[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