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HomeMy WebLinkAbout08/14/2018 Study Session Meeting MinutesMARANA TOWN COUNCIL STUDY SESSION 11555 W. Civic center Drive, Marana, Arizona 85653 Council Chambers, August 14, 2018, at or after G:oO PM STUDY SESSION Ed Honea, Mayor Jon Post, Vice Mayor David Bowen, Council Member Patti Comerford, Council Member Herb Kai, Council Member John officer, Council Member Roxanne Ziegler, Council Member CALL To ORDER AND ROLL CALL. Mayor Honea called the meeting to order at 6:01 p.m. All Council Members were present. APPROVAL OF AGENDA. Motion to approve by Council Member Bowen, second by Mice Mayor Fast. .Passed unanimously. CALL TO THE PUBLIC. Ed Stolmaker, President and CEO of the Marana Chamber of Commerce for 15 years, announced that due to health reasons he would be leaving his position as of December 31, 2015. He thanked the town Council and staff for all of their support over the years, and noted that it wasn't an easy decision to leave, but it was in the best interests of the Chamber. The Executive Committee of the Chamber will be the search committee to choose the next CEO, and they hope to have their slate of candidates by October 15th so that they can make their decision by the end of the year. DISCUSSION/DIRECTION/I'OSSISLE ACTION D1 Presentation: Relating to Community and. Intergovernmental Relations; a presentation from newly appointed Fire Chief Brad Bradley of Northwest Fire District regarding the status of the District and planned initiatives (Tony :Hunter). August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes Jamsheed Mehta introduced Chief Brad Bradley, noting that the partnership between the town and Northwest Fire District (NWFD) has existed for decades, and this is a good opportunity to learn what will be forthcoming under Chief Bradley's leadership. Chief Bradley noted that he replaced outgoing Chief Brandt on July 1, 2018. He thanked Council and staff for inviting him to speak and for the support the town has shown NWFD over the years. He has been in the fire service in this community for 23 years and is very passionate about his service and also his ability to serve and grow with the town. I Ie noted that NWFD has been in existence since 1983. Currently, the district has 246 employees, covers 10 stations within 140 square miles, and serves 11.71000 residents and 3,500 businesses with primary funding through a secondary property tax. The district responds to 15,000-16,000 calls annually; the majority of those related to medical issues. Chief Bradley emphasized NWFD as a regional partner. These partnerships as well as regional automatic aid agreements allow NWFD to double their response time. As an example, within the town of Marana, NWFD can bring 23-24 engines to an event. The total capital operating budget is $65M, and the general obligation fund is $4M. The combined tax rate, including a proposed bond tax, is $3.05. The proposed bond projects of $23.6M include four fire stations and an administrative headquarters, all within the town of Marana. Insurance Services Office (ISO) rating is an important component for the public. NWFD currently holds a Class 2 certification which is the second highest given, putting NWFD in the top 3 percent nationwide. However, NWFD is undergoing a review for a re -grading of their ISO as they are just a few points away from achieving an ISO 1 classif ication. They should know within the next 4 weeks if that will be achievable. Tonight is the first public announcement that last week NWFD, through a third party audit, was accredited for another 5 years. There are only 247 accredited agencies nationwide out of 30,000. This designation brings an additional level of credibility, transparency and review to the organization. Five of the six major initiatives under the Strategic Plan are directly related to the Town of. Marana. The goals are establishing financial efficiencies, developing mission -centered relationships, improving internal communications, professional development, providing pre- hospital medical care and maintaining financial sustainability. chief Bradley answered questions from Council related to the location of their new administration building, the location of the new fire stations and the provision of ambulance services. D2 Resolution No. 201.8-076: Relating to Police Department; approving and authorizing the Chief of Police to execute a Task Force Agreement between the United States Department of Justice, Drug Enforcement Administration and the Marana Police Department for Fiscal Year 2019 (Rachel Whitaker). Mayor Honea noted that this item would normally be on a regular agenda as a consent item. However, this item needed to be approved prior to the next regular Council meeting and was therefore set forth here. He asked for a motion. Motion by Council Member Bowen, second by Council ,Member Ziegler. Passed unanimously 7-0. August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 2 D3 Presentation; Relating to Utilities: update, discussion and consideration regarding Unregulated Compounds in the Marana water System (John Kmiec). Mr. Kmiec started with background information, beginning with the discovery of TCE contamination at the Tucson airport in the 1980's. Fast forward to 2014, when Tucson Water's plant to treat TCE and 1.,4 -Dioxane (1,4--D) went online. In late 2016, Tucson Water notified Marana Water and Metro water that they were finding higher levels of 1,4 -Dioxane and PFA's above current health advisories on the northwest side of Tucson (Marana). Marana confirmed 1,4 -Dioxane in wells and notified its customer base. Tucson water and Metro Water turned off their affected groundwater sources. In 2017 Marana sent a letter to ADEQ asking for an investigation and then initiated a water quality assessment study to identify potential solutions to the issues. ADEQ launched a study to collect data from the public and private groundwater sources. In December, Marana finalized the water Quality Assessment report. Next, Mr. Kmiec described the difference between a regulatory standard and a health advisory, noting that a regulatory standard has a fixed value defined by the Safe Drinking water Act or dean Water Act. A health advisory is not an enforceable standard and is generally set after limited toxicological research studies. Next he described perfluorinated compounds such as PFOA and PFOS. These compounds are often found in stains, water and grease repellants. They are also found in drinking water and can affect the environment as well as stay in the human system for periods of time. Of the several wells in the Marana water service area, those with a slightly higher PFOA/PFOS are in the Picture Rocks and Airline/ Lambert/Saguaro Bloom wells. The North Marana, Hartman Vistas, Airport, Palo Verde and Tangerine Business Park wells had either undetected or very low limits. Next, Mr. Kmiec described 1,4 -Dioxane, which is a solvent stabilizer that is commonly used with other chemicals and products such as paints and waxes. It is also found in shampoos, colognes, perfumes and some food products. Research is ongoing as to whether it is a human carcinogen and whether its longterm effects cause kidney and liver damage. Arizona does not have established guidelines, so Marana Water is using the current and most conservative federal EPA guideline. There are many variables which staff has been researching in order to properly address the issue such as (1) will the EPA meet their timeline of Fall 2018 to release guidance and cleanup criteria for soil and groundwater contamination; (2) Based on the limited data set of PFA levels, will the current gradual decline continue; (3) Is the source of the PFA compounds deriving from a single source contributor or the community at large; (4) Is there a primary single source contributor, or is it the community at large that is producing the levels we are seeing; (5) The federal guideline lists two levels of risk exposure to consider: 200 ppb for a cancer risk of one in 10m000 or 0.35 ppb for a lifetime Health Advisory for a one in one million risk of affect. which one should the community use for guidance. Our values in affected areas are around 1 ppb; (6) If 1,4 - Dioxane remains in consumer products, this compound will be used by the entire community and will most likely stay in use for the indefinite future, thus entering our August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 3 watershed. Will manufacturers be reducing 1,4 -Dioxane in the future within their products; (7) Is there a national and local trend of decreasing concentrations; and (8) Will this compound ever be regulated as a drinking water standard? As far as alternatives based on current information, Marana Water began voluntary testing for emerging compounds in the fall of 2016. That resulted in the discovery that Airline -Lambert and Picture Rocks water systems were predominantly affected. Customer notification began, and Carollo Engineers were hired to evaluate blending and treatment alternatives. In 2017, we finalized the Groundwater Quality Improvements report with Carollo Engineers. During this plan, we had to identify if we wanted a treatment or a blending goal, and if so, what would we target. For treatment, we would target full and complete destruction or removal of the water. To meet blending targets, each system would require a replacement capacity of non -detect water at 82%. for Picture Rocks, we looked at whether we could do an interconnect with Tucson Water. Tucson Water had recently shut off the wells that they knew were affected in the Continental Ranch area, so could we do an interconnect with them and they supply enough make-up water to blend these waters down to below the health advisory. Unfortunately, with the Tucson Water shutting off their wells on the northwest side, they are limited on how much excess capacity they have to serve their own customer base. So doing a connect with them did not pan out. Another item we looked at was interconnecting the Picture Rocks system with the Hartman system as well as another project we're working on which is called the Northwest Recharge and Recovery and Delivery System (NWRRDS). That would involve constructing additional infrastructure. Both of these projects are planned, and we plan to have an interconnect with the Hartman system within the next 24 months. By 2023, we plan to have water corning from the NWRRDS, which is the joint pipeline project with the Town of Oro Valley and Metro Water to bring water from the Marana airport area where water has been stored by all three entities into the northwest side. So those are the potential but future options. Or we look at building additional wells. In the Airline -Lambert system., we looked at a possible connection with the NWRRDS and a separate line from the airport system. In addition, we also looked at CAP water. The Saguaro Bloom or the Airline -Lambert system is not too far from the CAP canal. The town does have an allocation of CAP water. In penciling out what it would take to use CAP water directly, it would involve building a pipeline to the canal, recovering from the canal, and building a surface water treatment plant (which is not a small task because when you're treating for surface water, your primary contaminants are viruses, bacteria and other human pathogens which can hurt people in a matter of days). And other filtration would be involved. So the CAP option of building a surface water treatment plant quickly fell off the radar. To meet any of the blending targets, we identified in the report that each system would require a replacement capacity of non - detect water at 82%. This ends up devaluing the current assets that the water customers have invested in to an 18% effectiveness. Also, there is no guarantee of water quality at non -detect levels at the sites constructed for blending purposes. The blending alternative ended up being a very high risk for any option. August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 4 That left the treatment scenario to be identified. We did identify treatments where we could get full capture or absorption of perfluorinated compounds as well as destruction of organic compounds like 1,4 -Dioxane. Next, Mr. Kmiec gave details of the treatment scenario identified for the Picture Rocks/ Continental Reserve Water System. The initial capital cost to serve the needs of that area is approximately $5.7M. Add to that some annual O&M costs of $165K. This is based on current volumes of water to meet the needs of the community. Looking at the Saguaro Bloom water treatment site, this is a site that does not require additional purchase of property by the town as the property the town currently owns can be expanded as becomes necessary due to future growth of development. Saguaro Bloom, Airline and Lambert would be brought into the compound with a similar treatment mechanism. The current cost for a treatment plant at the Airline -Lambert/ Saguaro Bloom well is $4.3M in addition to annual o & M costs of $98K. He then provided current information from the EPA and ADEQ regarding 1,4 - Dioxane and perfluorinated compounds and PFA remediation and regulatory movement. Mr. Kmiec concluded his remarks by noting that Marana is downstream of a large metropolitan area. The Lower Santa Cruz River watershed is comprised of treated wastewater and storm water runoff; each of which may contain regulated and unregulated compounds at varying levels. The federal government, State of Arizona and multiple regional jurisdictions all store future water supplies within and along the Santa Cruz River in Marana. The future will continue to create challenges to meet water, wastewater and storm water compliance within our watershed. If we believe that the current declining, trend were to continue, it will take several years for these compounds to get below the current advisory levels, but there is no guarantee that the declining trends will continue or that the health advisories will remain the same. In the meantime, Marana Water will continue to sample and evaluate the water systems for water quality changes, monitor and engage EPA on future Health Advisory changes or movement toward regulatory standards, research and identify potential responsible parties and hold them ultimately accountable; and move forward on the assumption that blending is not a viable option, but treatment would be fully effective. Vice Mayor Post stated that the town should build the treatment plants. Secondly, Marana should develop a water quality standard, or ordinance, that sets automatic targets for the town so that as water is tested and it comes back with certain levels of compounds, it is already set in matron what Marana water will do. The third thing, and where we will need the community support, is to find funding options, because it will be expensive. There are several options that could come forward such as a 1/ 10th of a percent of an additional sales tax is $1M per year. It's not even something that people who shop in Marana would even notice, but it would be a revenue stream that would guarantee us quality for our residents. As this is ongoing, there could potentially be more contaminated wells, so we need to be assured that our residents can have clean water. Council Member Ziegler stated that she is not an advocate of taxing, but she believes that the town needs to provide clean water. She then read an excerpt from an August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 5 Associated Press article regarding a national management plan by the EPA regarding compounds by the end of the year. The federal agency would like to cede more regulatory actions to the states. She asked Mr. Kmiec if the Tucson wells are clean now. Her preference is to fix the situation and then seek recovery from those responsible if we can. Mr. Kmiec responded that the Tucson. Water policy is that if they detect unregulated compounds in their wells, they have been shutting them. off. The wells in Continental Ranch have been shut off, and he is hearing that they are going further into the City (of Tucson). Their first response is to find out what the impact of this is. Tucson Water can bring most of the water to the community and the region from the storage of CAP water in Avra Valley which has accumulated over the last 20 years. A lot of that infrastructure is their primary infrastructure. A lot of the wells used. within Tucson proper are to augment the recovered CAP water to the west of the City. So they are able to shut off wells without too much impact to the system right now. But he does not know what their next steps will be. council Member Zeigler continued that as to where we get the money to build the treatment plants, she is in favor of getting this done immediately. She suggested deferring some capital improvement projects, although she acknowledged that does affect the strategic plan and budget. Council Member Bowen agreed with Vice Mayor Post about creating a water policy for the town so that we have standards to which we adhere and are not dependent so much on what the government is figuring out. He is also in favor of pursuing the most aggressive means of dealing with this - building the treatment plants. He asked that if once these treatment plants are constructed, can they handle other contaminants that may or may not have been identified as carcinogens. Mr. Kmiec noted that these two treatment processes with ion exchange and advanced oxidation are very aggressive in tried and true treatment processes. Anything within the chemical classes that we're looking at can be destroyed with an advanced oxidation process. These are very good treatment processes for full capture and destruction of multiple chemical classes. Council Member Bowen asked Mr. Mehta if it would be possible for staff to put together a treatment proposal, including a timeline for construction, scope of projects and funding and presented to Council in a month so that there would be something solid to look at. Mr. Mehta responded affirmatively, and noted that this is also in line with what Council Member Ziegler proposed - to look at all of the logical options that we have, including our existing resources and also add in the full operational costs to run these systems. He asked that staff be given the months of August and September to prepare then come back to Council in late September or early October. That should be enough time for us to talk with our outside financial consultants and review our internal resources. Council Member Bowen asked about the Lifetime Health Advisory that refers to the amount taken into the body during the course of a life. Mr. Kmiec responded that the definition is 70 years at 2 liters a day; at the most conservative value you would have a one in one million chance of having a health effect related to that. Council Member Bowen responded that right now we may be 2 to 3 times that. Mr. Kmiec responded yes for 1,4 -Dioxane. council Member Kai stated that he also supports the program. He August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 6 suggested that another option to look at would be delivery of CAP water. We have an allocation and as far as diversion, there could possibly be an IGA between BKW Farms and the town to bring water up to Avra Valley Road, and from there it would be a short distance of 3,000 to 4,000 feet to get to the holding tanks. CAP water is probably the cleanest water around due to their very strict guidelines. But you do have to worry about the salt content - that would have to be treated. There could be less cost in treating CAP water because there is less in there to remove. But we have to be careful in treating that water. But CAP water is still better than groundwater. He also indicated that the developer is obligated to drill a well in Saguaro Bloom. Possibly we can shift some of that money for the new well into the treatment plant. But direct delivery of CAP seems the best way. Council Member Ziegler indicated that earlier in his presentation, Mr. Kmiec wasn't happy with CAP water option. Mr. Kmiec responded that when staff looped at CAP water, it ends up that we have to convert to a surface water treatment plant. That will mean dealing with filtration, coagulation, disinfection, and pH adjustment, which was one of the issues that City of Tucson had 20 years ago. Putting all that together and acquiring the property and being able to do it quickly fell off as a viable option. Another issue with CAP is that it is a single canal from the Phoenix area to Tucson. So for four to eight weeks a year, the supply is cut off which means we wouldn't be able to use the treatment plant. And if we didn't have treatment on our wells as a redundant source of supply, we wouldn't have any way to deliver water; we would go back to the wells that we are currently having an issue with. Council Member Kai said that he defers to the experts and staff. He had been talking to folks at Metro Water, and they indicated that it was just a lower cost; he doesn't really know, but he would like staff to look into it. Council Member Comerford stated that for the future, she hopes that we are looking at redundancy so that we can have the same opportunity that Tucson has - turning off a well that's bad, and turning one on that isn't. She asked if the well at the Marana airport is a good well. Mr. Kmiec responded that the two wells currently at the airport have been non -detect for both compounds, and we believe part of the reason they have been that way is that is where Oro Valley, Metro Water, the State as well as Marana have historically been recharging CAP water. So if these contaminants or compounds are related to the Santa Cruz River, where we have historically been storing our CAP water has created a bubble of water to push those compounds away. Council Member Comerford asked if it could be feasible to look at putting a line from the airport to the Saguaro Bloom area as an alternative, especially since that area will be growing. Mr. Kmiec stated they are definitely looking at that. But now while we are getting into the design stage, Marana Water is looking at not only a way to move our water resources or make redundancy and interconnect all of our water systems, but if the airport levels stay where they are now, can we use this to help water quality concerns in some of those areas. So yes, we are looking at that. The recovery line will go down Avra Valley Road, and possibly "T" at Airline Road. So if we do have a treatment alternative and the airport continues to maintain water quality below these levels, then it's about a quarter -mile extension to move it to that campus, and we would have a redundant supply as well as water that wouldn't have to be treated. Eventually, he August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 7 would like to see all Marana water systems connected for resource sharing, and balance based on energy costs, water quality concerns and the ability to move water around the whole community. Council Member Comerford wants to be sure that we are constantly following up on the levels to make sure that our sewer, which is putting out 4. Grade A water now, doesn't have anything that we're passing on down the line. Vice Mayor Post asked whether levels Increased when the treatment plant at Ina Road carne online after the remodel, or had staff not been testing prior to that. Mr. Kmiec responded that what is tricky about these compounds is that they're unregulated so they are not on any standard testing protocol or review with the Safe Drinking water Act if you're a water provider, or the Clean water Act if you're a wastewater provider. A lot of the detections that have made in the Tucson and Marana region is because of curiosity of the local water providers wanting to know - these are also happening at a national level -- do we have these compounds in our system as well. There are detections coming out of the two wastewater treatment plants for 1,4 -Dioxane and Perfluorinated compounds with Pima County. And the Saguaro Bloom community does move its wastewater now to Marana, so we have detections of these at our facility as well. Vice Mayor Post continued by asking when you clean this water up and put it into a home, you know it's clean, but what comes out? Are a lot of contaminants coming out of the house (besides sewage)? Mr. Kmiec responded that if consumers or homeowners are using household products such as cleaners, laundry soaps, shampoos, conditioners as well as any other detergent, if it ends up down the drain it ends up at the local wastewater treatment facility. since an aggressive form of treatment is necessary for each of these, that's not normal in a conventional wastewater treatment process. They just pass through the system and end up in the watershed at the end of the pipe. A lot of these compounds are in daily use. Vice Mayor Post asked if UV light takes any of those compounds out at the plant. Mr. Kmiec responded that UV is our form of disinfection which is different from setting it up for chemical destruction. Council Member Officer noted that he has been following this discussion since late 2016, and he feels that we need to put in the necessary filtration systems. He wants to mare sure that staff is acting rather than reacting. council Member Ziegler stated that staff or Council had talked a couple of years ago about running a pipe down Avra Talley Load. Could vire take sewer to the airport to attract businesses. Mr. Kmiec stated that the airport has a large commercial septic system for the east side. we've had the system but no businesses to connect to it. The water system at the airport is very resilient. There are two large -capacity wells as well as a large diameter loop system.. Council Member Bowen asked if any of our citizens are really concerned right now, are there commercially available systems you can put on a home water tap to f filter the water. Mr. Kmiec indicated that his staff has been providing information to their customers about granular activated carbon -type home treatment systems which are very effective. A refrigerator or pitcher filter or other filters that rely on granular activated carbon are very good at reducing levels of perfluorinated compounds. Marana Water has a link on its website for a study that was funded by Good Housekeeping magazine and done at the University of Arizona where home treatment filtering August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 8 systems were tested and which found that they removed perfluorinated compounds as well as other things. They are actually very good. When it comes to 1,4 -Dioxane that is trickier because it is a solvent chemical, so without doing the advance oxidation such as is suggested for the community system, reverse osmosis systems show some effectiveness in removing 1,4 -Dioxane. In studies that he and others on his staff have reviewed, there is only about a 40-60% reduction, and it is not a destruction. There is a link to the Good Housekeeping study on the Marana ,'LIITater webpage under Unregulated Compounds. Vice Mayor Post stated that he is personally opposed to any interconnects. He thinks interconnects are valuable for any water system down the road, but for this particular problem right now, we need to treat at the source. council Member Officer asked for clarification on the main health issue, be it exposure to drinking or for washing. Mr. Kmiec stated that it's tricky, particularly for 1,4 -Dioxane because it's in cosmetics, shampoos and conditioners and detergents that people use on their body all the time. The Water Department is focused on the ingestion of drinking water as a health risk. Whether there is a health risk with skin absorption is not our immediate focus. But because they are commercial products used every day, that effect is still undetermined. Mayor Honea stated that it appears the Council is interested in getting treatment on both the Airline and the Picture Rocks wells as quickly as possible, and hopefully within four to six weeks staff will be able to get back to Council on a plan of attack. We still have to work on financing, but that is not the most important issue. The most important issue is cleaning up the water. Mayor I Ionea then called on speakers for this item. Speakers included Joyce Reid, who noted that Marana takes things actively and proactively. She complimented the Water Department for the work they have done on this issue over the last two years. Whether it's for economic or health reasons, she asked that Council take the action necessary to treat the water. Dennis Reid stated that he had heard some very good things from Council Members that indicate they are willing to move forward and take action. He is not opposed to a taxation, especially if it will help save lives. Michael Burgess lives just outside the town limits and is serviced by the Lambert -Airline well. He is pleased to see the Council take positive action. He would also like to see TCE, pesticides and herbicides reported due to the proximity to a military installation and the agriculture in surrounding areas. Patricia Gehr indicated that her points had been covered. William Eldridge spoke in support of the treatment plants being worth the cost, and asked for expedited movement. He is a proponent of the town and wants to see it succeed. Jack Ferguson noted that most of his questions were answered during the presentation. He thanked Council for their decisiveness and asked that Council keep it going rather than do one study after another. I ie further noted that this is a personal issue for him as he believes his daughter's health was affected by contaminants. Shawna Larson spoke in support of the treatment plant. She is happy with all that was discussed tonight and asked that Council keep the momentum going and keep the community informed. Linda Robles who lives within the Tucson Airport superfund site spoke regarding her concern that the ACCP is not enough. She was asked by some of her constituents to come August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 9 and speak to Council about the research she has done regarding 1,4 -Dioxane and other contaminants. She urged Council to take action against TCE as well. Mary Hoover from Continental Reserve, spoke regarding a news article that said the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry has recommended that the health hazard level be reduced for PFOA's and PFOS's from 70 parts per trillion to 7 parts per trillion. She is glad to know that Council is aware of that. She believes that the treatment that is recommended tonight will take care of that. The expense planned for the long term will make the best use of those dollars. Mayor Honea thanked the staff for a great presentation. He also thanked the audience who he noted was professional and courteous. Council is trying to do whatever they can to fix this situation as quickly as possible. They will be accountable. EXECUTIVE SESSIONS Pursuant to A.R.S. § 38-431.03, the Town Council may vote to go into executive session, which will not be open to the public, to discuss certain matters. E1 Executive Session pursuant to A.R.S. §38-431.03 (A)(3), Council may ask for discussion or consultation for legal advice with the Town Attorney concerning any matter listed on this agenda. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT. Motion to adjourn at 7:49 p.m. by Vice Mayor Post, second by council Member Bowen. Passed unanimously 7-0. CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing are the true and correct minutes of the study session/presentation of the Marana Town Council held on August 14, 2018. I further certify that a quorum was present. Jocelyn ,. Bronson, Town Clerk August 14, 2018 Study Session Minutes 10