REPORT ON MEDIA COMMENTARY BY PUBLIC OFFICIALS RE: MORRISVILLE WASTEWATER TREATMENT PLANT OPERATIONS John J. Warenda, Esq. Executive Director Municipal Authority of the Borough of Morrisville November, 2015I. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY October 22, 2015 through November 25, 2015EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The following report is occasioned by media coverage of public commentary about sewage treatment issues at the Morrisville Municipal Authority (Authority) wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). In particular, after having been informed of a proposed “Consent Assessment of Civil Penalties” by the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PaDEP), itis reported that Lower Makefield Township officials accused the Authority of “a decade of neglect” and asserted that “they haven't been updating it all along.” This fl in the face of years of shared information, including formal annual reconciliations of operational, and capital, expenses and activity. Summaries of those reports are included for reference in the body of this report. Equally inconsistent with such criticism is the record of increasing concern the Authority has shared with its municipal clients in the last three or four years. As evident in the pages and documents which follow, the Morrisville Authority has provided written projections of capital needs, taking further care to emphasize that planned capital projects ... will involve cost in excess of what we all have come to accept as typical in ‘averag years” (e-mail of 12/4/2013), as well as disclosing major treatment problems in the UNOX reactors, requiring an emergency repair response (email of 7/10/2014). The e-mails and other documents included herein are a small piece of the regular intercourse that takes place not only between management administrators but, more frequently — and more importantly — between the operators and administrative staff that work 24/7 to make sewage treatment functionally invisible to most people. In this case, by the way, “24/7" is not a metaphor; it is the quite literal responsibility of water and wastewater operators and plant superintendents. From 2008 to date, the Morrisville Authority spent $5.7 million in capital repairs, replacement, and upgrades in the wastewater treatment plant, Lower Makefield received a capital reconciliation report every year, during which they have paid their allocated share of 43.62% pursuant to the existing Allocation Agreements,In the last two (2) years, Lower Makefield’s sewer administrator, as well as its ‘manager and professional engineers, have met in at least five (5) formal meetings with the Morrisville Authority, which does not include perhaps twice as many other meetings between only engineers and/or solicitors. It bears mention in this context that Lower Makefield and the Morrisville Authority employ the services of the same Bucks County law firm (different law partners) for their legal representation, The ultimate irony is that officials of Lower Makefield have toured the Morrisville WWTP more than once in the last two or three years; once following the July 17, 2014 meeting, and again at Morrisville’s Open House on October 17, 2015. So: Assertion of malignant neglect is misplaced ~ wrong ~ and some of the people making those claims actually know better. They have had the benefit of correspondence, reports and records, in-person meetings, the professional advice of engineers and lawyers, and have even toured the treatment plant itself with Q&A provided by Morrisville's WWTP superintendent and on-site, DEP-licensed, laboratory director to explain the treatment process - and challenges. Authority officials appreciate that economic and political dynamics can provoke criticism. It is not especially helpful, however, to express criticism over foreseeable and anticipated events in the ordinary course of business. In the context of necessary infrastructure attention, those events should evoke cooperative planning and action. ‘That is the real work of good public stewardship.Il, REPORT ON MEDIA COMMENTARY October 22, 2015 through November 25, 2015This is a report summarizing participation by Lower Makefield Township and Yardley Borough’ in the capital maintenance and renovation of the Morrisville Wastewater ‘Treatment Plant. To put the situation in context, a very brief history including reference to allocation agreements among the municipal parties is included. The report also addresses comments? attributed to Terry Fedorchak, Manager of Lower Makefield Township, regarding maintenance and management of the Morrisville Wastewater Treatment Plant, Quotes are those attributed to Mr. Fedorchak, except where it otherwise may be noted. No judgment is made regarding the accuracy or context of the quotes. No speculation about motives is intended nor should be inferred from the factual information which follows. Exact quotations which follow are taken from the Courier Times and the Advance of Bucks County, as indicated. QUOTATION! “They're not properly treating the sewage before it’s entering into the Delaware River.” “They haven't put into their plant perhaps what they should have.” Bucks County Courier Times (online 10/22/2015; print 10/23/2015) aac rd mre case NS esi ict “They haven't been updating it all along.” Advance of Bucks Counsy (online 10/23/2015) --{Tlownship manager Terry Fedorchak said the rates could in fact double over a several-year period if Lower Makefield had to contribute to a new facili ' Reference to “Lower Makefield Township” and “Yardley Borough” includes their respective sewer departments or authorities. There have been varying legal relationships between the ‘municipalities and/or their own component authorities, which are not relevant for instant purposes. » Particularly beginning following a joint meeting of LMT and Yardley officials, including engineers and solicitors, at the MMA offices on October 14, 2015. See, Attendance Sheet attached and made a part of this report as “Appendix Page 2 of 10“We've been talking about a tsunami,” he noted. “I think this qualifies.” Supervisor Chairman Kristin Tyler blamed the situation on the MMA for “a decade of neglect” in maintaining its plant. Ads line 11/19/201. Adsnee of ucts Coan (cline W201 As you will come to know from the facts which follow: + Itis not true that there has been a “decade of neglect.” *+ It is not true that “they” haven’t put into “their” plant perhaps what “they” should have. + Itis not truc that “they” haven’t been updating it all along. *+ And it certainly is not true that Morrisville has been dumping “raw sewage” into the Delaware River. HISTORIOGRAPHY: WATER: The history of municipal water treatment in Morrisville begins in 1894, when the Morrisville Town Council constructed a water supply system to provide fire protection and residential water for the Borough, then numbering about 1,200 inhabitants. The original water works was a 100-horsepower Thropp boiler and a Blake steam pump at North Delmorr fths of a mile and East Trenton Avenues, and the distribution system consisted of about four- of pipe and 29 fire hydrants. The current water treatment plant (WTP) was built in 1967-68 and serves a population of about 14,000 through 4,200 metered connections in Morrisville and parts of Lower Makefield Township and Falls Township. ® Let’s be clear that no public official ~as far as the author knows ~is eredited with, blamed for, or alleged to have been, saying this. But it has become an implication of headlines, and a common meme of social media, But it ain't tue. Page 3 of 10‘The Municipal Authority of the Borough of Morrisville was organized shortly after World War II pursuant to Pennsylvania enabling legislation known as the “Municipality Authorities Act of 1945” which has since been supplanted by the 2001 (and some later) amendments. Incorporated in March, 1948, the Authority was formed to operate the water system which, until then, had been operated by a committee and department of the council under borough management. SEWER: Engineers Albright & Friel submitted a report dated October 17, 1949 to Morrisville Borough Council entitled “Report to the Borough Council of Morrisville, on Sanitary Sewer System and Sewerage Treatment.” It was referred to the “Water Authority” in November, 1950; in correspondence dated October 2, 1951 the Authority recommended to Council that the prospective sewer project be postponed “... until next spring or such time as, the labor market reaches a reasonable level.” Bids for construction of a new (first) sewer plant and new sewer mains were solicited in 1952, but financing and planning issues set the project back until 1954, when the project was re-bid. Construction started in October of 1954. The new sewer plant was certified as complete by the engineers in October, 1956. The initial collection system infrastructure serving the Borough of Morrisville as it then existed comprised about 24 miles of sewer mains, compared to about 50 miles currently.’ As then completed, the sewer plant was built to handle 2.5 million gallons per day (MGD) of flow. Neither Yardley Borough nor Lower Makefield Township had, at that time, a municipal sanitary sewer collection system. In 1964, modifications were made to the sewer treatment plant (the wastewater treatment plant, or “WWTP”) to accommodate addition of the Lower Makefield Township “ Includes Authority-owned and -serviced mains. Does not include the Yardley and Lower Makefield Township collection systems. Page 4 of 10and Yardley Borough collection systems. Accordingly, the first allocation agreement was executed among the parties in 1964 by which Lower Makefield and Yardley were guaranteed a portion of the flow volume which the Morrisville WWTP was permitted to accept by regulatory authorities. In 1973, the WWTP underwent a significant plant expansion, increasing its capacity to 5.6 MGD. The plant expansion consisted generally of constructing a new influent pump station and grit chamber; complete North UNOX plant and clarifiers; dissolved air floatation unit; chlorine contact tanks; and, a sludge incinerator. Lower Makefield and Yardley each contributed to the capital costs of the 1964 and 1973 upgrades, and a 1977 allocation agreement replaced the 1964 agreement. In 1986, the Morrisville Authority was ordered by the (then) Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Resources to upgrade and expand the WWTP pursuant to a Consent Decree, which was entered in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania at No. 86-4604. Under that Consent Decree, the Morrisville Authority, Lower Makefield, and Yardley participated in expansion and construction of the WWTP to a rated (licensed) capacity of 7.1 MGD, with a hydraulic capacity of 8.7 MGD in accordance with regulations then in effect. That, in tur, led to the preparation and execution of the most recent 1991 allocation agreement under which the parties now operate. Since that time, it has been the regular practice of the Morrisville Authority to share with Lower Makefield and Yardley, both an annual “Operations Reconciliation” and an annual “Capital Reconciliation,” by which Lower Makefield and Yardley (1) pay, or are reimbursed or credited, for their actual shares of operational costs calculated on the proportion which their respective flows bear to the total volume of treated sewage; and (2) pay their share of capital expenses for the preceding year based on their percentage of the fixed allocation guaranteed to them in the 1991 agreement, * Accordingly, major components of the WWTP are typically (about) 60, 40, and 30 years old. Page 5 of 10For purposes of this report, it is emphasized that the Capital Reconciliation provided every year to Lower Makefield and Yardley always includes an itemized list of all capital expenditures. All of those capital expenditures relate only to WWTP capitalized infrastructure.* While itis true that those documents do not serve “planning” purposes, never — during the life of the allocation agreements — have there been instances in which plant upgrades have not been disclosed to the proper officials in Lower Makeficld Township or Yardley Borough. Itis worthy of more than a simple note that Albright & Friel circulated a memorandum dated December 12, 1951 discussing both water and sewer issues in the “Morrisville-Bristol Area.” U.S. Steel was, by then, building their steel plant along the Delaware below Morrisville, and the engineers opined even then —as plans were moving along for opening bids in 1952 for the local wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) — that “ study should be made with the thought in mind of providing the necessary sewage facilities for the areas which will be built beyond those which are now being developed.” The engineers lamented that it appeared impossible “at this time” to get all of the potentially interested parties to cooperate, it then being the case that Bristol, Falls, “Levittown,” and U.S. Steel all had sewage collection and treatment plans (not “plants”) of their own. Over sixty (60) years later, however, as all of that infrastructure faces the need for increasing attention, pethaps the opportunity for doing the right thing has come ‘round again. A copy of that memorandum is attached to this report as “Appendix BL” © The MMA capital expenditures system-wide, for both our sewer and water operations, are considerably greater. No part of Morrisville’s sewage collection system costs, or water operations, is ever charged to Lower Makefield Township or Yardley Borough. Page 6 of 10CAPITAL PROJECTS SINCE 200! There were significant capital infrastructure upgrades in the twenty-five years since 1991. At that time many functions, such as application of lime to treated sludge, were still being performed by manual labor (hand shoveling); dewatering was done with a single beltpress; and sludge was hauled to the local landfill in dump trucks not really designed for that purpose. All of those operations have been more fully automated; an entirely new beltpress facility was constructed with two presses to assure dependability; dedicated vendors handle sludge removal and other functions; and, the plant has maintained compliance with increasing regulatory demands. Since 2008, the Morrisville Municipal Authority has installed or otherwise performed at least $5.7 million in capital infrastructure upgrades to the WWTP.” Both Lower Makefield Township and Yardley Borough contributed to those upgrades. Their sewer officials reccive a regular annual statement, in which capital costs and equipment are itemized. Copies of the equipment/infrastructure data are attached and made a part of this, Report as “Appendix @.” As is seen from the attached data, those upgrades and repairs include (but are not limited to): © Replacement of a dual-shaft sewage and sludge grinder (“Muffin Monster”) — which some years before had replaced an even older-design comminutor ~ with a stainless steel, mechanical bar screen filter; © Replacement of the mechanical screw/impeller assembly in the grit chamber; mn of new and significantly larger emergency back-up electric generator and switching equipment in the North Plant; 7 WWTP only, Excludes the sanitary sewer collection system; excludes pumps/repairs in the Falls Service District. Page 7 of 10© Partial disassembly and cleaning (complete evacuation) of both the North UNOX and South UNOX reactors, including repair of a broken internal mixing shaft in the North UNOX reactor; © Replacement of “straight” weirs in the South Plant Secondary Clarifiers with “V- notch” weirs; © Repair and replacement of underground valves and piping in the South Plant primary clarifiers; © Repair and replacement of underground valves and piping in the chlorine contact. tanks and appurtenant structures; © Rebuilding of the 200 hp compressor in the South Plant oxygen generation facility; © Rebuilding or replacement (new) of approximately 40 pumps through September, 2015. Many of these items were discussed during the Authority’s “Open House” conducted on Saturday, October 17, 2015 which included a tour of the Morrisville Wastewater Treatment Plant. ‘The new bar screen equipment was particularly noted, because it has noticeably improved overall treatment results at the plant. MUNICIPAL CONTACTS AND COMMUNICATION Representatives of the Morrisville Municipal Authority formally met with representatives of Lower Makefield on the following dates over the last two years: 12/20/2013: JJW, Terry Fedorchak, engineer at Morrisville 07/17/2014: JJW, Kevin Kall, Carolyn Brennan, engineers at Morrisville. 09/30/2014: JJW, Kall at Morrisvi 07/09/2015: JJW, Kall, Fedorchak, Dick Gauck at LMT. 10/14/2015: JJW, Fedorchak, Brennan, w/ engineers, solicitors, at Morrisville, (See Attendance List attached and made a part as “Appendix AL”) See also, miscellaneous correspondence attached and made a part as “Appendix Di.” Page 8 of 10From the beginning of George Mount’s tenure as Executive Director of the Morzisville Municipal Authority in 1992 until the retirement of Lower Makefield sewer administrator Hank Hoffmeister in 2012, either Mr. Mount or John Warenda, who became Executive Director upon Mr. Mount’s retirement in 2009, spoke to Mr. Hoffmeister perhaps monthly. The regularity of personal contact between Morrisville and Lower Makefield may have been less frequent thereafter, but it would be mistaken to assign any particular reason to that circumstance. More than anything, there were over twenty years of document exchanges, budget and billing practices, and like matters that had become institutionalized as convention. Wastewater treatment is challenging, but inter-municipal relationships have been very stable, even collegial, since 1991-1992, when the last allocation agreement was executed, Over the last two or three years, engineering,” regulatory,’ and even “normal” budgeting issues have resulted in more meetings and other contact related to those specific issues, They have not always been documented as formal events and often have involved e-mail and telephone exchanges between engineers and lawyers for Morrisville, Lower Makefield, and Yardley." That certainly includes many of the professional and administrative representatives hearing John Warenda remark, over the last five (5) years; “we need to build a new sewer plant” among various permutations of that quotation. * E.g,, Lower Makefield’s problems with “I&I” in the Derbyshire neighborhood, further exacerbated by capacity (sewage flow) problems ia the Neshaminy Interceptor operated by the Bucks County Water & Sewer Authority which sends sewage to Philadelphia. ° Ex. requirement by the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) that Morrisville construct a new “outfall” (treated effluent discharge pipe and dispersion manifold) into the Delaware River. '° “Appendix BF is a representative sample of those communications. Page 9 of 10The “new sewer plant” mantra may have come to seem glib over time, but it originated from the increasingly accurate judgment that millions of dollars either were being, or were going to be, invested in the application of maquillage to a porcine quadruped. Infrastructure attention was becoming increasingly reactive. If done with responsible planning, any vision for further infrastructure investment had — has ~ to be with a view to foreseeable needs. Those needs are not just a matter of how many houses might be built by ‘one or two communities over the next (e.g,) five (5) years; they require the exercise of some insight and anticipation for building, changes in use, and changes in environmental regulation of the extended service area over the next fifty (50) years. More to the point: (1) Parts of the existing Wastewater Treatment Plant are about 60 years old; it has been expanded and maintained to meet sewage treatment requirements as needed; but, it has evolved to its limit and needs more than a new coat of paint; and (2) The message and discussion we now join is, simply put, due. The ery of “why didn’t somebody tell us” implies — indeed, expresses ~ that there was, or would be, a “better” time to start this discussion. Such is the lament of those who would tilt at reality. The time to evaluate, plan, and build for the next 50 years is upon us. Page 10 of 10