Following up on details laid out at the September Fountain Council meeting, Rick Whitney presented further details at the November 4 meeting. Whitney is assisting Public Works Director John Hanson with maintenance of the system. He detailed all work completed and provided suggestions to keep the plant in good condition, aiming to extend its lifetime.
Several areas were cleaned and sealed with a high-performance, anti-corrosive Tnemec coating. During inspections, Whitney discovered much of the piping was already broken or broke when removed for maintenance. This allowed air to flow freely into the tanks instead of through the membranes. In addition, the bottom of the piping was full of rust and sludge.
Whitney explained how membranes function so nothing can backflow into the piping. If not done, the system sucks sludge and water in, filling the pipes, and putting excessive pressure on the blowers. He suggested the city keep on top of replacing parts as needed and keep enough backstocked to make regular replacements. Top decking is also being repaired, if needed. In order to ensure a solid weld on the work being done, Morem Electric was called to install a 220 outlet at the plant. Whitney also explained that between the time the plant was constructed and now, the dissolved oxygen (DO) probes for anoxic zones were moved into aeration basins.
“Your plant is unique. It has nitrogen removal on top of ammonia removal. It’s critical those DO probes stay in the anoxic zones,” Whitney said. “As long as you’re meeting that criteria, you know you’re gonna have that nitrogen removal stay within permit compliance.”
Additional areas were also identified for surface prep and painting next spring.
Whitney noted there are also some areas starting to have rust and corrosion that need to be touched up and taken care of before they become bigger problems.”
Another issue popped up when the tank was being done and air was shut down completely. Blower #1, when turned back on, automatically overloaded and kicked off. After taking it offline and inspecting it, they realized air had been backflowing through it.
“It should never happen. You don’t ever want air to backflow, spin the blower the wrong direction. When you go to hit that switch, it could grenade or it’s gonna seize up at the very least, which is what happened.”
According to Whitney, parts were worn and hardware was missing. Blower one and another sitting aside, which was considered bad, were torn down to see what was needed to make them usable. A new blower is $3,800-5,000. Instead, Whitney can rebuild both units for $400 in parts, as his labor is already a part of his contract with the city. Once rebuilt, the city will have a working unit and a spare.
“There are no parts there. This is not John’s responsibility. This is due to lack of training,” continued Whitney. “I don’t want to spend a whole lot of your money, but you guys need parts on the shelves and we need to be able to clean and [sic] maintenance this to keep your capital costs down. These are some of the things I think we should do to protect you.”
Whitney also noted the plant’s hot water heater doesn’t work, providing Hanson no area to wash his hands or equipment. The council approved the fixing of the blowers, ordering of parts needed, and the purchase of a new hot water heater.
Whitney indicated he wanted to get Hanson and maintenance worker Jordan Amundrud in the habit of looking at a few things every week maintenance-wise. Tasks would be organized in a binder for daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly tasks.
Councilor Tammy Danielson agreed that a checklist record of maintenance would be good.
“What I haven’t stressed,” began Whitney, “is that John has been awesome about reaching out or being on hand. He’s taken accountability for that plant and what’s going on there. It’s not like it’s just me or my guys, John has been instrumental. The communication has been great.”
In other news, the council voted unanimously to amend the city ordinance related to abatement by the city. This follows advice from legal counsel and posting of the changes and will allow remediation of identified nuisances.
The ordinance section being changed previously read, “no person shall enter the property to abate the nuisance except with the permission of the owner, resident, or other person in control of the property.”
The new wording reads, “In the event the property owner has failed to comply with the destruction order within seven regular business days, and has not filed a notice within 48 hours with the city clerk and intent to appeal, the city council may employ the services of city employees or outside contractors and remove the weeds to conform to this subchapter by all lawful means.”
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