how Utilities in Western Carolina
that have 80% leakage and are barely
able to you know be solvent are going to
do this
I guess I don't know there I don't know
if there's any insight into like the
[Laughter]
actual and I I spoke with some other
local Utilities in the area that are
they've had some of the conversations as
well like you just said what if we don't
and the states saying there will be
fines I don't think they've detailed
what they'll be right now but they're
going to Levy but there's also an
operational impact if people don't
comply with the work that happens when
there is a disturbance and um one more
question so I'm wondering like uh is
there notification like are any of these
rentals like is there notification given
to the renters rather than the owners
yes so we'll be communicating with the
property owners as well as the the
customer um so we'll you the person will
communicate with the billing address as
well as the service
address um Susanna and then Bruce and me
then I think we've got everybody
we done you will have hit all of us um
the uh I'm curious the machine learning
component of it that what happens when
you get to one of these that have been
identified as having uh the galvanized
pipes and then you discover that they
don't and is that how does that
information feedback loop take place so
part of the State's acceptance of our
machine learning methodology as well as
any other utilities machine learning
methodology is that after you have your
inventory and it's it's been accepted in
October when we submit it there'll be a
requirement to go and spot check um it's
based on the number of services in your
inventory so for us with 22,000 Services
the equivalent statistical number that
they're wanting us to spot check is
around that 300 mark so we're going to
have to go and spot check 300 areas that
were identified as
being either yes or no based on
predictive modeling and confirm that the
predictive modeling matches what we're
seeing in the field I will say there has
been no guidance yet supported from the
state about what happens if they don't
match so we are not sure what would
happen if that's the case because the
models 98% accurate based on the
statistical modeling that we've seen to
date so we're not sure what happens with
that 2% that might not be accurate right
the false positives and the false
negatives and exactly yep thank
you so we have um we have to start by
2027 and we have to be done by 2037
right if I recall that's the that's what
we estimate to be the Timeline under the
yeah the draft Rule and we have a ton of
stuff that we're doing over the next
three or four years with the past
filtration and the clear well and the
electrical distribution and then all the
regular CIP stuff and
um
all uh and I worry that we're taking on
too much too fast uh and not being
required to do it this quickly I
understand that there's operational
benefit to getting it done
quickly understand that but uh I just
worry that we we're taking on too much
stuff and there's a lot of unknowns that
will appear over time as we get into
these projects so is it is it wise to
commit to getting this done between 2025
and 2027 rather than leaving it a little
further
open I think I want to respond to that
and a bit of what Todd you know the
concern about paying for these ourselves
and that yeah I think we have to take a
step back from this and think you know
what if there are what if there is
Led in these lines
y that is not healthy for those folks
that live in that house that's not the
level of service that aasa is expected
to provide um so there's a public health
concern there there's also now we've got
that line that's out there that's got
LED in it that's in service if there
were some kind of backflow event well
then the rest of the distribution
system get LED back in I think if you if
we look at it through that
lens these need need the these need to
come out of the ground okay that's the
effort that's across you know this this
all came out of the Flint Michigan U the
ble and that's the goal of this program
is you know we're very fortunate that we
only have 110 of these galvanized lines
that need to come out but there are
communities where maybe 50% of these are
are actually LED so I think if we if we
look at that through that lens then we
we need to as soon as possible address
this uh risk that's out there to uh
public health so I think if we look at
that and and we go address these right
away I think it's a sense of comfort for
the community we're maintaining the high
level of service that our customers are
used to and um you know we're we're U
ahead of the game so to speak with
you're not worried that we're taking on
too many projects at at once this
is when I look at it this is how I've
gotten comfortable with it when I look
at it from that perspective it jumps up
on priority okay so other things may get
delayed now yeah it's it's like I would
I would delay something else and do this
instead because at it it's it's that
that important okay it's also important
to understand this is not a program
was is undertaking
voluntarily not our idea hey why don't
we go out and check and see what which
of these we can find right the federal
government has said you will do this
right and you will do it on this
timeline those and the timelines that
were set out on the on the slides 27 and
37 or 25 and 3 uh so these are federal
regulations that must be
met I thought somebody would ask so what
happens if you go to Joe Smith's house
and Joe Smith says get the hell off my
property well I have a Ser
questions yeah I I I would imagine that
that would be true for the public side
of for the Utility side but I can't
imagine there would be a federal that's
well how would that even be legally I
don't require you to imagine it but I do
require you to believe it because it is
true I mean the Federal government has
now mandated that a was make sure that
both sides of that service line both the
was side and the privately owned side
have no lid well it sounds then like
elmyra's solution is the one that gets
used at that point it's like if you're
not going to let us replace it and we're
shutting off your water well I I would I
think it's
premature uh to try to make that kind of
a determination today on the other hand
there may be other solutions that that
I will add one little piece to the
conversation
so the ru makers did have some foresight
into thinking that some people might
either not be responsive or not um
want yeah yeah exactly once someone
coming onto their property so the rule
has been written that you have to make
four attempts to communicate with each
customer that you're coming to do the
private side service replacement on they
have to be different types of
Communication phone email mailer
postcard whatever they have to meet a
certain criteria for the communication
to be listed as one of the four attempts
if after that they choose to still not
be responsive you would list them as
non-responsive but you would still have
to
notify uh we would still have to submit
an inventory with that being listed as
galvanized requirement replacement every
year in perpetuity and we would have to
comply with the regulations for any
disturbance notices going to that
particular resident if they chose not to
change their service line um in
perpetuity which can lead to operational
challenges I can imagine if a customer
had to pay for the uh construction on
their side of the
line they would be more inclined to say
stay off my property but one of the
reasons that uh aasa's undertaking the
cost to both sides of that line is to
make sure that that uh incentive is not
there that is why on Earth would
somebody say no i' even though you're
willing to fix it and pay it have it
fixed I'd rather have LD in my
children's drinking water you I just
don't think that's going to happen with
the sore frequency that we would be
concerned about and I'll tell you Marcus
will tell you there is quite a few
people in our community that don't want
you on their property and don't want you
to even inspect so that will be an issue
I'm
sure I I have uh three
questions um the first is uh we talked
about housing and it just the EP this
rule just might be houses but my kids go
to carbo Elementary which was built you
know in the 50s are we doing anything
about
schools are schools part of
this so schools is part of a later phase
in the Le copper Rule and and Provisions
be but there are there are current state
efforts that are testing school system
which actually is going to fulfill the
part of this rule requirement and we
like will my kids be in elementary
school or High
School service lines the service lines
to the school are part of this process
they're not excluded from that so
they're inspected and okay A lot of
times size takes place or you know is
are they prioritized because they have
kids in there the service line
Replacements yeah I mean that would be
part of the the process that we'll use
to prioritize this system yeah okay and
I will say that in Chapel Hill in carbo
we have done previous efforts of um
significant School sampling for lead
okay so that was my first question my
SEC second question was I think the map
that we showed is the existing service
area what about the potential extension
of the service area
um with the Wasa agreement and the
houses that are would be in that
area they well anything new we know will
be categorically non-led um but these
are like old houses
like if it if they're
as yeah those those houses that would be
added wouldn't have service lines right
now they'd be on whales and would have
to connect so they'd be they would use
up toate um new um infrastructure new
pipe they to their houses and they'd
have to connect that with today's
standards okay cool uh and then Bob
asked my third question so my fourth
question which is my last question and
hopefully the last question for the
group could we go back to the service
line slide of the picture yeah this that
one the one that yeah I I thought I was
operating under the assumption that
property owners were responsible from
the line from the house to the main no
so that's in the sewer service so oh oh
okay so actually in ours I don't know if
this has a pointer or not but um aasa
aasa stops at this part where it leaves
the meter Setter as our last goes from
here but on the sewer line it's from the
main to the house just wanted to clarify
that um thank
you anybody else or I I do for on those
service lines if we take the schools for
example to change those have you thought
or analyzed that the cost might be
higher on those cases
than a house cost uh have you taken
account into that yeah but and I just
explained a little bit about the school
a lot of the school's infrastructure is
because it's such a large water usage is
larger and those aren't typically pipes
that would be galvanized requiring
replacement or potentially LED in that
so that the cost would be higher and if
there is a university property or
something that is a 2 in it would be
more but I think that's averaged into
the um estimated cost of all of them now
a second question on this what happens
with private uh businesses are we going
to take care of them too or up to what
at what point we are going to say this
is you this is not no more of Wasa at
the expense of Wasa when do we have a
stopping point and correct me if I'm
wrong Alison but right now a customer is
a customer whether it's a commercial or
a residence
does UNC have a is you is UNCC part of
this
yes we talk a little bit about UNC and
how much they might be there are a
handful of galvaniz requiring
Replacements that are either on or
adjacent to UNCC properties so we have a
meeting coming up later this month to
talk with um UNC both their facilities
folks their Plumbing staff their right
of Entry team because we'll need to get
a right of Entry to to UNCC property in
the same way that we get right of Entry
to private property um and in addition
to UNCC as a stakeholder we're also
having conversations with um both towns
because we don't do plumbing inspections
but now we're going to have plumbing
inspections and permitting required as
part of that so we're trying to wrap our
arms around what the towns and the
university are all going to require in
terms of um planning permitting fees
inspection close out documentation all
these types of things and sometimes when
you do this kind of work it's much
harder than anticipated or you you
discover things that are you know you
didn't know and it it could become much
larger we are actively working on
talking to the utilities that have
already started their galvanized
requirement replacement or their lead
replacement plan to see what lessons
learned that they have and the
consultant that we're working with has
done this in a lot of of the
northeastern locations which granted
have a slightly different
um situation than we do you know homes
are built differently The Meters might
be in basements whereas meters here are
out on by the sidewalk typically so
we're trying to capitalize on all the
lessons learned that we possibly can and
make sure
that we keep our arms around what we can
actually do with compliance for this
okay great thank you all right I think
we're gonna WRA just okay go for a
concern when we get into the replacing
this service line
I'm just afraid that we might get into
an expense equal to the pasas once we
keep adding you know more more to change
and and if we go to the university and
if there is a lot to be changed at the
University those $10,000 we think for
unit or per
unit it's not going to be nothing
compared to the cost that he can be I
I'm just concerned of the amount of
money that it can be spent if we don't
be
careful I think we share some of those
concerns about what what we don't know
that that might exist out there and
that's unfortunately that that happens
with every project we do there's only so
much that can be determined in planning
and so usually we build in contingencies
and things like that to for those
unknowns um hopefully with the scale of
this being fairly small and working with
some experience folks and like Allison
said learning from uh others that have
done this we can avoid some of the the
you know bigger surprises that are out
there thank
you um thank you very much for answering
all of those questions um and for that
presentation and I'm looking forward to
the communication to the community and
if there are things that we can do um to
help please please let us know um it's
now time to review the board work
schedule are there any public
comments um are there any requests from
board members General Counsel or
staff no thanks okay um over to Todd to
review the rest of the
item yes um at the next at the October
meeting Mee we will be having our annual
meeting so Mar starn and Associates will
be here to go over the audit with you
all um we'll also be talking about the
scope of work for the rate study um
coming up then we added an item tonight
to that to kind of discuss this CIP risk
U impact as far as budgeting is
concerned um you also find the 12-month
calendar in your agendas our uh pending
St staff action items and the recurring
items for the next three to five years
I'd be happy to answer any questions
anybody has about
that does anybody have any
questions good on that um thank you very
much I'd be happy to summarize the items
I have you summarize tonight's meeting
um as I mentioned we will uh add the uh
CIP risk impact discussion to the
October board meeting agenda
at Bruce's suggestion we'll investigate
potential impacts to aasa from uncc's
proposed changes to the Coen Fuel and
get back to the board at at some some
future date uh we'll provide uh some
followup to the comments that were made
on the
de report uh I had protective service
worker definition we'll get you that
Michael um historical retention numbers
um and then we'll look at the uh kind of
the comps for gender diversity in the
our you know our known entities that we
can reach out to and find out about that
and then the last thing I had was I'll
update my work plan to reflect the
suggestions from
Bruce um I think that just about wraps
everything up so
uh Bob the meeting a journ thank you
all
right wanted to
check so the Republican
National is really bad
I