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1999-06-28 CITY COUNCIL PUBLIC HEARING MEETING MINUTESMINUTES OF A PUBLIC HEARING OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PEARLAND, TEXAS, HELD ON JUNE 28, 1999, AT 7:00 P.M., IN THE COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL, 3519 LIBERTY DRIVE, PEARLAND, TEXAS. The meeting was called to order with the following present: Mayor Mayor Pro -Tem Councilmember Councilmember City Manager City Attorney City Secretary Tom Reid William Berger Helen Beckman Klaus Seeger Glen Erwin Darrin Coker Young Lorfing Absent: Councilmembers Richard Tetens and Larry Wilkins. Others in attendance: Sr. Project Manager Alan Mueller; Planning and Development Director Dennis Smith; City Engineer John Hargrove; Parks and Recreation Director Ed Hersh; Public Works Director Jerry Burns; Assistant City Attorney Nghiem Doan; Project Manager Michael Ross; Utility Supervisor Missy Miller Grants Coordinator Chris Kidwell; Water and Sewer Production Department Bobby Whisenant. CALL TO ORDER PURPOSE OF HEARING - SEWER LINE IMPROVEMENTS ALONG HARKEY ROAD, CULLEN ROAD, FITE ROAD, MCHARD ROAD, BROADWAY AND WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT IMPROVEMENTS AT BARRY ROSE AND LONGWOOD PLANTS USING FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE FROM THE STATE REVOLVING FUND. STAFF REVIEW OF PROPOSED PROJECTS Projects Manager, Michael Ross, stated that the Texas Water Development Board through its water pollution control revolving fund has approved financial assistance for improvements to the City's wastewater system. These improvements include wastewater line improvements, on Harkey Road, Cullen Road, Fite Road, and McHard Road, and wastewater treatment plant improvements at the Barry Rose and Longwood plants. The environmental information documents and engineering feasibility reports for the proposed improvements have been available for public review for the past thirty days at City Hall. There have been no comments provided to the city regarding these projects. The total loan assistance for these projects is $17,100,000. Consulting Engineer with Carter - Burgess, Eric Hall, addressed and stated that this is Page 1 of 6 - 6/28/1999 really a brief presentation, and what we are doing is trying to go through and set protocol in accordance with Texas Water Development Board requirements for a Public Hearing over Tier 3 - SRF (State Revolving Fund) projects, and Tier 3 is a special low interest loan, and has certain requirements. Six projects were identified pertaining to sanitary sewer system improvements. We will address them and administrative orders were assessed on the City by the EPA, and we will also account for the wastewater system demands due to the growth. A funding application was submitted to Texas Water Development Board, and as Mike said earlier it is in the total amount of $17,100,000. The purpose of the hearing is to provide an overview of the proposed projects, and discuss potential impacts of the projects and alternatives which are primarily related to environmental impacts. One project is the expansion of Barry Rose Road Wastewater Treatment Plant from 2.25 million gallons per day to 3.1 million gallons per day; expansion of the Longwood Wastewater Treatment Plant from 1.75 million gallons per day to 2.5 million gallons per day. Mr. Hall stated that both of these improvements are taking place inside the existing fence line of the existing plants; third is the Cullen road sewer line which is approximately 2,450 Linear feet of 12 inches line, then it goes up about 1000 feet off Cullen and comes across FM518 a ways; next item is the Fite/Harkey Road Sewer Line it is 16,620 linear feet of various size pipe 36,30,24, & 12 inch lines, the next one is the Harkey Road sewer line, it is 8,555 linear feet of various size pipe 48,36, & 12 inches; and the final project is the far northwest sewer line, it is 14,050 linear feet of 54 inch, 42 inch, 36 inch and 18 inch sewer line. He further stated that an estimate and idea of what the estimate costs are, includes construction cost, and also soft cost, engineering cost, and various other soft costs. The Barry Rose Wastewater Treatment Plant at $731,000; Longwood Wastewater Treatment Plant $1,924,000; Cullen Road Sewer Line $ 367,000; Fite/Harkey Road Sewer Line $ 4,202,000; Harkey Road Sewer Line $2,245,000; far northwest sewer line $ 4,151,000. He further stated that on the far northwest sewer line, the capital construction cost is $3.5 million, and the rest are for soft costs. The total application amount is $17,100,000. It includes the above numbers. Another project that was separately identified, and has already been cleared environmentally, and it's in completion is the Inflow Project which also includes new fiscal and force account expenditures. Force account expenditures include full time inspection, and certain inspection of the work. Briefly, Mr. Hall addressed the projects impact. In the process of getting these projects approved for funding we had to do a feasibility report, and also had to do Environmentally Information Documents for every project, except for the I & I ( Inflow and Infiltration) project. EID (Environmentally Information Documents) were required for the two plants improvements, because they represented more than a thirty percent increase in capacity. The direct impact for all these projects, is that they we are looking at a combination of line work. The plant work is primarily related to construction, and typically as the plants expand you will have various things get related to plant expansions, more flow and how to deal with flow, but the direct impact for these projects is probably construction related, that will included any soil erosion, during construction any noise like impedance in traffic, and those kinds of items that are related Page 2 of 6 - 6/28/1999 to construction. The next items are the projected sanitary sewer rates. In every one of these evaluations the one thing that is not considered is what the potential impact on the monthly users charge is going to be, don't anticipate it being significant. Mr, Hall stated that he the plans we have in place are cost effective and significantly efficient. This is the most efficient way of keeping the rates down, or otherwise we'd be doubling the other two existing plants. The beneficial impact, in a broad brush term, includes sewer relief to the whole city. This will help with the administrative order of EPA. It takes the pressure off your existing system that is not up to capacity. CITIZEN COMMENTS Larry Marcott, 3606 Inverness Court, addressed Council and asked which plant is the Longwood Plant, and is Dixie Farm Road about to be repaired? He also asked if the proper considerations have been given to construct the proper sewer line and so forth? Mr. Marcott further stated when he travels that road in the future, he does not want it torn up. COUNCIL/STAFF DISCUSSION Councilmember Beckman asked if the future widening of Dixie Farm has been considered? �. Sr. Project Manger , Alan Mueller, stated that this particular line project that Mr. Marcott is asking about is beyond the scope of this Public Hearing for the environmental document that is being discussed, and it is not part of the funding program that's part of this hearing The project in question is part of a group of projects that will be proposed in the up coming budget, and we can try to have those lines in place prior to rebuilding Dixie Farm Road. Mayor Pro -Tem Berger stated that it is his understanding that this is a low interest loan. The amount is $17,100, 000, and will be primary repaid through impact fees and water and sewer revenue fees is that correct? Sr. Project Manger Alan Mueller stated that during the first three years both of the debt servers are paid, and is actually being paid through interest that is generated on the funds. He further stated that there it is a third to one half of the debt service that will be paid with impact fees, and the rest is made up with water and sewer general revenue. Mayor Pro -Tem Berger stated that he was concerned that, out of all of the bills the governor just signed, only thirty-four were vetoed. One of those involves impact fees, and next time around, if he passes the bill, the City will lose the impact fee revenue. That is going to have and impact on the fact how we repay the loan. Page 3 of 6 - 6/28/1999 Sr. Project Manger, Alan Mueller, stated that it is separate, and is also through the Water Development Board, and those funds were issued in 1996. Sr. Project Manager, Alan Mueller, stated that two of the projects, within this funding will be to build trunk lines that will take the sewer to SWEC. Under the SWEC project itself the primary trunk line from Veterans to Magnolia is part of the SWEC funding, which is already separately approved. The initial delivery of waste is through that conduit. Then the two other projects that are part of this program, would deliver the waste from the western side of SWEC. Mayor Reid stated that if the City gets SWEC in place, and does this project, then that will prepare the Longwood and Barry Rose plants to start taking all wastewater east and west of the railroad tracks. Sr. Project Manager, Alan Mueller, confirmed that, but does not know an exact flow number, but there is a significant flow from the west of the railroad tracks that is going to Barry Rose, which is going to be diverted to SWEC. Even though at Barry Rose the capacity is increasing by a fairly small amount. In this expansion the effective volume is going way up, because we are diverting a lot of water that is going there now to the new plant. That will free a lot of capacity within the Barry Rose Plant. In the I & I Projects overall will cut down the flow of storm water that is flowing into the lines, which will then cut down on the volume going thought the plants, and that also efficiently increases the capacity of the plants. Mayor Reid stated that if the I&I (Inflow and Infiltration) program is done properly it will be efficient. City Engineer, John Hargrove, stated that the City has been able to avoid expansion of our existing wastewater plants because of the I&I (Inflow and Infiltration) program. The City has effectively reduced the flow and kept pace. The plant flows have stayed consistent through the years, because of the effluent and inflow. In closing, Mr. Hargrove said that it has been a good program. Public Works Director, Jerry Burns, stated that the City will be decreasing the capacity of the flow to those plants when we have SWEC on line. City Engineer, John Hargrove, stated to help put it into perspective these expansions will give Barry Rose Road the capacity that is going to cost us less than $1.00 a gallon for a capacity increase. On the market now days you are lucky if you can get a new plant installed for less that $3.50 a gallon. New plants are going anywhere from $3.50 to $4.00 a gallon at Longwood, it is only $2.60 a gallon, so it is a very effective project. Page 4 of 6 - 6/28/1999 Councilmember Seeger asked what about the City requesting a categorical exclusion, and what entitles the City to lower special loan rates? Sr. Project Manager, Alan Mueller stated that these are two separate issues. The money has already been awarded, the loan was already awarded, when the loan was awarded it is put into an escrow account, therefore, it is designated for the City, and is in Pearland State Bank. The City will not have access to the funds until we clear certain hurdles along the way. We have requested for funding to be released if any environmental documents needed to be prepared in preliminary hearings, or reports to be prepared. Now that those are done as a condition of having funds released to pay for the detail, which is engineering, the next step in the process we have to have this Public Hearing on the Environmental Information Documents. This is part of the record that goes back to the Water Board. When we meet other conditions, then they will release the money from escrow funding. We then can do detail design work, and again this is all under the Environmental Information Documents. Categorical exclusion is a totally separate thing, for the I & I project because they were classified by the Water Board as having minimal environmental impact so they were granted what is called a categorical exclusion which means we did not have to prepare an Environmental Information Document. We didn't have to have a hearing like this on the I & I project. Now we're working on the I & I projects, and we've just got the letter in the last few days that says the categorical exclusion has been granted, and we're now putting together the other requirements that we have to meet in order to get the money released, to actually go into construction on the categorical exclusion project. Councilmember Seeger asked if the categorical exclusion could be revoked for some reason? Sr. Project Manager, Alan Mueller, stated that means if we are out on these I & I (Inflow and Infiltration) projects and we find any Indian burial grounds, then the categorical exclusion is revoked, and we'll have to do some more detail work. Mayor Reid stated asked what is the next step in this process that the City needs to pursue? Sr. Project Manager, Alan Mueller, stated that the next step is to complete the construction plans, and then go to bid. Page 5 of 6 - 6/28/1999 ADJOURNMENT Meeting was adjourned at 8:50 p.m. Minutes approved as submitted and/or corrected this the 1211 day of July, A.D., 1999. Tom Reid Mayor ATTEST: Page 6 of 6 - 6/28/1999