May 09, 2022 Public Utilities Board on 2022-05-09 9:00 AM

Okay, it is nine o'clock and we have a quorum, so we'll call to order the public utilities board meeting for the City of Denton. The first item on the agenda is presentations from members of the public. Is there anyone from the public who wishes to address the board? All right, the next item is the consent agenda. Does any board member wish to pull an item from A through C? Okay, do we have a motion to approve the consent agenda? So moved. Devin moved. Second. Second? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, next item is approval of the minutes. Were there any corrections or changes to the minutes? Okay, do we have a motion to approve? Barbara moves. Larry seconds. All in favor say aye. Aye. That carries. The next item is to execute a contract with Archer Western Construction LLC. And we have a presentation. Good morning. Let me get this set up. Good morning. My name is David Brown. I am a construction project manager for the City of Denton water utilities. Today I bring to you a project labeled, named, titled the Northwest Booster Pump Station. We'll talk about a background on this. Basically there's 600 miles of distribution pipe within the City of Denton and it's broken down into five pressure planes. Currently the Northwest pressure plane is located in that Northwest area. There's a Northwest elevated storage tank which is located at Loop 28 and 35. That's that tank out there right off the 35. So there's not a direct transmission main that goes directly to that elevated storage tank. What happens is water from Ray Roberts has to pass through the city, goes to McKenna pump station, then pump back that way. One thing this causes with the pressure planes is imbalance in the system. One thing with an imbalance in the system, we have water age. Water age is basically just that. It's the time from the treatment plant to the tap, from the cradle to its use. And also there's hydraulic imbalances, meaning we have to pump more vigorously, have to shut down some tanks in order to get pressure and to pump into the other tanks. So with that, what was a key component that was noted in the Water Master Plan was a Northwest booster pump station. With that also the booster pump station will also have a 36 inch main which will run directly from the booster pump station which is located at Riney Road in Nicosia over there by the Discovery Park for UNT. That's where it's going to be. And what it's going to do, it's going to cut down about three miles of piping and pumping over to the elevated storage tank. So with that, it'll be the primary feed to the Northwest elevated storage tank and it'll improve conditions and water quality in that area. So as noted, the pump station will deliver water officially to the New Denton High School and those future developments that were coming in that we're planning for in that area, 288.35, the North Loop, that area. So what happened was this pump station was identified in the Master Plan was at about 80 percent design completion. We paused it, slowed down because of new stuff coming in that we were noted. And what we did was we were able to say, "Hey, let's build this with an initial capacity of 18.7 and we'll be able to ultimately upgrade it to 28.1." So what this is, this pump station is built for growth. It is built for, "Hey, right now we can deliver more and in the future we can add to it." It's just not going to be, "This is what it is. We can't do anything to it." So it's built for capacity upgrades and easy capacity upgrades. Yes, sir. So how will the plant be upgraded in capacity? Will more pumps be added? Yes, sir. This is just a booster pump station and what's happened is it will have bays and slots. So basically it's built, all of the stuff is there, you just need to add pumps. So how many will go in the initial? Right now, initial three pumps. And the total is six? There's initially four or five pumps that we can bump up to. So yes. Okay, thank you. So with this station, you know, it's going to ensure the water quality and make sure we, you know, improve service to the community out there. So with that, we would like to enter a contract with Archer Western for 15,458,300, 590 days of construction. We recommend a contract with Archer Western for this booster pump station. Thank you. Any questions? Yes, sir. Okay, I noticed there were only two bitters in the final analysis, is there a particular reason for that? It's competitive and it's real slow and it's pretty, it is very specific as far as what's going on. We had two bitters and actually, you know, Archer Western, we've worked closely with those guys on a couple of projects and they were, they came in below the other bitters, so we're thrilled to have those guys on. Okay. I'm just curious. You sent out so many. Yes, I don't know the amount we actually sent out. Lori has that. Yeah, like hundreds of contacts. I was curious why only two actually responded. Lori Hewlett, purchasing manager. So we sent it out to hundreds, but of those hundreds, there's multiple different types of construction. So we send it to like the parent group, that's all types of construction. There might only be a handful that really, like specialize in this. In water. Yeah, in water plants. Distribution facilities, okay. Yes. Okay, Devin. Thank you. Yep. Devin had a question too. Go ahead. Thank you. So I haven't seen the water master plan, I haven't been on the board that long. I was curious if you could go back to the water age map, I have just a few questions on a few different topics that you kind of touched on in this, and I realized much of the board has probably already heard this before. What are the colors indicate? What are the, where are the water age issues right now? The water age issues are in that northwest and south. The farther it goes through the system, that's where your age increases coming from the plants. So you would also have, you have issues with, basically you have nitrification issues with ammonia breakdown, the bacterial breaks down the ammonia. We add ammonia into the plants in order to increase the availability of chlorine to break down the bacteria, so you add ammonia and also with that, with age, the ammonia starts to break down into nitrates and nitrites, yes sir. So basically the outer edges, if you consider that the outer edges, northwest, southwest, we have a southwest booster pump station located off of John Payne, which pumps water over into Robeson Ranch. So that's one of the, we have some fresh water down there, but we also, so with this northwest booster pump station, we'll be alleviate that, we'll be able to basically easier pump water into elevation storage tanks. Right now there are some operation issues being able to move water around basically. And on this, I guess, I'm guessing red and orange are bad. Yes, up in that area. And then, and purple, is that purple kind of medium? Yeah, we're good in town as far as in the central location. It's the outer, basically the southwest and the northwest, we have some issues with water age. Okay, and you mentioned also, this is going to have a new 36 inch main. Yes. Where does that, does that go over to the main trunk from Ray Roberts or? It comes, basically, it comes from the northwest booster pump station, and that will feed, you know, through town it comes from Ray Roberts into that area, through Nicosia to the northwest booster pump station, and then we're able to pump it over to the northwest elevated storage tank. So if you'll envision, let's see if I have a map, maybe a better map here, anyway, it'll run down Rainey Road past UNT Discovery Park, and then run along loop 288, and then cross over and then cross over 35 and come in from the north side into the elevated storage tank. It's in design, and it'll be finished within a couple of months. And so that isn't moving water from Ray Roberts, that's moving water from the booster pump station. In the future, in the water master plan, there's also going to be a direct coming from Ray Roberts over to feed the, actually the western part of Denton, and coming forward with the water master plan will be a 380 pump station out there, ranches states, out that way. So if I can, if I, make sure I understand this. So this will have, that 36 inch line is probably related to the development agreements we saw last meeting regarding Rainey, Milam-Ganzer area? That's on the sewer, that's part of the sewer part in I-35 relocation is the agreement with the Milam Creek. Okay, I see, okay. And then, and so this pump will just, it'll be using the same pipeline from McKenna, but it'll be able to create suction basically and move more water out from McKenna? It'll move more water from the Rainey Road area because there is a feeder coming from Ray Roberts into that area. Okay, there is, okay. Basically it bypasses it now, and we have to actually use McKenna pump station to pump it into the Rainey Elevation Storage. Okay, so right now it's kind of doing the sleuthing? Yeah, yes sir. So this will pull kind of more directly from Ray Roberts, okay. And then as far as neighborhood impact, how loud is the facility when it's operating? It does have noise, noise, deterrent noise cancellation panels all the way around it. So we did speak with the, had a meeting with, prior to design with the community out there, and we're gonna have another one before we even start work out there. These are electric motors, not like? No, no diesel generation or anything like that, they're electric motors. And does it have a backup requirement for emergency power? Yes, it'll have backup generators, yes. And that'd be like? And that'd be like diesel. Two hours a year, four hours a year? Yes. Okay. All right, well thank you. Yes. And one of the things, we'll be bringing that 36 inch water main, transmission main pretty soon and it will go to a different, more than likely a different contractor, because like Lori said, people are in the pipe business versus plant business. So that's, we'll probably get a lot of bidders on that for the transmission main. Ms. Beck, go ahead. Thank you, Chair. When you're talking about aging water, are you talking about in terms of hours, days? Days. Really? Yes. Okay. Two or three days? Two days is pretty much the max. Okay. And that's from cradle to. Yes. We don't want to say cradle to tap. Anyway. Yeah. I get you. This is from tap to drink. All right. Let's do that. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. So I could, anybody could be drinking two day old water. Well, we keep it down below that as far as we can, but it does happen. Okay. Thank you. Any other questions? Okay. Do we have a motion to approve? Oh, Mr. Beck is motioning. Second. Ben is seconding. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Thank you. Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. Any other questions? Okay. 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I don't think that is correct. Oops. Okay. Okay. I'm going to fill in today. I will get that one taken care of. And then the second item is to provide data showing the total amount of electricity generated by the solar installations and how much return is in the grid. So DMV will bring that one forward to be determined. So are there any other items we need to discuss? That last one's been on the boards for a while, so hopefully we can get to that pretty soon. Okay. Okay. I will speak with both of those groups, and so by the next meeting we can have better status updates of when that can be brought forward to you. Great. Thank you. Yeah, just to concur with, remember back that it would be great to see that information. The request's been out for like two and a half years, and I know that the request is very specific and has a lot of details in it, but even just knowing number, size, some kind of performance, I'm sure there's some kind of way to measure some of that performance. Yeah, absolutely. So it doesn't have to be like exactly what that, forget what it says, how much is being generated versus how much is being put on the grid or something like that is how it's worded. So just an update on that would be good information. Okay. All right. Oh, sorry. Then we're on to... Chair. Oh, yes. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. That's all right. Thank you. I would've got you before we adjourned. I would like to ask a question about the item one, the pilot project on recycling residential composting. It's been on the books for a while, I'm curious what the pilot project was, if you'll excuse my ignorance. That was actually brought up by Ed Soph when he was on the board, and I think he was looking at a similar program like Austin, the city of Austin had had where there was taking the food products and composting it from households. You're not sure? Okay. Yeah. That's what... Oh, I'm not sure. Thank you. Yeah. Yeah. So, and maybe they thought they resolved that one with the comprehensive solid waste plan, but this was rather specific around composting both commercial and residential food wastes. Either way, we can get an expanded definition of what that project specifically was and an update if it was answered through the comprehensive plan or if we need to bring back an individual item for you all. Well, and honestly, it turns out it's not practical. I'm okay with giving it up, but it has been on the books for a while. I agree with the devil about that. Right. Thank you. Yes. Anything else? All right. Then we're on to concluding items. Does any board member wish to have a future agenda item added or have anything to say to the public? I have a question. Go ahead. I have a question for our future planning. Since our agendas have been reasonably compact, I'm wondering if we should go back to one meeting a month as opposed to two and if that's in our purview to decide. I'm not sure that's in our... I will need to defer to Marcel on that question, but I would say that that consideration likely needs to come after the end of budget, so probably we could bring back some information if that's feasible, but you are packed with budget discussions that need to take place and cancel. I know we have the budget issues coming up, but I'm just looking at the past few months and our meetings have been reasonably brief. We've had just a few items. I'm just wondering if it might be more practical for us to meet once a month rather than twice. I'd at least like to have us consider that. Yeah. That's definitely something we can add to the future agenda. I think it might help when Tony's back with us just because he has a little bit more of a broad view of what's coming down the pike. As Christine mentioned, it is about to be budget season, so it might make sense to keep the two meetings a month for the budget period and those discussions, since those can get pretty lengthy and in the weeds with all of the utilities you guys oversee, but in general, I think it's an appropriate discussion to be had, but maybe one that's better to place on an agenda where Tony will be with us. Well, we're all volunteers. We're taking time from other activities, so if we're going to have a meeting, it seems like it might be nice to have it go a little longer, get a few more items in, and only meet once a month. So I just wanted to bring that up before we conclude today. And if I remember under the charter, we need to set the schedule annually, and we do that in the first meeting? Yes, but we can make amendments to it. So what we do, it would be an item where we would discuss the calendar and then just if we decide to move forward with after budget season, going back to one meeting a month or going forward with one meeting a month, we would update the calendar in that meeting and then you guys would pass the new calendar. I do understand that during the budget season that we need more meetings because we have the budget and our other regular business, but it seems like the rest of the year might be worthwhile. That is all. Thank you. Okay. Anything else? All right, we have a motion to adjourn. Okay, we are adjourned.