A number of the Councilors took publicly-posted tour of the Water Treatment Plant on Newton Road on 2/19. This was extremely helpful for us to a) better understand the operation of the facility itself and b) understand what/where the proposed upgrades will be. The system consists of 2 'trains' of filtration that pull in water from the Powow River on one end and deliver treated and filtered water on the other end. There are 2 primary justifications for the upgrade: a) we need to comply with new EPA regulations (and before the Commonwealth comes in and imposes a solution on us) and b) we need to increase the processing capacity of the plant. At peak seasons/hours--during the summer--the system is at full capacity. If any repairs or maintenance need to be done, they can only be done overnight. The system only has 2 'trains' and can't afford to take one down during daytime use, especially in the summer. The upgrades would fit 4 'trains' into the same space, giving the plant more flexibility in taking any given train off-line if necessary and the 4 trains combined would be able to process water at a higher rate than current, meaning we'd have more flex capacity built into the system. Regarding the EPA requirements, check out the 2/28 Daily News for a story on the Town of Seabrook facing the exact same thing.
I've submitted the following question to the Mayor's Office in anticipation of the Finance Committee's deliberations. Please let me know if you have any additional questions you'd like to have asked.
Sent 2/24:
First, I note that debt service is currently about 25% of the Water Department's operating budget (based on a review of the FY08 budget). Can you get me/us a breakdown of the composition of that debt, including terms, purpose and rates? This will help us to understand the context for increasing the debt service for the water dept's enterprise fund.Sent 2/29:
Second, could you produce an overall breakdown of its current debt service of general obligations out of general operations (same data--terms, rates, purpose)? This will help understand how new general obligations will fit in with the timing of other debt, etc. and would be helpful for processing future requests. It will also be helpful if that kind of debt forecasting could be incorporated more into the Capital Improvement Plan, to help plan and manage the rolling wave of our debt service in concert with our capital needs.
1) Water Treatment Upgrade:UPDATE: Response from Kendra Amaral, clarifying "other expenses" in the Water Dept. budget for FY08:
* For the SRF loan, what is the term and the rate?
* What is the anticipated annual debt service for the 2 solutions?
* For the proposed solutions, what is the anticipated effect/increase on median water bill?
* Separating water bills into commercial, industrial and residential, what would the increase be for the 'average' bill in each category?
* Would would the operating costs of the proposed solutions be, in comparison with current costs: staffing required to operate, electricity use, chemicals, maintenance?
* What would the expected operational life be of the major new components and what significant replacement/upgrades would be expected in during that span?
* Would either of the proposed solutions be more adaptable for possible future EPA/DEP requirements? What might those future requirements be? Would the final filtration step of either solution be able to be enhanced in the future, if need be?
* What are the Town's anticipated water demands 5, 10 and 20 years out? And what will the functional volumes be for the solution(s)?
* At the tour, concern was expressed regarding the ability of the 'multi-train' system that we currently have to operate if one or more trains is 'down'. How will the solution(s) be able to better handle that? At what point will the flexibility that we build in now to take trains off-line be lost in the future, as demand crosses capacity?
2) General Water Department budget:
* In the Water Dept's annual budget, what comprises 'other expenses'? This represents 20% of the Department's budget; this percentage of 'other' seems high; can it be clarified?
* The 'management assessment' paid to the Town is 6.8% of the Water Dept's budget. This doesn't seem high off hand but how is it derived? Do all departments/programs pay this assessment on the same rate or is it based on actual administrative demand on the Town administration (and pro-rated based on that demand)?
3) Water System Upgrades:
* What are the justifications for rehabilitating the Powwow Street water storage tack and upgrading the Challis Hill water pump station?
* What will the effect on operating costs be for each of these facilities?
* Please detail which parts of this request could be folded into the SRF monies and which would not? Also, how would the debt would be distributed (e.g. to Water Enterprise Fund and General Fund)?
Jonathan,
I will forward the additional questions on to the team.
Relative to the budget, if you look at the detail of the "Other
Expenses" for water in the budget document you should be able to see the
breakdown of costs. The Other expenses include such items as sludge
disposal, chemicals, and lab work. If this information isn't in the doc
you have, I will be happy to send the detail to you.
Thanks and have a good weekend,
Kendra
Posts
