 Oh my god, in okay. Yes, we can hear you. Thank you. Mr. Walsh. Oh, thank you We're having some technical difficulties, so we'll be starting shortly Good afternoon everyone. Sorry for the delay. We had a little technical difficulty. We're still working on But at this point, I'd like to call the meeting of the Board of Public Utilities for the city of Santa Rosa to order May we have a roll call vote, please Yes, chair Galvin here vice chair Anoni here board member badden for Here board member grayburg Here board member Walsh Board member Watts here board member right here Good afternoon everyone reminder to please mute your phones or your microphones when you're not speaking and put away all cell phones and personal computers Any statements of abstention by board members very good. We'll move to our study session director Burke Thank you chair Galvin and members of the board. Our study session is on our 2021 2022 capital improvement construction Project update and making the presentation will be Andy Allen our supervising engineer Adam Roush our associate civil engineer and Casey Claiborne our associate civil engineer Good afternoon chairman Galvin and members of the board Again, my name is Andrew Allen I am the supervising engineer with asset management With me is Adam Roush who's associate civil engineer with our capital projects engineering team and Casey Claiborne who is an associate engineer here in asset management Next slide, please our last update to you on capital projects was in October of 2020 that has been a little while In addition, kind of during that time, especially during the calendar year 2021 you didn't see a lot of projects come before you for award We'll explain a little bit about that as as we go forward, but With today's update we will discuss capital projects that are in construction since our last report capital projects with construction anticipated in 2022 We will also discuss current funding current and future funding needs for capital projects And discuss engineering bandwidth and gaps now and in the future with our capital projects team We will be presenting a lot of information here today More than just an update and that's the reason for it being a study session instead of a staff briefing With that said, I will turn the presentation over to Adam Roush to discuss capital projects Thank you. Thank you for that introduction Andrew Thank you chair galvin and members of the board I'm going to speak about projects anticipated in 2021 That was completed in construction and those upcoming As Andrew mentioned in October 2020 the water department presented a list of 34 projects then anticipated to be awarded by the end of 2021 Of those projects 17 were actually awarded before the start of 2021 This led to much of the cpp bandwidth focused on construction last year However, five additional projects were awarded in 2021 as well and In addition, 12 of the identified projects are slated for award this year Next slide please Looking at these projects in terms of construction costs. They represent just over $116 million that includes roughly $50 million in construction costs for the uv disinfection project Which is funded through a separate bond Of the 17 projects awarded before 2021, they have total construction costs of 35.8 million dollars As we'll see this is higher than the average rate of award And contributed to the focus on construction last year Projects in awarded in 2021 added another 4.5 million And looking forward to this year we anticipate another 75 million dollars in construction costs awards Including the uv project Next slide I'd like to highlight a few of these projects Local water projects included in 2021 include the lano trunk in glenbrook siphon lining The wastewater bypass for that is shown at the upper right And the r7 road access stabilization project which solves drainage issues threatening a nearby roadway Next slide On the sub regional side 2021 saw completion of the northerly slope protection delta pond which repaired erosion breaches there And replacement of five expansion joints along the geysers pipeline You can see the new joints in the lower image Next slide Currently in construction on the local side Is an emergency well at place to play park We're just restarting construction after the addition of some treatment elements there And post fire reconstruction of sky farm a and handsford court lift stations You can see the damaged system on the lower left image there Next slide In addition, we have relocation of the north trunk sewer main where we've just finished boring under shinate avenue And on the sub regional side, we're replacing the generator radiators at the treatment plant itself Next slide Anticipated for 2022 we have two projects aimed at hardening our infrastructure Work on the cobblestone drive water main will connect two water zones And create redundant sources and increase flows for fire hazards The backup generator project is a substantial effort replacing emergency power systems at eight water pump stations in 10 sewer lift stations To accomplish this we've applied for and received roughly 6.5 million dollars In federal funding through FEMA's hazard mitigation grants program Next slide We'll also be making improvements to the west college facility This allows us to divert storm flows to balance flows at the loguna treatment plant during severe storms Increased capacity here will also contribute to a more resilient system. I think we'll be hearing more about that today Next slide Finally, we also expect award of the lcp disinfection system this year As i'm sure you're aware this project will replace the existing UV disinfection system commissioned in 1998 Restoring the treatment capacity at the plant Well, this represents the largest single upcoming project with the construction cost estimated at 15 50 million dollars It is funded by a separate bond Next slide At this point i'll pause the presentation and take any questions about the 2021 projects before i turn it over to kasey Thank you. Any board member questions or comments regarding The first part of our presentation Yeah, I have a question. I'm just curious. Is the UV project actually out to bed and nor do we have a no Oh, have we opened beds or what's the status of them? It is not currently out to bed It's part of the the flight in here anticipated for construction or anticipated for a bid and award in 2022 I believe it's even the first half that I would have to check Okay, thank you Yeah, good. Good afternoon. This is jason nut I will say my understanding is that that project will be released for bid in february Thank you. Any other board member questions or comments? All right, who's next if I may apologize for the interruption It looks like we have the cameras in the council chamber working again So to help kind of fix the screens if those in the chambers want to turn their cameras back off on their ipads Then we'll have our normal views again Who's next in the presentation? Yeah, at this point I can turn it over to kasey quay born associate civil engineer with the asset management group to speak to cip funding current and future needs and cip dent with cap Thank you, adam so Moving on from recent and upcoming construction projects in our cip like to zoom out a bit and look at our Our entire systems needs for all three enterprises And sort of project those forward For the coming year and the coming 10 years So our master plans and other data show a need for rehab and replacement of our assets that exceeds our current rate of cip funding Unfortunately, this is very common for water systems and other infrastructure throughout the country Of course, our allocations are increasing each year, but so are the costs of replacing our assets and One clarification on this slide the cip needs presented here average annual values So the exact date we need to replace something You know comes and goes but Based on projects that we no need doing in the coming 10 years This is what we can anticipate. We'll need on an annual basis Next slide, please Sorry one one slide previous. Thank you So just briefly subtracting what our systems need from what we're currently allocating We obtain those differences on the right And these total to 63 million dollars per year across all three enterprises Of course, our regional system is funded jointly by the city and our partner agencies Just something to consider anytime we're talking about Cip and and funding the regional system Next slide, please Thank you So in this graph, we've projected forward those deficits in our cip funding for the next 10 years And these graphs are cumulative meaning each year's Some is added to all the previous years, which is why they're sloping up so severely The orange line you can see represents the allocations we anticipate And then those sum up to as we get to 2030 and 2031 Half a billion dollars in 10 years Across all three enterprises The blue line represents Our best estimate of The our cip needs based on actual assets and actual projects that we've identified Next slide, please Just to add a little extra context to this graph I've illustrated a rough estimate of our current cip programs bandwidth As Adam mentioned, some years we might put out 30 or 40 million dollars worth of projects And some years were more focused on design and permitting But on average across years and years we we've seen it Average out around 24 million dollars per year And we're using the word bandwidth in a very general way to refer to lots of different resources But of course staffing resources are the most critical Alongside the availability of our consultants and their engineers next slide, please so Here we can see the gap between our bandwidth and current funding levels The yellow highlight just represents The difference between what our cip program our bandwidth is able to deliver in construction every year Versus what we're funding and the slopes of those lines are pretty similar But the difference between them is what we think of as carryover those projects that we've funded But haven't completely finished yet. They haven't made it all the way through our pipeline through scoping design and construction And to close that gap we just need more bandwidth we need more Resources in our cip delivery program Sorry one sec. Thanks The green highlight there represents the difference between what we're funding and what our assets need what our systems need To be resilient and to be reliable over the decades to come And this gap is even more challenging because not only do we need more bandwidth To get to the orange line we need more funding to get to the blue line and then even more bandwidth on top of that to get to the blue line Okay, next slide please Thank you So just to summarize not all of our funded projects have been making it through our cip program start to finish Um And there are many reasons for that and we'll talk about a couple Um and beyond that bandwidth gap that we between what we're delivering and what we're funding Our master plans and our other evaluations show that many projects that are not funded are needed to Sustain our infrastructure in the long term So that that need goes beyond what we're currently allocating for cip And so one reason that past projects have fallen behind Is that when there is a major disaster that we need projects to recover from such as the tubs fire Or we have uh grant funding pursuits such as hazard mitigation grants like that Generator project that i mentioned those are very time sensitive projects obviously and so those can lead to More routine or more long-term projects being put on hold temporarily Next slide please Thank you. So to elaborate on that last point. I just want to provide a short illustration of our cip process using this pipeline here Uh, now, I'm sure you're all aware There's a great quantity of work that goes into every project as it passes through this pipeline from the initial concept and scoping Through the design and permits and finally construction Next slide please Our current cip bandwidth our current pipeline It's mostly designed to handle routine predictable age-based renewal the idea there is that We know we need to replace x miles of pipe and Rehabilitate or replace, you know a few facilities on a particular schedule. It's predictable and and We're familiar with those projects Next slide Thank you However as wildfires and other natural disasters impact our city And we have unexpected failures and critical assets that adds additional cip needs on top of what we predict Next slide please Adding to that hazard mitigation projects where we're preparing and getting ahead for the next wildfire earthquake Or new regulations That cause us to have to invest In new technologies Next slide please And on and on With risk management state mandated consolidations And trying to leverage new technologies for efficient system efficiency or sustainability Next slide please So all in all we need to do all of these different categories of projects to meet our city's goals to maintain our system reliably And that includes routine asset renewal, but We just need a bigger pipeline. We need more bandwidth to deliver all of these And with the next slide we'll conclude with andy allen surprising engineer Thanks, kc. Appreciate all that Um I am back to discuss What we're doing to increase bandwidth and And wrap up the presentation I just spent four months as the interim deputy director of capital projects engineering and observed firsthand That the capital project team is working very hard To deliver our capital projects as well as other capital projects throughout the city Um, as case he indicated some of those we're continuing and finishing up some of our uh fire projects and uh Grant funded projects and all those important deadlines which sometimes get in the way The city is not alone when it comes to staffing issues. Um, and we have seen that Challenging uh getting additional staffing Our consultants other agency and and practically all employers throughout the state are experiencing staffing challenges so What are we going to do about that? In the short term we are looking at Further developing our design build capabilities. We believe that That we can get more bang for our buck per staff member by Moving towards design build where it makes sense And Including a big project that we will chat about at some point in the future of lono trunk lining Is uh is an important project. We need to get started Based on our recent Sewer master plan investigation We're also looking to Capital projects engineering is looking at Consultant delivery team We're in the process of trying they're in the process. Thank you of trying to Look at what availabilities, uh engineering staff in consultants How much there is out there? And again, I've indicated and they've indicated us they sometimes have their own staffing challenges to go along with our own but On a bright spot and we have selected a new deputy director for capital projects engineering I think some of you know this gentleman mike prince is back with the city and in a new role But I know he is understands the challenges that are ahead of him and his team and is looking forward to uh meeting those challenges and again one of those is engineering vacancy recruitment, which Should be happening any day to add a staffing and needed staffing for our capital projects Long term, you know, we're over here In asset management along and working together with capital projects to identify any bottlenecks in the delivery pipeline smooth those bottlenecks out And we're continuing to evaluate various alternative strategies to improve cip bandwidth Don't know what all those are yet, but we're always on the lookout to Come up with solutions for the situation that we have Um a couple of things we've been working on we have uh on call um Consultants available if we have a small project that uh is more of an emergency We can get them on board very quickly And as you've seen, uh, you may have seen we have on-call contractors Uh available as well to help with those Especially the emergency situation so we don't get bogged down Uh, we are also looking at uh the potential back with design build of on-call Design build so that's a we don't have that ironed out, but it is something that we are looking towards Next slide, please We have come to the end of our presentation and we're certainly here and Ready to answer questions. Should you have any? Thank you to all three of you for the presentation. I'll open it up now for any board member questions or comments board member right Yeah on the design build. I know, uh Public works has been hesitant to go the design build route for a long time Uh, so this is kind of a big leap. I think uh, so what kind of projects are you thinking about for design build? Can we Do you think we can give the contractor a line in grade of a pipe and say go figure out the rest? Or are you looking at only pump stations or what what is your thinking there? Well, certainly, um Pump stations lift stations and the like lend themselves to to design build Public works is moving forward with uh design build on several projects a lot of them have been smaller But we are moving on One they're working on is fire station five. We believe we Will do that with design build getting back to a water and sewer infrastructure We do believe that the aligning project could be done with design build it has um We can go through a long process of through design and Then take it out to bid we have done that successfully but we do believe we can go out and Go out to to for proposals from a design build team to do that for us Because they really a lot of times the contractor has and you may have seen these in the past Contractor has great ideas even though they aren't on the plans And we can come out with a better project. So that is a particular project We are hoping to move forward with design build um a linear projects aren't always The right ones for design build, but we believe trunk lining projects would be great And then regarding your consultant, uh delivery team, uh, I've heard discussions about that. Have we actually Is it still and just the discussion stage? Are we I understand there was issues with city codes and other problems? Uh, can you elaborate on what what's going on with that? Well, what I do know is we did send out a rfp for that very thing For that very service and we've uh, we received a couple of proposals so far And uh, mic prince and his team will be looking those over and moving that forward Should it make sense for for them? So in these proposals, what did you request? Uh, do you have a minimum bench of people or something? What was the basis of the proposal? We we gave them um some options To let them tell us what they thought they could do for us. We weren't uh necessarily saying one and only one consultant team um, but Kind of had two different, uh approaches that we laid out One was an entire design team Which would be not unlike the four Capital projects team we already have maybe a whole separate design team with supervising engineer level associate levels technician level Whatever that was necessary to to get projects out to bid and they would be working just like us Getting consultants on board to do the design Not necessarily doing the design themselves. So that was one option. We did uh float out that Uh, potentially some staff to be embedded within our own teams So, uh, we gave them um Open kind of a little bit of an open book for them to tell us what they can do to help us Okay, thank you Remember walls? Thank you chair galvan I'm I'm looking at the slide that showed the shortfall by component local sewer local water regional And I'm I'm wondering how how does this compare to What we anticipated in the rates and budget prior and does this mean that we're actually off by Looks like if if the allocation today is 36 million Cip need is 99 million And it looks as if we're projecting that for every year going forward into the future Um, how do we get to where we have a 275 more need? Then what we anticipated it in the budget and rates and then if so, I think we need to identify What project will represent why the cost went up so much? Um, Casey may jump in here too, but I think that Um, many things have been happening as we do a New and we renew our master plans for sewer and water and out at the plant To look at what needs are Every five years typically we do those renew those master plans and that's what's telling us What is coming up and we certainly have a lot of age-based Needs And a big hit this year with our sewer master plan We've talked about it. The lano trunk is in need of lining It's not it's of an appropriate size, but it's not it's in need of lining. So That's where we are are focusing some efforts right now So there's a number of things that play in to That increased number. Um, I'm not Involved with the rate setting so Someone else not on our capital, you know, the asset management team might want to be one to ask But we could get that information for you and try to sort that out and get back to you Well, that's certainly a headline item But if we're going for 36 million a year need to 99 million a year need Um, and I think it'd be safe if we're going to start actually before we look at setting rates based on that We're funding based on that We need to know how far off we are Because for projections of that bad Maybe it's 200 million to me Or maybe it's really not to 99. We need to figure that out. Thank you And it didn't show on the chart there, but In a little bit of help is that the regional The plans for funding from regional From the regional are to increase by a million dollars a year for the next several years So I think the partners have already agreed to that So there is a little help, but that's a small a small number But we do want to try to get ahead of this. Um, we have A lot of things happening out at LTP and in other areas of our System a lot at LTP where they are Failing or ready to fail and we're just finding those out right now And so we're having to divert a lot of efforts away from The typical pipeline as Casey indicated that we know we have to renew that sometime in the next 10 years To we have to do that today So some of our a lot of our resources are are Moving towards that very thing happening when that happens And uh chair galvin if I might address the question about the rates from board member walsh So we did our current rate setting That's in place for the next three years because we're ending our first year at the end of june And we recognized The capacity issue and the bandwidth issue that existed in cip When we were putting our rate setting together We also recognized that we're under investing in our infrastructure And so we made a conscious decision working with the board During the rate study that we would keep our funding in the cip at current levels Which is still a little bit above what our Bandwidth is but we're keeping them at current levels right now. And that's what's in place for the Rest of the rate study and that we will be reviewing that during our next rate study And in the meantime working on trying to address the bandwidth issues so that we can Uh Invest more in our infrastructure and get more projects out So that was recognized and we made a conscious decision to keep it at the rate We're currently investing knowing we're going to have to catch up as we go forward Is it is it correct though to say that we're anticipating going from a 36 million dollar year funding 99 billion dollar year funding gift these projections Are our best projections today compared to Say a year ago Compared to based on what the information we have from our current master plans That is what we're looking at those numbers likely will change will continue to reevaluate projects and what our needs are But yes, that's what we are basically under investing in an annual basis. We are also as Mr. Allen mentioned we we've recognized on the treatment plant side and have our partners agreed to increase the Cash-funded cip by a million dollars a year So we are gradually increasing that as well But we're also wanting to make sure we're looking at rate stabilization Not at impacting our customers too greatly are there different ways that we can look at approaches So that we're not going to have some kind of rate shock as we're looking to continue to invest in our cip and infrastructure Thank you, and then there's one other question. That's a chairman We talked a little bit about the projects that were needed due to the fire This is months ago preparation for the budget conversation And one of the questions was whether and to what extent the city's recovery or damage award from PG&E related to the utility systems And are those monies anticipated to come in the utility systems or is the city going to spend those on something else? Director Burke, I'm not sure if we got further along on that Yeah, I can speak to that a little bit The city council is still finalizing their decisions on how they're going to allot the PG&E monies. I believe that's coming to them in February At this time we did put forward you know the Cost that were not reimbursed from FEMA for damage to the utility systems Council had a number of criteria and priorities that they put in place for how they evaluated those monies and Based on their current criteria None of the money is going to go back towards the water department at this time But there's still a final decision that they'll be making on how they're going to allocate that funding Were we in front of them and requesting that this year the reimbursement? Wasn't there allocating that money? Yes, we did put information forward on what What costs were not reimbursable To the water department based on the damages we sustained We are getting a pretty significant amount of money back though from the FEMA process so And we we are continuing to be in in good shape in terms of Our revenues so we were able to pre-fund all those construction projects and right now we're getting reimbursed for the money So we're in decent shape in terms of the damages we sustained from the Tubbs fire Thank you Board member gravely Hey, yeah, thank you for the presentation education on this and for other board members experience and an insight on this I just had a question about sort of the producer price indexes and Which associated cost index increases are used in terms of how we you know, how we model these costs and potential costs You know over a five to ten year period and and then what that means for our revenues and rates, etc and I asked only because as many of us know the The index has increased the construction input cost in labor subcontractors paving especially Excavation site work contractors has gone up, you know astronomically in the last year I know it's leveled off a little bit, but it's projected to keep increasing. I think on average 12 through the next year and it just As a point of interest in how we You know, we obviously can't set rates to some astronomical, you know ups and downs like that We also can't operate under the shortfalls that director berg mentioned um, so I was just interested to know what the The pbi and the construction construction input the producer price index is in the construction input cost index Sort of averages or expected increases We're in the modeling there I can answer that a bit so These are really rather rough estimates, but they're based on real projects and real assets that we know we need to replace So for example a recent master plan update looked at a number of our large diameter sewer trunks and Across six projects that are all urgent Meaning they need to be done in the next 10 years Those six projects totaled about 70 million dollars um That said they're in in sewer lining in particular There's currently supply chain issues that could increase that cost 10 20 or even more So while we have confidence in The overall scale of the of these needs Um, we haven't Uh, refined them to the extent where we're looking at specific Uh projections for cost escalation in particular years based on up to the minute trends So it's it's past projects modeling on the cost of past projects um, are those like The only thing that concerns me about that is you know, just since q2 of last year we had a 25 percent increase in construction input costs, right? So like We would hope that that doesn't continue on that on that rate, right? That's that is, uh, you know abnormal However, if we're just talking about the next five years and those urgent projects, we could see, you know, really substantial Uh, especially in the way that the projects are bid Um, not and not even just what our estimates are of the ppi or the producer Prices, right of the bids themselves from, you know, our eventuality whoever it is, right Those could obviously reflect a substantial increase in unexpected costs It's just something that interests me in how we, um, you know, how we at least attempt to model that accurately so that we can you know, uh Prepare adequately May I may chime in chair galvin? of course So to specifically answer your question, um board member grable The the escalator that's used in the presentation today is a three percent We've been for a number of years indexing off of the san francisco cpi And it has been plus or minus of 10 within the last several years We also as a standard practice, um take a look at previous engineers estimates recent estimates that are coming in on a frequent basis in capital projects engineering to sort of Escalate those anticipated construction costs through the duration of the project. So those are updated On a regular basis throughout the duration of the project and Yes, that three percent escalator that you're seeing here is Probably a little bit low And if the board wishes our group can certainly bring back more information on sort of what the nationwide need is based on the The report card that's that's issued by the American society of civil engineers and it'll give you some perspective that this Really is not a cost underrun that is just unique to california and certainly not unique to santa rosa water It's a nationwide historic Problem that's now being driven Even at a more rapid pace with The disasters that we're seeing just this winter right with failures in our transportation systems ice storms that were not used to fires and so we need to learn how to be more resilient And to plan for those types of projects Yeah, that's that's what I thank you for clarifying because they on those cpi's and just the the Sort of rolodex of indexes that are used in these Scenarios and planning It's striking to me how much some of the national like the american general contractor's association index and some of the others like They have just gone up so much In the last year especially and then you know associated costs like fuel and asphalt and all that it's just It's pretty alarming I'm hoping that it continues to level off because it's it's been very unpredictable recently But thank you. You're welcome. Thank you Any other board member questions or comments vice chair arnone? Yes, I I certainly share the concerns expressed by board member grabo But what really jumps out at me here is that this is one of those unusual situations where Yes, we have a disparity between the funding that's available and the funding that's ultimately needed But there's a big disparity between our ability to produce And the funding we already have So even if we had more funding we can't get more Projects completed and so that's my biggest concern is how we are going to address The inability to expand the scope of what we're calling the band with Chair galvin if I could just chime in vice chair arnone. That's a great question. And I think one of the concepts that we Did during this last budget year as we utilize the information that Santa Rosa water put together this presentation in a very early stage started to demonstrate some of the gapping that was occurring And so we actually requested additional full-time equivalent engineers out of the city council for Augmentation into the capital projects team and we were successful in getting four additional Positions our challenge is is we're having a difficult time filling positions that are already vacant let alone the additional four And so as you heard from mr. Allen The intent is to in the meantime try to utilize outside consulting services to augment The the staff challenges that we have while we continue to refine Where this bandwidth gap is and how large it is and then fill in the full-time equivalent staffing needs in an effort to try to Fill the hole as it were So we've already started that and it occurred during this current budget year But there's there's just there's just a lack of applicants coming in the door That are qualified to fill those engineering roles, but we're working on it I'm very glad to hear that it's on the radar and uppermost and as as an item of concern. Thank you Thank you, mr. That any other board member questions or comments All right at this time we'll take public comments On item 3.1 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 Do we have anybody online secretary atha? We had no voicemail or email public comments All right. I see mr. Harder is here in the in the chambers mr. Harder welcome Thank you. My name bobble harder 93 27 lakewood drive winsor I was the former deputy director for engineering and cip 20 years ago Until I had a could you move a little closer to the microphone? um, I was deputy director of engineering and cip 20 years ago until I had a stroke and had to retire um, I submitted a report last month to the board And I was hoping to get a confirmation that they received it And that they had a chance to read it And just to let them know I'm present here at the meeting if they have any questions about it. Thank you Thank you. Yes, your report was circulated to the full board And I assume that everybody has read it. I know I have we appreciate your input And I know that staff is doing everything they can to be As responsive as possible to not only your concerns, but our concerns and our ratepayers concerns. So Thank you I think that concludes item 3.1 Item 4.1 is the approval of the minutes for December 16th At this time, we'll take public comments On the minutes approval 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 atha We have no public comments Very good We'll move now to our first staff briefing item 5.1 director Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board We have some good news to share in item 5.1, which will be an update On permit revisions for our national pollutant discharge elimination system or mpdes discharge permit And Sean McNeil our deputy director of environmental services will be presenting Great. Um, thank you director Burke. Um, thank you Chair galvin and members of the board. My name is Sean McNeil I'm the deputy director of environmental services in the water department And I'm here to provide a staff update on our mpdes permit revisions Next slide, please So I just want to give a brief background on the timeline of of salient facts to this issue In february of 2020 the regional water board released the city's draft mpdes permit And then in april of 2020 the city provided a very detailed List of comments with 36 separate comments to the regional board about conditions in our permit In august of 2020 the regional water board revised our draft permit They modified it to accept 18 of the city's comments and adopted the permit in that hearing next slide, please In september of 2020 the city filed a petition for review of the permit challenging specific provisions in the permit Some of the items we challenged were the new receiving water limit of dissolved oxygen We also re-challenged the no net loading for phosphorus in our permit, uh, which is in in An ongoing challenge that we've had in each of our subsequent, uh permits where we've had this load uh requirement and then um, we also challenged the uh provisions in the water quality trading framework that were in our permit Uh, and these are word developed to meet the no net load for phosphorus requirement for our Our, uh discharge permit So in february of 2021 the city council authorized staff to take the petition out of advance Due to a lack of progress of staff negotiations, uh from the city with the regional water board In march of 2021 the regional water board In city restarted our negotiations. Uh, we made some significant headway In those talks and decided to um go back to the city council to request to put the petition back into advance Which did happen in may of 2021 Allowing the city staff and regional water board staff to continue to work on an agreement Uh, uh on the water quality trading framework Then in september of 2021 of last year the regional water board Adopted and modified the permit for the city in the town of winzer and our board chair galvin did speak at that hearing Uh, next slide please So what did we get out of all of this negotiations? We got some significant changes to the water quality trading framework Uh, that is in our npds permit Um, it specifies that the version in the permit is the operative version of the water quality trading framework Not the version that the regional board adopted in 2018 this was an important, uh for the city because There were two different water quality trading frameworks On the books and we wanted to make sure that it was very clear That the city was required to follow the one that has been changing and evolving Not the older version that was adopted in 2018. So they they corrected that for us Um, we also got reduced trading ratios for multi benefit projects Um, and they clarified the language around those and then they created a new Class of projects called permanently protected environmental enhancement projects or what we're we're conveniently calling pepites Um, these are maximum allowable credit banking went uh for these pepites from the project life to in perpetuity What that means is uh, we get to have the credits in the bank until we use them if they meet this class of project In that uh, because these credits could last in perpetuity We required that the regional board Clarify in their requirements what the in time um clause meant for Matching our discharge with a credit. So when projects last Project credits last in perpetuity. We continue those are continuously current credits And so they needed to make sure that the in time component matched that need Next slide, please So the next steps now that we have these changes it's allowing the city to put an investment into a large-scale restoration projects and Get a bunch of uh phosphorus credits and put those into the bank so that we can move Move forward with our our normal processes and not worry each year about whether or not we're going to discharge So we are working uh in a multi agency planning effort to conduct a large-scale restoration project on the laguna de sanarosa This project is is really benefiting from a previous four-year planning effort To restore the the laguna de sanarosa where they've looked at the entire reach of The laguna all the reaches of the laguna and identified different types of activities that could occur Including restoring some of the former lakes that Used to exist on the laguna removing a bunch of phosphorus laden sediment which we could help pay for it has benefits for flood control also benefits invasive species removal and supports the Marin Sonoma mosquito vector control to be able to effectively control mosquitoes Where some of these invasive species like Ludwigia Make it more difficult for them And that also would give city Compliance certainty So we're really excited about these changes because now we can invest in our compliance in a way that we know That those credits will be there when we need them And with that i'll take the last slide Open for any questions that you might have Thank you deputy director mcneil. I'll open it up now for board member questions or comments Board member right Just a great job to all the staff that worked on this. This has been 15 years at least the way I count and that the regional board actually Put everything in writing. It wasn't just a promise or a nod or anything like that. So that's excellent And i'm looking forward for us to do our part to help the watershed and Build these projects in the laguna So anyway, thank you very much Thank you board member right board member battenford Thank you chair galvin just uh echoing board member rights comments of congratulations and Major appreciation i'm i'm i'm looking forward to Hearing back about what's different moving forward what the projects look like And how that I I know that The exploration of the credits was just an enormous Challenge for For how we were able to to do our work. So congratulations. Thanks for your hard work and please do report back. We're we're interested to know Thank you. That's i'm glad to hear that Thank you board member battenford. I would echo those comments as well. We've Been doing battle with the Regional quality control board for some time on these issues and it's nice to see some progress And us have the ability to get some projects out the door that will Allow us to bank some of these credits and not have them just expire on us. So Thank you any other questions or comments from the board If not, we'll open it up for public comments on item 5.1 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you dial in and via telephone, please dial star nine to raise your hand We have no one in the council chambers. Do we have anyone Remote we received no voicemail or public comments That'll take care of item 5.1. We'll now move to item 5.2 director Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 5.2 is our water and recycled water supply update And making the presentations Presentation will be peter martin our deputy director of water resources and emma waltin our deputy director of water reuse Great good afternoon. Uh chioke galvin and members of the board Very pleased to be before you in the new year with a water supply update If we go to the next slide, please I'll be pretty brief here today But I do want to just kind of give a quick update on storage for snowmowaters reservoirs Storage in lake minasino is currently at about 44,000 acre feet And releases have been around 90 cubic feet per second over the last week or so If you'll recall Per the temperature change order that was issued by the state water resources control board for snowmowater on december 10th beginning in january water supply conditions and the Minimum in stream flows associated with those water supply conditions are now tied to the storage in lake minasino So obviously as you can imagine that means the accompanying Minimum in stream flows will now fully be dictated by how much storage is in lake minasino over the next few months So per the order in existing storage in lake minasino Water supply conditions are now classified as being in dry water year conditions So that means the upper and lower minimum in stream flows are 75 And 85 cubic feet per second respectively in the upper and russian lower russian river Last year Leading up to december 10th The water year was classified as a critical water year at the new industry's flows were lower But do note that natural flows have returned to the river in the meantime due to the early return on rains At this point my understanding is it's expected that the dry year classification Will continue through february next slide so In terms of lakes the storage in lakesinoma It's about 152,000 acre feet or about 62 of the water supply capacity Um, you know, you can see kind of that black line there Storage is still just below where it was in 2021 of last year So still have not recovered to the point where we're even more where last year in terms of storage It's it's a small amount, but still you know gaining as well But you know, you can kind of see the line for 2020 Um You know going back even two years almost to storage was about 88 percent. So, um, definitely Quite a change or in departure of storage levels over that time frame And so I guess we can go ahead and move to the next slide So I just you know in terms of just kind of looking at the bigger picture Over historical operation of lakesinoma I just kind of wanted to share this interesting graphic Recently snow and water staff did supply Us and the other contractors with the monthly time step of water supply data going back 36 years You can kind of see in this graphic here The difference in the average time frame over 30 years of operation Versus the last two years two water years of operation You know and as you can recall I believe it includes the second driest and third driest years on record So you can kind of see the departure From that 30 year average in terms of where we're at with storage and just how close we got to that 100,000 acre foot threshold last year So, you know, I think The takeaway here is that you know, it's been very dry last two years And you know the time frame is sort of an outlier. We kind of compare it to the You know average and even perhaps even the few droughts that we've had in that time frame as well. So And we obviously have a way to go Before we can exit This existing drought and get out of the hole that kind of came from these two consecutive years of dry weather Next slide Just in terms of our targets for the city of Santa Rosa In December Santa Rosa residents reduced their water use by 13 percent compared to 2020 cumulatively From july through december Water use has been reduced by 23 compared to 2020. So, you know, as you recall we Acted on the city council acted and put in a 20 percent mandatory reduction in water use. We're still Continuing to meet that target over that time frame Next slide Just very excited that this year we're going playing to have six water smart workshops throughout the year Definitely trying to be optimistic that some of these offerings will be in person at some point because some of the content is hopefully going to require some demonstrations that You know give folks sort of a hands-on experience um You can go ahead and register for upcoming workshops at our web page src.org slash workshops And then, you know, of course some of the benefit of doing several of these workshops over the years by a zoom Is that you can see some recorded videos of some of those past workshops Including we did that diy Rainwater capture workshop recently and a webinar series on gray water as well. So We're definitely directing Since to go and look at those and see how they can implement those Water saving measures in their homes as well. So next slide Actually, uh, I take that back so that concludes my portion of the presentation And i'll hand it over to deputy director walton at this point Thank you deputy martin. Good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board Here today to provide an update on our recycle water supply as well as An outline our approach to our recycle water allocations for this coming season Next slide, please So an overview of our recycle water production to date you can see there in the light blue the historical flows From 1986 to present Along the bottom and the dotted line is what we produced last year as you are all aware the lowest that we had On record for about the last 35 years In the middle there the gray line Chose our average production and Along the left hand side our current production in black We are producing above average this year and our recycle water production is looking promising Next slide, please Similarly our recycle water storage is well above average for this time of year Last year shown there in blue The lowest in storage that we have ever historically been We are now currently at the highest in storage that we have ever Been on record We are managing our storage very well And this line is starting to flat line a bit due to the the dry weather So we'll be getting closer to averages as we move through the next couple weeks Next slide, please I wanted to give an overview of the the plan that we developed through work with our Recycle water ad hoc subcommittee for the 2022 irrigation season We have met twice and developed a plan that I think our customers Have been very appreciative of We are establishing initial allocations this month. They have already been sent out So those allocations will be as I said established this month They will be allocated to all of our interruptible customers Equally Based on their historical use We will allow this year recycle water production for frost protection Given that we are able to get allocations out so early in the year We feel confident that we can provide Water for frost protection subject to allocations As we have historically done we also are happy to accommodate any trading of allocations And given the recycle water storage we have Currently we are not anticipating any irrigation scheduling We are looking to guarantee allocations until the end of September so September 30th. All of our customers allocations will be guaranteed Next slide, please So I want to just do an overview of our anticipated minimum deliveries Because we are establishing allocations so early in the season this year We are being conservative at this point But we will only go up from here. So this is the minimum amount that we will be providing to our customers For geysers, we are setting aside 4.2 billion gallons To meet our contractual obligations for our ag irrigation customers We're going to start at nearly a billion. So 900 million gallons will be allocated to our ag and frost protection users 500 million to our urban irrigation And we don't yet know if we will be discharging At this point we do not we are hoping to not discharge and we're not planning on discharging But you never know what the weather brings and so we are always Ready for it anticipating it preparing for it Next slide, please So some of the details about the allocations that are going to be or that have been sent out As I mentioned 900 million gallons will be initially allocated Those allocations went out yesterday This is about 65 percent of historical use This will be divided amongst our 70 permitted parcels and based on the three-year average of historical use We're using the years 2017 18 and 19 As the last few years have been pretty abnormal with respect to recycle water production and allocations We are planning on increasing these allocations monthly until July As our supply permits so nine as again 900 million will be the minimum that we allocate every month Our users will receive updated allocations that that increase as supply permits Again frost protection use will be allowed, but this will go towards a user's allocation And we will be tracking all allocations at first use And guaranteeing them until the end of september Next slide, please Just some things to remember As we move through the season the increase in allocation will depend on the weather and if we receive Substantially more rain And if we need to discharge if we find ourselves in a position Where we need to discharge which we are Hopefully not going to be in that position But if we are that would change the amount that we could allocate moving forward We will be charging all recycle water use per our fee schedule that was adopted by the board We do need to maintain a minimum amount of storage This is due to operational constraints as well as the need for flexibility in providing makeup water To supply to our system We also just wanted to note that we do have We are anticipating a major project Undertaking construction this summer the delt upon geysers connection project This project will impact the system But we do not anticipate that it will impact The delivery of recycle water or any of our users But it was a project that I wanted to make sure You were aware of and our users have been notified of this project as well Next slide, please So looking at the schedule as I mentioned We sent out our allocations On Earlier this week Prior to that we did hold an all user meeting to notify our users of the approach to allocations this season That meeting was held on january 18th. We had a very good turnout. I think we had over 30 users attend Which was great We already have sent out our allocations So our users are notified of that and we've been getting some questions and happily answering those We will be monthly sending out increased allocation notifications Again supply permitting and we will be increasing allocations until june We do plan to hold another all ag user meeting in early april to answer any questions Or address any concerns before we start the irrigation season Next slide, please As always we are open to communication and want communication. We frequently Communicate with users through our emails We send out monthly e-newsletters. We communicate through mail letters We are providing routine consistent updates to our water smart ag website That includes our current production and current storage As well as information regarding allocations We have staff in the field who consistently communicate with our users When needed we make personal phone calls or use our autodial or system to get messages out to our users Again all our all ag user meetings that we're hosting via zoom Have been very beneficial and productive. So we'll continue those not just with our all of our users But with the farm bureau as well And we will continue to provide updates here at the board meetings Next slide, please With that I'd be happy to answer any questions Thank you to both the deputy directors for the water and recycle water supply update I'll open it up for any board member questions or comments Board member right Yeah, this is on the water side Do you know why the outflow from lake mendicino is so high? I would think that the trims would be keeping the flow sufficient in the Mainstem of the russian river And they can reduce that Yeah, I don't know the answer to that. Um, it's uh, interesting because I just kind of was looking at the graphic for the last week or so And it did ramp up I'd have to ask them a water staff why that is Prior to that it was uh, you know several like tens of cubic feet per second Below that. So yeah, I could definitely uh check into that that's It triggered my in my mind too today when I saw that Yeah, when you said that it Red five came up also Are we still working under a temporary urgency change? I guess that's expired or what because that was 30 cfs Right. So, um, right exactly. So, um the change Order that some water was working under expired on december 10th, I believe or was maybe december 11th, but they filed another petition back in november If I recall correctly and it was issued in december again, that was, um you know, moving the the the points for, um You know what determines what type of water year is from like billsbury down to like mendicino for the index hydrologic index And as you can imagine with the Water Valley project not producing any power and only pushing through minimum releases, uh, like billsbury's actually been filling up pretty rapidly. So, um, there was kind of that known commodity Uh, some water knew that that that was going to occur. And so therefore they would be kicked into a normal water supply year. Um, so yeah, right now Um, if I recall correctly the threshold is 40 000 acre feet and lake mendicino for classification as a dry, uh, water year And so they, you know, as you can see on the map there, they exceeded that on january 1st So that went from a critical, uh, water year, which they were operating under through the end of the year to a dry water year classification Okay, I'll be curious, uh, what the answer is Thank you Any other board member questions or comments All right, we'll open it up now for public comments 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 etha we received no public comments That'll take care of item 5.2. We'll now move to the consent calendar. We have one item On the consent calendar if there's any questions or comments by the board Otherwise, I'll entertain a motion to approve the consent calendar I'll move adoption of the consent calendar second We have a motion by vice chair Arnone Seconded by board member watz to approve the consent calendar We'll now open it up to any public comments On item 6 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 etha do we have anyone we have no public comments We do have a roll call vote, please Chair galvin. Hi Vice chair Arnone. Hi Board member badden fort Board member grable Hi, board member walsh Hi, board member watz Hi, board member right Hi Thank you passes unanimously that'll take care of the consent calendar We'll now move to report items item 7.1 Dr. Burke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 7.1 is report item adoption of a mitigated negative declaration and mitigation monitoring and reporting program an approval of projects for the geysers delta pond connection improvements and the delta diffuser maintenance project And making the presentation will be andrew wilts associate civil engineer with our cip team and rachela miata Associate civil engineer with our cip team Okay, can you hear me now? Yes. Oh, thanks glenn Okay, good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board. I'm andy wilts I'm presenting with rachela miata for both civil engineers with public works We'll be discussing the geysers delta pond connection improvements and the delta pond diffuser maintenance project mitigated negative declaration Next slide please So first i'm going to touch on the scope of the initial study slash mnd which covers two city projects Next i'll go over the background for the geysers delta pond connection project Then rachela will come on and she'll discuss the delta pond diffuser maintenance project background She'll go over the permits and sequel overview and finally the recommendation Next slide please So there are two construction projects adjacent to delta pond that are covered by one initial study slash mnd document So in the document itself They're considered one project with multiple components So delta pond was constructed in 1983 and it is the largest of the city's recycled water reservoirs The recycled water is used to irrigate approximately 6400 acres of ag land and urban landscaping Delta pond is supplied by the recycled water piping network So this slide shows the location of the two components slash projects One on the east side of delta pond is the geysers delta pond connection And at the northwest corner is the delta pond diffuser maintenance So these projects slash components will be bid and constructed under separate contracts Next slide please So now we'll focus on the geysers delta pond connection improvements project So the recycled water piping network supplies water to delta pond So if that piping network is taken out of service Delta pond could be supplied by the nearby geysers pipeline as a second supply As you can see in this photograph the geysers pipeline is very close to delta pond so And the purpose of this project is to increase the capacity to divert We've cycled water from the geysers pipeline to delta pond The new 24 inch diameter pipe shown in red Will increase the capacity Hold on just a second. I'm having some technical issues here Okay, there we go. Thanks Roberta So the per uh, let's see. So the new 24 inch diameter pipe shown in red Will increase the capacity from the existing 4 million gallons a day up to 50 million gallons a day Most of this project is essentially buried pipe Which is that pipe showing red and it'll be buried But it will have one visible feature Which is a new spillway into the pond that's shown at the left of the The left end of that red pipe that are right down into the water Next slide please so now So this photo here was taken during the 2020 slope protection project That was taken from the top of the berm at the east end looking west down into the pond So the pond was empty at the time, you know, so there's no water visible. You can see the excavator there At the top of the photo This photo shows the existing Spillway for the existing 12 inch pipe. You can see that's that concrete line v-dips there The main visible feature of the new project will be a new spillway that'll be installed to the left of this one It'll have an eight foot wide Flat bottom with vertical sides and some energy dissipating blocks at the far end Now spillways are generally used to protect the ground slopes from erosion as the water is delivered into the pond And the water will be rushing out of this new 24 inch pipe with a lot of volume and force so it could do a lot of damage without The spillway to protect the slope Next slide please So next rachela will discuss the delta pond diffuser maintenance project rachela The afternoon chair galvin and members of the board as andy mentioned My name is rachela maya and i'm an associate civil engineer with public works Today i will be starting off by discussing the background of the delta pond diffuser maintenance project The diffuser was first installed in 2010 to satisfy regulatory requirements For discharging into santa rosa creek and the diffuser consists of 11 valves that are submerged in santa Excuse me in santa rosa creek that provide an outfall from delta pond into the creek And since its installation plant staff have been surveying and monitoring sediment levels and have found that the diffuser is buried in sediment And this is an issue because all of the plants recycled water infrastructure was originally designed to maximize storage at the delta pond However, because the diffuser is covered in sediment, there is concern that it will not not be able to Discharge at its design flow rate So because of this the plant is currently keeping storage in delta pond at less than normal levels in case the diffuser can't function as needed So the purpose of the delta pond diffuser maintenance project is to remove sediment from the diffuser and make the diffuser reliably operational again On the right we're looking at a photo from the northwest corner of delta pond The project that andy just discussed is in the back left corner of this photo And then santa rosa creek runs parallel with the left edge of the pond The diffuser is located in that red rectangle So zooming in and looking at the schematic on the left Those purple arrows indicate the recycled water flow And then towards the center of the schematic you can see those 11 submerged valves in santa rosa creek And next slide please Here we're looking at a couple of construction photos from 2010 On the right we can see santa rosa creek in the background And then where those workers are standing is where the pipe that connects delta pond and santa rosa creek is located On the left is the diffuser facility, which I mentioned consists of those 11 valves And these valves are about two feet in diameter They are called duckbill valves and they were originally selected because they are designed to prevent reverse flow Which means that water and gravel cannot enter into the manifold There's no moving parts, which means less mechanical maintenance They're designed to be continuously submerged and then the water that exits from these valves forms a little bit of a jet Which provides good mixing properties between the recycled water and delta pond with the santa rosa creek flow Next slide please As I mentioned there's been a challenge with sediment And you can see an example of that sediment shown here on the left And then on the right those blue arrows indicate santa rosa creek flow So if you can imagine that flow carrying with it sediment and that sediment settling under the valves around the valves and then also on top of the valves So with all of this sediment that has accumulated as I mentioned before It's likely that the diffuser won't be able to function as design should the plant need to discharge Next slide please To address the sediment accumulation issue a consultant was hired to identify and evaluate alternatives to the existing facility I'm going to say pretty high flying with all of these alternatives It's really just to give a sense of what's been considered to improve the facility But I'd be happy to answer any more detailed questions after the presentation And the way I'm going to discuss these is basically give a brief description of what the alternative is And then discuss the issues associated with each one Next slide please Alternative one consists of rotating the nozzles or valves and that That photo shown in the bottom left hand quarter is to just help visualize the intent of this alternative And under existing conditions, which is shown in that center schematic The nozzle creates a little bit of a shelf and sediment is settling on that shelf And then underneath there a dead zone is creating which is increasing the likelihood of sedimentation The idea of this alternative is to reduce that shelf area by rotating the nozzle 90 degrees The issue however with this alternative is that the valve will sit at a higher elevation and closer to the water surface indicated by that blue line This means that things like branches and debris would be more likely to get caught on the valves and waterway Navigation would also be impeded and both of these would cause a significant increase in costs and efforts of permitting Next slide please Alternative two consists of adding a section of pipe to increase the height of the nozzles And in this figure that brown dash line represents the approximate current sediment levels And again that blue line is the water surface elevation Um, the idea here is to increase the vertical distance between the stream bed and the valves to reduce the risk of the nozzle becoming covered in sediment But similar to alternative one The the nozzles would sit at a higher elevation. So we'd run into this the same issues that I just discussed Additionally, the shelf that I've discussed with alternative one would still be there So sediment would likely still accumulate. It would just be that it takes longer for the sediment to actually reach and cover the nozzle next slide please Alternatives three and four are designed around the concept of sparging Which is defined as using high-pressure streams of either water or air and in this case to mobilize sediment that settled Those red dots underneath the existing valves represent where those sparging valves would be located And they would be periodically engaged to mobilize sediment So first I'm going to speak to the issues associated with alternative three, which is hydraulic sparging With this alternative, there's high risk that the sparging assembly itself would become buried in sediment So to prevent that routine manual sparging would be required That would be with water from delta pond, which means that you could essentially be trying down the storage in the pond Additionally, water quality analyses would be required with this alternative Because the sparging unit would be discharging recycled water at a higher flow rate than the diffuser currently does Alternative four, which is air sparging would be the most difficult to construct And the most expensive since it would require the installation of both an air compressor and a high pressure air tank And in addition to this extensive hydraulic modeling would be required because The efficacy of air sparging for mobilizing sediment is largely the improvement Next slide please Alternative five consists of reconfiguring the two types of existing valves Here we're looking at a bird's eye view of the diffuser facility A delta pond is not shown here, but is towards the bottom left hand corner of the schematic And under existing conditions, there are low pressure valves located nearest delta pond and then high pressure valves farther away from the pond And this configuration was originally selected to achieve desired design flow rates But what's likely happening is that water is preferentially flowing through those low pressure valves Which means that it's not reaching those high pressure valves and a dead zone is being created and again increasing the likelihood of sedimentation With this alternative it was selected as the preferred alternative and the alternatives analysis However, there are still concerns and the primary concern with this being that if the diffuser again still goes Unused for prolonged periods of time that the the boughs would still end up being covered in sediment So because there were significant issues with all the alternatives that were initially presented Plant staff decided to go with a different route and that is routine judging Next slide please On the top we're looking at a plan view of san rosa creek and on the bottom is a profile view of the same extent For both of these schematics creek flow is from the right to the left hand side of your screen And then the diffuser facility is shown there in black Um on the bottom profile that there's a green dash line and that represents the approximate natural channel bottom And then those red and orange shaded areas indicate where sediment has settled For this approach there are two types of dredging um mechanical and hydraulic dredging And mechanical dredging which is shown in those red shaded areas Would be concluded with an excavator that sits on the river on the side of the river and scoops out large amounts of sediment And then hydraulic dredging is shown in the orange area And that would be done by divers with a pump that would be vacuuming out the sediment And while the mechanical dredging would be more efficient and quicker The hydraulic dredging would provide the precision needed to protect the diffuser facility As I mentioned, this would be a routine operation The frequency at which the dredging would need to occur is unknown because it'll depend on the hydrologic conditions each year So plant staff will continue to survey sediment levels to help determine when dredging is needed As i'll discuss in the next slides the permits and mnd are both set up to cover the ongoing nature of this maintenance Next slide please Moving forward, what i'll be discussing will cover both the project that Andy discussed And the one that i just presented here. We're looking at a table of all the permits and approvals required for both of these projects They are relatively standard But for projects in or near a creek One that i want to point out that is specific to the diffuser project is that bottom permit Which is a california department efficient wildlife permit It's a long-term maintenance agreement and that's one of the ways that we're going to help set ourselves up for the ongoing nature of dredging Next slide please Over the next few slides i'll talk about the sequel steps that have been done so far and then i'll also highlight a few of the mitigation measures Here we're just looking at a basic overview of this equal process for developing a mitigated negative declaration To start off an initial study was completed to evaluate the potential impacts of both of the projects Per sequel requirements the is was circulated for 30 days and that included reaching out to tribes in the vicinity Responses to comments were developed and now we're in the process of adopting the mnd and filing a notice of determination Next slide please As i mentioned the is mnd was circulated for the standard 30 days The notice of intent was published in the press democrat and at the county clerk The documents were sent to the state planning house and local resource agencies and copies were made available on tv w's website Next slide please As i mentioned i want to talk a little bit about a few of the mitigation measures Most of them are pretty standard like dust control But there's a few that i wanted to highlight and i want to start off by talking about biological resources Most of these mitigation measures are relatively standard for creek work And that would include things like a pre construction bird nesting survey and special status plant species survey Through the public review process We did receive comments from california department of fish and wildlife which resulted in a couple new mitigation measures And then also revising a few existing ones One that's unique to the diffuser project that i talked about Is the installation of a sediment curtain which is shown here The dredging that i discussed earlier would be done without any dewatering So to minimize a sediment from migrating downstream what's called a sediment curtain would be installed all around the dredging area And while this current is being installed a qualified monitor would need to be present To make sure that fish and other aquatic species are not harmed And next slide please As part of the CEQA process and maintaining complaints with assembly bill 52 Nine consultation requests were mailed to tribes in the area We received feedback from great and rancheria who requested additional consultation A representative from the tribe reviewed and provided feedback on the initial study Which included revisions to the mitigation monitoring One of the mitigation measures Is now to have both a qualified professional archaeologist and native american monitor on site during any ground disturbing work The city has had additional direct communication with cretin and is currently in the process of preparing a formal tribal monitoring agreement At this point all of the tribal consultations for CEQA requirements are met And then all continued consultation with cretin will comply with AP 52 Also through the public review process We received a comment from FEMA which resulted in an additional hydrology mitigation measure FEMA's comments stated that a hydraulic and hydrologic analysis would need to be performed To demonstrate that neither of the projects result in a net rise of base flood elevations So that was added as a mitigation measure Next slide please With the mitigation measures outlined in the mitigation monitoring and reporting program All of the impacts from both of the projects can be reduced to less than significant levels Since none of the comments that we Excuse me it received resulted in identifying any new potential impacts the document did not need to be recirculated So the response to comments and final MND were completed Next slide please It is recommended by the transportation and public works department And the water board department that the board by resolution adopt to mitigate a negative declaration adopt the mitigation monitoring and reporting program Approve the geysers delta palm connection improvements project Approve the delta palm diffuser maintenance project and direct staff to file a notice of determination Thank you for your time and andy and i would be happy to answer any questions you may have Thank you to both of you for the presentation Now open it up for board member questions or comments Okay, seeing none I'll ask for a motion to approve the resolution I'll move adoption of a resolution of the board of public utilities of the city of centeroza Adopting a mitigated negative declaration and mitigation monitoring and reporting program for the geyser delta palm connection diffuser improvements And approving the geyser delta palm connection improvements project And the delta palm diffuser maintenance project and waive the reading of the text Second We have a motion by vice chair arnone and a second by board member badden fort This time we'll open it up for public comment On item 7.1. If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary etha we received no public comments Thank you. May we have a roll call vote, please chair galvin. Hi Vice chair arnone. Hi Board member badden fort Hi board member grable Hi board member walsh Hi board member watts Hi board member right Hi Great passes unanimously. Thank you everyone. Thank you for the presentation. Good luck with the project We'll now move to item 7.2 director berke Thank you chair galvin and members of the board item 7.2 is a report item relief from bid and contract award for the west college storage facility pumping improvements And uh once again, we'll have andrew wilk the associate civil engineer with uh capital projects team making the presentation Good afternoon chair galvin and members of the board. I'm andrew wilk civil engineer with public works I'll be discussing the west college storage facility pumping improvements contract award Next slide, please So first i'll go over the project background Then i'll discuss the advertising and bid opening Then the low bidder requested bid relief So i'll go over that and finally the recommendation Next slide, please So this is a location map showing the proximity of the project of college avenue stony point road and msc north Next slide, please So this slide shows the site the project is located at the confluence of three of the major sewer trunks the old town across town and the yanno trunks So this is the site of the former wastewater treatment plant prior to the laguna treatment plant being constructed down on yanno road So during storm events the system experiences large increases in sewage flows due to inflow and infiltration Two seasonal rental pumps are placed at manholes 65 and 67 They're utilized to pump sewage out of the yanno trunk to shave off the peak flows lessening the demand on the yanno trunk downstream of here and on the laguna treatment plant Our next slide, please So zooming in this aerial photo shows the manhole 67 location and the existing above ground hdpe discharge piping That this project will reuse so that project is all those pipes are there and they're used for the rail pumps and So we'll reuse those Those those pipes discharge into the emergency overflow settling basin Near the right side of this photo Next slide, please So zooming back out a little bit to give an operational overview The pump discharge goes into that emergency overflow basin at the location labeled in red When that basin is filled up it overflows down into pond three And then over into pond one providing over 30 million gallons of storage After the storm surge passes through the system and the flows are lower at the treatment plant The stored sewage is then released back into the yanno trunk for transport to the treatment plant Next slide, please So the scope of work for this project Includes a purchase and installation of two pumps with permanent concrete containment pads to replace the rentals One at manhole 65 and the other 67 So some of the advantages of the city-owned pump versus rentals include availability we'd have The ability to use them all year round versus only seasonal On reliability the city would have control over the maintenance of them There's also a significant amount of staff time that's spent, you know With the yearly contracts with delivery of the rental equipment with cranes to unload it and put it in place that sort of thing So there'd be some time savings there and then also some cost savings Next slide, please So this photo shows the temporary installation of the rental pump at manhole 65 This will be replaced with a permanent installation This photo just gives you kind of a general idea of the size of the project The similar one is located at manhole 67 And for added reference the top of that yellow box is perhaps Six feet off the ground more or less Next slide, please So on to the bid opening The invitation for bids was advertised November 15th Five bids were received For the November 30th bid opening The apparent low bidder was Piazza construction Piazza, however, requested bid relief due to a mistake in their bid So this other request came within several hours Of opening of the bid opening Next slide, please So moving on to bid relief Per our contract The award authority made grant bid relief under California public contract code 5100 Now 5100 Indicates that if a public body refuses to consent to requested relief the bidder may file a legal action And a court may grant relief if the bidder establishes the following one A mistake was made two Bid was materially different than it otherwise would have been Three Written notice is provided within five working days of bid opening and four The mistake was in filling out the bid Not in judgment or carelessness inspecting the site or carelessness reading plans and specs So based on the department's review of Piazza construction's documents The requirements of PCC 5100 to be relieved of the bid have been met Next slide, please So two other important aspects Per public contract code 5105 the bidder who claims a mistake is prohibited from further bidding on the project And PCC 5106 Establishes that if the award authority grants relief the lowest bidder Then they may award a contract to the second lowest bidder In this case the second lowest bidder is specific infrastructure corporation of pleasant in california Next slide, please So recommendations so it is recommended by the transportation and public works department And the water department that the board of public utilities by resolution one consent To lowest bidder Piazza construction of pingo of california being relieved of their bid due to a mistake To approve the project three award construction contract number c0 2284 in the amount of 966 481 To the next lowest responsive bidder Pacific infrastructure corporation of pleasant in california for westcoach for west college storage facility pumping improvement and for Approve a 15-percent contingency and authorize a total contract amount of 1,111,453 and 15 cents Next slide, please At this point. I'll be happy to answer any questions Thank you, mr. Wilt. I'll open up now to board member questions comments Well, I can certainly understand the mistake that was made by the low bidder It's it's a little disappointing to see the huge difference between That low bidder and the next bidder the second second low bidder Whose bid is 23 percent more than the engineer's estimate but I think that's probably a reflection of our current conditions and cost of materials and equipment etc, but Do you have any comments on that mr. Wilt? Yeah, so I did You know, it was clearly a mistake that he made and if you know, even if you were to Incorporate, you know, if if you were to Correct that mistake the difference between the bidders isn't nearly as large as as it appears Thank you Any other board member questions or comments? If not, I'll entertain a motion for the resolution we have before us I'll move that the board Consent to the lowest bidder piazza construction of pennville, california being relieved Of their bid due to a mistake Secondly approve the project thirdly award a construction contract number c02284 in the amount of 966,481 to the next Lowest responsive bidder pacific infrastructure corporation of plus in california for for the west college storage facility pumping improvements And for it approve a 15 contingency authorizing a total contract amount of $1,111,453 and 15 cents A second Thank you. We have a motion by board member right seconded by board member watts at this time We'll open it up for public comment on item 7.2 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand Secretary atha We received no public comments and just for the information of the chair board member walsh had to leave the meeting at 320 I'm sorry board member walsh left the meeting at 320. Okay So we'll take a roll call vote chair galvin. Yes, please I Vice chair anoni. Hi board member baden fort. Hi Board member grable Hi board member watts Hi board member right Hi Thank you Motion passes We'll now move on to item 8 which is public comments on non-agenda items 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 atha, we receive no public comments Thank you. We have no referrals We have no written communications on subcommittee reports. The contract review subcommittee met on january 13th We reviewed and approved a recommendation for the kennedy jinks Um contract which was approved today on our consent calendar That was the only item before the the subcommittee Any other subcommittee reports? All right, we'll now be taking public comments on item number 11 If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone Please dial star 9 to raise your hand Do we have anyone we have no public comments. Thank you any board member reports directors report Thank you chair galvin and members of the board. I have a few things to report Um first I wanted to give an update that this year marks the second winter that we are delivering Bio solids produced during our wet weather season to list tech For enhanced treatment to a class a bio fertilizer A unique component of this multi-year agreement is the sharing of revenues From the sale of product so profit sharing Our agreement with list tech allows for a percentage of revenues to be shared with the city on an annual basis Last year list tech presented a check for $500 and this year we have a check in the amount of $1,000 So as list tech continues to grow their business and attract more customers We look forward to continuing to benefit from this annual revenue sharing agreement I Wanted to let the board know about a sinkhole that we are dealing with out at the treatment plant on december 28th A large sinkhole appeared near the previously leaking Now abandoned aeration header Upon discovery staff immediately barricaded the area engaged our on-call contractor to video the interior of the abandoned pipe To verify its integrity And contracted a geotechnical engineer to perform ground penetrating radar to identify the potential for additional voids After completion and review of the cctv and the ground penetrating radar work exploratory evacuation Sorry exploratory Excavation commenced on january 10th Um and the exploratory excavation found that the sinkhole is mostly isolated to the immediately failed area And we are currently restoring that area Um, we were unable to identify the true root cause of the sinkhole But the good news is the integrity of the area is intact except for that piece Also wanted to let the board know about some good news Of the city was acknowledged by the state water resources control board for our participation in the wastewater monitoring for COVID-19 The city was on the list of participating utilities in the u.s Health and human services national monitoring pilot program And we were recognized by the state water resources control board and their resolution number 2021-0049 For the work that we did in helping to Analyze for COVID I wanted to also let the board know as you noted earlier Or as was noted earlier that the deputy director of capital improvement projects position Has been filled by mike prince and for those that may remember mike Previously last worked for the city in november of 2018 He left the city to work with the lascalinas Valley sanitary district in san rafael where he was in charge of that system And we are very grateful to have him back Prior to joining lascalinas. He worked for the city for 16 years Starting as an associate civil engineer Working in capital projects working his way up through supervising engineer And then ultimately was the deputy director for our sub regional system from 2013 to 2018 And then last I just wanted to take a moment To recognize all of the hard work and really think The board for your understanding and patience as I was out for a number of weeks Really want to thank the water department team From hourly staff to management Everyone chipped in and stepped up. I'm incredibly grateful and lucky to work with such amazingly talented professional staff I want to thank assistant city manager jason nut who Stepped in for me on various occasions And then also I really have to Personally just acknowledge my direct team I'm I'm so grateful to work with such amazing fabulous staff peter martin shon mcneill Gina parez joe shavoni laurier bannock Emma walton kimberley zanino and easter lizard ledesma I couldn't have gotten through these past few weeks without all of them They did a remarkable job and please know that the water department and the board was in very good hands during my absence Thank you very much, and I'm happy to answer any questions you might have Thank you director burke and obviously You've heard from I think all of us our condolences over your loss and We had no doubt that your staff would step up and do what was necessary to keep the water department going and We're glad to have you back Any other board member questions or comments for the director? All right, we'll take public comments on item number 13 if you wish to make a comment via zoom Please raise your hand if you're dialing in via telephone, please dial star 9 to raise your hand It looks like we have mike prins who would like to speak i'll allow him to speak Mr. Prins you're unmuted Thanks, I don't know if my camera's on but I didn't want to mention In addition to jennifer's comments that I am actually Very thrilled and honored to be back with the city and the capacity that i'm in now deputy director of capital projects And I wanted to let the board know that i'm i'm very sensitive to bandwidth issues, and I am going to be focusing on Focus I'm concerned at times that there's so many things going on that it's hard for staff to focus on the things They really need to focus on to get projects done. Some of them are our emergencies Some of them are courtesies other departments All important, but ultimately I do want to make sure staff are focused on delivering projects With that said I want to focus on traction And find ways to certain navigate roadblocks I I know doing these types of projects can be pretty tricky And it seems like the list of things to accomplish on any given project only gets more and more elaborate with every year that passes um I also want to focus on streamlining I think there are a lot of things in the public sector And even with systems that get developed in the public sector, but then may may stagnate after a while They can be in need of a refresh or a focus on streamlining. So i'm going to be taking a look at that I am also going to be taking a look at how we can Do things to potentially have better recruitments more more turnout for recruitments And also as was mentioned earlier bringing consultancy in in different ways to help get projects delivered One comment I want to make about staff based on my knowledge of staff that I have worked with in the past And what i'm seeing with some of the new staff that i'm meeting I've been meeting them for about a week and a half as best I can virtually We have a lot of thoughtful In many cases very experienced and talented staff you witness some of them today That I had not seen present to the bpu before and I'm excited about working with those new staff that I haven't had working relationships with before And and learning what they know and helping them see things that I've dealt with in the past when I was delivering Cip projects many years ago But in short I'm thrilled to be here and I look forward to seeing you Virtually and hopefully soon enough in person at bpu meetings like this Welcome back deputy director prins I guess to make sure we're covered i'll open it up for any public comments with regards to the comments made by mr Prins If you wish to make a comment via zoom, please raise your hand if you're down in via telephone, please dial star nine Secretary atha we have no additional public comments Okay, I think that concludes our agenda I'd like to adjourn today's meeting in memory of director berks mother May she rest in peace and we are adjourned