11/3/14 CORE Team Notes
Attending: Kinny Perot, Kate Stephenson, Elizabeth
Courtney, Peter Lazorchak
By Phone: John Connell
Peter Lazorchak gave us an update on what he’s been working
on in terms of the wastewater design process. He touched base with Pete Munoz
about system size and construction cost. The basic parameters they use to
calculate cost are $15-20/s.f. for constructed wetlands. The size of the
wetland is roughly approximate to the number of gallons per day being
processed- i.e. if we have 5,000 gallons per day of wastewater, we would design
a 5,000 s.f. wetland (or combination of wetlands). Peter talked to folks at the
State about whether we could get a variance for reduced flow rates based on our
historical data, which has shown an average of approximately 25 gallons per day
per ‘weighted user’ vs. the standard engineer’s estimate of 100 gpd for a
“boarding school” which is the closest equivalent on the books to YM. Peter
thinks the next step is to go to the state with a more formal proposal for an
adjusted flow rate of 65-70 gpd. Kate will also send Peter the original data
sheets so he can look at peaks of flows. Unfortunately this is old data from
2008-2009 and we are not currently tracking daily or weekly flows.
If the adjusted flow rate is accepted by the State, we would
be looking at a 3500-4000 s.f. area of constructed wetlands. This is a large
amount of space, and Peter feels it would be likely spread out into a few
separate cells, some up the hill and some lower. The need is to balance cost
(fewer units is less expensive) with the need to make it fit on the landscape
around everything else we have planned. We discussed how treating human waste
with water is really dumb. John recommended reading The Toilet Papers by Sim
van der Ryn and Kinny was interested in looking into regulatory paths to
promoting alternative waste treatment.
Kate gave a brief update on her correspondences with Andres,
who is helping to draft a grant proposal to the state ERP which is due November
10th. Once we get a draft on Tuesday from Andres, Kate will work to
finalize the whole application. We are unclear at this point of the amount to
request and whether it is just for design and planning or whether we are going
for construction costs as well. (See grant details pasted below).
We talked about how to make our meetings more productive by
having specific homework and task assignments in between meetings. Kate
expressed concern that given where we are in the wastewater and stormwater
design that it seems unlikely to be able to start construction in the spring
since we also have to complete our Act 250 amendment. Elizabeth questioned
whether this project would be considered a ‘minor’ application or whether it
would require a hearing.
Tasks:
-
Kate to send original water data to Peter L.
-
Kinny to get name of abutter to the north from
the Waitsfield Town Office
-
Kate to send letter to abutter re: what happens
with existing culvert when the stream is restored
-
Kate will circulate the document from Tony
Stout/Watershed Consulting that shows various permitting and process (attached)
-
Elizabeth will look into the Act 250 timeline
Next Meeting date: Monday, December 1st at
9AM
Next Meeting Agenda: Peter L. will check back in on
design progress, Kate will present options for what to do with the solar
tracker installation.
Suggestion: In order to help bring our new Core Team
members on board (Ben, Eric, Elizabeth) and make sure we are all on the same
page as a group, we recommend scheduling a half day gathering of the whole
committee onsite in January. We nominate JOHN, as the Chair, to circulate a
Doodle poll with some potential dates (maybe after checking first with Bill’s
schedule?).
Grant Details from website:
2015
Ecosystem Restoration Grant - Round 2 - Request for Proposals (dotx, 854
KB) As part of the Ecosystem Restoration Program's (ERP) on-going efforts to
reduce surface water pollution from phosphorus and sediment, the fiscal 2015
state budget includes capital funds to support ecosystem restoration projects. The
deadline for proposal submittal is 4:30 on November 10, 2014. - Frequently Asked Questions (pdf, 335 KB)
- ERP Performance Standards (pdf, 306 KB)
- Act 110 ERP Municipal List (pdf, 27 KB)
- Standard State Provisions (Attachment C) (pdf, 325 KB)
- Model Procurement Procedures (pdf, 391 KB)
