TOWN OF ESSEX
WATER COMMITTEE MEETING
Edward Gardner, Supervisor
William Morgan, Town Clerk
Ronald Jackson, Chair
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21, 2014
2313 MAIN STREET
MEETING ROOM, 9:00 AM
Mark Wrisley, Board Member
Claire LaPine, Board Member
Harold MacDougal, Board Member
Bryan Garvey, Board Member
MINUTES FORMAT: BOARD APPROVED
CALL TO ORDER (9:00 AM)

At 9:00 a.m., Chairman Jackson called the meeting to order.

ROLL CALL (9:00 AM)
Committee Members Present:
Edward Gardner, Ron Jackson, Claire LaPine, Derrick Wrisley, Tina Gardner
Committee Members Absent:
Also present: Jim Van Hoven, Lauren Murphy, Bradley French, Dianne Lansing, Wayne Ryan (AES), Susan Kennedy (Department of Health), Anna Reynolds (Essex County), Mike Mascarenas (Essex County)

FLAG SALUTE AND PLEDGE (9:01 AM)

At 9:01 a.m., Chairman Jackson led the pledge of allegiance and salute to the flag.

STATUS AND TIMELINE UPDATE FROM THE CHAIRMAN (9:04 AM)

At 9:04 a.m., Chairman Jackson updated the committee as to the timeline as to when the grant money for the water project expires, and stressing the importance of making a decision moving forward with the water project is urgent and needs to be done as soon as possible for there to be any chance of achieving the required deadlines set by the Department of Health. Chairman Jackson stated that, within 6 months or less, the project needed to be moving forward. Mr. Ryan of AES, stated the long term closing with EFC is scheduled for the fall of 2016. They typically need around 6 months for the paperwork to be completed and processed, requiring construction of the project to be completed sometime in the spring of 2016. For the lake water source, a start date for construction would be around spring of 2015. A minimum of 1 year is estimated for construction. With a pilot study (which requires approval of the DOH, and a bid process) the absolute best case scenario for the timeline of the completion of the project would be 4-5 months. A more conservative estimate would be 6 months. For the ground water source, an acceptable source and access agreement would first need to be in place, and no further bidding would be necessary, as that has already been done. Then a test well drilling would need to be completed, water quality testing and report completed, leaving a minimum 2 to 3 months if re-bid isn’t necessary. However, if re-bidding of the project is necessary, there would be a difference of roughly 3-4 months. Test wells can be accomplished fairly quickly, however pilot studies (lake water source) require a longer time period, as they are not completed in the winter months. We are at a make or break time period for a decision, states Mr. Ryan, as there are 2 months needed for the department of health to review and approve the plans and specs to go out to bid, 2 months to bid and award the project, 6 months minimum for design of the filter plant for lake water source, 4 months for ground water source. All timelines are contingent upon final plant location and overall design considerations. Two locations for ground water source have recently been discovered as of the past couple weeks, (Pataki and Schoolhouse properties), with landowners expressing their desire to work with the town and help with the project in any way that they can. Susan Kennedy of the DOH stated that this is a very positive, important first step. Supervisor Gardner stated that we have gone from essentially no source, to two very promising locations in a short amount of time. Both locations are in the favorable zones locations as determined by a previous HydroSource study. All agreed this is very promising and much progress has been made in the past couple weeks. The next steps would be to obtain access agreements from the various land owners, and to complete geophysical studies by Claude Cormier of HydroSource Associates. Total costs for the estimated water project sources would be roughly $5 million for the lake water source, and $3 million for the ground water source. Susan Kennedy of the Department of Health stated that, because the ground water source is a less expensive option, and typically yields cleaner water, the public is going to want to be assured that all possible options have been exhausted before moving on to a lake water source, and this, she stated, is also a general requirement of the project. Groundwater sources are also generally less expensive to treat in comparison to lake water sources, as ground contaminants (iron, sulfides, etc.) are easier to filter and process than micro-biological contaminants, which can be very costly to filter and typically found at the lake level.

CONFERENCE CALL WITH CLAUDE CORMIER OF HYDROSOURCE (9:37 AM)

At 9:37 a.m., Wayne Ryan began the conference call with Claude Cormier, of HydroSource Associates, updating him on the recent potential access agreements being discussed for various properties within the favorable zones. Claude Cormier stated that there is a high amount of limestone along the schoolhouse properties, which normally indicates promising ground water bearing capacities. Shale (another form of rock) is generally not considered good ground water producers, along with the fact that treatment options are often more expensive, as a direct result of high iron levels. Mr. Cormier stated that once access agreements are in place, that Geophysical studies can be achieved usually in a week timeframe. As a result of this information, a timeframe for geophysical studies was then preliminarily scheduled for Monday, January 27, 2014.

ENDING OF CONFERENCE CALL WITH CLAUDE CORMIER (9:52 AM)

At 9:52 a.m., Mr. Ryan of AES ended the conference call with Claude Cormier of HydroSource Associates. Wayne Ryan also gave a general time frame of when they would need to have their final design completed, and he stated this would need to be done by the end of 2014, stressing the importance of getting the project started right away. Susan Kennedy stated this was also of great importance particularly regarding the financing of the project, and grant funding in regards to hardship status currently being awarded are set to expire. All sides agreed the recent progress and developments on the project is encouraging. A future water committee meeting date will be tentatively scheduled pending the results of the geophysical survey currently being done, sometime roughly within a two week time period.

MOTION TO ADJOURN (10:20 AM) At 10:20 a.m., Water Committee Chairman Jackson made a motion to adjourn the meeting. MOTION CARRIED THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED (10:21 AM)