The Mattapoisett River Valley Water District Commission apparently has settled on a plan of attack in its ongoing effort to calculate the cost and determine the optimum timing for the borrowing it will take to make the long-awaited upgrade to its water treatment facility.
The nearly obsolete Targa II water-treating system presently used is several years beyond its expiration date, and a brand new, state-of-the-art Puron MP system will only cost $1,100,100 more to install, so there has been little to no debate on which way the MRV will go. The ultimate decision is further leveraged by Koch company’s announcement this year that replacement filters for the current system and associated parts will only be made available until the midway point of 2021.
The remaining question is financial strategy, and what came out of the March 9 commission meeting was an agreement to seek another meeting with Koch representatives with the intention of nailing down the company’s timeline, including pilot testing, then finalize financing and finally get the project onto the warrants for special fall town meetings for the participating towns or their 2022 annual town meetings.
Commission Treasurer Meghan Davis presented a loan scenario with Unibank that broke down the impacts of debt of the filter replacement to each town. She explained it as “one debt option, but there are many ways we can go through it.”
The hypothetical scenario presented broke down the towns’ portions to Mattapoisett at 31 percent, Marion at 11 percent, and Fairhaven at 51 percent. Per average ratepayer, that translates over the first five years to $83 per year for Mattapoisett ratepayers and $36 per year for Marion ratepayers.
Since existing debt drops off between 2027 and 2028, there is an incentive for MRV to readily accept the current drag in the Koch company’s Puron technology approval process at the state level. The downside there is Koch is only offering replacement parts to the existing system through July of 2021.
Commission member Paul Silva complimented Davis on the effort it took to construct the scenario and suggested using the $800,000 that the commission has in reserve. “We don’t want to go back to Town Meeting and ask for more money,” he said. “We’re talking about five years until the major portion of that old debt falls off. If we push it off one year, we can change the numbers by 20 percent.”
According to Gregory, Tata & Howard will need to make an addendum of $8,100 in billing to cover any additional work in the filter-replacement evaluation. Gregory estimates that the engineering group is under budget so far, so a strong finish could offset the amendment amount. “Just in case we need the funding in place to cover it and to provide an addendum report at the end,” he said. The commission voted to approve the amendment, which will consist of assistance to Koch in piloting with technical aspects.
In her commission Treasurer’s Report, Davis reported $68,379.66 in total invoices, including $11,772.16 in chemicals, $45,519.62 in electrical (two months fell into one billing period), and $6,202.05 for Tata & Howard’s three projects billed to FY21. The total figure also takes into account the $5,000 invoice from the MRV Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee for monitoring services. The MRV Water District Commission voted to approve the report and pay the invoices.
The bulk of the Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee discussion centered around what member Laurell Farinon estimates to be 13 separate phragmites stands in Snipatuit Pond. The problem with invasive species in Snipatuit is far greater than initially hoped.
“These are not cheap projects,” she said, estimating that the phragmites could cost the committee tens of thousands of dollars to remove and could be beyond the committee’s purview. “It’s everybody’s responsibility, but it could consume our funding, and we have to look at our mission…. Phragmites, it’s a tough one.”
Gregory agreed the problem is “way beyond what we thought it originally would be…. We could be getting into some significant cost there.” Paul Howard, also of Tata & Howard, said, “It’s a massive problem throughout the state.”
Blair Bailey, Rochester’s town counsel, said the Department of Environmental Protection “would need to be the lead agency…. Nobody’s really stepped up to say they’re going to make a concerted effort.”
Farinon reported that Snow’s Pond asked about accessing MRV data and graphs for the pond’s monitoring effort.
In his Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee Treasurer’s Report, Jeff Furtado reported three bills for February: Watling for $251.72, Bailey for $50, and Tata & Howard engineers for $1,587.75. Billing for the year to date is $27,710.64. With no change in income, the ending balance is $244,027.56. The committee voted to pay the following invoices: Tata & Howard $3,405.03; Megan McCarthy (graph work) $187; Watling (well and stream assistance) $251.72; and Blair Bailey $50.
Gregory also reported on monitoring equipment valued at just under $1,100 and discussed a replacement Levelogger.
The next meeting of the Mattapoisett River Valley Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee and Water District Commission is scheduled for April 13 at 3:30 pm and 4:00 pm, respectively.
MRV Water Supply Protection Advisory Committee/District Commission
By Mick Colageo