 Good afternoon everyone. I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the City of Santa Rosa to order If we may have a roll call, please Board member right here board member wads here board member Walsh here board member Barthelot here Board member Batenfort here vice chair Arnone here and chair Galvin here let the record reflect that all board members are present Thank you. I had a number two any statements of abstention by board members great We have no study session item 4 is the approval the minutes and that was placed on the agenda in error They've already been approved so we'd have no action to be taken on item 4.1 So we will move to item 5.1 one of our staff briefings Acting director McNeil, would you like to take care of that? Yes Thank You chair Galvin members of the board. I'm proud to introduce Claire Myers for item 5.1 From the stormwater and creeks and she'll be presenting on the stormwater assessment, right? Thank you acting director McNeil Good afternoon chair Galvin members of the board I'm very pleased to be here today to present you with some information about our annual stormwater enterprise charges As you may recall from presentations to the board earlier this year Unlike other divisions in Santa Rosa water The stormwater and creeks team is not funded by the stormwater or not funded by the water enterprise rather We are funded by the stormwater enterprise and what we sometimes refer to as the stormwater assessment so I'm here today to give you a brief overview of How the stormwater? Enterprise was established what activities it funds how charges are calculated and collected And an upcoming public hearing at city council On collection of the fees that will be happening later this month So starting with the history of the stormwater enterprise It was established by city council in 1996 as a long-term funding source to comply with stormwater regulations Specifically the city is required under the federal clean water Act to obtain and comply with a national pollutant Discharge elimination system or NPDS permit And wasted charge requirements for from the municipal separate storm sewer system All of which is a long way of saying our stormwater permit So to me these requirements the council added Title 16 to city code in 1996 and created the stormwater enterprise and utility In doing so ensured a stable funding source to comply with permit requirements And it gave the city resources to control and reduce flooding property damage erosion And stormwater quality degradation in the city So the fee funds implementation of the city stormwater permit As well as other activities to mitigate the impacts Of pollution that stormwater carries Into the storm drain system and ultimately into our creeks and waterways This includes restoration and stewardship programs flood protection public education storm drain maintenance and also storm water quality testing Title 16 all also authorizes city council to prescribe and collect fees For the services and facilities of the enterprise Which I will talk about next So now that you know how the funding source was established And what it's used for let's delve into how the fees are actually calculated The stormwater enterprise charges are levied against each parcel Of real property in the city and are charged annually Fees are calculated using a formula outlined in resolution 22880 Which was adopted in 1986 And they're based on what we call the equivalent residential unit or eru Which is really just a function of figuring out the runoff Potential of a particular parcel It considers the parcel size The amount of impervious surface on the parcel and then also its land use And then the eru is adjusted each year based on the consumer price index This year the cost per eru is thirty nine dollars and ninety eight cents Which is also the average fee for a parcel in the city Which ever which represents a five point seven percent increase from last year Again in line with the consumer price index The eru fee amount was adopted by council on June 20th of this year as far as part of the budget process Charges for each parcel in town are provided on the annual stormwater enterprise charge report Which is made available to the public online and in person at the city manager's office And in case you are curious the original charge in 1996 when this first started was 19 dollars per eru So the charge has gone up by about 77 cents per year on average Along with a consumer price index So how do we collect the fees In order to simplify the payment process For property owners and also to minimize collection Expenses for the city the charges are collected on the Sonoma county property tax roll On the city's behalf and it's shown on this slide The charge appears on a parcel owners property tax bill And is collected by Sonoma county and the charges have been collected this way since they were established in 1996 Every year the city of san rosa City council holds a public hearing to do three things First to adopt the stormwater enterprise charge report That shows the amount of the fee for each parcel in town Second to approve placing the charges on the county property tax roll for collection And three to allow the public the opportunity to protest The method of collecting the charges They can't protest the fee amount that was already decided by council in june But they can protest the manner in which the fees are collected They can do so by either speaking at the public hearing or in writing And if the council finds that a majority of parcel owners in this in the city Protest then the report shall not be adopted and the charges shall be collected separately from the tax roll So the public hearing For the stormwater enterprise collection is scheduled for later this month at city council on the 22nd We have notices set to appear in the press democrat Next monday and the following monday on the 7th and the 14th alerting the public And the hard copies of the stormwater enterprise report was just placed in city manager's office moments ago So and is available online So in anticipation of the public hearing coming up We wanted to bring you this staff briefing And give you some of the history about the enterprise fund Thank you so much for your time and i'm available to answer any questions you may have Thank you. Ms. Myers very informative any board member questions or comments board member Sorry for member wall Thank you, mr. Chairman. Nice to see you I I do have some questions What's the status of the funds from which the taxes go into and are we applying the policy? I'm on the reserves. I looked at some of the policies that were in the budget Instead of the reserves are over 17 percent We'd reduce the rates if they're under 15 percent we'd increase the rates Are we applying the reserves over that those amounts? So if i'm understanding the question correctly first, what is the status of what we spend? And then and then what do we do with the reserves? Yes, the status of the funds. I'm looking at the policy of the budget And it said reserves reserve level If it's over 17 percent will be designated for future expenditures or reductions and rates Right, so for the last five years or so, we haven't spent the full amount of the stormwater assessment We've come under 150 200 000 or so and so the reserves have slowly been filling up We have You know a significant amount of money above the 15 percent required And so we are starting to look at how we want to spend those reserves Something that we have looked at is we recently purchased a parcel the bell property for restoration of The lower colgan creek restoration project and we'll be using a portion of the reserves to pay off that purchase It looks like when I look at the budget for 22 23 is anticipated There'd be you know three million reserves at the end of the year and then 24 25 I think it was going to be 3.3 million And uh I'm not sure about the purchase of property if that was a stormwater function or Creeks function or a different project function, but if we had 3.3 million in reserves that's 100 percent of the other charges in the funds the actual taxes Yeah, the the version of the budget the 23 24 i'm looking at we took $500,000 of the reserves on the stormwater side and put those away to save for Requirements with an upcoming permit update for our stormwater permit We wanted to have some money in the bank to to go towards new requirements there And then we have about a million in reserves on the creek side of which I don't have the numbers off the top of my head, but a significant portion of that will be going towards purchase of the bell property So that should get us down to closer to the 15 percent. We took 1.5 million off the 3.3 2318 we still have 1.8 million left over I'll have to look into the 3.3 because I have my numbers show about two million But I can look into that it just it's just in the schedule of for the fiscal year 23 24 budget page 36 It's estimated reserves at june 24. We don't have that actual number, of course And it's the 3.3 million Then I also noted and if you look at the expenditures by fund because that percentage is based on the expenditures by fund And the two enterprise funds that deal with the stormwater the actual expenditure projected Was 2.5 million So you know even 25 of that would be Relatively small reserve it'd be five hundred thousand dollars So then we'd be able to apply maybe even a million bucks to reducing the rate Yeah, I can look into that you know our reserve contingency requirement is 15 percent, which as you said is just a little over 500 thousand dollars So we are well in excess of that right now Okay, are we taking the reserves reserve levels? In a consideration when we calculate the rate The reserve levels are the eru how it is established is part of the resolution from 1996 So it doesn't take into account reserve levels. No I'm sorry. I didn't understand that because I was looking at the policies in the budget Could we maybe see the calculation itself and what the resolution said is I'm a little bit confused Because the budget policy is saying they would reduce the rates if the reserves were higher Than 17 percent That I don't know. Um, I'm not sure if Sean our director McNeil knows anything about that or if we'd like to bring it back Yeah, I think we would probably have to come back or maybe provide a written Communication with you on that. That's I mean, it's a lot of detailed numbers To kind of push through and make sure that we're looking at the same numbers And that we have all those answers So there's a certain amount of turn back that we get each year out of our budget That we have to wait a year to access those funds And so I just want to make sure that we're looking at the same dollar figures And come back with a written correspondence on that Well, I'd I'd appreciate that I'd appreciate the more information before we actually propose to adopt the rate So if we could reduce rates, I'd be happy And I think the increase of the last eight years is like 6.7 So when I looked at that example of the tax bill it looked like it was from 15 fiscal year 1516 To what was last year's and so That's beaten inflation by a bit and we pumped up reserves. It looks like we have more than a year's worth sitting there and reserves and uh You know the board had to the council had a policy to reduce that tax bill if it went over a certain amount I think we should take a look at that We're mirror bennford Thank you for your presentation Just a quick one on the eru calculation. Can you help me understand the definitions or the criteria or really what makes up the land use consideration? What is meant by land use the definitions for how the eru is calculated and like the land use and impervious or all of that So really the the eru was designed so that Parcels that Absorbed a lot of water would pay a lower amount and parcels that had a lot of runoff would pay a higher percent And so the the the calculations take into account Land use, you know a residence versus agriculture The actual amount of impervious surface, you know paved areas and roofs versus soil And then land use impervious surface and there's one more Lot size And so the you know that they take into account. There's some pretty complex math in there that How they actually calculate it, but those are that's what it's based on Was that your question? Great. Yeah, it was really just about the the different categorizations of land use so we have a residential and so it's it's Fairly straightforward that you have an agricultural rate and a residential rate. Yeah Potentially industrial or exactly. Thank you. You're welcome Assistant city manager nut Thank you claire So let me ask a question about the project types that we have Would we assume or are we determining that the funding that we're collecting is adequate to accommodate our deferred maintenance and the ongoing in corp the ongoing Infrastructure needs relating to stormwater and creeks No the the the fund is split Into two parts 10 19th goes into the stormwater side, which is primarily for npds permit compliance and I have it backwards nine 19th goes into stormwater compliance and 10 19th goes into Creek restoration so a small portion of that of the npds permit compliance goes towards storm drain infrastructure Cleaning a small amount of repairs, but the majority of the stormwater assessment is not actually for hard infrastructure repair replacement We get funding from capital facilities fees for new infrastructure gas tax for repairs and then As part of our storm brain master plan, you know, we'll be coming up with A method for future funding to adequately fund storm drain infrastructure Okay, thank you for that. It gives me it it lets me know that From an assessment perspective Even though we might not have fully expended This year's budget within the current capital improvement program. There are projects that we anticipate in the future that will Utilize those funds in order to help make a more sustainable operation. Exactly. Okay. Thank you Any other board member questions or comments? All right, we'll now open it up for public comment on item 5.1 You wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary Montoya I see no one in chamber wishing to make public comment I'm no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received Very good. That'll take care of item 5.1. Thank you again. Ms. Myers for being here We'll move now to item 5.2 Acting director mcneill Right. I'm excited to announce uh, joe shavoni Deputy director of water and sewer operations will be presenting How the department's been getting prepared for the fire season Good afternoon chair galvin vice chair Arnone members of the board As mentioned i'm joe shavoni the deputy director of water and sewer operations Here today to talk about some of the effort that we've been putting into wildfire preparation for the 2023 season So we have been fortunate this year although the fire season officially started in on june 5th in santa rosa We did receive some late rains this season and a lot of increased moisture in the potential fuel Around our area due to the heavy fog and kind of cooler weather that we've been experiencing Although we do anticipate that to change as normal Throughout the season we're seeing some hotter days as the as the season progresses And we do anticipate that we there's a potential for High-risk days as well as red flag days, but the good news is that We do anticipate a shorter season due to this increased moisture level want to talk a little bit about the impacts from fire and The interrupted power supply or potential interrupted power supply Damage infrastructure obviously an issue for us We experience during the tubs fire makes it very difficult for us to operate our Systems when we have any type of fire damage It's less efficient and costly for the repairs Another area of concern for us is denied access. We know that when we have a large fire It's very difficult for our operators to get in and manually operate the portions of our system that we cannot operate remotely Both of these have the potential for service disruptions I will add that um regarding denied access. We've worked closely with santa rosa fire to develop procedures To allow access as early as safely possible And we implemented some of those procedures during the glass fire and found them to be quite successful On the interrupted power supply side We do know that pg&e Will likely cut power if there's a large fire in our area. We are also impacted if there's a large fire adjacent to our service area Regarding psps or public safety power shut off Fortunately for us those have been less frequent Last year the information that we are receiving from pg&e is that trend will continue We have several programs and procedures that are put in place that we implement as soon as we're aware of a psps event We do get a fair amount of advanced warning when that comes about And we implement the procedures that we have done in the past. We have a pretty good idea Typically where we will see impacts and those tend to go fairly smoothly at this point The other item that can impact our system is something we saw last year, although we've seen A few years ago as well when pg&e experiences excessive demand on their grid They will shut down portions of the grid to Help protect their infrastructure and for safety reasons. That has an impact on us as well We typically see less notification when that's coming And we don't always have the best idea which portions of our system similar to the psps That we would or i'm sorry different than the psps that we where we will be impacted But we implement the procedures that we use during psps and those typically go quite well and are successful A little bit about our local operations Water supply our water distribution system and our sewer collection system And then i'd like to provide a little bit of info on a couple of critical facilities Our water supply we receive 93 of our water supply from sonoma water So their backup systems and resiliency efforts are very important to us Sonoma water has backup generators at all of their collector wells And around 2019-2020 Implemented a vegetation management. This is an old photo that is up on this slide to help reduce some of the Potential risk around these locations They also recently completed a generator upgrade project at what they refer to as their sonoma booster station This allows us increased resiliency to provide water in the rink and valley area Santa Rosa water has a fairly complex water distribution system With regard to long-term power outage We do benefit from the large area that you see on that slide in light blue Is what we refer to as the aqueduct zone or central city That zone both the water supply and the pressure needed to move that water supply throughout the zone is provided from the aqueduct This is very beneficial for us. So if we see a power outage in our area doesn't necessarily result in a huge impact in that zone The remaining colored areas on that slide represent our reservoir fed zones those zones Require us to pump water into tanks and then operate our in some cases operate our pump stations To increase pressure in some of those zones We do operate 21 tanks on a daily basis Fortunately for us those tanks require very little power to operate and in the event of a loss of power our SCADA or monitoring systems are Fully functional really with battery backup systems that are in place We've developed procedures to rotate those batteries when necessary And typically charge them off-site so that we can continue to have remote monitoring at these locations Our water pump stations are a critical facility in our water distribution System fortunately for us all of the water pump stations that we operate on a daily basis have a stationary generator on site This amount this allows us automatic transfer of power should we lose PG&E power Those generators are designed to operate for long periods of time Based on the fuel levels that they have on site and we have developed several refueling procedures To allow us to refuel when needed and at that point we typically physically inspect the station and the generator as well We also have the ability at these water pump stations to operate them with a pumper connection These pumpers can operate if there is no power at the station And then we would rely on those battery backup systems to power our SCADA system And we can continue to monitor the station although it is a much more manual process Our sewer collection system is a gravity system that is supported by 17 sewer lift stations Those lift stations all but three of those have a stationary generator on site Similar to the water pump stations. They are designed to operate for a long period of time Of the three that don't have a generator One of those is a pre-wired to quickly connect one of our portable generators to that station if needed And we it's also pre-plumbed to connect a pumper to that station as well The other two stations that don't have a generator We typically service with one of our cleaning trucks because they are they're very low flow stations And then we rely on the battery backup systems For us to continue to be able to monitor that station and any alarm that might come from the SCADA system Several facilities on the local side of Santa Rosa water. I'll just highlight two in particular The main facility our utility field operations building Commonly referred to as the UFO building Has an on-site generator that will automatically kick on and this this building will fully operate as if it was under PG&E power with that generator This is the location designated for our department operation center So we use this heavily during any type of an emergency Because we have the backup power supply at this location often Other members of the water team will operate out of this location during emergency as well The other facility that's really critical for us during an emergency operation is our station for Facility that's located at Sonoma and farmers That location also has a stationary generator on site. We use that in that facility to Dispatch crews when needed. There is additional fuel stored there So we can as part of our fuel implementation plan Or when we implement one of our fuel refueling plans, we can refuel at that location We have additional equipment stored there It really helps us respond quickly to the east side of town if there's an issue Then are some ongoing efforts for infrastructure improvement In several different different categories in the planning or design phase We do have several stations that we intend to Install a high-flow pump at two of those locations that are pretty far into the design phase We you would likely see those in front of you shortly are In the fountain grove area On our ongoing efforts, they include fiber optic communication line installation We have over the past several years been installing Better communication lines between our water pump stations and our tanks. This helps us a lot When there is a large fire, we're not relying on Other folks the equipment we can use our own and we continue to upgrade that when possible The hardening of our water and wastewater stations is really an ongoing effort We saw a lot of achievements during the Rebuilding of the facilities that were damaged during the tubs fire Skyfarmy is a great example of some of the Non-combustible materials that were included When it was deemed that that station would need to stay above ground And then we were the recipient of a hazard mitigation grant that helped build the below ground station at handsford court Really a great improvement to our collection system And then I would like to highlight two projects that are currently in In construction that really will help with our resiliency The controller or what we call our plc and radio upgrade project And the backup generator replacement project Generator replacement project is partially funded through the hmgp or hazard mitigation grant It includes the 18 locations that you see on this slide Really a big improvement to our stations Really looking forward to full implementation of this project We are as I mentioned currently in construction and a lot of the work has been done 13 of the 18 stations have had some level of work completed. This includes moving the Current generator to a temporary location. So we still have backup power when needed As well as the improved electrical work that you can see in this slide here And almost all of those locations have had some form of excavation and the pad poured for the new generator to be installed We do anticipate that in the next six months we will see 10 of these Generate the new generators installed and fully functional and we hope to have the remaining Generators installed shortly after Our controller or plc and radio upgrade project is moving along and getting close to completion We have installed all of the new radios at all stations and the base station at the ufo As well as all the repeater sites and recently switched all of our skater communication over to the new radio system This will really help with our resiliency. These are much more modern radio They are very simple, but they help us function in times of emergency So we're looking forward to exploring even more functionality with these new radios On the plc upgrade side, um, these will install New controllers at all of our water pump stations. Three of those have already been installed and are fully functional now We anticipate the remaining stations to have a plc installed over the next four months So hopefully by the end of this year those will be in place And we will start to take advantage of some of the new features that come with this new technology One area that is really important to us is the ability to better monitor our generators during an event It provides a lot more remote monitoring monitoring with these new controllers Very important piece of any wildfire preparation is communication Santa Rosa water participates in Sonoma waters water operations meeting with Sonoma water and their contractors We, uh, participate in water and fire operations community or excuse me communications meetings These are typically held bi-monthly in the non-fire season that increases during fire season. We have A really high level of communication with Santa Rosa fire We developed several communication tools after the tubs fire that help us notify Large portions of their team and they can notify large portions of our team in the event of a change in the weather A high risk situation If for some reason they need assistance from us right away And then also if we have a change happening to our one of our systems We can let them know so an area to be prepared to try to call us as soon as possible Several of our managers are attending PG&E webinars and have access to the PG&E PSPS portal again We're seeing some positive outcomes there National weather service provides us weather updates daily and we work closely with Santa Rosa fire to get additional information We do have a large number of new staff or new operators in the local division So we are focusing quite a bit on training bringing folks up to speed and really helping them understand What it takes to be a disaster service worker and how we operate in the local division during an emergency operation This includes drills as well as several different orientations depending on the specific job that they will be assigned A lot of internal communication the two high the projects that I highlighted earlier Include weekly meetings. There is the potential for impacts as a project is happening at one of our crucial or critical facilities And so we want to make sure that we mitigate those ahead of time. So we meet weekly to make sure that Really that there is no interruption whatsoever and all of our operations continue as normal On the external side Santa Rosa water continues to provide links and information on srcity.org That has increased over the past couple of weeks regarding some of the private systems That are connected to our public system. There will be an article that runs today in city connections that helps highlight The need for the folks that have a private system whether that be a sewer grinder pump a private lift station Or a water booster pump on site and really the importance of them developing a procedure to have backup power In the event of a long-term power outage And with that I would be happy to answer any questions that you may have Thank you deputy director Savoni open up for any board member questions or comments board member right I'm just curious The solar at msc north and at the ufo I don't think that's got a can be used as a power backup at this time. Is there any thought of doing that or what do you think? Thanks It's a good question. So uh, no those do not operate as backup power supply that would have to be uh incorporated with Some type of microgrid system for that to operate when the power is not there It is something that we will look at in the future a lot of a lot of things to come really at both I'll speak mainly for the the ufo site In the future as we start to incorporate some of the regulation requirements for electric vehicles and increased power supply at that location We see that as probably a likely time Where an item like that might be incorporated Other board member questions or comments All right, we'll open it up for public comment on item 5.2 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary montoya There's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment no hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comment was received Thank you. Thank you for the presentation. Thank you We'll now move to the consent calendar. We have one item on the consent calendar I'll move adoption of the consent calendar I'll second that motion We have a motion by vice chair ononi seconded by board member walsh At this time we will open it up for public comments on item 6.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star nine to raise your hand secretary montoya There's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment No hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comment was received. All right. May we have a roll call vote, please Board member right. Aye Board member watts. Aye Board member walsh. Aye Board member barthelot. Aye board member battenfort. Aye vice chair ononi. Aye and chair galvin. Aye And that passes unanimously All right, that'll take care of the consent calendar We'll now move to item 7.1 acting director mcneill Excited to introduce this next item presented by associate civil engineer andrew Wilt and justin witt the environmental Planner with belgian race and they'll be reporting on the adoption of a mitigated negative declaration And mitigation monitoring and reporting program and project approval for the fulton road sewer main improvements west third street to center as a creek Welcome gentlemen All right. Good afternoon. Terry galvin and members of the board. I'm andy wilt civil engineer with public works i'm presenting with justin witt environmental planner from belgian race and we will be discussing The fulton road sewer main improvements west third center as a creek mitigated negative declaration Excuse me rough start here So first i'll go over the project background Then we'll discuss the pre-design analysis including the various alternatives that we went through I'll discuss the scope of the proposed project the proposed project includes the necessity to Acquire three new easements. So we'll touch on the easements and then justin will describe the california environmental quality act or the More commonly known as the sequa and then we'll provide a recommendation So the existing 18 inch ac pipe was installed on the west side of fulton road across santa rosa creek in 1969 Only 15 years later the west side of the bridge over santa rosa creek Was widened to the west towards that sewer and then approximately one year later That sewer pipe was lined with a polyethylene liner So currently that liner is deformed and it's constricting flow The constrictions have been gradually getting worse resulting in the necessity for Monthly maintenance and flushing So the constrictions are located in the fulton road sewer at santa rosa creek Between manholes 12 and 13. So you see in the upper right hand corner of this map The manholes 12 and 13 it's highlighted. It's supposed to be pink. Although on the screen here doesn't look pink Um Most of the countryside development there's 67 Approximately 67 parcels there Their sewers are highlighted in blue and that sewer Drains to the east of fulton road and then north up through that constricted pipe So this is a an inspection photo that was taken in 2014 with a cctv inspection Some of the damage is apparent. This was taken between those manholes 13 and 12 You can see that the shape of the pipe here in this photo is elliptical. That should be round So video evidence since 2014 has indicated that this problem is getting worse The video cameras can no longer get down this segment of pipe So the city's consultant uh woodward and curin slash rmc They completed an alternatives analysis Uh tech memo in february 2018 So to address the sewer problems uh staff and the consultant created 11 alternatives to consider So the six alternatives shown in this slide here they were evaluated and uh determined to not be Viable for for various reasons So alternatives 7 through 11 they were determined to be viable So were further evaluated. So these include slip lining open cut replacement inverted siphon Installed by open cut with gated auger boring and inverted siphon Installed by horizontal directional drilling and then finally pump station and force main alternative So the city requested that the consultant evaluate and rank the alternatives Based on the following criteria uh constructability operations and maintenance in relative cost So the highest ranking and recommended alternative then was alternative eight open cut replacement So then the city hired uh religion and race to design the improvements and uh the early construction estimates were much higher than anticipated Additionally, we were concerned that the environmental permitting efforts To construct across the creek would potentially delay construction So in light of these issues staff had bnr We asked bnr to further evaluate the pump station alternative because that would avoid the creek Crossing and then the associated permitting with that So additionally staff asked bnr to perform a life cycle cost analysis to compare those two alternatives And the considerations were uh construction cost future equipment replacement cost ongoing maintenance cost and of course the permitting schedule So interestingly the life cycle cost analysis results were approximately equal for the two alternatives So the city selected to continue with design of the open cut alternative As the city prefers gravity solutions So this sketch uh shows the proposed sewer replacement project It's located in the setback areas west of folton road rather than in the street From plus approximate placer drive uh to just north of the creek So this will allow for an increased pipe slope And improved hydraulics However, you know, this is private property So uh Well, it'll require three new easements So the three new easements properties owned on the south side by countryside north owners association Across the creek by sonoma water And then uh just north of the creek is sequoia park associates So this photo shows the approximate location of where the sewer crosses Santa Rosa creek You can see in the background there. That's the west side of the folton bridge And so this just kind of gives you an idea of what that environment looks like And so just to discuss the sequel in more detail is justin witt environmental planner from belgian race Thank you, andy Good afternoon Chairman galvin members of the board Justin witt with belgian race environmental planner I did not participate in preparation of the engineering memorandums. I stuck with the sequel stuff Um So the sequel is a public disclosure first and foremost of projects and environmental impacts associated with those projects It allows you as the board to be informed of what those impacts are And provide that information to the public It also allows the opportunity to identify and implement mitigations to reduce impacts So in brief the sequel process involves preparation of an initial study mitigated negative declaration There's an ab 52 tribal consultation component which involves government to government consultation With local tribes Then there's a 30 day public review period for this project that ran from june 30th to july 31st 2022 When comments are received we review those and prepare appropriate responses And append a response to comments document and any necessary revisions to the sequel documentation to your package Once that is done, we move on to the adoption of the mitigated negative declaration Which we're hoping to accomplish here today And then file a notice of determination, which is the final component of the sequel process So this uh, this sequel document looked at the entirety of the project However, it is very much focused on santa rosa creek Anytime you talk about open cutting a creek it gets regulators quite excited So that was our focus We will be looking at permits from california department of fish and wildlife regional water quality control board US army corps of engineers as well as NOAA fisheries So based on that information, we Really tried to focus and develop a mitigation mitigation strategy in the sequel process That would be above and beyond what you might typically have In that document So we had prepared three additional documents that are appended to the public review version of the document One of those was an industry and construction methodologies memorandum That described how work can be done within the creek channel itself what can't be done there Looked at utilization of cofferdams both upstream and downstream of the project to divert water The the site will have to be dewatered to do the construction And then also looked at methodologies to stabilize both the stream bed itself on top of the replacement pipeline and then Stabilization of the stream banks So those are all kind of large concerns both from a construction perspective as well as a regulatory perspective We also prepared a fish management plan That will be implemented by a qualified biologist to When the coffered when the construction occurs in the cofferdams are ready to be set up Fish that are trapped in the cofferdam area would need to be removed safely As well as some monitoring of fish health and viability upstream and downstream of the construction site And then finally we put together a riparian restoration plan that would look at replanting the damaged stream banks As well as identifying any additional areas that would need to be mitigated for So as I said sanders of creek was sort of the the big focus of this this document So some of the impact specifically were to nesting birds roosting bats Tree impacts we will remove a few trees rare plant surveys and then the jurisdictional waters One impact that did not make it onto this slide, but needs to be disclosed to you Is the centers of creek trail runs along both sides of the creek Construction will close that trail for a period Periodically and for a period of about two months We're hoping that we can manage to keep it Open all but for perhaps two to three days at a time When we need to move construction materials on the south bank or on the north bank The worst portion of that will be a two-week closure of the portion directly Downstream of the bridge while they rebuild the retaining wall that's there Um, so the mitigation is developed to require the contractor to come up with a bypass a bypass plan And to work with city parks and regional parks to ensure that that's implemented The remainder of the impacts are are relatively germane to construction projects We've got construction related dust erosion control noise spills access Um, and anytime you're doing or is disturbing activities. There's the potential for accidental discovery of archeological resources So moving on to tribal consultation the city issued notice of The opportunity to consult to great rancheria and litten rancheria on november 17th of 2020 Generally the way the city does this is we get the sequel document to the administrative review Stage so it's essentially complete minus the tribal cultural resources section Prior to engaging in consultation because most of the tribes like to review the sequel document The consultation is done prior to to issuing the public review draft Of the document so that any and all consultation can be Appropriately noticed in that document So the consultation with great rancheria Resulted in a rather extensive and delayed consultation that ran from december 2020 to april of 2022 the results of that consultation were development of tribal cultural resources mitigation number one That include tribal monitoring So any earth disturbing activities will be monitored by a member of the tribe As well as development of archeological and tribal cultural resources treatment plan Um The purpose of that plan is while there are known known tribal cultural resources at the project site There is always the opportunity or the potential to discover them while doing construction So that covers uh the treatment and handling of those resources should they be discovered Noticing in public review as I indicated the uh notice for the project went out june 30th the 30 day review Sorry the 30 day review period ran slightly longer than 30 days extended to july 31st 2022 The notice was published in the press democrat as well as posted at the county clerk The sequel documentation was uploaded to the state clearing houses website Where it was thereafter distributed to state agencies for comment The notice was mailed to adjacent property owners And finally and he had copies available online and at the city's transportation and public works building So after the comment period we take the comments and prepare the response to comments We received one comment from the california department of fish and wildlife. That was the only comment received um They recommended some additional language to the biological resources section mitigation measures Which we were able to accommodate Importantly they had a Difference of opinion with our approach to mitigating in-stream impacts As part of our proposal to them we had indicated that after the pipeline is installed we would replace the riprap The pipeline will be encased in concrete and there will be riprap on top of that And then we would replace the native soils that were removed during excavation To sort of naturalize the channel We also indicated that in some respects the project is self mitigating because it's avoiding a sewage spill into the creek Should the pipeline actually fail? They were not impressed so We did some additional work on the restoration plan in october of 2022 andy and steve brady and myself met with cdf staff And decided that rather than trying to find an area to actually do streambed restoration Which is a very difficult thing to do We could increase the amount of bank plantings that we would that we'd already have proposed so the Total restoration plan area is about 0.2 acre and that is adjacent to The construction site and just downstream from so part of the restoration plan will be Stabilization of the bank so geotextile fabrics will be put down where the the trench occurs and then Planted with willows where appropriate and larger species further up the banks That has been submitted to cdf w We probably won't know a whole lot more about their take on that until we get to the permitting phase But for now they're satisfied with that So those responses to fish and wildlife are included in the response to response to comments document As well as the minor revisions in the final mitigated negative declaration So based on the comments that we received and the information we were able to generate to respond to those We still believe that with the incorporation of mitigation The project will not cause significant environmental effects Also of note Yes, we did make some revisions. However, there were no substantial revisions as defined in guideline section 15703.5 Therefore recirculation of the initial study for another public review is not required So thank you for that and I will hand it back to andy for recommendation Thanks, justin so it is recommended by the transportation and public works department And santa rosa water at the board of public utilities by resolution Adopt the mitigated negative declaration for the folton road sewer main improvements West third street to santa rosa creek project number two adopt the mmrp Number three approve the folton road sewer main improvements west third santa rosa creek project and number four Direct staff to file the notice of determination Thank you and we're available to answer any questions. Thank you gentlemen We'll now open it up for any board member questions or comments board member right Interesting presentation, um, thank you the uh Regarding the the choice I support having a gravity system any day of the week over a pump station I'm curious, uh, what the initial cost difference was I know the pump station's got a much higher on life cycle costs Then the open cut, um So i'm assuming the open cut cost was higher than the uh pump station That's correct. I don't remember the numbers uh off hand, but uh the open cut Cost was considerably higher than the pump station, you know And how deep is this thing? It's got to be like 30 feet or something like that, isn't it? That's correct I think we were around 28 feet deep and then, um So it may be in the documents. I didn't pick it up, but are you bypassing? Are you going to put a parallel line in and uh So this line is uh parallel onto the west So so you won't have to pump you can leave the existing line in place operating and then uh Abandon it well, we're gonna We're gonna have to tie into an existing manhole at the downstream end Then you pump yeah, so that'll probably require some pumps and then um, you know at the we're going to install a new manhole On the line, so we may be able to do that without pumping. Yeah, okay Well, it's a complex project to build. That's for sure It's nice to have that little easement that you're in that eased that Next to the road there, uh, but anyway Yeah, I support this project. Um, thank you for the presentation Thanks glenn Thank you board member right any other board member questions or comments I have a question chair remember barthelou Um, great presentation. Thank you I'm pretty new to this stuff so, um bear with me, but So the easements have they already been granted? No, they have not Okay, do you anticipate any trouble with that or so, uh, we have contact to the owners They're aware of the project. They're not a court. Um, they're not aware of the extent of the easement that we need We haven't had those type of conversations yet once this process is complete and we'll start engaging with them more Hey, thank you. I guess there's a plan b, but Don't talk about that until we need to I suppose Um, and then I had a question regarding, um sequel mitigation So I I had no idea Of what needs to happen when you do this kind of project and in particular when you Have to cross a creek. I think is what made it overly come Not overly but extremely complicated But so I know that you know that at some point there's going to be um fish and wildlife personnel there to capture fish and move them if they need to there's Going to potentially be someone from one of the tribes there to Make sure that if there's anything Archaeologically significant to that that that is Stopped and dealt with respectfully and properly, but my question is um Who do we Pay for those people to be there or is that part of the cost of the project? Or Typically, yes Yes Right, so we do have an we will get an agreement with the tribe To reimburse them for for their associated costs for their uh for their time Thank you Other board member questions or comments vice chair Arnone And this may be a question better suited to morgan, but um I notice we're not having a formal public hearing today Which I believe is necessary for adoption of an eir Is it the case that you don't need a formal public hearing for a negative declaration? Yes, I believe that's correct director Arnone. Okay. Thank you Just no questions or comments If not, I will entertain a motion Okay, I will move um that the board of public utilities by resolution Adopt the mitigated negative declaration for the Fulton road sewer main improvements West 3rd street to santa rosa creek project adopt the mitigation monitoring and reporting program approve the Fulton road sewer main improvements West 3rd street to santa rosa creek project and direct staff to file on a notice of determination I'll second All right, we have a motion by board member right seconded by vice chair Arnone At this time we'll open it up for public comments on item 7.1 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're down and in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand senator montoya There's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment No hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received very good. May we have a roll call vote, please Board member right. Hi Board member watts. Hi board member walsh. Hi Board member barthelot. Hi board member baden fort. Hi vice chair Arnone. Hi and chair galvin. Hi, and that passes unanimously Thank you again gentlemen. Good luck with the project. Thank you Now move to item 8, which is public comments on non-agenda matters If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're down and in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary montoya There's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment No hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemail public comments were received. Thank you We have no referrals. We have no written communications. Do we have any subcommittee reports? I don't believe so but just in case All right, any board member reports Very good. We'll move to the director's report acting director mcneill Thank you, uh chair galvin members of the board. I do have one brief item to share with you today We're proud to to let you know that we had a record-breaking amount of tipping fees from our trucked waste program This we brought in 3.6 million dollars through this project this year And this is uh, you know quite a bit higher than previous years, but at the same time It's most likely due to the Rate in increased precipitation that we received this year. We get a lot more leachate from various facilities This program is very important to our community And if you recall we did do a special study on this to look at the fees For this system to ensure that it's paying for the impacts to our infrastructure That happens by having those trucks sometimes over 100 trucks per day coming into our facility depositing anywhere from 500 to 6,000 gallons per truck That eats up our pavement quite a bit So we'll be doing some repaving over some of the areas that we're we're harmed this year because of all this truck traffic But I just wanted to let you know that even though we increased the fees It doesn't seem to be that or the rates doesn't seem to be slowing the Support from the community for this program Thank you. Any questions for acting director McNeil? All right, we'll open up for public comment If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 Secretary Montoya, there's no one in chamber wishing to make public comment No hands raised on zoom and no email or voicemails were received Thank you. That concludes our agenda for today. So we will be adjourned. Thank you Thank you