[0:00] so all in favor of approve well first I

[0:03] think we need to make an a

[0:06] uh change to the minutes okay so I'd

[0:09] like to amend the minutes because um

[0:13] listed uh in attendance is director uh L

[0:17] Blan and actually we had director

[0:21] assistant director um Aaron shuo so I'd

[0:24] like to amend the minutes to reflect

[0:27] that attendance

[0:30] I'll second that okay okay all in favor

[0:33] um I I

[0:35] now all in favor of the

[0:38] motion I I okay motion

[0:42] passes uh we have a uh public discussion

[0:46] period now if anyone has anything they

[0:48] would like to discuss with us other than

[0:50] what the topic will be for the rest of

[0:52] the uh meeting Toby yes

[0:57] Toby can you go to the microphone pleas

[0:59] could you go yeah thank

[1:19] you I got

[1:25] it I'm cursed in case you don't know we

[1:29] always do that okay any gadgetry it will

[1:32] explode um Toby areni in 95 Granite

[1:36] Street uh you remember and probably

[1:38] didn't care for my remarks at the town

[1:40] meeting about the accounting for the uh

[1:43] sewer Enterprise fund uh and I indeed

[1:46] copied you on my Discovery uh the letter

[1:49] I wrote to the finance committee copied

[1:51] to the majesties and you the

[1:54] Commissioners about uh the 2000 annual

[1:57] report and the uh town meeting articles

[2:00] I found there uh one of which authorized

[2:02] the payment uh appropriated the money

[2:05] for the uh Long Beach sewer and the

[2:07] second article uh you know ordered the

[2:11] uh the uh creation of a Long Beach Sewer

[2:14] District and uh there was no response at

[2:17] the town meeting and um I think you need

[2:20] to put it on the agenda uh I've looked

[2:22] in the bylaws and there in uh chapter 2

[2:26] uh powers and duties of the selectman

[2:29] under addition duties um I can't give

[2:32] you the citation out of my head but it's

[2:34] number 19 with the small Roman numerals

[2:37] um in a long list um uh is you know the

[2:41] requirement that they uh bring into

[2:43] effect votes of of a town meeting not

[2:46] phrased that way so it's it's uh on

[2:49] their shoulders but it's very definitely

[2:51] your Bailey week also uh because you're

[2:53] responsible for the sewer Enterprise

[2:55] fund and the fact that you know that

[2:58] town meeting vote has been ignored for

[3:00] 24 and A2 years uh doesn't make it any

[3:03] better and doesn't make it go away and I

[3:05] would ask that uh you get on to the

[3:07] board of Selectmen and perhaps Town

[3:10] Council as well and put it on an agenda

[3:12] for a later

[3:13] meeting uh could I have a response sure

[3:17] duly noted and we will talk to the board

[3:21] to the selectman yes I would suggest

[3:24] Town Council as well thank

[3:28] you anyone else

[3:33] okay so what I'd like to do is the

[3:34] meeting today is really uh all about

[3:37] water and sore and we've got our

[3:40] consulting firm that's working with us

[3:42] to handle the situation here and I'd

[3:45] like to introduce Bob Parsons who's

[3:47] sitting over there and uh Bob is a

[3:51] senior project manager with uh

[3:55] approximately 30 years of experience in

[3:57] civil infrastructure projects

[4:01] and he works for the firm is tetr Tech

[4:06] which is a worldwide multi-discipline

[4:09] civil engineering firm with over 27,000

[4:13] employees worldwide and if you read

[4:17] their uh go out and look at their

[4:18] website it's pretty impressive what they

[4:20] do in the area of water so with that I'm

[4:24] going to turn it over to Bob and let him

[4:26] lead us in this and um we're not a big

[4:30] crowd so I think we can ask questions as

[4:33] we go along so let's let's try and get

[4:37] this all on the table i' I'd also like

[4:39] to say this isn't complete yet this is

[4:42] an interim report and I should let me

[4:46] say a couple few other words so not this

[4:49] past town meeting but the prior town

[4:51] meeting annual town meeting we we got

[4:54] money for two different studies one

[4:57] being looking at our water in

[5:02] capacities and then also we had another

[5:06] study that's ongoing about water rates

[5:09] or sore rates and we will be dealing

[5:13] with that one at a later date but for

[5:16] now we're we're dealing with the water

[5:19] and uh sore capacity

[5:23] issues well thank you very much I

[5:25] appreciate you guys having me here

[5:26] tonight um just for the purposes of this

[5:29] is a presentation but it's only three

[5:32] slides and and it's intended to be that

[5:33] way it's concise

[5:36] um what we did with the support of DPW

[5:39] is collect a lot of data data relative

[5:42] to your water and sewer systems um

[5:45] review the data made some conclusions um

[5:49] about status of um both water and sewer

[5:52] systems um we tried to summarize the

[5:54] results the best we could in three

[5:56] slides there's two water slides one

[5:57] sewer slide um but but know that a fair

[6:00] amount of information and data and

[6:02] review was performed as part of this and

[6:04] there's draft memos and reports that

[6:05] we've prepared that um we would love to

[6:09] get some comments back on and finalize

[6:12] um so with that let me Jump Right In

[6:14] Here

[6:16] um this this slide represents so the way

[6:19] that the water system at least the way

[6:21] we we approached it you've got your raw

[6:24] water supply sources that feed your

[6:26] water treatment plant treats the water

[6:29] distributes it to your distribution

[6:31] system your piping your homes your

[6:32] businesses your uh commercial

[6:35] establishments this slide's focused

[6:38] completely on the raw water the the

[6:41] water you pull from your reservoirs and it's a sample size of since 2013 to

[6:47] 2023 um what you've pulled from your

[6:50] reservoirs and what is measured

[6:52] physically at the water treatment plant

[6:54] and remote locations like Carlson's

[6:56] Quarry um and what is reported in ually

[7:00] to D Mass D um and Aaron spearheads that

[7:04] for the town you prepare annual

[7:07] statistical reports which asks you to

[7:10] report on your raw water um Supply or

[7:15] quantity and then what's distributed out

[7:17] into the the distribution system so this

[7:20] is data that's been provided to us you

[7:22] have um fair amount of meters that are

[7:24] capturing this data um and the reason

[7:27] why we wanted to take a look at this is

[7:29] just to see see what you've pulled from

[7:31] your raw water just to kind of measure

[7:32] it against different metrics the two

[7:35] that you see here is that Top Line is

[7:38] the Water Management act perm withdrawal

[7:40] limit um and the line below that is a

[7:44] 90% marker which is not a formal marker

[7:47] it's just something that I typically

[7:49] look at when we're looking at these

[7:50] types of things um and just to see how

[7:53] you know it it undulates a little bit

[7:55] but it's generally been increasing over

[7:57] time

[7:59] um so again just is one part of it

[8:02] there's a lot of data to support this

[8:03] and again all the data that you'll see

[8:05] reflected on these slides is data we've

[8:06] pulled from the town town does a lot of

[8:08] measuring of water Wastewater um and and

[8:12] we we were able to take take this data

[8:14] and turn it into some summaries so again

[8:17] this is important because you want to

[8:19] see where you are relative to your

[8:20] withdrawal limit um this is you're not

[8:23] the only community that is in this range

[8:25] it's fairly common so um again just kind

[8:28] of track it and see where you are

[8:30] um the next next piece of the puzzle is

[8:32] sort of what happens once it goes to

[8:35] your plant so these bars and this

[8:39] presentation is bars and graphs and all

[8:40] types so I hope you you like bars and

[8:42] graphs um but um from 2017 to

[8:47] 2023 we were able to pull this data and

[8:50] again this is all included in reports

[8:52] that are distributed to mass d as part

[8:53] of a regulatory

[8:55] requirement um the I'll go through the

[8:59] colors so the blue is what's metered so

[9:02] all your homes and businesses and all

[9:04] these establishments have meters that

[9:06] read the amount of water that's being

[9:08] pulled and that is obviously build

[9:11] through your your water build this is

[9:14] what's captured this is how we capture

[9:15] this

[9:16] data um the the orange piece and and all

[9:20] of these sections are telling us what

[9:23] happens through the plant and when it

[9:25] leaves the plant so we can kind of

[9:26] monitor it see what what what's

[9:28] happening it's a require from the state

[9:30] but we like to watch this and and I'll

[9:31] get into some details um the Orange is

[9:34] what your estimated usage is from

[9:35] Municipal usage and that's something

[9:37] again that Aaron um monitors with folks

[9:40] from DPW in the water department um and

[9:44] it it can be anything from um flushing

[9:47] programs um when the town there a

[9:49] requirement to flush your water Ms keep

[9:52] things moving keep them fresh um that

[9:54] water's lost somehow some way so it's

[9:56] captured here they they monitor it and

[9:59] we quantify it um the I'm going to jump

[10:03] to the top because uh um it it's kind of

[10:07] leading up to the green Green's probably

[10:08] the more important of these but the the

[10:10] gray top there is what you lose through

[10:12] your process so you'll let's say you

[10:14] drew in 10 gallons from your water raw

[10:16] water supply through your water

[10:18] treatment process you inherently lose

[10:20] water meaning it's lost through a a

[10:22] backwash cycle it doesn't get lost Into

[10:25] The Ether it it actually goes back into

[10:27] your um through your lagoons back into

[10:30] your water supply but that's water

[10:31] that's LW so if 10 gallons enter and

[10:33] eight leave you're losing two gallons um

[10:36] in this particular case um you're losing

[10:40] thousands and thousands of gallons that

[10:41] way because that's just part of the

[10:42] process it's not

[10:43] uncommon um and and the balance that you

[10:47] see in green is what we consider

[10:49] unaccounted for water which is water

[10:52] that you have no way of quantifying and

[10:55] it falls into that sort of category of

[10:58] where does it go this this places it

[11:00] goes and we have obviously we've talked

[11:02] a lot about this um Mass's requirement

[11:06] to meet compliance is 10% um if you look

[11:10] at the published data there's there's

[11:11] probably not a lot of communities that

[11:13] do meet the 10% but it's a it's a an

[11:16] objective that everybody's trying to

[11:18] meet um obviously the less you're

[11:20] unaccounted for the more you have for

[11:23] Supply the less use you're having right

[11:26] so um we also wanted to see and follow

[11:29] how you guys have the town has monitored

[11:32] water usage um that green area can be

[11:37] attributed to a lot of different things

[11:40] um one is um your meters that you guys

[11:43] utilize in town are generally old older

[11:45] than um recommend you know recommended

[11:48] uh life cycle so you could be measuring

[11:52] you know a little bit different than

[11:54] what the actual usage is um part of it

[11:57] could be through leaks and pipes

[11:59] um which I know the town has an active

[12:01] or I think they're trying to put forward

[12:03] a leak detection program and again these

[12:06] numbers are you know i' seen these

[12:07] numbers quite a bit in this range um and the objective really is to try to

[12:12] reduce that green because that's water

[12:14] that that you're not there's there's no

[12:17] revenue for for one that you're pulling

[12:19] from your raw water supply and that you

[12:21] know over time um I like to kind of say

[12:24] you get that number like death by a

[12:25] Thousand Cuts it's not it's very rare

[12:27] it's one large break or anything like

[12:29] that it's stuff that every city in town

[12:32] is trying to

[12:34] manage so um you know I I guess given

[12:39] the the numbers that we're seeing I

[12:41] think there's opportunities to improve

[12:44] and again every Community can improve um

[12:47] in the document we prepared we have

[12:49] recommendations and some of it is just

[12:51] to make sure you have a robust Leak

[12:52] Detection program um check your meters

[12:56] which we have done as part of our

[12:57] program we've tested meters

[12:59] um and we try to focus on the larger

[13:01] water users um the town small there's

[13:03] not a lot of Industry so it's it's you

[13:06] know I think you're biggest water user

[13:07] is the water treatment plan a wastewater

[13:09] treatment plan as a matter of fact so um

[13:11] we did focus on that and um American

[13:14] Waterworks has a very stringent standard

[13:15] for meter testing they allow you a 3%

[13:18] variance so if you're not 100% you have

[13:21] to be 98.5 low or 1015 high so there's a

[13:25] very narrow range that's a very

[13:27] difficult metric to hit but

[13:29] um that is the metric so um I can say

[13:31] that the meters we did test were a bit

[13:33] off but um I think it's sort of when we

[13:37] look at this data and

[13:39] um I I have the benefit of having some

[13:41] senior staff that work with me I have uh

[13:43] colleagues that worked at Mast who are

[13:45] specialists in water supply who did

[13:47] review this with me and Aaron and uh and

[13:51] you know what it appears is that it's

[13:53] likely a meter issue just early

[13:55] recommendations perhaps meters need to

[13:57] be um replaced or you checked or you

[14:01] know over time I think that would be a

[14:03] benefit and you know there there's other

[14:05] recommendations that came out of there

[14:06] so um

[14:12] sure excuse me the M thank you your

[14:22] name John sou 33 Strait Smith um the

[14:26] absolute number is 28% is that is that

[14:29] right I I can I can't yeah 28% by 2023

[14:32] okay that's a big number but the more

[14:34] important question is how did it get

[14:35] from 12 to 28 in it's 12 months I mean

[14:39] that's hard to believe it's meters yeah

[14:40] no I agree I think um every Year's

[14:43] different and I think sometimes um

[14:47] meters could read differently it's it's

[14:50] tough to understand why things move in

[14:52] that bit of a range we noticed that as

[14:54] well um but I don't know did you oh I

[14:59] thought you said something

[15:01] about it's the way the reporting is set

[15:04] up so

[15:07] um prime example 2022 we had the forest

[15:13] fires and the tracking of the luckily

[15:16] they track the forest fire water

[15:19] usage I can't make the fire department

[15:21] track water

[15:23] usage so in my opinion based on my years

[15:27] of doing this we were able to

[15:30] extrapolate the amount of water that was

[15:31] used during the forest fires which

[15:34] therefore had us account for more water

[15:37] therefore reducing our unaccounted for

[15:40] water it's all a shell I'm I know what I

[15:43] shouldn't say it this way it's kind of a

[15:44] shell game with this reporting because

[15:47] it's on how good your records are and

[15:51] how it gets reported does that make

[15:53] sense

[16:01] yeah I don't think I need the microphone

[16:04] but I'll use it anyway there a courtesy

[16:07] to

[16:12] the yeah zle a 92 gr Street uh we've

[16:16] been dealing with these water meter

[16:18] issues at least for 10 years or so that

[16:20] I've been going to DPW meetings and

[16:23] there's one thing I would like to know

[16:25] because obviously you're addressing

[16:27] these issues on macro level you're

[16:30] seeing what the total level of water

[16:33] going out of the plant is and what's

[16:35] being measured um as opposed to uh what

[16:38] the meters are telling you but I'd like

[16:42] to know one thing like do they if you

[16:45] have to buy a new meter does your meter

[16:48] go back to the town and be tested for

[16:51] accuracy so that you can say that your

[16:54] meter was good you're paying for a new

[16:56] one even though you had an old one that

[16:58] was good good I mean is there any

[17:01] individualized uh uh recording of who's

[17:05] got good meters and who's got lousy ones

[17:07] and who's paying for something they

[17:09] don't need as opposed to who should be

[17:11] paying for something that they do

[17:14] need I I mean I

[17:16] can usually when a city or town decides

[17:20] to do a meter replacement program it's

[17:22] City or townwide um and that's because

[17:25] you want like parts and and materials

[17:28] and reading systems um my town just went

[17:31] to an AMR system so everything's

[17:33] automatic um I think in some cases

[17:36] meters that are known to be broken are

[17:38] replaced and there's different ways when

[17:41] you look at so we sometimes this is a

[17:43] desktop analysis where you look at all

[17:45] the more of the billing information and

[17:47] you can see well this home didn't use

[17:49] water for three or four months or six

[17:51] months it's like it's a bit of a red

[17:53] flag so you can kind of pick some things

[17:54] out that way um and so some meters are

[17:57] replaced individually but generally when

[17:59] you start to go to a system I don't know

[18:00] how old your meters are 15 20 years Aon

[18:04] old um most a lot of them now at this

[18:07] point now are um from the 1990s okay so

[18:12] 30 years old and that's that's an that's

[18:14] an older meter and so what happens over

[18:16] time meters lose their efficiency and

[18:19] Effectiveness to read flows you know

[18:21] some do some don't but it over time when

[18:24] you have thousands of meters within a

[18:26] system your system's relatively small so

[18:28] to Aaron's Point earlier if if you

[18:30] measured fire flows or you measured

[18:33] something differently one year it could

[18:34] have an impact on what you see on the

[18:36] screen now so relatively small system um

[18:39] but generally when when a city or town

[18:41] decides they're going to upgrade their

[18:43] meters it's typically City or townwide

[18:46] so unless a of course there's a known

[18:49] broken meter and there's extra spares

[18:51] I'm sure you guys carry them they'll be

[18:53] replaced so maybe time just flies faster

[18:56] than I thought I don't know

[19:05] yeah Tom Meer 73 Maran way uh as a

[19:09] member of the planning board I took a

[19:10] pretty deep dive into your report from

[19:12] 2022 and the data you're presenting

[19:15] today does not exactly agree on on

[19:17] accounted for water specific well

[19:19] several of the ones are off maybe

[19:21] rounding error maybe other things but

[19:24] 2021 is a big difference it was 25% now

[19:27] you're showing 13 what happened well so

[19:29] Aon and I had talked about this we had

[19:32] read it was a con I can get into some of

[19:34] the details it was a consumption number

[19:35] versus a qualitative number that was

[19:37] used so it did sway that number um and I

[19:40] can show you we what we do is we take

[19:42] this we put in a spreadsheet and we look

[19:43] at all the numbers so we're calculating

[19:45] it as we go but that's what happened for

[19:47] that one year the other ones that are

[19:48] off percentage of two probably a

[19:51] rounding thing but yeah the 2021 does

[19:53] show a large difference there yeah so

[19:55] the sudden Sudden Change was not in 2022

[19:58] the Sudden Change was earlier it was I

[20:00] think it was identified as in the 20s

[20:03] for 2021 and now went the 13 or

[20:05] something like that yeah yes yeah that was a change that so what we wanted

[20:09] to do is be consistent with what was

[20:11] reported in the asrs here but that was

[20:13] the one that had a a fairly sizable

[20:15] swing yeah and Aaron and I have gone

[20:18] over that as well

[20:19] so thank you lent Med 98 Main Street two

[20:23] questions sir if we had to replace all

[20:25] of our meters what would the cost be

[20:28] even in a General

[20:30] sense so I think have you gone through a

[20:32] meter replacement program in previous

[20:35] communities I mean it's a hard thing to

[20:37] say because I don't exactly how many Ser

[20:40] Services yeah so I mean i' I've done it

[20:42] in previous communities but but I mean

[20:45] there were larger communities yeah

[20:47] um my my get rough number off the top of

[20:51] my head um you're looking to to for the

[20:55] cost in the labor you're looking around

[20:57] a million dollars probably

[21:00] thank you as you know Rockport is a NBTA

[21:04] Community town so it says the state

[21:06] should we authorize resoning that brings

[21:10] in hundreds of new construction units

[21:13] would new meters have to be synced with

[21:16] old ones would that process require

[21:19] replacement of all meters if there was a

[21:21] burst of new

[21:24] construction I I mean I I don't want to

[21:26] comment on the MTA piece but but it

[21:28] would any development or any new larger

[21:31] developments would be coordinated at the

[21:32] time where the town is physically with

[21:34] any meter program yeah I I can answer

[21:36] that too I'm not going to get into the MBA portion of it but any any any

[21:40] home right now that's being built gets a

[21:42] new a style meter um our our existing

[21:45] system is integrated so that some meters

[21:48] are driveby and some meters are cellular

[21:51] we use the same meter company um it's

[21:54] Badger meter company uh the town's used

[21:56] them for um Maya standing is uh for at

[22:00] least the last 50 or more years uh

[22:04] so The Meters from the 1990s or what we

[22:07] call um driveby or uh

[22:12] AMR and then the newer meters are

[22:15] cellular and those are

[22:17] Ami um

[22:20] so as new development happens or a

[22:24] single family home is built or a meter

[22:26] breaks we replace it with the newer

[22:29] technology okay thank you very

[22:42] much kobby

[22:45] wait all right I'm Ron labar 83r

[22:47] Phillips Avenue uh look at the trend

[22:50] lines there there's couple of things are

[22:51] kind of striking uh one is the is the is

[22:54] the metered consumption it's it's

[22:56] remarkable how it kind of goes down and

[22:59] goes up and goes down could that be

[23:01] weather related drought related where we run in more water because

[23:04] people were watering Lawns and things is

[23:06] that does that does that make sense I

[23:07] mean I didn't think back on which years

[23:09] were drought but does that drive it

[23:12] could it could it could be one of the

[23:17] factor it could be one of the factors um

[23:20] the other Factor I'm we're not 100% sure

[23:22] but the other Factor was you can see the

[23:24] trend line in 21 how it went up was that

[23:27] Co related with people working from home

[23:30] not sure I can't answer the the the it

[23:33] directly but um 2023 was a very wet year

[23:38] for the summer if you remember our

[23:40] biggest consumption day on 2023 was

[23:43] actually Memorial Day usually it's

[23:45] Fourth of July so that was to me an

[23:48] indicator that we had a very wet we had

[23:49] a very wet summer yeah because otherwise

[23:51] it really doesn't make sense to see that

[23:52] kind of a dive in in 2023 no it actually

[23:55] con it actually concerns me well

[23:59] the The Regulators The Regulators like

[24:00] that from a conservation standpoint but

[24:03] we're in the only industry that is a

[24:05] double-edged sword where we're told to

[24:08] tell our consumers to use less but we

[24:11] still have to run a business so to speak

[24:13] so it's not an easy industry to deal

[24:15] with yeah I get it but that is pretty

[24:17] remarkable so that's not meters diving

[24:20] like that it's it's not meters no they

[24:22] don't they're much too slow they move

[24:23] slower than that and there's so many of

[24:25] them it can't be yeah and and I think

[24:27] Terence pointed you you will see affects

[24:29] some drought conditions and and other

[24:31] factors yeah and Co happened to change

[24:33] water consumption quite a bit and then

[24:36] do we understand why the the white the

[24:39] raw to fresh water doubled over the last

[24:42] three years is do we have a technology

[24:44] change do we are we doing something

[24:47] different in the in the Water Treatment

[24:48] Plant than we were a couple years ago

[24:50] and can can you explain that because

[24:52] that just jumps out at me yeah so that

[24:55] number purely is based on it's pure

[24:57] meter data I I know that your process

[25:00] hasn't changed at least in terms of your

[25:02] grit tanks right that hasn't changed in

[25:03] terms of what the the process I it's I

[25:08] guess you don't necessarily backwash the

[25:10] same amount every year either right so

[25:13] there's there's there's variations with

[25:14] it can be they can be seasonal

[25:16] conditions that require more backwashing yeah and it could vary

[25:24] based on not technically weather but

[25:27] there could be conditions

[25:28] for whatever reason that are that

[25:30] trigger the raw water

[25:37] for yeah yeah no I I I don't have enough

[25:42] B again I don't I agree with you yeah I

[25:45] think one of the interesting pieces

[25:47] after listening uh to some of this

[25:50] explanation was the different programs

[25:52] that the town has in place right now and

[25:54] all the little places you can think of

[25:56] that these little that these little uh

[25:59] knife Cuts if you will happen one of

[26:02] them is the replacement of the lateral

[26:04] connections I think you said there were

[26:06] 17 uh found water main issues so so we

[26:10] had we had we had we had 16 service

[26:13] leaks that we found in 2023 calendar

[26:15] year 2023 and what was the year before

[26:17] that um it was like four so the

[26:21] difference there uh the connection of

[26:24] all of a sudden now we have captured

[26:25] usage versus non-captured usage uh all

[26:29] these little things and so the movement

[26:30] in the direction of the replacing of the

[26:32] lateral lines that's to me huge that's

[26:35] all of a sudden there's water that we've

[26:37] captured um and I think the next

[26:40] conversation is what else can we do and

[26:42] I think as the Commissioners make

[26:45] recommendations uh given uh talk to the

[26:48] DPW about implementing a better or more robust meter replacement program uh

[26:54] that's on us to do mhm yeah so iess I

[26:58] guess just to follow up with Patrick um

[27:01] those 16 Water Service leaks that we

[27:04] found we're not allowed under the

[27:06] regulations for the annual statistical

[27:09] report because we can't quantify it even

[27:12] though we know it happened we're not

[27:14] allowed to quantify and count for it so

[27:16] there's another reason unaccounted for

[27:18] water can be higher because of the way

[27:20] the regulations are set

[27:23] up I only I got to follow the rules

[27:26] that's what it comes down to to be clear

[27:28] by the state by the state okay yeah so I

[27:31] can I can I can tell them that we found

[27:33] the leak right and we repaired it but I

[27:36] can't account for that water because I

[27:38] have no way to I don't know how long it

[27:39] occurred for and I don't know how to

[27:41] quantify it I estimated a quantity but

[27:44] I'm not allowed to count the quantity

[27:46] it's still great information to have

[27:48] correct but yeah okay one other piece of

[27:52] this too on water usage getting back to

[27:54] your question is that um since Co we've

[27:58] also had a lot of uh airbnbs in Rockport

[28:03] and we don't really have a mechanism to

[28:06] track

[28:07] those and think about an Airbnb you're

[28:10] on vacation there could be six people

[28:12] eight people in a house how many showers

[28:14] a day are they taking so the water

[28:16] consumption for those types of buildings

[28:18] or dwellings is increasing our water

[28:21] usage as well so that's another piece of

[28:24] the uh puzzle here that that really

[28:27] doesn't have a good the

[28:29] answer not not yet to be deed uh Laura

[28:33] Evans 77 High Street I wonder if you

[28:35] could give us some more specifics on the

[28:37] leak detection program what's what's

[28:40] being done and where what what the

[28:43] status is with

[28:45] that so um we we've done an internal

[28:48] Leak Detection program um we have

[28:51] equipment that we use um we go out and

[28:55] uh we isolate areas so

[28:59] again I've I've I've been here for two

[29:02] years but I'm still learning the system

[29:04] obviously it takes a number of years to

[29:06] really get uh integrated into the system

[29:09] um I have depended

[29:11] on uh previous operators um they're their their I guess institutional

[29:21] knowledge to know when they feel that

[29:23] there's an issue um so when we feel we

[29:27] we're losing water at night um you know

[29:31] we mon we obviously we we have three

[29:34] water tanks we have South End pool's

[29:37] Hill and pigeon um Landmark Lane

[29:43] um if we see a noticeable loss in a tank

[29:47] overnight that that they felt is UN un

[29:52] not normal then we would try to go to

[29:55] that area and perform leak detection um

[29:58] they haven't had an official uh yearly

[30:01] program here the last time they they

[30:04] hired

[30:05] um a a company outside of the town was

[30:10] 2019 I do want to get back to try to

[30:12] building into the budget to be able to

[30:15] have that type of company come in and

[30:17] look at it and that's something I'm I'm

[30:19] moving towards but we do do an internal

[30:22] program and like I said like I said we

[30:24] found we found 16 leaks um last year in 23 um so it's not like they they

[30:32] can't find them but I still would like

[30:34] to get another outside set of eyes on

[30:37] the system I follow up on something just

[30:40] to clarify if you meant mechanically how

[30:42] do they do it is that some somewhat of

[30:44] what you were

[30:50] asking Toby in 95 Granite Street uh two

[30:54] things um is the um use of water for

[30:59] putting out fires or uh spraying down

[31:01] the bonfire on the fourth uh is that

[31:04] included in municipal

[31:08] use that would be fire use it would be

[31:12] part of the estimated municipal use yeah

[31:16] Municipal yes okay okay that's legit uh

[31:20] anything anything that's consumed in the

[31:22] community okay um that's legit uh the

[31:26] billing of it as I've said before is not

[31:28] no one would uh conceivably begrudge an

[31:31] ounce or a gallon of it to the fire

[31:34] department you know for putting out

[31:36] fires or for the fourth which is you

[31:38] know bread and roses and and a festival

[31:41] but you know that should not be built to

[31:44] the water Enterprise fund that should

[31:46] all be build to the town of Rockport you

[31:49] know it's for everyone's benefit not for

[31:51] the benefit of you know particular

[31:54] people as your water use or my water use

[31:58] and maybe this is relevant and maybe

[32:00] it's not although uh Dawn was speaking

[32:03] about drought years and how those

[32:05] affected the overall performance uh do

[32:08] we have any sense of how much of the

[32:10] water is used outside for uh watering

[32:14] Lawns Gardens plants as opposed to

[32:17] inside and does that

[32:22] matter no um it we don't look at that way but um it would be very

[32:27] difficult not everybody has an

[32:28] irrigation meter so we wouldn't be able

[32:30] to separate that use some people choose

[32:32] to have an irrigation meter some people

[32:34] don't so therefore to estimate the exact

[32:37] amount of water that use outside would

[32:38] be very difficult um Don can I just um

[32:41] follow up on or or stay with the subject

[32:44] for a moment of um Leak Detection um

[32:47] because there's um at one point I know

[32:51] as a property owner we received a letter

[32:54] indicating that you may have a leak on a

[32:57] piece of property that that had more

[32:58] than one unit and so there's a piece um

[33:02] you know there's a responsibility on

[33:04] homeowners if we receive information

[33:07] from the town that indicates that we

[33:10] have leaks there's ways to try to

[33:12] address that and of course then we

[33:14] benefit as homeowners because if we find

[33:17] where those leaks are and these leaking

[33:19] toilets and and faucets and such um it's

[33:22] amazing how much water can be wasted in

[33:25] one year um for those types of so if you

[33:28] want to comment I don't know much about

[33:30] that program I know I received a letter

[33:32] a number of years ago and um maybe

[33:34] that's could be part of the whole effort

[33:36] so I should clarify when I when we

[33:39] there's two types of leaks there's a type of leak that happens that

[33:43] your

[33:44] meter is seeing it right and we're we're

[33:46] notifying you the leaks that I have been

[33:49] speaking about are the leaks that don't

[33:51] go through a meter that were that aren't

[33:53] being tracked so I should clarify that

[33:56] so okay and and but while while we're

[33:59] talking about it um I know that people

[34:02] get busy and you may receive those

[34:04] letters and you do have an incentive to

[34:06] do something to address them but I'd be

[34:09] curious and no answer required here but

[34:11] you know how many of us fail to sort of

[34:14] follow up on that and maybe that could

[34:16] be something that we could work on and

[34:17] encourage people to do yeah as we as and

[34:20] the other thing is as we update or or as

[34:24] we improve our meters or replace our

[34:27] meters the newer metor technology has

[34:30] what they call better Leak Detection um

[34:32] because it's tracking it on a on a daily

[34:35] basis versus US driving by once a month

[34:39] and and getting a uh see not yet and

[34:41] getting that that notification don don

[34:45] SED 33 Strait Smith um I I guess there's

[34:48] this looks like a sort of a

[34:50] multi- u quantification of of of errors

[34:54] here I was wondering if it's possible um

[34:57] to pick you know a sampling of say 10 10

[35:01] meters that are various ages run a uh

[35:05] you know 55 gallon drum of water through

[35:07] them each and find out whether there's

[35:09] any leakage or not is that something is

[35:11] that feasible or is that a bad

[35:13] idea you you know what I'm saying so you

[35:15] sort of sample a few and then you throw

[35:18] some water through it you know the

[35:20] number and um you see if the meter works

[35:23] or

[35:26] not we we did some of that as well so

[35:29] yeah there there are ways to do that um

[35:31] to test the meters and we did we did

[35:33] test probably a dozen we focused on the

[35:36] larger water uses because there's your

[35:37] chance for greater loss I guess um

[35:41] typically use what they call an

[35:42] ultrasonic meter where they strap it on

[35:44] and it's a fairly accurate meter so um

[35:46] and we'll continue I think we we we've

[35:48] talked about continuing to do that

[35:50] specifically at the water plant to try

[35:51] to get some better numbers

[35:53] so yeah we do we have

[35:56] reports well so that's that's where the

[35:58] American Waterworks has a a passing

[36:02] threshold that is 3% wide so 100%

[36:06] obviously is your meters perfect um

[36:09] anything less than 98.5% accurate or

[36:12] reading greater than

[36:13] 101.5 accurate fails technically we saw

[36:17] some that were close to that and some

[36:20] that weren't close to that um so the

[36:23] idea being you know is there any major

[36:26] Flags here with some of the larger water

[36:28] users and and I think it's part of the

[36:30] problem um but I I also don't know if

[36:33] the particular users we we looked at you

[36:35] know would move the needle so to speak

[36:38] so much so yeah you can test meters it's

[36:40] a common practice um and we did that um

[36:43] to some scale just to get a sense so

[36:48] yeah yeah uh Z supp Ain you just brought

[36:51] up something that fascinated me um and

[36:56] that was that you said you've been here

[36:58] about 2 years uh I can tell you maybe

[37:01] about 15 or 20 years ago we had a

[37:04] townwide water band and no hoses at all

[37:10] um the flat ledge Quarry I think was

[37:12] down around 45 ft or something like that

[37:15] and the soil in in my yard was just like

[37:18] a dust bowl a new a Nebraska dust bowl

[37:21] of the

[37:22] 1930s you you were only allowed to take

[37:26] like five gallon buckets fill them up at

[37:29] your hose and take them out to your

[37:31] tomato plants and the soil was so dry it

[37:35] just you know shed right off so that

[37:38] brought me to a an idea a thought that

[37:42] do you have records going back or would

[37:46] you could you have records going forward

[37:49] in the event of these dust bow years

[37:52] that you can actually make a guess as to

[37:55] how much goes towards Landscaping in

[37:58] purposes as opposed to you know normal

[38:01] human consumption for drinking and

[38:03] bathing and stuff like that other words

[38:06] there would be a clear definition when

[38:08] you had a total outside Water band and

[38:13] that would give you an idea of of who is

[38:17] using water for you know grass and that

[38:21] type of thing so I'm not saying that we

[38:23] need a big brother but it might not be a

[38:25] bad idea

[38:28] well I mean I know from working in other

[38:31] communities um and I've come from other

[38:32] communities that had had bands every

[38:34] year because they were in a stress water

[38:36] system uh it's again it's it's without

[38:39] having the the every home

[38:42] metered so that you can track outside

[38:45] water people do what they do uh just

[38:47] because it's a band doesn't mean people

[38:48] follow the rules I I just know from my

[38:51] years of experience that it just doesn't

[38:53] work that way no I I don't think you can

[38:58] thanks Kobe then we're going to move on

[39:02] to the swor system next

[39:04] Al nope it's

[39:06] fine Toby renan rates aren't uh the

[39:10] consultant's concern but they're very

[39:12] much your concern and you Bruce at one

[39:15] point said that you were interested in

[39:17] uh considering uh variable rates for

[39:21] those uh charging those who used very

[39:23] large amounts more uh could the

[39:26] consultant having experience of many

[39:28] communities tell us uh how common is

[39:31] such a system do other communities do

[39:34] that how many um and what effect do they

[39:37] get out of it if you have any uh

[39:39] thoughts on the subject well before you start I would say this that

[39:44] we have another study ongoing now that

[39:49] um we will be

[39:52] getting some results back from in the

[39:55] not too distant future

[39:57] and uh it will be something we'll look

[40:00] at before we implement the rates for the

[40:02] following year so it's coming yeah I

[40:06] I've seen communities have teed rates um

[40:10] usually they're they have a a more

[40:12] variable water user system so there's

[40:15] larger water users commercial industrial

[40:19] um that's typically when I'd see that a

[40:22] community like Rockport I think is

[40:24] fairly homogeneous I guess in terms of

[40:26] water usage but Manchester so I'm going

[40:28] to use Manchester Manchester has a

[40:29] teared system they have an extreme an

[40:33] extreme teared system um uh they have

[40:38] three or four tiers and uh people that

[40:41] use a lot of water that fourth tier

[40:44] that's a that's an expensive tier um is

[40:48] that advantageous to them to your

[40:50] knowledge um based on again uh to me it

[40:54] is advantageous because it allows people

[40:56] that want to be conserve that conser

[40:59] want to conserve water to control their

[41:01] Destiny for their for their bills a

[41:03] little better uh and then people that

[41:06] have the disposable income can consume

[41:09] what they want it it reminds me of the

[41:12] pay as you go system with trust really

[41:14] it's very similar similar

[41:17] yeah sorry one more question um Denise

[41:20] Donley 72 Pigeon Hill Street um is there

[41:24] a process for appealing to the D to

[41:27] increase the WMA maximum withdrawal

[41:31] amount yes and

[41:33] no so so yes and no um what they're

[41:36] going to tell us first um is it going to

[41:39] tell us to look

[41:40] at like Bob has already said they're

[41:43] going to tell us to look

[41:44] at try to look at your leaks try to look

[41:47] at your meters do all that first and

[41:51] then if things don't

[41:53] improve then they would look to say Okay

[41:57] um

[41:58] you would be proposing to increase your withdrawal right or look for a new

[42:03] source right yeah it's if you correct me

[42:05] if you think no I think you're 100%

[42:07] correct and they look at your water

[42:08] supply and whether your water supply

[42:10] there's certain Aaron said there's

[42:12] stress Watershed zip River Watershed is

[42:14] a stress so um they would look at all

[42:17] facets of it before they in my opinion

[42:20] would agree and it's a it can be a

[42:21] tedious process so um yes and no I think

[42:24] is the answer sorry that's good question

[42:27] um so how are the um what do we call

[42:32] them the um the no on the first graph

[42:37] how are those arrived at by

[42:39] D the permit Max that was just that was

[42:43] established through our through our uh

[42:45] safe yield I assume yeah uh years and

[42:48] years ago um yeah and then on top of

[42:52] that so we have a permit that goes for

[42:55] so many years right and then that permit

[42:58] is establishes that that allowable Max

[43:01] okay so at the end of that term for that

[43:03] particular permit do they re-evaluate

[43:06] things or do they just stick with the

[43:07] same they reevaluate usually it stays

[43:09] the same but what's happening now is

[43:11] they're trying to reduce you not

[43:12] increase you okay because what I was

[43:14] going to ask is what is that based on

[43:16] what's the permit you know like if they

[43:19] if if you're say you had a 5-year permit

[43:21] or something and then D you come to the

[43:24] end of that um what are the factors in a

[43:26] community that they're looking at to say

[43:28] well this one should well like you said

[43:31] they're looking all across the board to

[43:33] decrease it's usually there's there's a

[43:35] lot of factors I don't have them off the

[43:36] top of my head but there you know how

[43:39] much growth potential growth that's what

[43:41] I'm assuming yeah okay increase in

[43:43] population increas but then they're also

[43:45] looking at Water efficiency because the

[43:48] industry's gotten more efficient than

[43:50] you know okay all all the the appliances

[43:53] and the fixtures have gotten all more

[43:54] efficient so there's a mass balance so

[43:56] to speak um there's there's a number of

[43:59] factors that I don't know them all sure

[44:00] yeah I just I'm just trying to educate

[44:03] myself so we did try to I think as a

[44:05] matter of fact I think Rockport and

[44:07] Manchester have the same Water

[44:08] Management act withdraw number um and it

[44:10] sounds odd because it's like how could

[44:12] it be that exact but um it was

[44:14] established a while ago when the town

[44:16] probably looked a little different um

[44:19] but as Aaron said you know conservation

[44:21] methods and it seem to be more of a

[44:23] practice now and so it is a bit of a

[44:24] balance here so you have to demonstrate

[44:27] likely through increased population or

[44:29] something like that to try to change and

[44:31] your Watershed would have to be able to

[44:32] Bear it as well yes so because it's one

[44:35] thing to say we just going to up it but

[44:36] do you have it right so yeah and some

[44:38] don't and that's the that's the

[44:40] challenge

[44:41] so I know that like MW spills water

[44:44] annually they have such a large

[44:45] Watershed it's just you know so they're

[44:47] looking for customers but that's true

[44:50] it's different yeah I know I said we

[44:52] were going to move on to on to the uh

[44:54] store system now but one thing I've

[44:56] learned through this process which I

[44:58] found

[45:00] interesting and uh especially with the

[45:02] zoning that's that's in front of us is

[45:06] that both Aaron and Bob have said the

[45:09] same number that the state looks at

[45:11] about 65 gallons per person per day for

[45:16] water so you can kind of do the math and

[45:20] figure this out so if you get a 100

[45:22] units with two people in them you can

[45:25] kind of determine what the water usage

[45:28] would be going

[45:29] forward and uh it's it's interesting so

[45:34] y 65 gallons per person per day yeah all

[45:39] right Bob why don't we uh go to the next

[45:41] subject okay all right

[45:44] so so the next slide is sort of a

[45:47] there's a lot of things going on there

[45:49] we tried to tried to make it as

[45:51] straightforward as possible but there

[45:52] was a lot of information

[45:55] um is uh summary of of your Wastewater

[45:59] collection system and things happening

[46:00] at the plant so I'm going to need to

[46:03] lean in here cuz my glasses are

[46:06] home so um it's probably better if I

[46:10] look at this one actually

[46:12] um so we um we have a fair much like the

[46:17] water system the the town collects

[46:20] Wastewater flow data um really at the

[46:24] Wastewater Plant um and so a lot of our

[46:27] analyses was revolved around that data

[46:30] that's available and um we've been to

[46:32] the plant a bunch of times and gotten

[46:35] intimate with the plant and know know

[46:36] the process fairly well um and so in a

[46:40] collection system so when a water system

[46:42] water leaves the water system you don't

[46:44] want it to right in a drinking water

[46:46] system you want to keep the water in the

[46:47] pipe so it can serve the customers in a

[46:49] Wastewater system as it ages it starts

[46:52] to accept water through cracks and old

[46:55] infrastructure so it's kind of working

[46:56] in the opposite and for the same reasons

[46:59] it's it's a bad thing because um

[47:01] groundwater or flow that isn't pure

[47:04] waste water gets into it so um so that's the other side of the table

[47:12] um we let's see so just to kind of run

[47:15] through what's what's established there

[47:17] um much like your water system you have

[47:19] a a permit limit on what you can

[47:22] discharge for waste

[47:24] water oh thank you

[47:27] well these are great all right watch

[47:30] out I might go home with these I know um

[47:34] so the D sets your discharge permit as

[47:37] well so they only allow you to discharge

[47:39] so much um again it's permit driven and

[47:42] it has a lot to do with similar factors

[47:45] population treatment plant capacity all

[47:46] that's established based on very

[47:48] specifics of the Town um so your

[47:51] discharge permit is8 MGD or 800,000

[47:54] gallons a year okay um when you start to

[47:58] get to 80% of that which is in the

[48:03] 6465 um The Regulators get a little um

[48:07] curious I guess and as as you would as a

[48:10] an owner of a collection system um about

[48:13] why we're getting that to that level of

[48:15] our discharge permit and nine and a half

[48:18] times out of 10 it's it's infiltration

[48:19] and inflow which maybe you've heard of

[48:21] maybe you haven't um so Rockport is an

[48:24] older system much like many communities

[48:26] in m Massachusetts and over time it

[48:29] degrades and water gets in um you guys

[48:32] know better than I do there's probably a

[48:34] lot of some pumps is it's Rockport for a

[48:36] reason it's not it's much rock rock

[48:39] doesn't allow water to infiltrate so it

[48:40] kind of follows in many cases pipe

[48:42] trenches they probably blasted Rock to

[48:45] put sewers in at one point water loves

[48:48] to just migrate there and unfortunately

[48:50] it can get into sewer pipes so um so the

[48:54] regulatory side is very consistent um we

[48:57] tried to break this out um the best we

[49:00] could to sort of track track the what's

[49:02] been happening in the collection system

[49:04] so um the just to follow left to right

[49:07] here the acop line is an administrative

[49:10] consent order that the town has meaning

[49:13] Mast D stepped in and said you're likely

[49:16] experiencing too much inii infiltration

[49:18] and inflow you need to do something

[49:20] about it and that's a regulatory

[49:21] requirement to do it so now it's an

[49:23] action um and so that period between the

[49:26] two pink lines was when you had um the

[49:30] administrative order and specifically

[49:32] when new connections to the source

[49:34] system were not allowed because they're

[49:36] saying you can't handle it you can't

[49:37] accommodate it you can't do it it was

[49:39] lifted

[49:42] in it looks like January of 2011 um and

[49:46] so um so so we wanted to just capture

[49:49] that to see what the impacts were um did

[49:51] it help did it not the other thing that

[49:53] we tried to capture here is the town has

[49:56] performed Rehabilitation of its sewer

[49:58] system um and that's what those gray

[50:00] bars are so wherever you see those gray

[50:02] bars this the town has invested in

[50:05] usually it's lining sewer pipes so that

[50:08] you keep things from getting in um so

[50:12] you've done work and we also wanted to

[50:14] see how that impacted the performance

[50:16] and to really the

[50:18] flows um and um the orange well let me

[50:24] start with the green line the green line

[50:26] is the 12-month rolling average and

[50:28] that's what the town reports to D and

[50:32] what d watches quite heavily um so they

[50:35] want to make sure that you're staying

[50:36] below that that threshold there what on a 12-month rolling average so you can

[50:43] see your discharge limit you can see

[50:45] where the green was above that and then

[50:48] it sort of started to dive a little bit

[50:50] and much like the water system seasonal

[50:53] conditions have a big factor here so if

[50:54] you get a really wet season you're

[50:57] likely to see more flow in your

[51:00] Wastewater system which lines up very

[51:03] well in Rockport unfortunately when you

[51:05] have a lot of rain you see a lot of flow

[51:08] so we we're comfortable with

[51:11] that the largest issue you you're facing

[51:13] on your Wastewater collection system is

[51:16] the quantity of infiltration and inflow

[51:20] within it and and that's storm water

[51:22] essentially doesn't need to be treated

[51:24] uh to that degree anyway um and it does

[51:26] is it chews up capacity at your at your

[51:29] plant and your pump stations and all

[51:31] that um when that happens if you've

[51:34] exceeded capacity of your collection

[51:36] system it starts to leave the system and

[51:39] it could leave through manholes into the

[51:41] streets it could be into basements and

[51:43] that's a violation it's called a

[51:44] sanitary sore overflow it's a

[51:47] violation um and you're supposed to

[51:49] report those every time that happens you

[51:50] have to report it to the state and then

[51:52] there's a notification process and

[51:53] you're a Coastal Community so you're

[51:55] trying to protect your receiving Waters

[51:56] and beautiful

[51:58] beaches um the last line on there is

[52:02] sort of a trend line and that was

[52:04] something that the The Advisory Board uh

[52:06] asked us to add on there just to kind of

[52:08] get a general sense as to what what is

[52:10] the trends so it had dropped and it's kind of going back up again um it

[52:17] really does strain not only your

[52:18] collection system your pump stations

[52:20] because everything's working more it's

[52:22] wearing more it's using more energy to can to power these systems but it's

[52:27] also potentially creating overflow

[52:29] situations that you you're you'd be

[52:31] violating um certainly health code but um Mass the EP standards you can't

[52:36] have those um you know

[52:40] Rockport has a very significant amount

[52:43] of inii that enters its Wastewater

[52:45] collection system um

[52:47] so out of the water and the Wastewater

[52:49] side it the Wastewater side is fairly

[52:51] straightforward and easy because all you

[52:52] have to do is look at some meter data

[52:53] you don't need to be an engineer

[52:55] certainly to look at that and be like

[52:56] okay yeah this it's raining and we've

[52:58] looked at it three ways from Sunday it's it's rainfall getting into your

[53:02] system um could be from some pumps um I

[53:06] have some pumps at my house I don't put

[53:07] them in the sewer system but I have them

[53:09] I know what it's like to have water in

[53:10] the basement and it can be stressful so

[53:12] I have them um it's tough to keep those

[53:14] separated although masty EP actually um

[53:19] thought that your your ordinance was

[53:21] quite impressive and they were very

[53:22] pleased with that so I think that was an

[53:23] outcome of one of the administrative

[53:25] orders that you had so I think you know

[53:26] Town's done a nice job with enforcement

[53:29] it's hard to keep keep those out the

[53:31] other part is when it rains you know

[53:35] better than I do it it really doesn't

[53:37] have anywhere to go but again into a

[53:38] rock and it follows the path of lease

[53:39] resistance which is sometimes these

[53:41] seore trenches that have been cut into

[53:43] rock and that have stone trenches that

[53:44] just make a really nice place for water

[53:46] to migrate and it's you know we we broke

[53:49] this out because we had a fair amount of

[53:51] data I know the city that the town's

[53:52] been working very hard or have has been

[53:55] working to try to m mitigate some of

[53:57] that and it's tough to do um we've had a

[54:00] lot of data to support it but you know

[54:01] there's some instances where the

[54:03] majority of the water and the sore pipe

[54:05] is infiltration or it's not Wastewater

[54:08] so um I think the easy recommendation

[54:13] here is and unfortunately all these

[54:15] older systems and it's everywhere

[54:18] require maintenance um and it requires

[54:21] funding to mitigate it and so um I you

[54:25] know the recommendation here is

[54:27] before um before you would consider

[54:30] whether it be increasing your discharge

[54:32] limit or trying to increase capacity or

[54:34] your Wastewater Plant it would be try to

[54:37] mitigate the infiltration and inflow

[54:38] which again um is something that you've

[54:41] done sparingly but I think a

[54:43] concentrated effort in doing that is

[54:45] necessary to to get this under ws and

[54:48] it's you're never going to get all of it

[54:50] it's just not if anybody gets all of it

[54:52] it'd be the first time ever I think

[54:54] you're trying to stay ahead of it as

[54:55] much as you can

[54:57] um and manage it enough where um you're

[55:00] staying

[55:01] compliant you are um you know in doing

[55:06] so you're preserving your infrastructure

[55:09] very expensive

[55:10] infrastructure um and it it it's just a

[55:14] it's it's something that most cities and

[55:16] towns in the Commonwealth are dealing

[55:17] with um having an ongoing robust program

[55:20] is important so um I'm not sure if you

[55:24] know this particular figure demonstrates

[55:26] it I you we we've looked at this aund

[55:28] ways um but and seeing what worked what

[55:31] didn't work um but it's clear that you

[55:33] know this year and Aaron and I have been

[55:35] throughout the system we've seen

[55:36] situations where it's very obvious that

[55:38] there's um

[55:40] excessive ini I getting into the system

[55:42] and D EPS standards 4,000 GPD IM which

[55:45] is kind of an old metric but it's

[55:48] something that they use um again um a

[55:52] lot of that data is included in the in

[55:54] the memo as well it just even specific

[55:56] parts of the town that have been broken

[55:58] out in previous studies and how you know

[56:01] how much they have typically it's older

[56:03] sections of towns that suffer from it

[56:05] sometimes

[56:06] Coastal

[56:08] um but the the Wastewater side's

[56:11] certainly more straightforward for us

[56:13] looking at this I think you know there's

[56:15] still some unknowns on how you're losing

[56:16] water and I think that's something that

[56:17] aons and and the town's committed to

[56:19] looking at but Wastewater is pretty

[56:21] obvious really um can you before we open

[56:26] up questions um could you just remind us

[56:29] so our our capacity or our limit is

[56:32] 800,000 gallons yeah your your discharge

[56:35] permit is for 800,000 gallons a year

[56:37] your Wastewater Plant has a capacity for

[56:40] 1.2 million gallons and on the busiest

[56:43] day of July 4th or Memorial Day what are

[56:45] we running at you're probably running in

[56:48] the four to five 400,000

[56:51] $500,000 gallons a day range yeah

[56:54] without without you saying Without Rain

[56:56] so without rain so assuming that those

[56:59] people are here in the summer it's

[57:01] really not raining hard I think I'm just

[57:02] trying to make it clear that our system

[57:04] is robust enough to support Wastewater

[57:10] our system is not robust enough to

[57:12] support the rainfall through

[57:13] infiltration pipes right corre okay your

[57:16] dry weather flows are very typical and

[57:19] great it's when you have the rainfall

[57:22] and again you're right I mean it's it's

[57:24] interesting because when your population

[57:25] seemingly goes up twofold in the

[57:28] summertime is when your Wastewater flows

[57:30] are generally the lowest cuz you're not

[57:32] in the wet weather Seasons um so if you could and and you know obviously

[57:37] this year has been it's been wet and

[57:39] it's shows um it affects the process at

[57:41] the plant it it has issues it has it can cause problems

[57:47] so thanks thanks Bruce Denise Donley uh

[57:51] 72 Pigeon Hill Street a couple things um

[57:54] the town is going to Alex almost a

[57:56] million dollars from the arpa money

[58:00] toward I I um this coming year so that's

[58:04] good news and it's already going to be

[58:06] awarded what's that we've already bid

[58:08] the project it's going to be awarded oh

[58:10] fantastic excellent I'm just trying to

[58:12] get the you know the the recommendations

[58:14] through so sorry sorry to interrupt no good and then I know we got um

[58:20] 950,000

[58:22] from uh Congressman Molt's office is

[58:26] that also going to be going toward inii

[58:29] or what's we have so many priority needs

[58:32] um it may but my guts telling me I I'm

[58:36] going to need to put some money into the

[58:37] actual treatment plant we our

[58:40] infrastructure has so many needs y uh um

[58:44] y you have you it's you have the

[58:48] treatment plant then you have your

[58:49] collection system pipes they both need

[58:51] needs they both have needs and then same

[58:53] thing on the water side our our

[58:55] treatment plant one of them was built in

[58:58] 1938 yeah um the other one was built the

[59:01] other one that we call the other one

[59:02] that we call new was built in 1996 or

[59:05] 1998 it's not new anymore yeah and then

[59:08] obviously and obviously our water pipes

[59:12] um we have major needs for water main

[59:15] replacement so this it's it's actually

[59:19] kind of can be overwhelming sometimes

[59:21] the amount of the amount of needs that

[59:23] we have to try to bring our

[59:24] infrastructure back to somewhat uh more

[59:27] manageable mhm I had um just one last

[59:31] question if I might there's an untapped

[59:33] well head um over by the train station

[59:37] and I'm just wondering thinking about um

[59:40] making Supply available would it be

[59:43] possible to tap that well head and

[59:46] direct that Supply toward the wastewater

[59:48] treatment plant and free up

[59:51] Supply um for for residences and

[59:54] businesses when you say well head you

[59:56] mean we have a we have we you mean

[59:59] drinking water correct well I I

[1:00:01] understand the quality isn't great yes

[1:00:04] we don't we that we have we have a

[1:00:06] permited we have a we have a permanent

[1:00:08] Wellhead there we we would use it if we

[1:00:11] had to um it does have high iron content

[1:00:15] so we we don't use it um normally yeah

[1:00:19] because it it degrades the quality of

[1:00:21] water that we put out of the plant um

[1:00:24] but I don't know how that would affect

[1:00:25] help the Wastewater plan I wasn't

[1:00:27] following you well just because there's

[1:00:29] the backwash that you talked about that

[1:00:31] goes that that comes as a result of

[1:00:34] processing the

[1:00:36] Wastewater um wouldn't it would it it's

[1:00:39] a theoretical question probably the back

[1:00:41] wash that he was talking about is part

[1:00:43] of the plant the water treatment plant

[1:00:45] process so there's really no way to

[1:00:47] separate that so to speak okay y thank

[1:00:50] you quick question Don s the 33 Strait

[1:00:53] Smith um this I assume also includes

[1:00:56] Wastewater from residents and businesses

[1:00:59] correct yes um is there any analysis or

[1:01:03] can we derive anything from how many

[1:01:04] more houses we could build or how many

[1:01:06] more residents we could have based upon

[1:01:10] right

[1:01:12] now based upon this data uh does that

[1:01:16] tell us anything about uh how many more

[1:01:19] I don't know units what what well

[1:01:21] unfortunately the way I look at it is I

[1:01:24] have to look at it at worst case

[1:01:25] scenario

[1:01:26] under what weather conditions so under

[1:01:28] what weather conditions we have zero

[1:01:31] capacity right that's under dry

[1:01:35] conditions well I would agree with Aon

[1:01:38] in certain rain events you you you have

[1:01:41] zero capacity in your system it's

[1:01:44] completely inundated with water and so

[1:01:46] we solve for the worst case is that what

[1:01:48] we're doing here well I

[1:01:50] mean I know it's not going to rain all

[1:01:52] the time but how do you how do you I'm

[1:01:55] asking you how do we keep on adding how

[1:01:57] do we keep on adding to the system when

[1:01:59] we have conditions that don't that that

[1:02:01] we can't handle now so until we get II

[1:02:03] under control how do we add to the

[1:02:05] system

[1:02:09] yeah okay yeah I got

[1:02:19] a this one at one of our pump stations

[1:02:23] in town here uh way stations um Aaron

[1:02:26] and I were called down to one of our

[1:02:28] pump stations we had a leak in a wall

[1:02:30] which was dividing the uh wet well with

[1:02:33] the pump pump side of the the water um I

[1:02:37] stood under this water for a portion of

[1:02:40] time during a heavy heavy rainstorm this

[1:02:43] was clear crystal clear water um coming

[1:02:48] from our wet well which was our sanitary

[1:02:51] well flowing through a crack in the wall

[1:02:53] into our dryw this was crystal clear but

[1:02:58] the funny part of this is that one of

[1:03:00] our Wastewater guys went and tasted

[1:03:03] it we didn't realize this was coming

[1:03:06] from the the the the sanitary side of

[1:03:08] the well until we put two and two

[1:03:11] together he said it tasted like clear

[1:03:13] perfect water that's how much water was

[1:03:16] in that waist side of the the well

[1:03:19] during that recent

[1:03:21] rainstorm wow it was crystal clear and

[1:03:24] he tasted it and taste it like water so

[1:03:27] oh my gosh bold just to put a little

[1:03:30] don't recommend that yeah yeah

[1:03:33] it's wow comical but but horrifying at

[1:03:36] the same time right it was crystal

[1:03:40] CLE yeah um Z sepper

[1:03:43] again uh as many times as I've gone to

[1:03:47] those DPW Commissioners and heard about

[1:03:49] I I I've still got a guess as to what is

[1:03:54] inflow and what is infil rtion

[1:03:57] infiltration is stuff that's coming

[1:03:59] through the pipes by natural causes and

[1:04:02] inflow is stuff that people illegally

[1:04:04] have hooked up rain gutters and stuff

[1:04:07] into their sewage system is that correct

[1:04:10] pretty much pretty much okay thanks so

[1:04:14] the town continuously over the course of

[1:04:19] CP sakes I think it's 50 years has been

[1:04:22] putting forth money to do uh repairs to

[1:04:26] the public part of the system the pipes

[1:04:29] so dark square and all of those other

[1:04:31] places are the pipes are patched up and

[1:04:34] presumably are you know made League

[1:04:37] proof but as far as I can remember

[1:04:39] you've always said that one of the

[1:04:41] problems you have is that you can't do

[1:04:44] anything about the pipes that are on

[1:04:47] private property so that if they're

[1:04:49] putting in 2,000 gallons of rain water

[1:04:52] it just goes down inside their pipe and

[1:04:55] comes in yours and the question I have

[1:04:59] about all of the studies and stuff being

[1:05:03] done is have you ever tried to make an

[1:05:07] estimate or could you make an estimate

[1:05:10] of of what is actually attributable to

[1:05:14] the inflow that you

[1:05:16] can can't do anything about

[1:05:19] presently and the infiltration which

[1:05:22] you've been working on diligently for 50

[1:05:24] years so that the more and more what I'm

[1:05:27] driving at is that more and more and more we keep paying

[1:05:31] for the inflow and stuff but the

[1:05:33] infiltration might be getting worse all

[1:05:36] the time for all we know and there's not

[1:05:38] much you can do about so I'm just

[1:05:40] questioning if if there's any kind of

[1:05:42] analysis that you can do in that regard

[1:05:45] yeah I mean I know that you guys

[1:05:47] recently completed a smoke testing

[1:05:49] program correct yes so smoke testing

[1:05:52] programs will intend to identify those

[1:05:56] inflow sources so what you do is you

[1:05:59] actually in interject smoke into um a

[1:06:03] sewer system and you see where it

[1:06:05] migrates sometimes it comes out of a

[1:06:07] catch Basin you know the catch Basin is

[1:06:08] connected so that is a fairly typical

[1:06:10] process and the town just did that not

[1:06:13] that long ago right to try to identify

[1:06:14] the inflow sources which when you when

[1:06:17] you look at flow rates and if it's here

[1:06:20] and then it climbs quickly it's you can

[1:06:22] usually attribute it to inflow because

[1:06:23] it's a direct hit in filtration usually

[1:06:26] takes a little bit longer to kind of get

[1:06:27] into the system and then it starts to go

[1:06:29] up so you can see it on a graph and you

[1:06:31] can see it uh or you can identify it

[1:06:33] through a smoke testing program say and

[1:06:34] there's other ways to do it so the town

[1:06:36] has done taken measures to try to

[1:06:38] identify those yeah and and we based on

[1:06:41] the that report where we've got to find

[1:06:43] the funding mechanism to then now Chase

[1:06:46] those issues down because it's great

[1:06:48] that you have the information but you

[1:06:51] have now you have to figure out how it's

[1:06:52] connected and you need move time you

[1:06:55] need the funding source to be able to to

[1:06:57] be able to rectify those

[1:07:01] issues Toby Toby AR senian 95 Granite uh

[1:07:06] Mr Parson spoke about uh checking out um

[1:07:10] the uh older portions of the Town sewer

[1:07:13] system it's divided into districts which

[1:07:16] the Commissioners are probably familiar

[1:07:18] with and nobody else those are are just

[1:07:21] for mapping purposes and for the testing

[1:07:25] but um

[1:07:26] you know one of the districts that has

[1:07:28] been repeatedly uh fixed fixed in quotes

[1:07:31] and I'm not sneering at you guys is over

[1:07:34] there towards uh old Garden Beach that

[1:07:37] was fixed once I believe it's been fixed

[1:07:39] in the process no okay that's good and

[1:07:43] one of the ones that is currently

[1:07:44] defective at my understanding is marmy

[1:07:47] and way and that was one that was built

[1:07:51] uh privately uh the Commissioners had I

[1:07:54] was told to say yes to it it was not

[1:07:57] built by the town of Rockport or rather

[1:07:59] it was not financed by the town of

[1:08:01] Rockport that was done at the behest of

[1:08:04] the people who lived in that

[1:08:05] neighborhood and at the time being the

[1:08:08] one person who vly objected to the whole

[1:08:11] scheme I was told that the Commissioners

[1:08:13] had no right to say no if they met the

[1:08:16] uh the technical physical standards for

[1:08:18] the construction of the system that the

[1:08:21] Commissioners had to sign off on it uh

[1:08:23] to your knowledge is that correct is it

[1:08:26] still correct because you're dealing

[1:08:28] with all of the U the logistical

[1:08:30] technical parts of it but there is also

[1:08:33] out there like all of the bureaucratic

[1:08:35] horrors of the permits uh there are the

[1:08:38] legalities of it you know who can

[1:08:40] connect under what circumstances and if

[1:08:43] you can tie in a whole uh long road half

[1:08:46] a mile or more uh without the town being

[1:08:49] able to say no uh then you know you're

[1:08:53] in um it's very hard let's put it um

[1:08:56] mildly it's very hard to make any sorts

[1:08:58] of plans if for instance with the zoning

[1:09:01] that nobody wants to talk about uh up

[1:09:04] there on great Hill somebody came in and

[1:09:07] launched a great development and decided

[1:09:10] they would do the sewer at their expense

[1:09:12] could the town uh say no to it I've been

[1:09:15] trying to get answers out of the

[1:09:17] majesties that's the selectman with no

[1:09:20] success uh and troubled you with my

[1:09:23] concerns also uh all of it needs to be

[1:09:26] spelled out you know the legalities of

[1:09:29] who can say no under what circumstances

[1:09:32] you know it's part as much part of the

[1:09:35] picture as the logistics and and the

[1:09:39] permitting well I'll do the best I can

[1:09:41] to answer some of that is uh I think the

[1:09:44] DPW has a lot of control in the

[1:09:49] development of

[1:09:51] a housing

[1:09:54] project uh

[1:09:57] there are some change there's some

[1:09:58] differences if they're already on a sore

[1:10:01] line versus if they're outside of the

[1:10:04] Zone but if they're outside of the Zone

[1:10:07] we can say no to it if it's in the zone

[1:10:11] then I think we have some other ways

[1:10:12] that we can regul regulate the uh growth

[1:10:17] so that it matches the growth of our

[1:10:19] capacities within our systems so um

[1:10:25] I think we as a body do have controls

[1:10:29] over the growth of these

[1:10:34] developments I hope you're right I'm

[1:10:37] skeptical

[1:10:39] no Tom so Tom mik 73 marmian way and

[1:10:43] vice chair of planning board um I

[1:10:47] mentioned a deep dive that I took into

[1:10:49] the 2022 report from tetr and I prepared

[1:10:53] a presentation that I gave to the plan

[1:10:55] board and to the ad hoc water committee

[1:10:58] uh concluding with some possible

[1:11:00] solutions to the limitations on water

[1:11:03] and and Wastewater capacity and uh DPW

[1:11:07] is pursuing some of those Solutions but

[1:11:09] there are others that are kind of not

[1:11:11] yet in the cards and I think there's a

[1:11:13] lot that could be done to allow growth

[1:11:16] in capacity some of which relates to

[1:11:18] even the planning uh for for high

[1:11:21] density developments can be done to be

[1:11:24] much more efficient ient on the use of

[1:11:26] water and waste waterer uh so if you

[1:11:28] want to see some of those Solutions I've

[1:11:31] got my presentation posted on the

[1:11:33] planning board web page and Rob has a

[1:11:36] copy of it and it looks like this but I

[1:11:40] do want to take issue to one thing that

[1:11:42] Bob said as a solution he mentioned

[1:11:44] increasing the capacity of the treatment

[1:11:46] plant the wastewater treatment plant I

[1:11:49] think that is totally unnecessary

[1:11:51] because if you look at the monthly

[1:11:53] average data I I said not to I said they

[1:11:56] never allow yeah I said not yeah yeah I

[1:12:00] agree with you I I would never the he

[1:12:02] would never allow us yeah to increase

[1:12:04] the capacity yeah ever yeah it would

[1:12:07] laugh at us it has a much cap higher

[1:12:10] capacity than it required right now it's

[1:12:12] on a monthly average basis is it handles

[1:12:14] about twice the discharge permit so

[1:12:18] everybody who's gone around saying we

[1:12:20] might need to build a new plant or

[1:12:21] increase the plant forget about it agreed yeah I agree we

[1:12:25] agree

[1:12:27] yeah

[1:12:30] Paul Paul set 41 Granite Street I got

[1:12:33] two questions waste water and clean

[1:12:35] water um clean water the water from the

[1:12:40] plant how does it get to the towers is

[1:12:42] it a dedicated service or a dedicated

[1:12:45] line or through town distribution lines

[1:12:48] so I don't know exactly how from the

[1:12:49] plant to the towers I it's all it's all

[1:12:53] the same lines yeah no at line to the

[1:12:55] towers so it's just because we we we we

[1:12:58] pump during the day we shut off at night

[1:13:01] and we we run off our Towers at night uh

[1:13:04] Wastewater is it possible to

[1:13:07] test the pump station for salt water yes because if saltwater the main if you

[1:13:15] could isolate that that would be back

[1:13:17] Beach or dark square but Back Beach

[1:13:20] there's potential salinity issues and

[1:13:22] we're going to be looking at that right

[1:13:24] yeah Y and just just to give you a

[1:13:27] caveat to that one thing I did look at

[1:13:29] is Tides but the one thing I did look at

[1:13:31] is that you get very extreme high tides

[1:13:34] in the summer when you don't get rain

[1:13:36] and we don't see the amount of flow at the plant at the Summers

[1:13:44] granted we don't get we get we make it

[1:13:47] the rain in the

[1:13:48] summer but we don't get the storm surges

[1:13:51] but so there may be a connection

[1:13:53] solinity connection but we have to

[1:13:55] research that

[1:13:57] further yes ma yes thank you again Linda

[1:14:00] medit 98 Main Street bear with me in my

[1:14:04] ignorance

[1:14:06] um the resoning question via the MBTA it

[1:14:10] has to be discussed it's being voted on Monday night and so one plank of this

[1:14:16] program is by right

[1:14:18] construction and so we've also heard

[1:14:22] that the town is not categorically

[1:14:25] required to provide answers on water

[1:14:27] sewer before this vote on Monday night

[1:14:30] has many of us very concerned and so Mr

[1:14:34] Reed when you say that new development

[1:14:36] can be declined if the sewer system is

[1:14:40] outside of our main body how would that

[1:14:43] interface with byright construction if

[1:14:46] we pass this act thank

[1:14:49] you

[1:14:51] if

[1:14:53] so the code say say that if if someone

[1:14:56] builds and they're on the sorage system

[1:14:59] then by rights they have the ability to

[1:15:01] tie into the sorage system however if

[1:15:03] they buy a build on a property that is

[1:15:07] not adjacent to Source system then they

[1:15:11] have no rights

[1:15:13] to tie into the sour system so we would

[1:15:17] just not issue a permit for that to

[1:15:19] happen Okay that part's simple the part

[1:15:23] that is not as simple is if they are on

[1:15:26] the Sor line yes and they wanted to

[1:15:29] build a big we would have to work at

[1:15:32] controlling that growth and that's when

[1:15:35] I would say you know maybe it would be

[1:15:36] through you can do 10 units a year or so

[1:15:41] and that would be something that we need

[1:15:42] to work with and Toby's right that is

[1:15:44] something that we would need to work

[1:15:45] with our attorneys on but I've done some

[1:15:47] work on this already and it appears that

[1:15:50] we have

[1:15:52] controls to do some of that work so that

[1:15:55] we can you we can't just say no you

[1:15:57] can't develop but we can control the

[1:16:00] development to make it fit with our

[1:16:03] capacities of water and

[1:16:06] sore Thank

[1:16:09] You Toby AR senan um thank you Bruce for

[1:16:13] doing that um I that's a good start I

[1:16:17] think it all needs to be spelled out it

[1:16:19] needs to be um you know for each

[1:16:22] possible scenario with connections uh

[1:16:25] who you know is entitled to say yes or

[1:16:28] to say no under what circumstances and

[1:16:31] it's a sufficient importance you know

[1:16:34] that you the Commissioners should twist

[1:16:36] arms with the Town Administrator and

[1:16:39] their majesties and get it spelled out

[1:16:41] in writing uh by Town Council yeah with

[1:16:45] citations out of law so it isn't a

[1:16:48] matter of you know what Mitch Vieira

[1:16:50] told you or um you know what you heard

[1:16:53] from s some state of official over the uh telephone or anything of that

[1:16:58] sort so that it's there for reference

[1:17:01] purposes and we all know exactly you

[1:17:04] know what might happen in different

[1:17:06] circumstances and I I you know I'm half

[1:17:09] lined and have trouble reading that but

[1:17:12] one thing I think would be helpful to

[1:17:14] have on it which are I believe or not

[1:17:17] there are the cases in which there have

[1:17:19] been bypasses I believe there have been

[1:17:21] over the years Mr Parson referred to

[1:17:24] cases where um you know sewage came

[1:17:27] welling up out of um manholes I was

[1:17:30] unaware of such I don't know if such

[1:17:33] things happen but there have been

[1:17:35] bypasses and certainly those are

[1:17:37] violations of state law have to be

[1:17:39] reported and would lead you to believe

[1:17:42] that the capacity is not as as uh

[1:17:45] favorable as um some people um the

[1:17:49] planning board would lead you to believe

[1:17:52] so could we have those and also I I

[1:17:54] think it would be really helpful and

[1:17:56] instructive to know what the physical

[1:17:59] circumstances the weather uh were that

[1:18:02] led to those uh those bypasses because

[1:18:05] those are the worst case uh scenarios

[1:18:08] and you know whether or not you would

[1:18:10] include the disaster at dark Square I

[1:18:13] don't know was that triggered by weather

[1:18:15] or did that just you know a bolt from

[1:18:18] the blue occurs I don't know but

[1:18:21] definitely those should be on the charts

[1:18:23] and are definitely Al part of any

[1:18:26] calculations you

[1:18:28] make thank

[1:18:31] you well I think we've

[1:18:34] been let me get back to my mic here

[1:18:37] we've been talking about this for a

[1:18:38] couple of hours now we're close

[1:18:40] to hour and a

[1:18:43] half um so I think pretty much you know

[1:18:46] what we know

[1:18:48] now and I hope this is helpful to those

[1:18:51] of you who have come

[1:18:52] today and uh thank you appreciate you my

[1:18:56] pleasure thank you thank you for having

[1:18:57] me that so

[1:19:00] um what so no um the next step with with

[1:19:04] this

[1:19:06] um well I think we've got a couple of

[1:19:08] steps coming up I mean you know there's

[1:19:10] still work being done um so there

[1:19:13] ultimately it'll be some point when

[1:19:15] we're uh get a finished report okay I

[1:19:18] think the next big thing that everyone

[1:19:20] should be interested in is what's

[1:19:22] happening with the water rate study

[1:19:25] and um that it'll be in May that we'll

[1:19:30] be should should be May yes we'll have

[1:19:33] that in May and we'll we'll be able to

[1:19:35] talk about that and looking at what that

[1:19:37] would do rates yeah we have to set rates

[1:19:41] for next fiscal year so we would like to

[1:19:44] if it makes sense to this group to

[1:19:49] uh possibly do that and make it a tiered

[1:19:54] rate

[1:19:56] and what that would do from my

[1:19:58] estimation is is

[1:20:00] that it would make life easier for those

[1:20:03] of us that don't use a lot of

[1:20:05] water and for those that use a lot of

[1:20:08] water they'll pay more than we do so the

[1:20:11] rates would vary depending on the usage

[1:20:14] of water with high water usage would pay

[1:20:18] a higher

[1:20:19] price so that when we haven't seen it

[1:20:23] yet

[1:20:25] completed so

[1:20:28] um when we get it we'll have another

[1:20:30] meeting like this so that people can see

[1:20:32] how this new water rate would

[1:20:35] work Bruce Will Will these three slides

[1:20:38] be posted to the

[1:20:41] site sure we can do that the DPW site

[1:20:46] yes we can certainly do

[1:20:49] that so Bruce you did mention that

[1:20:52] Manchester by the Sea does have a tiered

[1:20:55] water rate system so you could go up to

[1:20:58] that town hall and get some information

[1:21:00] from their their DPW or something to see

[1:21:04] essentially what the system does we have

[1:21:07] a wise and stuff right we have a

[1:21:10] consulting firm that is uh the largest

[1:21:13] in the country at doing rates working

[1:21:17] with us on this so the proposal that

[1:21:20] they will present to us would

[1:21:22] be uh similar to a lot

[1:21:26] of systems so you can but we'll have it

[1:21:31] for

[1:21:33] you will they also be looking into the

[1:21:36] uh connection fees I think that's yes

[1:21:38] they will thank

[1:21:42] you so one thing I don't know if we've

[1:21:45] mentioned this or not but if uh if there

[1:21:48] was a 100

[1:21:51] unit development in town and they had

[1:21:55] two bedrooms that would be about

[1:22:00] $550,000 that they would owe the town

[1:22:02] for licensing for Ry and

[1:22:04] I is the way it works

[1:22:09] now because the number I believe is

[1:22:12] 2750 per inii connection correct I got

[1:22:17] it right here yes it is granite Crossing

[1:22:20] paid just over 90,000 I know that's

[1:22:23] right correct

[1:22:25] was per bedroom uh yes and they had uh I

[1:22:29] think it was I'm going off the top had I

[1:22:31] think they had 31 or 33 bedrooms total

[1:22:34] for the entire Pro sounds about right

[1:22:35] yeah 23

[1:22:38] units that's some l in the day but I

[1:22:41] think what I have here is that it be for

[1:22:44] I I for you know 200 unit or 100 unit

[1:22:49] with 200 bedrooms would be

[1:22:53] $550,000 well to set it in perspective

[1:22:55] you need to look at that uh against what

[1:22:58] we have been spending for ini I you know

[1:23:01] over the past 5 years and up the next

[1:23:03] five

[1:23:04] years

[1:23:08] correct but we are having that that we

[1:23:11] will have some information on what the

[1:23:13] rate should

[1:23:16] be so here nothing else um did we want

[1:23:20] to look at our schedule and figure out

[1:23:22] what we're going to do um

[1:23:25] because so we'll have a public hearing

[1:23:28] about the rates is that June or it's

[1:23:31] usually um I'd have to double check but

[1:23:33] I think it's late May usually late may

[1:23:35] we have to set it you guys need to set

[1:23:37] the rate prior to July 1 obviously all

[1:23:39] right so that's the billing can go up

[1:23:43] okay so we should probably meet in May

[1:23:46] yeah how about May 7th what have I got

[1:23:49] something there what have I

[1:23:52] got how about you

[1:23:56] what how about if we I've got a doctor's

[1:23:58] appointment and I'm not sure what that

[1:24:00] means right now okay how about how about

[1:24:03] uh May 14th that's okay with me how

[1:24:05] about you pass May 14th

[1:24:08] yeah yeah you okay okay so May

[1:24:12] 14

[1:24:15] yeah

[1:24:19] great okay okay so we'll get that same

[1:24:22] time same channel yes same time same

[1:24:25] channel yep and you're all welcome right

[1:24:27] and we might bring chocolates next

[1:24:30] time yeah okay oh um yes um I'd like to

[1:24:35] make a motion to adjourn I second that

[1:24:38] okay all in favor I again thank you all

[1:24:41] thank you

Rockport DPW Commissioners Meeting - April 23, 2024

Transcript