2/14/2020 SEWER COMMISSION Minutes

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many training sessions are otherwise held off-Cape at great distances from Chatham and the lower Cape.) - a large `support room"with printers, copiers, computers, a mini-fridge and microwave (for staff lunch breaks) - a large "operations room"with SCADA screens and 4 computer stations The buildings are not required to be handicapped-accessible. The buildings are connected by fiber optic cables and have WIFI. Any rooms that could involve hazardous materials or situations have their light switches located outside the room so that the rooms are visible to employees before they enter, rather than having to open a door and enter a dark room which may have dangerous conditions. Emergency information brochures are located at central, accessible locations. Locations involving hazardous materials must have a remotely alarmed emergency shower and eyewash facility (which uses TEPID water). Mr. Peters strongly recommended against proprietary fire control systems (e.g.Simplex) because you end up over a barrel regarding replacement parts availability and cost. The Chatham facility uses a rechargeable carbon filter for low pH. The carbon gets spent in the process, so there must be convenient facilities for refilling it. A Biofilter degrades much more slowly, although wood chips are bad due to their rate of degradation, while engineered plastic pellets (as proposed for our air filtration unit) are better and last much longer. The Chatham operation involves a significant amount of large equipment (in a 12-bay garage!) including trucks, a tractor and York rake (for cleaning the sand filter beds), lawn mower, snow blower, a magnetic manhole cover lifter and a vacuum (could be jet) truck to clear the sewers twice per year. The joint water and sewer operation involves 6 employees for each. All employees are certified for both water and sewer operations, but all equipment they use must be kept separate to avoid cross-contamination. Mr. Peters suggested that Mashpee will likely need 2-3 employees to start, to cover plant operations, pump station maintenance and construction inspections. We will have to file a staffing plan with DEP as part of our permit application to operate / discharge permit, even if we hire a contractor to do the work. Solicitation of a contract operator is done through an RFP (Request for Proposals) which involves 2 parts. The first is our specification of required qualifications. The second is price. Applicants submit each part separately in sealed envelopes. The RFP is reviewed for qualifications first, on which basis the applicants are ranked. The highest ranked contractor is chosen and, only then, is their price proposal opened. (i.e. selection is not based on "lowest bidder".)