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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1995.0228.TCWSM.Minutes TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS MINUTES OF THE WORK/STUDY SESSION OF THE FOUNTAIN HILLS TOWN COUNCIL FEBRUARY 28, 1995 A public meeting of the Fountain Hills Town Council was convened and called to order by Mayor Cutillo at 6:30 P.M.,Tuesday,February 28, 1995,in the Fountain Hills Town Hall Council Chambers,located at 16836 E.Palisades Blvd., Building C, Fountain Hills, Arizona. In attendance were the following members of the Fountain Hills Town Council: Mayor John Cutillo, Vice Mayor Frank Clark, and Councilmembers Don Lawrence, Peg Tibbetts, Wally Hudson, Bill O'Brien and Marianne Wiggishoff. Also present were Town Manager Paul Nordin, Town Attorney Bill Farrell and Town Clerk Cassie Hansen. AGENDA ITEM#2-DISCUSSION/PRESENTATION ON THE EFFLUENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE FOUNTAIN HILLS SANITARY DISTRICT AND MCO PROPERTIES, INC. DISCUSSION WILL INCLUDE INFORMATION PRESENTED BY DISTRICT ATTORNEY ANIS MITCHELL AND DISTRICT SUPERINTENDENT RON HUBER. Town Manager Paul Nordin introduced Ron Huber, the District Manager, and Anis Mitchell, the District Attorney of the Fountain Hills Sanitary District. District Attorney Mitchell reported on the history of the Sanitary District. He talked about Mrs.Jeffries,one of the original commissioners of the sanitary district,and her knowledge regarding wastewater treatment. He said she had realized in the early stages of Fountain Hills' development that the District would have problems with the disposal of excess wastewater. She had formulated an agreement(Special Warranty Deed) with MCO for the use of excess effluent in return for a deed granting 4.5 acres of land located at the Sanitary District site. In 1981, Mrs. Jeffries viewed this agreement as a means of eliminating the liability of excess wastewater. In 1984 the District entered into another agreement with MCO as a means of insuring that MCO would put the effluent to commercial uses and secure appropriate government permits. In return,the District would meet all the requirements of treating the excess water. In 1991 the District negotiated two new agreements. One dealt with reclaimed wastewater as an amendment to the original wastewater agreement revising the definition of commercial uses of the effluent and establishing usage charges. The second agreement was a supplement which defined effluent water quality and determined that MCO would be allowed to take 1.25 million gallons daily with an option for additional amounts. The Sanitary District would have the responsibility to handle the excess effluent should MCO decide not to exercise its option for additional usage. This excess wastewater was the problem being currently considered. Mr. Mitchell stated that the present capacity of the treatment plant is at 1.2 million gallons per day. Improvements at the plant would allow up to 2.6 million gallons to be treated each day. The population of Fountain Hills, estimated to double in the next ten years,dictated that continued improvements to the sanitary district be instituted. He reported that all outstanding bonds would be paid up by the year 2001 and the District still had authority to sell up to $5 million of bonds. Mr. Huber spoke to the Council regarding the changes in environmental laws during the period between the agreements, their revisions and amendments. In 1985 the Sanitary District applied for a Notice of Disposal then applied for a Re-use Permit which to date had not been received. The ADEQ required the Sanitary District to Minutes of the Work/Study Session of the Town Council 02/28/95 Page 1 of 3 determine the quantity available to MCO as effluent. The figure of 1.2 million gallons per day was chosen because that number represented the capacity of the plant at that time. A Re-use Permit at that time for additonal quantities would not be allowed because it exceeded the plant capacity. The treatment of effluent at that time did not meet the standards that are currently required to be met. Attorney Mitchell stated the plant was equipped to perform biological nitrogen removal, if necessary, in order to allow discharge into a river. He pointed out the options currently being considered. Studies indicated additional measures had to be considered for the excess effluent other than disposal onto vacant lands. These results should be reported within the next month. One option would be discharging effluent to the Salt River basin. Another would be an aquifer recharge project which would require a site twice the size of Fountain Lake,about 70 acres,with no bottom liner. The required quality of the effluent would have to be clearer than the plant could produce. He stated that when Fountain Hills would be built out and include five golf courses, the amount of effluent would still be a problem. He stated that considerably more effluent would be used during the summertime. In the wintertime, storage of effluent would be required. Jim Jenkins,MCO Properties,stated that the new Sunridge Canyon golf course would pay for;cage of effluent under separate agreements. He talked about the location of pipelines that had been developed for pumping effluent. He said that at build out effluent in the amount of 3.6 million gallons per day could be used during the summertime. The existing golf course water requirements are provided by direct pumping from Chaparral City Water Company. There is no booster pump system and to build a system would be monetarily unfeasible. Thomas Leininger asked about the use of the Salt River Project as a means of disposing effluent. He was informed that SRP had rejected requests to use their canal for effluent as the canal water was presently being used for drinking water at some points downstream. No discharge of effluent would be allowed into the CAP canal for the same reason. AGENDA ITEM#3 - ADJOURNMENT. The meeting adjourned at 7:31 P.M. Minutes of the Work/Study Session of the Town Council 02/28/95 ,, Page 2 of 3 TOWN OF FOUNTAIN HILLS 41111, By: M. Cutillo, Mayor A 1'thST: CAL44.4A— Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk PREPARED BY: :2( r,( '",�/ t m Linda D. LemAdministrative Assistant CERTIFICATION I hereby certify that the foregoing minutes are a true and correct copy of the minutes of the Work/Study Session Meeting held by the Town Council of Fountain Hills on the 28th day of February, 1995. I further certify that the meeting was duly called and that a quorum was present. DATED this 16th day of March, 1995. Cassie B. Hansen, Town Clerk • Minutes of the Work/Study Session of the Town Council 02/28/95 ice,, Page 3 of 3