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Director reports plant tours, roof and tank repairs planned; incinerator start‑up delayed
Summary
Director Jim told the commission the recent water and wastewater plant tours highlighted needed repairs — a drinking‑water treatment roof, repainting of the Quinn storage tank and ongoing incinerator start‑up problems at the wastewater plant — and staff will keep the board updated as designs and bids proceed.
Jim, the commission’s director, opened the operational updates by summarizing recent plant tours and near‑term capital work.
“We should be in the spring, we should be moving forward with getting that repainted,” Jim said of the Quinn water storage tank, and he told the commission crews expect to go to bid on a roof for the drinking‑water treatment building. He also reported the Ipswich River dam removal project is awaiting some procured components and that staff will circulate progress updates as work advances.
On the wastewater side, operations staff described problems during incinerator start‑up that relate to the conditioning of replacement sand in the fluidized‑bed incinerator. Neil, the wastewater operations lead, said the new sand migrated into downstream components and triggered automatic shutdowns; he told the board operators expect the incinerator to be operational the following week while crews work out those startup bugs.
Staff also reported small, staged improvements to monitoring and controls: camera/SCADA access at pump stations and a plan to compile updated mapping and shutoff data with an anticipated data delivery to the commission in the fall. The director answered commissioners’ questions about procurement and said staff will return with bids and contract approvals as the projects are ready to move forward.
