- Well, friends, I have five o'clock. So let's go ahead and call our meeting of the utility services board
- for March 23rd, 2026 to order. And we'll start with the mission of the city of Bloomington utilities
- is to enhance the quality of life in our community by providing safe, sustainable and high quality drinking water.
- wastewater and stormwater services in a cost-effective manner, promoting public health, economic vitality
- and environmental stewardship. And our vision is to be the leading municipal water utility organization
- in Indiana. And just a reminder that if any board member has any personal or financial conflict with
- any issues or individuals on the agenda, then please be sure to recuse yourself during those portions
- of the meeting. All right.
- First item on the agenda are any petitions and communications from board or the public? All right, seeing
- none, we'll move to the approval of the minutes of our previous meeting on March the 9th. Everybody
- had a chance to review the minutes. I'll entertain a motion that we approve. It's been moved and seconded.
- Any discussion further? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, the minutes are approved. Next
- item is item four. Four A is standard invoices. We have a nine page list there totaling $844,502.01.
- Questions on the invoices? Yeah. I have a couple of questions. So the first one's on page one. The 502
- equipment monthly rental of the mechanical sweeper, I think that's the first time, I know I've missed
- a couple of meetings, but is that the, are we renting? There are new vendors, yeah, that need to work
- on our back trucks. Okay, so we have to- They come on site and do repairs and maintenance. Okay. Yeah.
- I think you're asking about the rental. I'm asking about the rental. Oh, OK. Yeah. I'm sorry. We are
- renting a mechanical sweeper? Yes. Do we need this long term, or it's an awfully expensive rental? Yes.
- So what we're doing right now is it's a different kind of sweeper than the sweeper we have. We are seeing
- if it's more effective kind of picking up larger matted debris than our regenerative sweeper.
- It may be useful in certain situations that a regenerative sweeper is not the best tool. So we're kind
- of seeing how effective that is through renting it before thinking about any decisions on buying new
- equipment. And what type of sweeper are we talking about here? Mechanical street sweeper. So then that
- goes to ask my other question about, I've got several questions today. So we also have some insurance
- claims on page eight with the incident with the street sweeper. So is that the reason why we have to
- have this? Are these completely unrelated? Completely unrelated. Okay. So let me just get this straight.
- Number one, we're testing out some new equipment. Yes. To replace the sweeper that we paid for, no,
- a new sweeper. To have an addition as an additional tool because it sweeps a little differently than
- the one we have. Perfect.
- So then my other questions, since I brought this up on page eight, are the various insurance claims,
- if we could get just a little bit of information. First of all, was anybody injured in any of those?
- So you said page eight. Page eight. Travelers indemnity. I just want to make sure everyone was okay
- on our team. Nothing happened. And then probably just a little bit more information about what happened
- to the street sweeper that
- I'm not sure what happened with the street sweeper damages, but nobody, we didn't have staff injured,
- no external public injured, no injuries. But those are four different vehicles, correct? Yes. That we've
- had claims with. And again, I guess, is there any other information about what has happened with these
- accidents?
- I don't have specific on the incidents. I do think that these incidents happened over a broader span
- of time and that these are all just getting built at the same time. So it's not like we just all of
- a sudden had four incidents. I think they're just all being built at the same time. Okay, all right.
- Then my other question is,
- on claim page number two, the Leonard's Linen property. Is it more? This will have to give you some
- background on that one. But are we getting any closer or is this just? I noticed that came out of the
- stormwater account. I just didn't know if that was. They're spreading the cost of that settlement across
- departments? There's some background on all that.
- that we could share with you. Yeah, well, where do we start? I guess, Leonard's site, remember third
- and Lincoln. Third and Lincoln. So when we did the next phase of the Big River project, we found a lot
- of contaminated soil.
- And so Chris is joining us to take over the legal side. I'd be happy to discuss this with you offline.
- It's in litigation, and I don't think we should be discussing the merits of the case. And I'm not saying
- you're going to get into it, but I just want to get us off that slope before we find ourselves in a
- tricky spot. I'd be very happy to have a full length conversation with you about it. Bottom line is
- there's some litigation going on over contaminated soil we discovered during a
- a project that was taking us up through Lincoln and Third Street. And so there is some additional expenditure
- occurring because we are trying to go through discovery and ramp up towards mediation and then litigation.
- So that's what I was asking for. We're just an update where we are. So great. All right. I think the
- part of it is that we cleaned it up. Now we've got to see what we can do to recoup our costs.
- Those are my only questions on the claims. Just for my own education, I assume that this cost for printing
- postage and mailing is just like our average monthly costs that you would just about average. Thanks.
- Good discussion. Anything else on our standard invoices for today? All right, I will accept the motion
- to approve those.
- Moved and seconded. Any further discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right, motion carries.
- Next is our utility bills, your utility claims list, totaling $206,714.83. Any questions about the utility
- bills? I entertain a motion to approve.
- we approve the utility claims list. We moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye.
- Aye. Opposed? All right. Next then is our wire transfers totaling $583,288.27. Any discussion? Questions?
- I entertain a motion to approve. I move that we approve the wire transfers.
- We moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor, say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. That is
- carried and approved. And next are the customer refunds. Wait a minute. Do I need to approve a special
- check run? Oh, that's further down. OK. There we go. I passed it already. OK. Customer refunds, totaling.
- $16,069.03. Yeah, Jim. Yeah, thanks. Because I live in Renwick, I noticed that there's a rather large
- amount of the Renwick HOA. Can you explain that? Now what? They overpaid us, and so we just refunded
- the difference.
- But when they made their payment, they paid the wrong amount. And this is just us refunding the difference.
- So that's for the, I don't see that they use a lot of water in the park. I don't believe so, not. I've
- never seen it irrigated, so I'm just wondering. It's interesting. All right.
- I'll ask around and now it's around. Okay. That one and several others use the reason for refund as
- adjustment refund. I don't know if I've just noticed that different today or if that's different language.
- And there were several that had in the several thousand dollars in the adjustment refunds. So when people
- have water leaks and it doesn't go down the wastewater system, we give them
- refund for the sewer portion under bill okay so they were able to demonstrate that we have a whole process
- for it good okay thank you any other questions on customer refunds okay ready for it's been moved and
- seconded any other discussion all in favor say aye aye opposed all right customer refunds are approved
- Next is the special check run in the amount of $1,888.93. Any discussion on those? All right. I move
- that we approve the special check runs. Second. Moved and seconded for the special check run. Any other
- discussion further? All right. All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carries for the special check run.
- That brings us up to the approval of the consent agenda. Director Zager. Good evening. I'm Katherine
- Zager, utilities director. I'm presenting tonight's consent agenda, totaling $20,651 for nonchemical
- contracts. There was a last minute update. One of the contracts was removed, so it may differ from the
- agenda you currently have.
- The first contract is with Water Solutions Unlimited Inc. for $4.72 per gallon for the 2026 supply of
- hydrofluorosilic acid, which is fluoride for the new bulk system at Monroe Water Plant. Next is with
- Harrell Fish Inc. for $5,470 for maintenance, repairs, and replacements of the heating system at the
- service center.
- Next is with Electric Plus Inc. for $11,960 for the PD blower number three electrical reconfiguration
- at Dillman. Next is with Alliance of Indiana Rural Water for $2,500 for confined space entrenched safety
- training. Next is with Corson Fire and Security for $721 for service center sprinkler system inspections.
- Is there any member who wishes to consider one or more of these items individually? Hearing none, if
- there's no opposition, these items will be approved as recommended by staff. Hearing no opposition,
- the consent agenda is approved. Thank you, Kat. All right. The next item is item seven, requesting approval
- of amendment number one.
- to the agreement with SSW Enterprises doing business as Office Pride. And, whoops. Did we take one out?
- Wait. I don't have a six. Okay. Now that happened, okay.
- All right, we have a request for approval of an on-call service agreement with Flow Solutions. Matt?
- This is a usual on-call contract, and this company does work on our air compressors at the plants. So
- we just wanted to be available to come fix things for us. All right. Any discussion on that agenda item?
- Okay it's been moved and seconded to approve the on-call service agreement flow solutions any other
- discussion all in favor say aye opposed all right motion carries thank you now we're ready for the approval
- for agreement with services with SSW enterprises doing business as office pride
- is for the service center here and they clean three days a week, Wednesday and Friday. What we discovered
- was if we were closed on a Monday, they would come Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. So they're cleaning
- two days in a row, which we didn't think was needed. So we're changing the contract to have them not
- come in if the office is closed. Okay, so is it a reduction, Matt?
- Yeah, because if there is a holiday, they will only clean two days a week. And it'll be, I think it's
- about $290 a clean. So it's, since we're shrinking from three cleanings to two cleanings, does the dollar
- amount of the contract reduce from what we originally? Yeah, for every clean that would have been on
- a holiday would save us about $290. Okay.
- And let's say right now it's Monday, Wednesday, Friday. So work Friday, leave, and then the office is
- not fully staffed over the weekend. So then Monday, so it's basically like clean it two days in a row
- with a Friday, Monday clean, correct? That's what we have now. But what we're saying is that they're
- contracted for three days a week now. Sure. They would clean when nobody's here. Correct. I guess. Right.
- And so if we were closed on a holiday on a Monday, we didn't want them to come back Tuesday and Wednesday.
- to clean two days in a row? Sure. I guess what I'm saying is, do they need to come three days in a row,
- or would it be good to have two days? Like, do a Tuesday, Friday, instead of Monday, Wednesday, Friday,
- just on a regular week. I'm not trying to say. I don't know what your cleaning needs are, so I don't
- want to say no cleaning services. That's just asking. We are not fully staffed on the weekend, so Friday
- to Monday does seem back to back.
- So that's something we can look into. This is not an amendment, this is the overall agreement. It's
- an amendment. Oh, it's an amendment to the agreement, okay. Okay, any other questions? All right. I
- move that we approve the agreement for services with SSW Enterprises.
- It's been moved and seconded to approve the agreement with SSW Enterprises. Any other discussion. All
- in favor say aye. Opposed. All right. Motion carries. Thank you. Next is the request for approval of
- the amendment to the service agreement with Lane Christiansen Company.
- Good evening. Hector Ortiz, Assistant Director of Operation. I'm here to request the approval of this
- amendment. It's about 4,200 more from the original price. When they quoted, they quoted with some amount of copper
- the winding of the motor, and when they took it out, when they took it to the shop and pulled it apart,
- they found that the one that they quoted, it was the wrong size, so they're going to use a little bit
- more now. Happy to answer any more questions. Any questions for Hector? All right. I move that we approve
- the request for contract with Lane Christians & Company. Moved and seconded. Any other discussion?
- All in favor say aye. Opposed? Okay, motion carries. Thank you, actor. Okay, next on the agenda is requesting
- the on-call approval of the on-call agreement with Marshall Security. Wow. That's what I give her taking
- notes with my phone call today on an old agenda. We'll switch to the new one.
- All right, so we took that one off, right? Okay. All right. What number is that here? Okay,
- here we go. Yes, here we are. Request approval amendment number four to the Monroe Water Treatment Plant
- chemical feed line replacement with Donahue and Associates.
- I'm Dan Hudson capital projects manager for the city of Bloomington utilities And I'd like the board
- to consider amendment number four for the Donahue design project for the Monroe water treatment of plant
- chemical feed project this has been a long project a lot of Changes in the design and we're finally
- pushing to the last part here. We've extended the time to end of December so
- Wessler is asking for an additional $51,500 to do that. Donahue? Donahue, I'm sorry. Donahue. All right,
- any questions for Dan on this one? All right. I move that we approve the amendment number four for the
- chemical feed line with Donahue.
- It's been moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion
- carries for that contract. Thank you. And so next then is request approval. The service agreement with
- T. Lai Tai Lin Electrical Engineering Consulting on upgrades at Dillman. All right. Where am I?
- All right. We have too many versions of agendas here. Take this one. All right. That one away. All right,
- next then. Cocosing Industrial, request approval for change order number three for the construction
- services with Cocosing Industrial for Dillman Road wastewater treatment plant site safety process
- improvements. Yeah, this is another big project.
- that is on the verge of closing, but we need to finish it up by going through a change order process.
- They have like 12 different items that we've gone through. Most of them are added, some of them are
- deduct, but they've all been listed in the back there. They're asking for a $62,534 addition to their contract.
- Any other questions for Dan on this one? All right. I move that we approve the change order number three.
- Second. All right. Moved and seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed?
- All right. Motion carries. Thank you. As an addition to that, I just want to say probably there will
- be one more change order.
- coming in before the end of the project, so anticipate that. Got it. Things change, we understand.
- They do, yes. All right, I think the next item is requesting approval of a service agreement with TY
- Lin Consulting, Dan Hudson. Yeah, this is TY Lin, formerly known as Grayley Hanson.
- And this is a consulting project for $59,284. And this is for in preparation for the rate evaluation.
- Usually the board of rates wants a hard cost to know exactly what we're gonna do and back it up. And
- that's what this contract is for, is to give us a consulting cost for the capital that's coming up.
- Okay. Any other questions for Dan on this? I move that we approve the professional services agreement
- with Thailand. I move and second. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Motion carried.
- All right.
- Then we have the next one is approval of a service agreement with T.Y. Lin, electrical engineering consulting
- on upgrades at Dillman. This is a design contract for the large electrical job that's been sitting out
- there for a couple of years. And T.Y. Lin is asking $445,096 for this. This is a big job.
- and we expect it may take over a year of design. Is there any questions on the job that opened the question?
- We just say the summary of the contract is providing electrical engineering consulting on electrical
- upgrade project at Dillman for the improvement of the substation main switch gear and emergency generators.
- Yes. That's a lot.
- That's a lot, and it's mostly, it's gonna be a high dollar job for construction, but that's mainly for
- the equipment. The transformers, the switch gears are all very expensive, but the design to do that
- is typically a little less than a normal civil engineering job. And as I was discussing earlier today,
- this is a situation where
- we maintain the substation, which is a little unusual. I think here and there we do, I guess. It's been
- questioned several times, and we've gone back to Duke and so forth, because we were wondering if Monroe,
- it turned out Monroe Water Treatment Plant, they own the substation, they'll maintain it, but at Dillman,
- We own the substation, and we maintain it. And right now, it's approaching 40-some years old. You don't
- want that to fail? No. We don't want that to fail. Everything goes. Yeah. What is the lifespan
- for substation? It could go 40 years, maybe 50. And if you look at it, it looks OK. Yeah.
- If it was okay, there would be a lot less companies and business building them, right? That's true.
- But we did have a failure at one of our medium voltage switches in the last couple weeks. So that could
- be an indicator that we need to get on it. And then does this improve our emergency generator capacity
- there or does it maintain it? Both. Right now we have
- two outlets for emergency generators that will run the whole plant. We have one emergency generator
- that's in place now that runs the headworks, but it doesn't run the blowers or anything else. So we
- have outlets, but for us to do that, we have to rent generators. And these are big generators that
- take a long time to get in. And so in an emergency situation, it would be tough to receive these. I've
- looked at different places. And I think the only place I found one that we could get one was in Connecticut.
- So just to get one over here would be tough. So we're looking at putting in permanent ones. But when
- we get to that point, which would be the end of the project, let's see what costs we have left and money
- at that time. Good.
- Well, that's a good direction ahead. Yeah. At least we'll have a design for it, and it'll be shovel-ready
- in case we get a grant, some house of money, possibly. Is this project something we would anticipate
- in our rate case, then? This was in the rate case last time. OK. But it's not only the design, but the
- construction as well. Yes. And I have to refer that to Phil.
- He's the expert on that. Thank you. Good evening, Philippine Engineering. It was in the last rate case,
- but there was other projects that have moved forward since then. And this cost has went up substantially.
- So it will be included in the next rate case, this part of the project. Thank you. I would like to also
- note that Dan was talking about having, so this is for the engineering.
- I think it's really important for us to have shovel-ready projects like having design for these generators,
- because these are the kinds of projects that can really attract external funding. And so if we have
- something to present, we're a lot more likely to be granted, you know, to be accepted to grants or have
- that external funding. Great. Okay. Any other discussion or questions?
- agreement. Okay then moved and seconded all in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay motion carried.
- Thank you. All right next is the request for approval of the amendment number two to the agreement with
- VET environmental engineering and looks like Chris will present on that.
- Good afternoon again Chris Wheeler with city legal and this is an amendment to the agreement that we
- have with vet at the moment which we're covering expenses for their work on the Leonard Lenin's litigation
- they went they are
- integral in the information that we're sharing through discovery right now with the Leonard's attorneys,
- um, providing them with information on the work that was done there, the remediation that was necessary,
- uh, the methods by which we did the remediation. They have a lot of the information. And so, uh, as
- we're moving through the different phases of discovery, we're continuing, continuing to incur some cost
- with vet as they continue to do work for the city as we prepare for litigation.
- And that's what this one is, and we would ask that you approve it. Okay, any questions for attorney
- Wheeler? Yeah. So it looks like it's increased six times the original amount. So that's a lot.
- Just saying. Well, it's not unexpected. We don't know what amount of time it will be spent trying to
- get together documentation. They're going to also probably have one or two of their
- employees be deposed at some point, which will also cost additional money. We don't know whether that'll
- happen because we might find a way to get it resolved beforehand, but that's why there's no way to anticipate
- the total amount of the cost of having them serve as these expert. They're not really our expert witnesses,
- but they certainly have expertise in the field and they are rather critical to the case.
- says not to exceed no lawyers no that's not gonna work and it's not gonna work in this case we're gonna
- we just have to pay as we go okay all right with that environmental okay it's been moved and seconded
- any further discussion all right all in favor say aye opposed all right motion carries thank you
- Next is the presentation, the USB application to the Indiana Finance Authority for the Special Revolving
- Funding, State Revolving Fund, I think, for lead service line replacement. Good evening. I'm Erica Walker.
- I'm with Arcadis. Yeah, and I'm Justin Master, Water Quality Coordinator for Utilities.
- Okay. And we're here to ask for your approval to submit a funding application to replace lead service
- lines and deteriorating mains across the water system. So in this presentation, we're going to talk
- about why this needs to happen. Some of the policy public health drivers and then CPUs needs, then we'll
- talk a little bit about the funding opportunity. Why, why now? Why we think that the,
- see if you should take advantage of this moment and then get into the proposed project and some of the
- estimated cost. So the biggest thing is public health. Lead is the most widely studied neurotoxin in
- world history. I mean the Romans used it for their
- water system, and some people tie that to the fall of the Roman Empire. So we've known that it's been
- bad for a long time, but not until Flint, Michigan did we as a country understand that leaving lead
- pipes in our system posed risk to citizens. And so you can see there on the bottom, this shows you a
- policy change. It's called the Lead and Copper Rule Improvements, and it's following the Flint, Michigan
- water crisis.
- And EPA over the last eight to 10 years has been evolving the regulation a lot. And the CBU has a lot
- to do in the next 10 years. Starting in 2027, they have that nice long list of things to do, including
- updating an updated inventory of every service line material in the system. And it starts the clock
- on a 10 year timeline to replace all lead service lines in the system.
- And it gets them into some other nuances that you might hear about over the years, like offering to
- sample school and child care facilities for lead in the system. So this is a big change, comprehensive
- change, and a lot of work to do for the utility. They've been working, as you will see, to prepare for
- this for many years. And this is just the next step in the preparation that they're taking. As we move
- along the timeline here, you get about halfway into that 10 years. You have to have completed all
- the school and child care facilities in your system and then get over to 2037 and zero unknown service
- line materials. So knowing every single one and having to at least try to replace all of your lead service
- lines. And as I said, the utility has been working on this issue for a long time. I was actually an
- intern here in graduate school and I worked in a cubicle over there.
- we were looking for lead service lines in the same neighborhoods that this project is centered on. So,
- you know, over a decade ago, Justin's predecessor actually suspected this, and we started going out,
- and sure enough, they are there. And Justin can talk a little bit more about what they've been up to.
- Yeah. Again, Justin Mesher with Water Quality. I won't try to cram everything we've done over the last
- five to seven years, more in particular, because that's kind of more related to this project.
- But just a couple of things we've done. We did a deep dive into our records here, talked to a lot of
- our, I won't say more experienced employees that had better field knowledge of kind of our practices
- going back many years to try to put together this inventory that we originally submitted two years ago
- now, which was kind of our initial inventory. And if you don't know the exact number, it's over 27,000
- services. So it's a lot of services to try to go identify.
- Along the bottom there, you can see that we still have over 9,000 that are unknown. Even since we put
- this together, we've brought that down under 9,600. So we kind of evolve every day of trying to identify
- some of our outreaches, trying to ask people to call in if you know what your service line is made of
- or to help us identify those. So it's kind of an everyday effort to reduce those unknowns and find that
- service lines. On the top there, you can see we do offer water sampling now.
- Everybody that received our notifications that went out last year, if you have an unknown service line,
- a lead service line, or certain types of galvanized lines, I'll just lump those in with lead for now.
- You receive this notification and the offer for us to come collect a water sample for lead testing.
- We do have a new instrument or new-ish instrument out at Dillman where we do run these samples in-house
- now free of cost to our customers, which has been a big benefit because per sample at, you know,
- Outsourcing to lab we were paying quite a bit for that So we are trying to get a lot of use out of our
- ICP for doing that in-house free of charge, which has been great You know as I mentioned we do have
- done a lot of outreach to consumers trying to get More involvement, you know, I think you know we get
- 20% Return on some of these efforts. That's pretty good for us You know, that's high for some utilities.
- So, you know people calling in to identify or filling out our online
- portal for if you know what your service line is, I think is a new tool for us that's been very helpful.
- And then replacing lead lines, previously we've been doing what was called find and replace. So over
- the last 20 plus years when we found lead service lines, we were replacing them at the time of finding
- them, whether it was through other projects or if somebody had a service line break and we found lead,
- we were replacing those as we found them. More recently with this inventory and the funding options,
- they've asked us, you know,
- inventory room from now and then when we hit this next deadline start to replace them. So this project
- is kind of just giving us a head start on that to try to get the known lead lines that we have now out
- of the ground. And then as Erica said you know a lot more goes into this with some of the school and
- child care facility samplings but that's you know down the road for us as far as sampling goes.
- And then of course we're seeking your approval to try to get some some funding for CBU to replace these
- service lines. This is part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, which for the first time.
- in American history made specific funds available for lead service line replacement and targeting it
- as well in disadvantaged communities including grant funding and giving that to the state revolving
- funds around the country. This is the last year that those funds are available unless other states don't
- take advantage of them then IFA and other states that SRFs that have communities with lead will be able to
- to get some of that. So we might see a little tail end, but this could be the last year of funding.
- And as part of that, for IFA, there's a portion of that money that can be given out as a principal
- forgiveness loan, which is essentially a grant. After you complete, you issue into the paperwork for
- a loan, but then once you complete the project, the entire principal of that portion of the loan is forgiven.
- And then for any project that involves work in disadvantaged communities or lead, they offer zero to
- low, very low interest loans or longer payback terms. We've seen, usually they're 30 years, but we've
- seen it go upwards of 40 for projects like this. And then just to let you know, for a community like
- CBU with this current MHI,
- that the city has, looking at an interest rate, a standard interest rate of around 2.38%. That's what's
- published on IFA's website. That's subject to change. You learn about that more in the loan closing,
- but those are the rates they're advertising. In terms of the requirements for getting this funding,
- you have to put together an application, which is what we've done as part of this project, and a preliminary
- engineering report, which is a long document that goes into the project area.
- IFA wants to understand CBU's needs, what their priorities are, so we've gone through all that and put
- together that document. And then, of course, you'll see after this, there's two resolutions before you,
- and one is to allow us to submit that PER and then to give us an authorized signatory to sign off on
- the loan if the funding package, if CBU is selected.
- terms of next steps. So this is actually also part of their public comment requirement. So we're waiting
- to see if anybody from the public requests the PER wants to see it, has any ideas about the project,
- they would reach out to Justin and give us comments and then we would update our approach. Then we would submit
- all the materials to IFA. April 1st is when it all goes in. We get some comments back from their engineers
- and then move into the pre-closing steps. And here's the project. So we've selected four segments of
- deteriorating mains. And this is from the condition assessment work that CBU has done. And so all four
- of these segments have a rating of two of five.
- deteriorating mains, and then on those service lines, there are about 70 that we think are either lead
- or galvanized. The galvanized part's important because some of these mains have leaded joints on them,
- and so the galvanized pipes are downstream of lead, potentially accumulating lead on the surface, and
- so CBU wants to update
- efficiently update those deteriorating mains and then any potential service lines containing lead at
- the same time. And it doesn't look very efficient because we're zoomed way out, but at the same time
- they want to knock out any known
- lead, leaded service line. We'll just use that category more broadly. Anything EPA would call a leaded
- service line, we just want to get it out of the ground as part of this project, take advantage of the
- funding, and then set the community up for success in terms of the compliance rate. So that's our plan
- there. The estimated cost of the entire project for construction, actually all in, would be 4.9 million.
- And of that,
- up to $1 million in that principal forgiveness or grant just for the lead service line replacement work.
- And it's possible, too, because you see the thatched area there is our disadvantaged community tract.
- And so you can see most of the project is in what IFA would consider to be a disadvantaged community.
- And so they may offer additional principal forgiveness for the main work as well. So we'll see.
- And then for the rest, they'd be eligible for either 0% interest or low interest loans for the remainder.
- And overall, so our goals for the project are we want to maximize that grant funding for CBU. We want
- to replace any lead we know about. And then as well, get rid of those mains in areas that have high
- concentrations of lead service lines.
- Other parts of the project, and this is our last slide, and then interested to hear your questions or
- thoughts, but, so CBU is part of this. They're gonna have to do a lot of customer outreach. One of the
- trickiest parts about this work is that customers own half the line, so you have to go, you have to
- get their permission, and it's actually really hard to do that. We do a lot of lead service line projects
- nationally, and it can take between eight to 10
- Attempts just to get people to sign and say yes I will take a free because this would be free to all
- of the customers that are in the project area so that'll take a little bit of work from CBU and then
- providing picture filter kits after replacement the the work can dislodge leaded particulates so the
- law will require it but CBU would go ahead and provide those to customers now as part of this project
- and then do some post replacement sampling with that ICP mass spec
- instrument that they purchased. And we talked about some of the ongoing inventory work so there's still
- a lot of unknowns and so as part of this project and over the next two years CBU is going to reduce
- their unknown service lines through meter pit inspections and then testing out an emerging technology
- device that could really reduce the cost of inspections. And then as Justin mentioned there's lots of
- other compliance nuances to take care of, and so they'll be preparing for those other things starting
- in 2027. And with that. Any questions? Thank you for that presentation. And do we have questions from
- the board? Jim. Yeah, thank you for all that. So. You haven't yet finished with the magic wandering
- in the city.
- It's still going on. It's a wonderful instrument. I still have a hard time getting my head around it.
- The other question is, is it difficult or expensive to dispose of the leaded stuff once you take it
- out? Not difficult or expensive. Where do they put it? Nowhere where it could be near groundwater, I assume.
- As of now, we've kept a lot of the lead that we've taken out of the ground. One of the stipulations
- was we have a compliance sampling. We were on a reduced schedule, so we were doing it every three years.
- But during that schedule for sampling, if we were to go over what they were calling the action level,
- we would have to make process changes down in our treatment plant.
- to make sure that our water was less corrosive. So part of that was we were hanging on to a lot of that
- lead just in case we did get close to that action level or exceed that, we could use that for some of
- the test studies to see what changes at the plant we would need to do to try to get that water to be
- a little less corrosive. But as of last summer's compliance sampling, we're still well under the action
- level. So we'll probably still hang on to it until we hit that 2028 change in the next step of the project.
- Okay, thank you.
- Is the action level already decreased until it hits? Uh, 2027 fall. Yeah. Um, so our, our 90th percentile
- went up a little bit last summer to 5.3. We were around 3.3 or 5.1. We were around 3.3. But we did with
- this last sampling have to make some changes to our sampling sites. Um, some of the older sampling sites,
- they just carried over from sampling to sampling. This one we had to go back through.
- and make sure that all of our sites work, because they're tier one sampling sites. For compliance reasons?
- Yeah. 30. Okay. Cool. And I get, you know, I got this, I brought it today as well, and it's very clear
- that any of these weird goosenecks are city-owned. Do they look like anything that connects to the main?
- I know that's kind of a funky thing with people. Yeah, those will be part of the next steps. They will
- start to look at goosenecks as, you know, like connectors will be a real pain in the butt to try to
- figure it out in systems like ours.
- And it does seem like it's a hodgepodge federally with what municipalities are doing with this in terms
- of the costs and cost sharing. So you said it would be free to the consumer or customer that would include
- schools and daycares. Is this regardless of this funding opportunity?
- Just this funding opportunity. As far as the contingent on getting this opportunity. Yeah, exactly.
- Because that would be a no-brainer, I think, and a big win to be able to get there. Yeah, and that's
- one of the big problems facing utilities is trying to tell somebody without that funding, hey, you need
- to pay $2,000 or $3,000 to replace your service line to help us fill our needs for the inventory process.
- Right, right.
- And then with the 9,600 or whatever we have yet to go, would this funding be able to be used for any
- of those, or would we need to identify future funding to replace those? That'd be future funding. OK.
- Thank you. Other questions? Great question. Go ahead. Yeah. Well, two things, I guess. Number one, I
- know you've been doing a lot of work for this in a roundabout way. I heard about it from a township
- trustee that a customer had reached out to them.
- about the opportunity to have their line tested at their home. So thank you. I know you've been dealing
- with a lot of folks. If we are to be funded, what's kind of our timeline on this? I know it's 2037,
- but I don't anticipate these lines would take that long. Is that something that we have the capacity
- to do in-house or that we would seek other folks to help with it?
- It's going to be a mix of CBU and contracted out. IFA likes to see the funds spent within two years,
- but they're flexible. Things come up in projects. And so CBU would be doing all of the admin construction,
- admin inspection, and some of the other elements I talked about, like water testing, picture filters,
- things like that. But then they would have to contract out the actual construction
- Okay. Work and that's just part of the EPA funding requirements. They want to see like a public procurement
- and they don't reimburse for utility work. Okay. Thank you. Yeah. Did you see a heavy increase in water
- sampling requests or phone calls when these go out? Oh, yeah. Yeah. This year we definitely saw more
- than last year. I think we're up to close to 600 requests. And our ICP just kind of came online in the
- last month or two.
- a little bit of a slow process for us, but we have started to run samples on that, so we're gonna start
- working with you on that list pretty quickly. But we're doing it all in house, so it does take a little
- bit of time, which I stress to people, but the list does grow daily. Well, you get a lot of good data
- out of it, too. Oh, yeah. I saw on the slide that for a project described here, you're anticipating
- about 4.8 million, is that right? Yes, if we're winning.
- get about a million of that forgiven, maybe? Okay, so then the rest of it would be coming out of water
- budget, I think. Yes. Okay. And let's see, do we have that in the rate case?
- water main replacement funding that we do have in our rate case. So that line item, that was, I believe
- it was four million and then three million and another three million over another three million over
- the course of four years. That's where this would come from. So yes, it's in the right case. Good. Other
- questions? So we would, we would get that 1 million
- back or was it just that we were to get that 1 million interest free. You would get it. Your yeah, the
- principal would be forgiven the principal. So yeah, so we would still so we really would still 0 4.9
- correct. Well, as soon as the project is complete, then that million would come off. Okay, I understand.
- Thank you. Okay, I missed that. Thank you. The interest rates really low there. Right.
- And the other good part I noticed is that, you know, obviously we'd be obligated to take care of the
- line up to the meter. But this goes a step further from the meter to the residence. And that's a good
- fix. Yes, it is. I hate to not be able to do that, too. Great. OK. That's the presentation part. Yep.
- Now we have.
- two action items. The first is the resolution, that's the signatory authorization, resolution 26-06.
- And I think this is the one that gives Arcadis authorization to make application for us. So this is
- the first one. Any questions on that?
- Ready for a motion? I move that we approve resolution 2026-06. Second. All right, it's been moved and
- seconded. Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? Okay, great. We have that one done.
- And next then is the resolution 2026-07, the SRF Loan Fund Preliminary Engineering Report acceptance.
- Any questions on that? All right. I move that we approve a resolution 2026-07. Second. Moved and seconded.
- Any other discussion? All in favor say aye. Aye. Opposed? All right. Motion carries. Both resolutions
- were in business. Thank you. Okay. Next on the agenda then is
- Let's see, old business. And do we have any old business from the board? Old business from staff. New
- business from the board. New business from staff. We didn't have a subcommittee today or any subcommittees
- in the past two weeks, so we're good there. Staff reports.
- up and give her staff report on her E. coli study of Clear Creek sampling fellow it's a graduate internship
- position here in the environmental division at CBU I'm here today to discuss some information and findings
- on a E. coli study we are wrapping up on Clear Creek right now
- as well as some implications for future like institutional steps that CBU could take. If we could go
- to the next slide, please. So just like a really broad level overview before we dive into things, this
- is a sampling and analysis project that started in October 2024, looking at E. coli loading into the
- Clear Creek Jackson Creek system. It was done with support from a federal work study position, jointly
- administered between CBU and IU's O'Neill School.
- And so just some context for why we're looking at Clear Creek Jackson Creek specifically, as well as
- E. coli loading specifically. The entire system is currently designated by IDEM as impaired on the basis
- of elevated E. coli concentrations. And since the MS4 under the umbrella of CBU is the primary regulator
- at the municipal level for stormwater pollution in Bloomington,
- we felt that we were in kind of a unique position to respond to those impairment designations, try and
- analyze the problem at a local level, and then identify some potential next steps to respond to existing
- impairment. So just before we get into the project itself, just some brief reminder background on the
- Clear Creek Jackson Creek system, which you can see on that map there.
- With the watershed that drains to the system marked in black, it's a 25 square mile catchment covering
- I think 64% of Bloomington's land area. There's 34 miles of kind of main channel perennial stream, but
- that doesn't include all of the stormwater infrastructure that drains to it, as well as a lot of those
- smaller tributaries you see, which a lot of them only experience like seasonal or post rainfall flow.
- It's a pretty developed basin. The majority of it, if we could go to the next slide, is covered in this
- red here, which you can see is various intensities of urban developed land. And then as you get further
- south outside of the city's municipal boundary, there's more of a kind of patchy mix of forested and
- grassland. But this really dense clustering of urban developed land obviously comes with an increase
- in impervious surface cover, which
- could be contributing to this problem. So we thought that this would be a useful area to study and determine
- more about potential hotspots or things like that that are happening with pollutant loading into the
- system. So a little bit of regulatory background. So like I said, we chose to focus specifically on
- Clear Creek and Jackson Creek because they have existing impairment designations from IDEM.
- So sections 305B and 303D of the Clean Water Act require state environmental agencies to assess, identify,
- and report to the EPA impaired surface waters. For the purposes of that section 503B, 303D assessment
- item divides the system into those 10 attainment units that you can see there. And in 2015 to 2016,
- this watershed was selected for sampling
- And the results of that sampling suggest that the entirety of the system has elevated E. coli concentrations
- that bring it out of adherence with water quality standards. One unit in there has an impairment designation
- for PCBs and fish tissue, and two have impairments for biological integrity. We chose to only focus
- on E. coli in this project because we don't necessarily have in-house capacity for fish tissue testing
- at the moment.
- And IDEM is also currently reworking their methods for the biological integrity metrics. So we thought
- that E. coli was sort of an obvious first step to kind of try and respond to that. Yes. Can you just
- explain what the biological integrity is? Yeah. So right now they use, it's called the macroinvertebrate
- index of biological integrity. So they're looking at basically insects and crustaceans and other really
- small animals that are in the creek.
- And a lot of those are really sensitive to pollution, whereas a lot of them have pretty high tolerances
- for pollution. So if you're trying to look at the integrity of the system as a whole rather than testing
- for a specific pollutant, you can kind of get an idea. If you're only seeing pollution-tolerant species,
- then it might be impaired or something like that.
- And we do some work with that in our Hoosier River Watch program and other related areas, but hasn't
- been a major focus of this project as of yet. One thing I do want to touch on with the existing impairment
- assessments for the system, which you might be able to see on the map here, those three blue dots are
- where IDEM performed their sampling in 2015 and 2016. And then they essentially extrapolated the E. coli
- data upstream to designate the entirety of the system as impaired. And so our thinking was if we were
- looking to respond to those impairment assessments, there's a clear need for like finer scale localized
- data to figure out exactly where in the system we're seeing really elevated concentrations and where
- we're maybe not seeing quite as elevated loading.
- All that aside, based on the designation of impairment in the system, the Section 305B and 303D of the
- Clean Water Act requires state agencies in collaboration with local partners to develop total maximum
- daily load reports. So basically these are studies that figure out for specific pollutants how much
- of that pollutant can enter a waterway such that the waterway can still meet those
- water quality standards at the state level. And so based off of what item found with existing levels
- of E. coli concentration in the system, as well as the health standards that are in place, which we'll
- get into in a little bit, the Clear Creek Jackson Creek watershed needs a 90 to 98% reduction in the
- amount of E. coli entering the system. They followed that up with the 2022 watershed management plan
- for the Lower Salt Creek system, which established a 2053 as the year
- by which that, as the target year for that load reduction to be achieved. Other things worth noting,
- this is the most extreme load reduction target of any sub basin within that entire mapped area, which
- is not necessarily entirely surprising just because we have a higher level of development than a lot
- of the surrounding landscape. And it also gave some preliminary ideas on potential sources for the sea coli,
- and then best management practices that we could use to respond to them. And I'll get into those a little
- bit later on in the presentation. But before we dive into the project itself, just a quick kind of primer
- on E. coli in the context of water quality. So it's a species of fecal coliform bacteria, which means
- that it essentially originates in the gastrointestinal systems of all warm-blooded animals. And so this can make
- source characterization particularly challenging relative to other pollutants because pretty much anywhere
- where there is waste being deposited from a warm-blooded animal, there's going to be some level of E.
- coli contamination. Most strains of E. coli are relatively harmless. There are some that are pathogenic
- and can cause some pretty serious infections, but its real value in the water quality world is that
- it's a strong indicator for the presence of fecal waste in the system.
- And then it can also trend quite closely with the presence of other fecal-related pathogens. And so
- getting back into the regulation side of things for a second, I'm going to be referencing these two
- standards throughout the discussion on the project itself. These are the standards that IDEM used for
- the original impairment classification and the load reduction targets, and they're
- under this category of what they call full body contact assessment. So the idea is that they've crafted
- these standards to kind of reflect risk of infection if you are fully submerging your body in a waterway.
- So it's mainly focused on recreation. For that reason, it's also not listed in the slide here, but they've
- established a recreational season for sampling. So everything is between April 1st and October 31st
- essentially. And so basically the way these two standards work is they will have
- An agency will collect five or more E. coli samples from a given water body or a given site. The average
- across all of those, if it is above 125 colony forming units per 100 milliliters, then the water body
- will be classified as impaired, even if the mean, or it's a geometric mean, so it isolates some outliers
- and stuff like that.
- Even if the geometric mean is under 125, if any single sample in a set is above 235, then it'll still
- be classified as impaired. And I know those numbers don't mean a whole lot right now, but it'll make
- more sense as we move further along. So that brings us to the project itself. So we set out,
- like I said, with a couple key objectives. First, we wanted to provide finer scale local data on E.
- coli loading than is currently available from IDEM and other sources.
- Alongside that, we wanted to identify physical, spatial, or meteorological factors that are regulating
- the loading and transport of the pollutant in the system throughout the year or across sites, identify
- potential sources for E. coli contamination in Clear Creek and Jackson Creek, and then provide some
- sort of guidance for future response by the city or other actors.
- And so the methods employed, we used a combination of a rotating set of nine sites, which I'll show
- in a second, where we performed weekly sampling at those sites to both get those geometric mean results
- that I had mentioned, and then also to understand how E. coli levels were varying over time and across
- different weather conditions and flow regimes in the system. And then we augmented that with some ad
- hoc sampling where
- We had known problem spots or trying to go up tributaries to see is there differences in this part of
- the watershed versus another. All field sampling was performed pursuant to IDEM's field technical standard
- operating procedures for E. coli. And then once those field samples were obtained, they were delivered
- to the wonderful lab folks down at the Dillman plant for enumeration to figure out the concentration
- in those samples and then
- both in the field and in the lab, we used some pretty robust quality assurance guidelines to make sure
- that the data we were getting was actually reflecting what we're seeing in the stream system.
- So like I said, this is the combination of a rotating weekly sampling and then kind of one-off or follow-up
- ad hoc sampling. So anything you see up here in red,
- is a site that was sampled weekly throughout the majority of that recreational season to identify how
- these things were changing over time. And then all of the other white dots there are for kind of getting
- a closer view into more local dynamics that could be valuable. And I should say, too, I forgot to mention
- that's the start. If anyone has any questions throughout, feel free to just jump in. But if we could
- get to the next.
- So project to date, we have 211 samples from 32 sites, nine of those rotating weekly ones, and then
- 23 from the ad hoc. And kind of unsurprisingly and consistent with IDEMS findings, we see elevated E.
- coli concentration system-wide. Nearly 80% were above that mean standard, whereas a majority, 63%, were
- above the single sample standard.
- But what is particularly concerning to us is there are quite a few that are not just slightly above
- the impairment standard, but pretty significantly above. Most particularly the 14% of samples that maxed
- out the undiluted test sensitivity for our standards. I should note this is not necessarily, it is cause
- for concern. It's not necessarily like out of, you know, it's not extraordinarily out of the,
- realm of possibility for a normal urbanized creek system like this. And then we also saw a lot of inter-site
- variability in terms of concentrations as well as intra-site variability across different weather conditions
- and stuff like that. And I'll get a little bit more into that as we continue. So this map is a little
- bit difficult to parse through at scale. And we have a full report coming on this that provides some
- more clarity on that.
- But you can see here the main takeaway is just that we have pretty elevated concentrations across much
- of the watershed, and at individual sites we're seeing under different flow regimes smaller and then
- much greater concentrations of E. coli, including some well, well above the standard. Go to the next
- one. And then these next two slides are going to show you
- how the E. coli concentrations that we obtained compared to those single and multi-sample standards
- that I mentioned. So this is that 79% that were above the mean 125 standard. And I should note here
- that there is some overlap with the markers. So there are some sites there where you'll see elevation
- on one day and then not elevation on another. And it's not super clear at this scale, but just a caveat
- there. And if we continue on, it's the same visualization, but for the 235 single sample standard. So
- you can see it's not constant, and it's not across every single site, but it is pretty serious across
- the watershed. If we could get one more.
- So then kind of honing in on those nine rotating weekly sites specifically, and we have like a full
- breakdown and list of those in the full report that's forthcoming, we see pretty substantial variation
- across sites. So all of them had mean values that were pretty well above the health standard.
- But we see, perhaps unsurprisingly, in like these more forested sites, like on the west side over near
- Woolery Mill, we don't see quite the same elevation that we see
- up in those two sites clustered in Switchyard Park, which receive a lot of discharge from heavy and
- pervious surface cover downtown, and also from some of our older neighborhoods where the infrastructure
- has been subject to deterioration for longer. And then across all sites, this drainage channel near
- College Mall Road and Buick Cadillac Drive was pretty far and away the most
- extreme elevation that we saw across sites. And I'll get a little bit more into potential causes of
- that variability as we continue. And then if we look across time at these single sites, I've got them
- visualized here with the red bars being the E. coli concentrations and the blue lines being the inches
- of rainfall in the past seven days. So trying to get an idea of is this a case where a bunch of waste is being
- brought in by surface runoff or are there more kind of like chronic gradual transport of E. coli into
- the system. And what these generally indicate to me at least is that we are seeing a lot of episodic
- loading after big rainfall events which is kind of consistent with outdoor waste like pet waste or anything
- like that being
- flushed into the system after a heavy rainfall. But these bars where you see really elevated results
- when there hasn't been a really substantial rain event in recent days are particularly concerning because
- they suggest that there could be some sort of dry weather source that might be infrastructure related
- or something else. If we could continue on one more. And then this is kind of the similar takeaway but
- a different visualization.
- It's just a scatter plot of past two weeks precipitation in inches and the E. coli counts that we got
- from sampling. And so the ones that are of particular concern up here would be those in that kind of
- top left quadrant where there hasn't been a ton of precipitation in recent days, but we're still seeing
- really heavy transport of E. coli containing contaminants into the stream body. Let me go one more.
- And so based on all that,
- and this work is still ongoing a little bit, is preliminary insights into potential sources of elevated
- E. coli concentrations in Clear Creek and Jackson Creek and potential municipal responses for it. So
- this kind of category is just like outdoor waste deposition across livestock, pet and wildlife,
- and human. On livestock waste,
- Just because we don't have nearly as big of an agricultural footprint as most watersheds, the 2018 TMDL
- report assumed that there was no major contribution. There's nothing we've seen in the data since then
- that would dispute that. But continued action could just be monitoring of those kind of concentrations
- around any known sites where people are doing domestic livestock or poultry operations or things like
- that. Yes?
- It's pretty ubiquitous Yeah, a big a big source to is is when people will apply Manure for like fertilizer
- and stuff like that. So that could be a contributor It's difficult to quantify The challenge I think
- is is going from the concentrations that we're seeing towards like Since we don't have like strict counts
- of how many
- livestock or pets or stuff like that are in the system. We do have a couple avenues where we could try
- and parse out how much of it is contribution from human versus pet versus livestock, which I'll get
- into a little bit right towards the end. But yeah, it's challenging to, especially when you think about
- people reusing manure or other things like that. Moving on to pet and wildlife waste, this is a known
- contributor.
- especially considering the high populations of like urban deer or raccoons, other sort of urban familiarized
- animals, and migratory waterfowl are a known contributor in a lot of areas. This is one that's kind
- of outside of institutional control for the most part. The city performs deer coals annually, but it's
- really nothing at the scale that would be an effective response to this sort of thing. So continued
- outreach and education on like responsible
- pet waste removal and stuff like that would be one avenue for continued improvement there. And then
- the last one to touch on in this category is human waste. So specifically there's been some scholarship
- on the contributions of homeless encampments or things like that where people don't necessarily have
- access to indoor plumbing or things like that and might be sheltering in areas that are near streams.
- This is a potential contributor and it's another one where it's really difficult to assess that in a
- local context. What we do see from other study areas is that it does have some contribution, but it's
- often like orders of magnitude less than other sources. But activities here that the city could pursue
- would be just continued monitoring specifically towards that dimension of potential loading and then
- targeted outreach towards those communities and stuff like that.
- So this brings us into some more of like the kind of infrastructural areas of potential contribution
- that might be more within the city's purview for response. So the first one here is sanitary sewer overflows.
- So a major source of E. coli in a lot of urban settings is combined sewer overflows where they don't
- have a separate storm and sanitary sewer system. We obviously have a separate system, so that makes
- things a lot easier from a response standpoint.
- but we still do during heavy rainfall events or line blockages. We'll occasionally see sanitary sewer
- overflows at specific points. So during project duration, there were 19 SSOs across the watershed. Four
- were related to blockages and they're marked in white there. And then the remainder were related to
- rainfall, extreme rainfall events on two days, April 5th and 6th and June 30th of last year. And so,
- Just from a physical standpoint, these obviously do contribute. I mean, it is waste that is directly
- entering the environment. And so we expect that this could be a contributor to episodic loading, but
- we don't have any evidence yet that it's a major contributor. Although, of course, continued action
- is continued assessment, monitoring, and upgrading of our system, which we perform on a routine basis.
- If we go one more slide, we can see a little bit of the investigation we did trying to determine whether
- SSOs were a significant source.
- So based off the timing of sampling at that June 30th event where we saw a lot of SSOs, we had some
- good data where these six sites were sampled immediately before and immediately after the rain event.
- And so those first three did not have an upstream SSO, whereas the bottom three did. And you can see
- here there's no real visible relationship yet that would suggest that that's like
- a major driver relative to surface runoff or other sorts of things, but continued investigation in this
- area could be useful. Next slide, please. Another sort of infrastructural potential contributor is failing
- or poorly maintained septic systems. So we know that there are still septic systems citywide. This map
- here is kind of one attempt to map those out at the county level.
- septic system records are associated with the individual address. And so getting like one compiled list
- of every location was not super feasible. Although I have heard that they're doing some overhauling
- on their records right now. So that might be available in the future. So instead we've selected here
- for CBU customers who are only receiving drinking water service. So they're not being charged for wastewater.
- And our theory was that that could give an approximation since they're having their wastewater handled
- by some other system.
- We do know that this is not fully accurate and that gets at what I had put there about assessment challenges
- but generally we still see this kind of clustering down there near the central stem of Clear Creek.
- That's kind of between Winslow and Gordon Pike and we also see some clustering up in the areas up in
- the northwest. We haven't seen a
- super meaningful relationship between proximity to septic and elevated E. coli readings in the surface
- waters, but continued analysis is ongoing in this one. If the city does identify that this is a major
- contributor to E. coli impairment in the system, public outreach is one avenue.
- There are also models for policies that we see in mostly the nonprofit space with like Friends of Lake
- Monroe, for instance, runs a cost sharing program for septic maintenance or things like that. That could
- be something to pursue way down the line if we determine that that's a serious issue. And then also
- the last thing I wanted to know on this side is you do see some pretty heavy clustering south of town.
- And so that gets at something that's kind of in the background of all of this is that
- We can do a lot to reduce E. coli loading from within city boundaries, but obviously we're in a watershed
- that straddles a lot of jurisdictions, and so there's still limited opportunities outside of our area.
- Next slide, please. And then this brings me to the last potential source that we are considering as
- a contributor to the E. coli elevations that we're seeing, which is sanitary sewer exfiltration.
- So the idea here is during heavy rainfall events, a lot of sanitary systems nationwide that have any
- sort of cracks in the pipes or gaps at joints or things like that will have groundwater that enters
- the sanitary system. And just based off of the influence that we see at our wastewater plants, we know
- that this is kind of a fact of life when it comes to sanitary systems of this scale, but recent scholarship
- suggests that during dry weather, there could be significant contributions of E. coli out of the pipes.
- So the idea would be when the soil around a pipe is saturated with water, there's nowhere for the wastewater
- within the pipe to go outward because the pressure is forcing it back in. Whereas if you see this sort
- of drying out of the water table or like the water table goes below the sanitary pipe, then
- that pressure differential is reversed so the water, wastewater could come out of the pipe. This is
- a really difficult phenomenon to quantify or to pin down and especially in a system of this scale. But
- continued monitoring on that front and continued, you know, maintenance and improvement and repair of
- our sanitary system is one major avenue for response for the city.
- And that kind of brings us to next steps generally. And I've divided this here in terms of like analytical
- steps relevant to this project and then institutional opportunities for response at CBU or the city
- writ large. So analytical, we have a full report forthcoming that ideally will be available for public
- view on our website just so that we can present those findings and have them serve as information for
- future response or just public knowledge and things like that.
- One thing that the leadership at CBO has been supportive of is there's emerging technologies in what
- they call microbial source tracking. So this is what I was talking a little bit about with the livestock
- question was you can do characterization of E. coli in samples that you obtain because there's some
- genetic markers in E. coli that are specific to human hosts versus cows versus pigs versus, you know,
- waterfowl and stuff like that.
- And so that would, there are some contractors who do that service in the region. And so that could be
- one step to determine, you know, if we look at that and we see that it's mostly from animal contributors,
- then we might shift our focus towards public outreach and education and stuff like that. If it's mostly
- human, we might need to devote more resources towards assessing the infrastructure in our sanitary or
- septic or other systems.
- And then institutional opportunities. We have this Clear Creek Corridor renewal project, which is planned
- to enhance infiltration and all sorts of improvements to drainage. A lot of co-benefits with this project,
- but one of those could be enhanced buffering for E. coli entering the system, continued assessment of
- infrastructure generally. And then there's a whole host of recommended best management practices
- Um, contained in the 2022 watershed management plan, um, put forward by IDEM, as well as just things
- that we know and implement in our regular practice that, uh, could be effective. Um, things like enhancing,
- um, stream bank, vegetative cover and stuff like that. Um, and then of course, public outreach and education,
- particularly on pet waste or livestock waste or other areas like that. With all that said, that is the
- only updates we have right now on this project. Uh, if you go to the next slide, um,
- ready for any questions or discussion, and I would welcome thoughts either today or if anyone thinks
- of something later, feel free to email me. Wow, thank you. We appreciate that. Jim? It sounds like really
- good science. What's your training? So right now, I'm a master's student in environmental policy and
- natural resource management. Historically, I've done a lot of water sampling with the
- IU has a limnology lab that runs a program for the state where they do multi-parameter testing on 80
- lakes across the state every summer. So a lot of my background comes from that. And I, of course, am
- not doing this in a vacuum. I've got a lot of support and guidance and all that stuff from some really
- talented folks with a lot of specialized knowledge at CB. Sounds good.
- You mentioned early on that E. coli in and of itself is not particularly dangerous to humans, but it's
- indicative of other things that might be. Is that accurate? There are some, the caveat I would say is
- that there are some strains of E. coli that are quite dangerous. When you see food poisoning outbreaks
- and stuff like that can lead people to hospitalization or death even in some cases.
- The majority of strains of E. coli are relatively harmless and the majority of those that do have like
- a pathogenic impact are mostly just kind of like minor gastrointestinal illness. But it is still a public
- health concern. And then like I said, yeah, you're correct in that it trends quite closely with the
- amount of waste entering a system.
- And then also, it can be indicative of other things that can come from waste, like giardia and other
- sort of waterborne illnesses. Yeah, so finally, I noticed in the presentation that the concentration
- at College Mall Road was pretty high at Jackson Creek. And from there, it flows down through Sycamore
- Knolls and Renwick.
- when the creek is flowing and the weather is okay, there's lots of kids that are playing in Jackson
- Creek and I just wondered is that not recommended? So yeah, this is something that I think discussions
- are ongoing on within the organization and I don't necessarily want to say too much. The one thing I
- will say is that there is a set of stricter standards for how frequently you have to sample
- and things like that for designated recreational swimming spots. So Fairfax Beach over at Lake Monroe,
- for example, if they get an E. coli count that's too high, they'll have to close the beach. We don't
- have any designated swimming spots in the city. So I don't know if it's something that we have any sort
- of authority to recommend or not recommend. But it's also, I think, difficult to strike the balance
- between saying that this is a cause for concern
- I wouldn't necessarily characterize it as a public health crisis or anything like that. Exactly. Don't
- go swimming in the creek and consuming the water, certainly. But a lot of impressive data and information.
- It's a bigger sampling and watershed area than I think I thought I was going to be looking at. Evelyn,
- do you know what portion of that watershed is on septic you kind of showed?
- quite a bit of that, but I mean, is it a decent percentage? I'm talking maybe like 20% or so less. I
- was under the impression at least just, and this is kind of speculation just based off of background
- knowledge of the city, but the areas where we see that clustering are pretty low intensity residential
- development. They're not super dense relative to most of the other city or parts of the city. So,
- I couldn't hazard a guess on a percentage, but I don't think it's super significant in the grand scheme
- of the population. Yeah, I was just wondering if that does play a role just in my former lifetime of
- showing up and investigating septic systems that we're failing. With those though, I do really agree
- with source consideration. I think it's a great way to go. And as you said, that can kind of drive maybe
- your efforts or next steps if you can subtype it.
- find that out. It sounds like we would have to outsource that. I don't think it's terribly expensive
- necessarily, right, to do that kind of sampling. I've only seen a few quotes so far, but nothing egregious.
- And I think, you know, if we are seeing high levels of human waste too, we could want to be cool to
- see if we are seeing a lot of sugar toxin producing E. coli, but that's just out of my own interest.
- But perhaps, you know, if we think that those are sources, you know, I think certainly
- partnering, it sounds like you've already connected with Monroe County Health Department. Obviously
- they have the jurisdiction of on-site wastewater in Monroe County and might be able to work with us
- or assist you in helping do dye testing or investigating some of those sources as well. So maybe another
- consideration. But yeah, thank you for all the information. Other questions for Evelyn? I was going
- to ask about Monroe and then you mentioned like Fairfax.
- But would there be other non-beach parts of Lake Monroe that might, if you're testing at Fairfax, can
- we extrapolate that that is the same for the whole lake? I am not 100% sure, in all honesty. I believe
- that there's a requirement to
- publicly post results or, I mean, there's obviously the requirement for the notification of closure,
- but I bet I could track that down and email it to you and see if. Okay, thanks. Thank you so much for
- all of your work on this, outstanding the time you've put into it during your time here and then the
- presentation today. Thank you. Thank you. Very good. Thank you so much. Thank you.
- All right, anything else on staff reports? We have two congratulations. First to Josh Fox, Dillman Wastewater
- Operator who just obtained his class four license. And then to Hannah Bretz, one of our Monroe water
- operators who just received her operator in training certification. That's good news. Thank you.
- Do we have any petitions or communications from the public? Anything else from the board? All right.
- We will stand adjourned. Thank you very much.