7.15.2025 - City Council - Health and Environmental Affairs

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Good afternoon. This is the city council committee on health and environmental affairs on July 15th at 5:15 here at Government Center. Clerk will call the role.

Vice President Pereira here.

Chair proposa here. Pursuant to the open meeting law, any person may make an audio or video recording of this public meeting or may transmit the meeting through any medium.

Attendees are therefore advised that such recordings or transmissions are being made whether perceived or unpersceived by those present and deemed acknowledged and permissible. Item one on our agenda this evening is citizens input. There is none. Second is the approval of the minutes of the February 18th, 2025 meeting.

Motion to approve.

Motion made. I will second. All in favor?

I.

I. The eyes have it.

Item number three requires a motion to lift from the table.

Motion to lift from the table.

Second. All in favor? I I lifting from the table today is a resolution to conveniently quarterly quarterly review to discuss the water supply and water filtration plant which was last tabled 128 2025.

Mr. Furland, Mr. Tero, come on down.

Seems like we're on uh prices, right?

Come on down.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Good afternoon.

Gentlemen, if you can identify yourselves for the public, please. Paul Ferland, the administrator of community utilities, city of Fall River.

Jim Terio, president with Tupper Water Board.

Excellent. Welcome back. Beautiful.

Thank you.

So, uh, Mr. Ferland, I'll typically turn this over to you to give us a general overview of things and then I'll council and I'll ask some questions as we go.

Yeah. No, definitely. So, um, just want to update everybody as of today, Northwapa Pond is negative 15 in 15.5 inches below full pond. uh which halfway through July is a very good position to be in. Uh we do have the Copa Cup pump running. Uh we started that right around Jul July 2nd uh to transfer water from Copa Cut into Northwood Tuppa just to make sure that we maintain uh a good uh

level on the reservoir. Uh Southwood Tupper Pond uh is at 20.6 below full pond uh which is a very good level for it to be at again uh this time of the year. Uh it's actually come up. We were down to about 26 below Full Pond, but uh we've had the gates closed at 4th Street. Uh and that level has come up.

Uh we do like to keep southwond between -18 to -24. Uh that's a good uh a good level where it doesn't affect any of the residents. Uh and also uh keeps it high enough for the boers to be able to enjoy their recreational activities uh on the pond without uh a lot of complaints. Um, so, uh, Northwood Tupper Pond, again, nothing, uh, really that's come of light, uh, with with the, uh, with the

pond. Again, uh, Copa Cut, we've been doing our normal maintenance on our dam facilities out there. Um, you know, mowing of the, uh, of the dams. Uh, as far as South Tupper pond, South Tupper pond uh, has been in good condition. uh with recent rains that come through, I feel that uh there's probably been a lot of runoff from the wershed that may have brought uh some phosphorus and nutrients

into the pond uh with these hot temperatures in the warm days. Uh we may start to see uh more of an algae uh issue within the pond, but that's uh kind of normal for this time of the year with the temperature of the pond coming up as well. So, I just want to throw that out there. Uh since 2018, there has been a uh uh an advisory on the pond, a

health advisory uh in relation to uh blue green algae and cyanobacteria. So that uh was put in place in 2018 and has not been lifted. uh as a council know we over the years we've been doing some studies uh in relation to um the pond and what uh food source provides uh for those algae blooms uh and how we can improve that uh you know to say we're halfway through July and I haven't

visually observed a large algae bloom uh I think a lot of people within the watershed are doing more to protect the pond uh so that could be anything from uh when you cut your grass, pick up your grass clippings and dispose of them properly at uh you know DPW in Fall River or Transfer Station West for those for those residents. Uh in the fall, make sure you pick up your leaves so

they don't get ground up and then run off into the pond uh and things like that. Fertilizer is another big one. If you're going to use fertilizer, you don't want to use a phosphorus or nutrient-based fertilizer on your lawns.

Uh personally I would say don't use any fertilizer within the watershed but people do like nice lawns. Try to use something that's all natural and doesn't have those uh components that could run off and be a food source to the algae within the pond.

Mr. Fel, can I ask a question um regarding that storm that we had about a week and a half ago? Any any major damage to trees out in the in the reservation that would affected the pond?

Yeah, I was I was going to get there touch on the storm here in a minute. So, um, you know, naturally, uh, the storm that did come in, uh, July 3rd, uh, later in the afternoon was, uh, pretty, uh, pretty traumatic for the for the city, uh, especially even on the urbanized side of the city. Uh, we did have some, uh, we do have a lot of down trees, uh, throughout the reservation.

Um, you know, we had staff in actually that came in the night of the third, worked with DPW, uh, to clean up the city side.

Um, and then we also had uh some staff members that came in on the fourth uh and other staff members that were on duty over the weekend working to clean up uh some of our our facilities. Uh we had some trees come down across our interceptor drain uh and our emergency access to the water treatment plant from Meridian Street in uh all of those have been cleared up and uh the pathway is

open. uh out in the reservation. Um on the fourth, we did have uh a lot of down trees on a lot of the roads out there, but we had crew out there uh clean those cleaning those up so that the roads were passable. Uh we've gone through most of our fire lanes and trails and stuff like that. Some trails still have low trees that people can go over and stuff like

that, but most of the fire lanes have been verified that they're open and clear uh for access out in that area.

Good. Council prayer, I have a couple of questions and I know that on here the resolution was specific to water supply and the water filtration plant.

So, um I will talk about the ponds like you talked about uh the algae bloom and we do get it when it's hot weather.

What are we doing with the Westport and Tividan locations? Um, have we sent them any kind of documentation to say this is the fertilizer you should use because it's running off into the pond? If they're not using the proper fertilizer or what have you, are we finding people?

Is Westport doing something? How connected are you with the Westport board, the water board there? Because I find it I find it a little concerning that in Fall River we keep an eye on people that live by the pond and there's restrictions on certain things that they can and can't do. But it's our pond and we own 10 feet from the shoreline. Our people put up a dock. It's on their

taxes as an extra item. Westport puts up docks. We don't get any money for that.

They're putting that on our land. like what communication happens with Westport. I know the city's looking for ways to get money that's not coming out of our taxpayers's pocket, but I feel like our taxpayers pay all those and Westport's not. Is there some kind of you know compact that you have with them or can is that something we can look at?

So when we started this project uh back in 21 2020 2021 uh we entered into a intermunicipal agreement with both Tividan and Westport uh in relation to this Southwood Tupper Pond. There was no monetary value or anything not like you know normal you know anybody pays anybody but it was an agreement that the three three communities would work together to better the water quality of the South WA pond. Um, so that is in

place that was that was voted on by by this council as as well as the other but there was nothing in there specific to what type of fertilizer they use, what ramifications or there was none of that. The intermunicipal agreement was primarily on use of water period.

No, this is a total independent intermunicipal agreement in relation to the water quality of the of the South Watupa pond. Um, so the Southwood Tuppa pond is Rar Reparian ownership. the owners of the pond on the side own to the center section of the pond. The city of Fall River, we own the rights to use the water and flow the water. Uh so anybody that removes water from the pond

uh has to either compensate us or uh replace the water. So that's and there's two different types of ownership. Some ownership is where you own the land underneath the water like we do with Northwood up Pond. We own the land underneath the water, so we own the water above it. uh as far as you go with um with South Tupper Pond, essentially all the owners own kind of to the center

point, but the water above it, we have the right to say what happens, you know, with the water, the use of the water. Um so it's tough to say that it's, you know, um that we're really not, you know, and that's the thing people say, well, you're responsible for the water.

Every all the owners, everybody that's part of the whole entire watershed is uh is the owners. You know, we do do the public meetings. We've had we've had a number of those, four or five of them.

Uh which a number of Westport residents uh in Tibetan res. They had at the boat uh Yep. We had the Rose Center. It was very good.

Yep. We had one there. We had we've had a couple at the ATMC in Westport. Uh well, Fall River. Yeah, exactly. I know you're familiar with with those. Um so that's what we've gotten out for notices so far. One of the things we did with the initial study was identify the whole watershed. You know, we want one thing that I would like to do, I'd love to do a mailing to everybody, but again,

that's that's, you know, pretty co that can be a costly endeavor to do a mailing like that to everybody within the watershed. You know, we do put out public information which Westport and Fall River everybody can look at, you know, what should be done in the watershed to kind of better the watershed. Uh we do have a number of things on our website with tuppereserve.com.

Uh and then when we were doing uh when we were looking at the regional study um you know one of the things that we talk about is leaf litter and stuff like that to uh the other communities as well. So um you know would we love for you know uh usport and dividend all to chip in together and do a large mailing that that would be ideal but we all know the budget constraints that everybody has.

But uh if uh if you know if if that's something that you think is worthwhile, they can you know put together what a cost would be. See if the other communities are willing to chip in for that and potentially do a mailing for the whole water.

We all use that water. I mean correct all the communities use it too. I just wish that there was more dialogue with the other communities to have a meeting and say we want to be able to use the pond in July and August and we don't want the algae bloom that's there. And I think Tividan got a grant and they started to clean it up. Maybe that's what you're seeing as a little bit

better this year. Um, but if that's the case, then maybe the communities together all put in for one grant that we may be able to get that and and the the woman that does the grants in the mayor's office is really good.

Yeah. No, without a doubt. And and I think uh you know that we did have we applied for a federal air for a treatment uh of South Watupa pond. Uh that air did make it into the final federal budget. Um but that was just got squashed.

That was all earmarks got squashed. So that that didn't make it to the final approved budget. Um but it did make it through. Uh we did reapply for that uh for that earmark again. There was great support for that. uh and that was to do a treatment like they did in Stafford pond, the same type of treatment. But again, like I've said right along, those treatments uh very good and they uh but

they have they have a shelf life.

They're maybe 5 to 10 years and you either have to retreat or go back and and you know do something else because it's really a structural issue with the whole wershed like like you disc bass fishing in the Commonwealth.

Governor Weld used to come down to fish in the Wata.

Why can't we have some type of a bass fishing contest? People pay big money to come and fish and then there's a grand prize or something, but the city makes money.

You're talking north or south.

Well, you don't want to go into the drinking water.

No.

Although they do it at the reservoir.

They do it in the Guaz River. We have talked about it.

Yeah, Mr. and I have talked about that and if it's not motorized and people were that would be good too because we could make money. We're looking at ways to interest people into coming into Fall River and making money that again isn't coming out of the taxpayers's pocket. I think there was a police officer. He might have retired but he was big into fishing there and would have put that all together.

Yeah. So Bowling Green Fishing Club um were big on the South Pond. They used to run that out of Leage Seafood and do that every year on Father's Day. Um I'm I'm pretty familiar with the people here.

Something like that I think would be good.

Yeah. Um I know it takes work to do something like that and maybe there's a group of people that are willing to come forward to help do something. I'm not a fisherman because I don't even like to put bait on a hook, you know? I just don't do it. I I'll hold it, but I don't I can't sit still for that long.

Yeah, me neither. Can you picture a meatball? Stay that long.

Just Just food for thought.

Yep.

Um and the other thing that I want to ask you, which is kind of crazy, but I'm going to ask you anyway.

I see these kids with mopeds driving around the city. I met a father with his son and he said, "You know, my son has a little moped, but there's nowhere to ride." Do we have trails in the reservation? Not for motorized.

Not for motorized. Right.

I mean, I feel bad. We've had a couple of kids that have died, unfortunately.

And why sometimes people buy a youngster a moped that there's no way to drive? I don't know.

Right.

Um, but I just wish we could think of some place.

Well, Freetown has the Freetown State Forest have um they have Yeah, they they have authorized dirt bike trails, right? So in the bio reserve, the bio reserve is made up for fall river water department land free fall river state forest as well as land that the trustees and other uh DCR and other fish and game and stuff own that makes up the whole 14,000 acres of the bio reserve. Um up

in the Freetown State Forest, not in Fall River, but in the Freetown State Forest, there is dirt bike trails that are there. Uh they're they're marked on the bio reserve trail map. Um, so those are for motorized dirt bikes. So anything like that.

So is a moped, a little moped considered a dirt bike? I So it's considered a motorized con.

They they could they could be on the roadways, chapter 90 roadways anywhere within the reservation. They just wouldn't be allowed off off road. One of the things I know the state is having a challenge with on a lot of their properties uh is the ebikes. Um, and I guess there's three different levels of ebike, ebikes, electric bicycles. Uh, there are some that have kind of pretty much you pedal all the time and it just

kind of helps you pedal. There's another one where it has pedals, but you never have to pedal. And there's other ones that don't even have pedals. So, I guess there's three tiers. Um, and I don't want to get into what can be used where, but I know some stuff can be the the state has regulations on where those can be used, right? Uh so some of those may

be able to be used on uh bike trails and stuff like that. I would recommend that anybody review the laws and stuff like that to understand where they can use their type of bikes. Uh but we do have a number of mountain biking trails on Full River, you know, non-motorized mountain biking trails on uh you know properties.

A lot of ditches and stuff. Those are tight tough to to ride. I' I've tried that.

A little tougher. I um I spend a lot of time on the trails and um one of the things that we chase out frequently are the dirt bikes and they raise they raise hell especially on the curves. They love to gun them through there. That creates a rut that creates one, you know, you one thing just leads to another and the next thing you know, the trails are all torn out

and it's a little dangerous because you don't want to have a Well, that's bike like that and hit a tree.

That's another factor.

Yeah.

Yeah. There's no real answer. Uh and the last question I had was tell me about the sludge. What about that sludge regurgitated eating machine?

If we put that up and we got rid of our sludge, we could bring in other sludge and get rid of it. Does sludge have smell? Is that something you're concerned with?

So sludge so sludge is is on the wastewater side, but but we can we can uh discuss this. So um the sludge right now, um I think you're probably talking about a digtor, which is a technology that's been around for a number of years. Uh the whole sludge market is a very fluid market right now because there's a lot going on uh with PAS um you know what they call the forever

chemicals um the emerging uh uh contaminants um and what's going to destruct POS and what's not going to destruct POS. Um so you look at like an incinerator like we used to have down at the wastewater plant. Those don't destruct POS. So you're still dealing with with a POS issue. Some digesttors do if they get hot enough, some don't.

Um there's a number of different technologies that are emerging. Uh as yesterday, I just met with a company um that came down and took a look at our plant uh potentially uh looking to do a pilot uh and they're looking uh they take and they run this through a uh very hot arc machine that kind of uh takes and turns it into a carbon and a liquid sauce and stuff like that. uh they claim

PAS destruction. We're look we're looking into it. Yeah. You know, and I think the one thing that you know about our wastewater treatment plant, it's a very tight site. Uh very close neighbors. So odor is always a big concern of mine down there. Um if there was another spot where a facility could be cited within the city, whether it be industry park or somewhere else that could more easily take merchant outside

uh sludge, you know, that's something.

Uh, you know, I'm I'm talking all the time with Springfield Water and Sewer, uh, NBC Naragans at Bay Commission, some of the other bigger Brockton, New Bedford, and stuff like that. Uh, the whole entire region is having an issue with sludge disposal. Uh, Mass D just did a report about six months ago, they released it. Uh, saying that, uh, within three years, 7% of the facilities within

this region aren't going to have anywhere to put their sludge. So, this isn't just a Fall River problem. This is this is a whole region problem. Uh and we're hoping that uh you know some of the agencies uh help us out with that a lot of a lot of us. But we need to be able to keep on uh keep on moving forward and that's what we're doing.

Well, I'm glad you're looking into it without a doubt and maybe it's a situation where we need to regionalize.

Correct. You know, great point. Power plant certainly has a lot of space there, but I wouldn't want them to get all the money. I would want to share in the wealth at the same time.

Um, those are the only questions I have.

Um, and you did have an open house. Uh, as well, unfortunately, I didn't know about it till later. Um, but I think that that's good because the public knows about it. And sometimes if you're having one, it's good that we can announce it here.

Yeah.

So people that are watching council meetings will know.

Yeah, without a doubt. Definitely. So, we had we had the open house down at the wastewater treatment plant, which was uh probably the first one ever. I don't I don't know if they ever did them years ago, but since I've been here, kind of the first one, and I think it was phenomenal. We had uh uh we had it was it was a tough day to have it. It was uh

it was just after June Junth, and I think a lot of people were school just got out and stuff like that. So, it was a tough time to the first beautiful Saturday, I think, in 12 weeks. So, I don't think everybody wanted to go trot around a wastewater plant, but uh we did.

No, but it was a start and we can, you know, grow. Yeah, we're definitely planning. We we've already discussed planning one for the fall. Uh so we will uh we will get notice out about that. Um maybe my colleague can bring a class down there and that's a good field trip to see where that all goes.

Yeah, he he came and when he first got on the council came and took tours down at the wastewater plant in the water plant. Um and uh you know I all of those facilities are open at any time for classes to come in. Um, you know, uh, good to know because you can take this trolley for free or cheap if it's just within Fall River and it's a school group and that educates the kids as to

Yeah.

you know what we do.

Yeah.

Glad updates.

I am. I am. I've been there by myself, but the first time I ever went was with Council Mitchell. I yield, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Fland. Thank you.

Just just one more question for you, Mr.

Furland. Um the water filtration plant as far as building staffing, what have you.

Uh so we're we're very well staffed down at the treatment plant right now. Uh I want to say we're fully staffed. We have we have a couple of staff members uh that are out um on leave, but other than that, I believe Yeah, as of right now the treatment plant is fully staffed. Uh in the water maintenance division, we are uh down a couple of staff members there uh in in our

administration office. Uh we're down two clerks currently. So uh but we are maintaining, you know, licensed uh licensed operators as needed by the state. We're fully staffed. Uh and actually we have a couple of um people that on on shift operators, the uh maintenance mechanic that's fully licensed and we're working to get our lab tech uh fully licensed so that we have people in reserve able to uh

operate as well. So yeah, that's uh that's a great thing. Um one other thing I just want to talk to the council since we talked a little bit about the wastewater plant and stuff like that. Uh I did send a letter recently to the uh Somerset Water and Sewer Commission uh about regionalization. They did a study I believe I CC the council on that. Uh so I uh know there was a resolution not

too long ago that was filed about regionalization. Uh just uh urge your counselors to take a look at that letter that I sent to subset.

Absolutely.

Anything else gentlemen you want to add?

I just uh like to say u the fellas that uh responded to clean out the down trees on the interceptor uh did an outstanding job. They really worked hard.

I was very surprised at the size of some of the trees that came down. Some of them were 18 20 ines in diameter. I mentioned to Paul um and it's it's interlockan had been cleaned beautifully. the uh department over the last year have done a real nice job going in into some of the other areas of the board and the state and they cleared all that out. I'm no meteorologist, but

I think we got we got a piece of a micro burst because the trees that I'm finding out there, um, a lot of them are sheared at four and six foot off the ground and we're talking trunks this big and they're just it's amazing. Um, the guys did a heck of a job. There were at least eight trees that size that had come down on the interceptor drain and um both

maintenance and Jeff Bordon from uh the um reservation, they would u lift them up, cut them and move them out. The good thing is we've already sold a wood permit for for the wood. So the firewood is going to be well used. It was all uh it was oak and maple and it's it's good stuff.

Yeah, that's that's something to note.

If any residents would like a wood cutting permit, we there is a lot of we got wood good down trees uh out there. Uh they can contact reservation headquarters or water administration. We can get them set up with a wood cutting permit. Mike Laborsia takes them out, designates them an area and then they're able to work in that area to uh to I believe it's $40 for residents. Don't hold me exactly to that, but I believe

it's $40 for residents.

And how much wood can they take?

Unlimited.

A load.

As much as they want. Unlimit. Yeah. So, you know, we don't let them to clear cut an area and down all the trees, you know, we select the trees and select the stuff that they can take.

And that's all deadened down.

Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. But we really don't say they can only take a load or whatever. If they want to be out there taking taking the down wood out of there, they can.

All right. Thank you, gentlemen. As always, appreciate your update.

We'll see you we'll see you in a few months.

Thank you very much. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to table.

Motion to table.

Motion to table made. I'll second it.

All in favor?

I.

The eyes have it.

To adjourn.

Motion to adjurnn. Made and seconded.

All in favor? I.

The city council committee on health and environmental affairs is now adjourned.

Thank you.