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Home My WebLink About10-25-2000 Steering Committee MinutesDRAFT MINUTES OF STEERING COMMITTEE MEETING Wednesday, October 25, 2000 A meeting of the Steering Committee of the Orange County Sanitation District was held on Wednesday, October 25, 2000 at 5 p.m., in the District's Administrative Office. (1) The roll was called and a quorum declared present, as follows : STEERING COMMITTEE MEMBERS: Directors Present: Norm Eckenrode, Chair Peter Green, Vice Chair Pat McGuigan, Chairman, OMTS Committee Steve Anderson, PDC Committee Jim Silva, County Supervisor Jan Debay, Past Chair of the Board Directors Absent: Tom Saltarelli, Chairman, FAHR Committee (2) APPOINTMENT OF CHAIR PROTEM No appointment was necessary. (3) PUBLIC COMMENTS OTHERS PRESENT: Guy Carrozza, Director Thomas L. Woodruff, General Counsel Don Hughes Dan Cassidy Ryal Wheeler Jon Thomsic Tom Dawes STAFF PRESENT: Blake Anderson, General Manager Bob Ghirelli, Director of Technical Services David Ludwin, Director of Engineering Gary Streed, Director of Finance Lisa Tomko, Director of Human Resources Lisa Lawson, Communications Manager Mike Moore, ECM Manager Jean Tappan, Committee Secretary FILED !N H!E OFFiCE OF TH[: :'<;;,r-··.--~ ~,, ,- OAAf~GE (;.()IJi'JT'r SA11,J:'1 (1 '; ;,,;,J i,;,·)·l, ,,r _. I ~lOIJ i 5 200 0 ,y /.;(, There were no comments by any member of the public. (4) RECEIVE, FILE AND APPROVE MINUTES OF PREVIOUS MEETING The minutes of the September 27, 2000 Steering Committee meeting were approved as drafted. Minutes of the Steering Committee ·Page 2 October 25, 2000 (5) REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE CHAIR Committee Chair Norm Eckenrode reported that he and Jim Colston will be attending the CASA long- range planning session Thursday and Friday, October 26-27. He also announced that he has invited Orange County's elected Sacramento and Washington representatives to a December 14 luncheon meeting for a bi-partisan discussion of local urban runoff, upstream runoff, tainted beaches and watershed management issues. He indicated that the goal of the meeting was to educate, bring awareness of how big the problems are, and to move legislators to action. He also reported that there is a meeting scheduled on November 3 to meet Kings County supervisor Tony Oliveira and staff members. (6) REPORT OF THE GENERAL MANAGER General Manager Blake Anderson reported that NexTel Communications has requested a lease to install a cellular tower at Plant 2. This will require Coastal Commission approval. The lease will be presented to the OMTS Committee in December for review. Director Debay requested that before this is approved, the homeowners on the south side of the Santa Ana River should be noticed. Mr. Anderson and Director Green will attend an all-day meeting on Friday with SAWPA's five boards on drought-proofing the watershed. Mr. Anderson is also meeting with Supervisor Taviaglone's aide, John Field to discuss our preliminary interest in a biosolids composting site in western Riverside County. Jim Stahl, General Manager of Los Angeles County Sanitation District and Mr. Anderson are meeting with Pat McCarthy, owner of Liberty Ranch and the San Joaquin Com poster facility, to discuss the sale of the property and the upcoming consideration of a biosolids ordinance in Kings County. A. Status of Kern County-Kings County Biosolids Program Mike Moore updated the members on the ongoing biosolids program activities. There has been no action by the court on the CEQA-related Kern County biosolids ordinance lawsuit. There is a meeting October 31 with the Kings County Board of Supervisors. The District will be attending as interested property owners. Mr. Moore mentioned that the Kings County Farm Bureau is opposing the application of Class B biosolids. B. Status of due diligence efforts on purchase of Liberty Ranch and San Joaquin Composter Mike Moore reported the results of the due diligence to date. The appraisal has been received; camps have been identified on other composting sites; an interview was held with biosolids site development experts; the ranch has been inspected; soils samples have been taken; and an environmental assessment of the ranch and water rights is underway. A capacity analysis was done and the LACSD offer was reviewed. (7) REPORT OF GENERAL COUNSEL General Counsel Tom Woodruff did not make a report. Minutes of the Steering Committee Page 3 October 25, 2000 (8) DISCUSSION ITEMS (Items A-C) A. IRWD proposal for three-part staging of GWRS Phase 1 Tom Dawes and Jim Herberg provided an overview of the IRWD proposal as outlined in the IRWD staff report attached to a letter from the Water Producers Association. The idea behind the proposal is to down-size the initial capacity of the GWRS and delay construction of the pipeline up the Santa Ana River. The proposal calls for stretching Phase 1 out several years and dividing it into 3 sub-phases . The first sub- phase includes injecting the GWRS water into new well fields in the area of Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Santa Ana; applies all grant funds received towards the proposed first phase (1a); and assigns about 85% of the costs of that phase to the Sanitation District. Mr. Dawes said that the proposed project will not provide an independent source of water nor improve water quality in the Anaheim Forebay. A presentation on the proposal will be made at the next FAHR Committee meeting Novemb~r 8. Director Debay asked that staff prepare separate visuals for that meeting comparing the two projects. B. Huntington Beach Activities Update Bob Ghirelli provided an update on the status of the report on the Phases 1 and 2 studies. A draft of the report should be available by the end of November. A group of experts from across the country will critique the draft at a two-day meeting November 9 and 10. At this time staff is working on a communications strategy for addressing the results. Mr. Ghirelli also discussed some of the preliminary findings of the report. A detailed report will be given to the Steering Committee at its November 15 meeting, a day before the report is released to the public. C. Review Agenda Items scheduled to be presented to Committees in November The Agenda Items scheduled to be reviewed by the Board's working committees in November were reviewed. Director McGuigan announced that the November 1, 2000 OMTS Committee meeting would be held at Plant 2 and begin at 4 p.m. with a tour. (9) OTHER BUSINESS, COMMUNICATIONS OR SUPPLEMENTAL AGENDA ITEMS, IF ANY Blake Anderson complimented Ryal Wheeler and Jon Thomsic and their colleagues on their efforts negotiating the SPMT agreement. Their cooperation and professionalism was appreciated by all involved. (10) MATTERS WHICH A DIRECTOR WOULD LIKE STAFF TO REPORT ON AT A SUBSEQUENT MEETING There were none . ' " Minutes of the Steering Committee Page 4 October 25, 2000 (11) MATTERS WHICH A DIRECTOR MAY WISH TO PLACE ON A FUTURE AGENDA FOR ACTION AND/OR STAFF REPORT There were none. (12) CONSIDERATION OF UPCOMING MEETINGS The next Steering Committee meeting is scheduled for November 15, 2000 at 5 p.m . The next Board Meeting is scheduled for November 15, 2000 at 7 p.m. (13) CLOSED SESSION The Committee convened in Closed Session at 6 :30p.m ., pursuant to Government Code Sections 54957.6 and 54956.9. Confidential M inutes of the closed session held by the Committee have been prepared in accordance with Government Code Section 54957.2 and are maintained by the Board Secretary in the Official Book of Confidential Minutes of Board and Committee Closed Meetings. No reportable action was taken re Agenda Items Nos. 13.A.1, -2, and -3 . At 6 :59p.m ., the Committee reconvened in regular session . (14) ADJOURNMENT The Chair declared the meeting adjourned at 7 p.m. H:\wp.dta\agenda \Steering Com mittee\00\0cto0\102500 SC Min utes. doc