From: Supervisor

Sent: Thursday, May 04, 2017 4:35 PM

To: TownBoard

Cc: Sherri Crispell

Subject: FW: Sewage Units

Attachments: Attachment 2.pdf; Attachment 4.pdf

Follow Up Flag: Follow up

Flag Status: Completed

FYI.  Some of the more exciting things that we have to deal with. 

Jason

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From: Linda Woodard [lwoodard@cayuga-heights.ny.us]
Sent: Wednesday, May 03, 2017 4:48 PM
To: Ed LaVigne; dlh13@cornell.edu; bgoodman@town.ithaca.ny.us; Jason Leifer
Cc: Brent Cross; VCH-Trustees
Subject: Sewage Units

All,

  I have received and analyzed the water consumption data for 2016 to determine the average daily sewer output per sewer unit.  Brent and I have discussed the results and are comfortable recommending a reduction from 324 to 200 gallons to our board.  I don’t think there will be any problem passing this change, but since it is a change to a local law, we will need to schedule a public hearing prior to voting on this change, which we will do at our May board meeting.  Again I don’t anticipate any problem with this.

  That’s the good news.  Unfortunately that isn’t the whole story.  The DEC inspected the WWTP at the end of 2016 and found a number of deficiencies.  We hired GHD to help us address these issues and are in the process of correcting them.  As part of their analysis they looked at the amount of sewage being treated.  (See attached graphs). Our permit allows us up to 2 million gallons a day averaged over a 30 day period; the design capacity of the plant is 5 million gallons in one day and at 10 million gallons we would be floating away.

  As you can see we currently have a problem.  Adding a couple of thousand new sewage units would potentially raise the floor of this graph by 0.4 million gallons and cause us to exceed our permit many more times per year.  As a consequence I cannot permit more sewer units than we have already committed to Ed (102 units) until we find a solution.

But the problem isn’t sewage water, it’s storm water.  If you study the accompanying graphs and compare them to the timing of the spring melt and/or significant rain events this is readily apparent.

  So we have two choices, although I think we will eventually need to implement both.  Short term we need to reduce the amount of storm water coming into the WWTP.  I am hoping this will be sufficient to allow us to grant the 2000 sewer units that are being requested now.  It will be also be a faster and less expensive solution.  Long term I think we will need to expand the plant capacity, but that will take more time to plan and execute.

  Brent met with your engineers and all have agreed to fix or replace meters that measure the amount of water flowing from your pipes to the WWTP.  The first data came in this week.  We expect to use this data to determine where in the system we have the most inflow and infiltration (I and I), so that we can fix the most egregious problems in our municipalities. We are about to undertake an inspection of our own manholes to see where leaking is occurring and tightening them as a first step.

  I think we can achieve significant reduction in our I and I, but it is going to require time, effort and resources to do it.  I welcome your questions and suggestions.

Linda

Linda Woodard

Mayor—Village of Cayuga Heights

Marcham Hall

836 Hanshaw Road

Ithaca, NY 14850

Email:     lwoodard@cayuga-heights.ny.us

Web:      http://www.cayuga-heights.ny.us/

Phone:  (607) 257-1238 ext 103

Fax:        (607) 257-4910