11.12.2025 Sewer Commission

All right, welcome to the um November 12th meeting of the for sewer commission. Um pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording in this public meeting or may transmit the meetings we're in.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and are deemed acknowledged and permissible.

Okay, before we deal with the agenda, um we have someone in the audience that wants to make a comment. Uh it's not on the agenda.

Um if if it's okay with the commissioners, they want to weave the uh weave the issue and allow this gentleman to uh make make a short presentation.

Uain a motion to wave the rules.

Make that motion to wave the rules.

Second.

All in favor.

I um Okay sir.

If you want to make a short Yes.

Hold on. Before you do it, I need your name and address.

Steve Nass, 11 Osprey Drive, Berkeley, Massachusetts.

I won't take a seat.

And once again, I appreciate the uh vote to wave some of your rules. At the last meeting, I made a comment in public comment and the chairman asked me a question.

He said, "Did you say this stuff to Somerset?" And I answered in probably the most understated comment I've made in probably my entire life. I said, "Yes, I did." That would be a dramatic understatement because I had been talking with Paul Coogan for several years about this matter.

I didn't just come in out of the woodwork and I thought it was going to be done on a higher level. I was at the wrong place. Paul was going to talk to the chairman of the board in the Somerset selectman and somehow they're going to engage Paul and the relevant person over there. This went on for a couple of years. So I called Paul Coogan and he said, "You're the only one

on planet Earth that's talking about this." Then I went over in 2024 to engage the water sew commission. I fig Okay, so I'm going to engage the water commission. What are you guys doing?

Yeah, we're going to do it. Yeah, we're going to do it. They were relying on a comment from 2019 to make determinations. I'm going to go quickly and not throw a lot of shade.

May 12th is really when this all started when they had their right pierce presentation.

I met Paul that night. It looked it was like the Cameron Reed trial. After they were done with this presentation, I got up and I Googled it for like 45 minutes because it was it was something was very wrong.

So now we have what you said rightfully so looks like a no-brainer.

But I was gratified that Paul said, "Let's get some committees going."

Because I'm not throwing any shade on this board, but you have to have another meeting just to allow him to send this presentation. This we got to move a lot faster than that. And the board committees will get this work done.

There's no more 21, 22, 23, and year 24 of work on this. A year 25, it's done.

Got to get a little faster. Uh, I was thinking that it's exactly right. You need some committees, but there's one committee missing and I that's what I like to talk about tonight.

The committee or someone a committee or few people working on the potential region and what all that's about. I'd like to make a a a request that I be allowed to set up or with with guidance from both cities a few people to work on what the region would look like. What would that do? Go and get best practices from Springfield, Worester, Brockton. Go visit uh the other place uh Mass Water

Resources, Deer Island. Talk to whoever is in charge at the state legislature.

do a little bit of work to say what's the nuts and bolts of this while the two town committees, city and town committee work on you know that other structure.

There may be some overlap and possibly this this uh potential uh regional committee will have to interface with those two. But it's we really got to supercharge this negotiation because at the rate I've seen it happen uh you know it's it's been going like a glacier. We've been moving at the speed of light, believe it or not, since May 12th. A lot of stuff's happened. Uh, if you were at a baseball game, we were

fighting for four years just to get up at bat. We get up at bat on May 12th, and now we maybe hit a single to get to first base. We don't have we don't have all this time. Uh, considering what Summers is up against, they need to get an extension if there's some legitimate stuff here from the EPA. And then, you know, to start a region out of nothing, it's not rocket science. And I told

Paul, when I do something that I've never done before within my industry, I'm not looking to reinvent the wheel. I do what everybody else does. So, I would take that same uh mindset and say, "How'd you guys do? Is anybody here that started this meeting? What do we got to do? Who's the people of the state legislatores? Can somebody lend us a hand?" Somebody will find between Brockton Springfield Worester and

maybe up at MRA, somebody will take me under their wing and say, "This is what you got to do. I'm certain of it." And that way we can get it. And that's what I wanted to say. And I'm very happy and I want to see that where I want to see the single get hit by you guys sending them uh authorizing Paul to send the first thing over the summer. best way.

Um, well, Miss Nasser, thank you for your comments. Um, sounds like you'd like to volunteer to do some of this ground work and so forth, leg work that's out there to be done. Um, I'm sure we'll keep you in mind.

Thank you very And um if if if it all comes to that and uh you you seem like you're a pretty well uh inspired guy about this whole thing, which is good. So um we'll keep that in mind and we appreciate you coming and your comments.

Thank you very much and uh I'll sit back and watch your meeting.

Okay, that takes us to the item number one, the only item on the agenda, which is is worded as the Somerset in connection interconnection for sewer approval of report to Somerset.

We've all been given a copy of the report.

Um, it's been it's been um I think reviewed and I think some modifications made to it since the last meeting.

A couple of minor adjustments.

Yeah, I I've read through them. I think I picked them up. But um any anybody have any comments with respect to what's in the report and what it's trying to say or whatever? And um does anybody have any questions with regard to it?

I just want to say that Paul's put a lot of work into this particular craft and and I hope to God that Somerset sees this as an initial thing and that we're interested in doing this. No question. How about each and every one of us? That's nice.

Okay. Anybody else have anything about it? Say about it.

Paul, are you going to brief the public one more time? Uh yeah, please. So, what I'm asking for from the board tonight, and just so everybody's clear, I'm asking for the board to approve this letter uh for me to forward this get this letter uh distributed as as shown on here with any minor modifications to edit or grammar uh as needed during that finalization time. So, uh, what this is again is is

really, uh, talking about, uh, the regionalization between Fall River, uh, and Somerset in with wastewater. Um, how that would work, again, like we talked about last time, there's two different ways to structure this. Um there's a lot of ways to do, but two of the ways that it's kind of narrowed down to is potentially taking our um our wastewater plant um and certain pieces of our

infrastructure i.e. being uh our um our deep you know the 20 foot diameter deep rock tunnel uh and our wastewater plant and taking and putting that into a separate independent re region. Uh so that that would be a separate independent region, its own independent governing body uh that would essentially charge rates to anybody that goes that goes into that system. So they pretty much would break

that off from the Florida Sewer Commission. They would have their own board uh set their own rates, manage their own system the way that they need to. uh that would um that could you know how the board could be structured you know with different communities and the different communities that go into that um you know there may be members of different members from each community depending on how it's structured uh the

board structured and stuff like that uh it could have um you know could be based on flow flow rates or amount of sewage uh if we did do a regional I a region I would recommend that it be a minimum uh so that uh just a very small system that's you know given us 10,000 gallons a day or whatever doesn't uh you know doesn't try to jump jump in uh to the region.

So that's kind of uh one way. The other way would be like the standard municipal agreements like we have with with our other communities. Um uh so the other communities and the difference between any type of agreement with Somerset uh and the other communities that we're currently in agreements with i.e. being Freetown, Westport uh or Tibetan Wastewater District is just the sheer volume that Somerset would be uh

providing to us. It's uh you know it just trumps any of those other ones. uh you know we're not even at million gallons um on any of the other facilities. Uh this is this is over three um that that they be providing us. Uh some does have uh you know does have an INI issue influent infiltration. So, you know, I know they pump out roughly um roughly about 1 1.15 million gallons a day on

average. They pump out from their water plant. Um their wastewater plant treats about three three and a half million gallons. Uh so that's about 2.3 million gallons of iron flow that they see within their within their system. You know, it is a lot. You know, can I say that we're already better? You know, we we do have ini as well within the city.

So, uh, you know, everybody deals with that. Everybody that's in the industry that's in that does this, uh, deals with those demons, unless you're a brand new system. Um, you know, when you deal with these vintage systems like both Florida and Somerset have, the collection systems, uh, it's it's just, um, uh, it's something that's there. So, you know, they were wondering how that would

be deal. That was one of the questions that I got back from them pretty pretty hard during the time. Uh so what I did I went through and I and and I built a rate uh what we could charge them uh based on uh flow to uh provide us. So this would be uh figuring that they would be coming into uh into our system in the Colombia Street drop shaft. So

that's where uh the system would enter ours. Um and again with the regional system uh whether it looks at the pipes underneath the river coming across whether that be part of the region um that really wasn't built into this race structure but that could be something uh that could be discussed and talked about um you know and actually as Mr. NAS have sent uh you know in the public comment

period um breaking this down into a small committee that's able to meet very regularly um and be able to hammer through some of these issues keeping the independent boards you know each side keeping their independent boards up to date of what's going on and stuff like that I think would be crucial to be able to to fast track this as well. Um, so the rate structure that I built, um,

looking at that, knowing that they're not going to be tying into any of the other collection systems, so they won't hit our regular collection system that goes down all the streets. They won't be going into uh any pump stations. So, you won't have the cost of electricity upgrades and maintenance of pump stations. You won't have uh, you know, main interceptor uh or or any of that.

there won't be any impacts or or minimum minimization of or increase in cso discharges because we're going directly into the tunnel, not into uh anything that would discharge out a CSO during wet weather. So, the rate that was uh that was developed would be $5.88 per cc. Um, looking at that, um, that would be what they would be charged for the amount of build water. So, they build their

customers. Uh, we would charge them $5.88 um, per CCF based on the amount of water that they build their customers. As far as INI goes, again, that's pretty uh, substantial. They would be charged u 50% of that rate for the INI. So my question is yes why 50%.

That's how I built the rate structure with that.

So I I don't think we can is that something that other other communities would historically do as well?

Um can't say can't say whether I whether I've come across that or not. You know again the eye is something that that needs to be considered. That's still waste water that needs to be treated, comes into our facility, still needs to be treated. Uh again, for the for the rate structure uh to be um to be bettable uh you know it it wouldn't be able to be um you know build

that 100%. I don't I don't think that would be well I can well I can understand what INI is. I mean, it's it's a lot of cases it's just water, ground water, you know, you're talking water or storm water, whatever the case may be. And and you know, it doesn't have the impurities that you're going to get out of out of the 1.15 million that's going to be pumped up. But, um,

no, I just I just wondering how, you know, how how you came about it. Um because I'm sure it's going to I'm sure it's going to be some type part of the negotiations as well.

Yeah, 100%. And again, this is you know to to make it to make it market marketable, fair and equitable. Um you know again when our residents don't get charged for INI but again it's still something that we need to deal with at the end. uh you know with it coming across coming fully into our into our system uh through that you know that limited part of our system being treated

at the plant there needs to be some type of charge for it. You know, you look at uh some of our other intermunicable agreements again, they're judged 100% because they're judged based on meters of the time lines. But again, to try to make this market marketable and equable, equitable, uh that's what we came up with the rate structure. And again, that's something that they can control too.

Yeah.

So they can take and they can make improvements to their system, reduce their INI, and they'll pay less.

So that's something that's well within their control of whether they pay that extra 50% or they reduce their INI to very little and don't pay. So just okay.

Um but so that kind of runs through uh and as I as I went over kind of runs through the the whole draft uh as I went over last time and again some people may say well that's cheaper than what a Fall River resident pays. you know, that's definitely something that's that's going to be said uh in relation to this. Um because as everybody knows, our rate right now is $811.

Um the uh so the question came up at the last meeting, uh is this going to run us a profit? You know, is this going to be a money maker for us? It's not going to be a money maker for us. Is it going to help out the rate for the residents of Fall River? Yes, 100%. It will reduce the rate of for the residents for river.

It'll reduce the rates for the resident of of Somerset as well, I believe, from from their full build out and their full cost that they're going to be faced with uh up ahead. um you know so it will you know and I'm not going to not say this but it's this would drop the rate the the you know cost to the former customer you know that that's plain mathematics because we're taking the same cost and

we're then dividing it up over more people and that's a whole entire that's the one of the things that drives me and compels me to want this to move forward so much is the sharing of that cost we if if anybody has to spend the money anyways, why wouldn't you want to do it over more customers? And this exactly echoes what Somerset board said back in 2020 in one of their meetings when they

were looking at their budget that they wanted to look at, you know, the overall, you know, that's when they were talking about adding in Swansea, adding in Dyon uh into the wastewater and they said, why wouldn't we want them to come in because it's just going to make more people to be able to share the cost. And that's what that's what it comes down to. I think it, you know, to put it another perspective, um,

everybody's going to benefit from it.

Yes. I mean, some of it will benefit from it. We're definitely going to benefit from it. Whoever else comes in is going to benefit from it. Um, so, um, yeah. Is there profit? Is it is it something that will be considered profitable? Yeah, it'll be profitable for everybody. So, um, and that's and I think that's that's really the key to this whole thing. It's, um, it's to me, you know, if we're going to

look for the future, and you know, the on the water side of of what goes on in this city, you know, we've heard so many times that, you know, if the water department needs more customers, they need more volume coming through.

Well, it's unfortunate that maybe that's not happening on on that side, but this is this is a this is a great opportunity to just fulfill that type of thinking because what we're doing is bringing in more volume to be able to uh smooth out cost.

So, it's um I'm all for it and um I like I I I just hope that this um this initial effort to u open up the eyes of everybody uh we'll get the ball rolling and um maybe we'll need the uh we'll need the efforts of Mr. NASF who's sitting out there who was who's coming and told us that he's willing to work with us on it.

And uh but we're we're at the we're at a we're at a vantage point at this point.

So I got I I've read through the uh the report. Um it's a starting point. I think it definitely uh shows the public that um that there's definitely an advantage to doing what we're we're trying to do. And uh I like to hope this thing moves forward. I I can understand how Somerset might be a little bit skeptical because they got a lot of things coming down the road that's going to affect them if they

don't do this. And um so I guess you know they're going to they're going to want to maybe move very carefully with this, but um hopefully they'll see the advantage to it. Um that's what I would say. Does anybody else have anything they want to say?

Scott, you okay with this?

Yep.

Good.

Andrew?

Yes.

Good.

All right. Having said all that, Paul, thanks again for making that presentation. Um I'll then entertain a motion to approve um the report that has been submitted with respects to u um entering into a partnership with um Somerset with regard to handling their u their refluent.

Um, and as a result of that, uh, setting up a a formal means of communication to get this project on move.

Having said that, anybody want to make a motion?

I'll make that motion. So, item one to uh, move forward with this draft letter to uh, bring Somerset on our uh, I'll second.

I'll second the motion.

Okay. Um I'd like I think we ought to do a uh a a vote.

Okay.

Roll call.

Roll call.

Yeah, that's the word. Doing roll call.

Also, yes.

How?

Yes.

Yes. Motion passes. Um, unless anybody has any other business they wanted to discuss, I'll a motion to adjurnn.

Make that Sorry. I'll make that motion to adjurnn.

Second. All in favor? I I Thank you, gentlemen.

Appreciate it.