Fortuna City Council
November 21, 2022

Consent Item 4g

STAFF REPORT
City Council Consent Item
DATE: November 21, 2022
TO: Honorable Mayor and Council Members
FROM: Brendan Byrd, Public Works Director/City Engineer SUBJECT: Public Works/Engineering Department Monthly Report STAFF RECOMMENDATION:

Receive report as an informational item.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:

Public Works Director/City Engineer
Well 5 Replacement Project
In October, the City’s contractor mobilized to the well site to complete supplementary well development and water sampling. This effort was necessary given that the initial development form earlier this year, which indicated that the new well (Well 5b) had elevated levels of manganese. After further development and sampling, the results indicate that the new well does have higher levels of manganese then the City’s other existing wells. Staff are working with the City’s engineering consultant to determine what options the City has to bring the well online with the City’s water system.

Elevated manganese levels are not out of the ordinary in the Eel River basin. These findings are new for the City, which is likely a result of the fact that the new well has been installed deeper into the ground than any of the existing wells. Staff hope to have a clearer understanding of options for continuing the project in the coming months, and are hoping to continue the next phase of the construction project in summer 2023.
12th Street Stormwater Project
Over the past several months, the 12th Street stormdrain project has been in the design phase. As part of the project design, City staff performed a number of utility potholes along 12th Street to identify any potential conflicts between existing underground utilities and the proposed stormdrain. Although most areas investigated showed no potential for conflict, the design team did identify several conflicts with the newly installed power and communications facilities near the intersection of 12th and K Streets. Staff are currently working with PG&E, AT&T, and Optimum to resolve the issues.

At this point, the 90% design plans and package have been developed, and the City is on track to deliver the project next summer.

Consent Item 4g

Water Tank Coating Project
Staff are working with our engineering consultants to develop the bid package for a project that will include stripping and re-coating the exterior and interior of Campton Height and Hillside steel water tanks. Staff are expecting to bid that project in the next 6-8 weeks, and construction is generally anticipated in the spring/summer of 2023. To prepare for the project, staff have been performing some vegetation maintenance and plumbing, which will be required to allow the contractor sufficient space to perform the work.

Police Facility Remodel Project
The project design was finalized in October and staff officially put the project out to bid on October

31. To date the City has received questions or inquiries from a number of contractors, and there seems to be a high level of interest in the project. Staff will be conducting a mandatory pre-bid meeting at the future police department site on November 16th, and the project is currently scheduled for a bid opening on December 1st.

Vancil Reservoir Rehabilitation Project
The logging contractor began timber removal operations around Vancil reservoir in early November. Staff anticipate that the timber falling operation will be completed before thanksgiving.

Removal of the logs and dealing with timber slash will follow the timber falling, and the timing of those tasks will be weather dependent over the remainder of the month. A number of items supporting the project were completed by the General Services and Wastewater divisions as well, those are described in further detail below.

Kenmar Interchange Improvement Project
The final draft initial study and mitigated negative declaration for the Kenmar Interchange Improvement project is nearing completion and staff anticipate circulating the document in late November. Staff anticipate bringing the document to the Council for approval in January. 12th Street Interchange Improvement Project
Staff participated in a project kickoff meeting with the City’s engineering consultant and Caltrans.

Over the next several months the City’s consulting engineer will be conducting a number of ground surveys in the area, which will lead into the preliminary design development, which is anticipated to begin in the spring of 2023.

Utilities Division- Utility Lead
Service Call Summary
 In the month of October the utilities division completed 71 service calls by operators.

Figure 1 below shows the distribution of service calls by type.  The division completed 37 Underground Service Alert (USA) mark and locates with zero miss-marks, resulting in zero broken utilities.

Consent Item 4g

Figure 1. Utility division service calls by type in October.

Water Distribution System
 Read water meters.
 Read water meters and completed meter worksheet.
 The utilities team installed one new service to the system in the month of October.  In October there was two water leaks resulting in an estimated 48,080 gallons of water loss (see Table 1 below).

 In the month of October the utilities team changed out eight dead water meters.  Continued to check service lines for lead.
 Backflow Testing.
 Installed new hydrants on Shamrock Drive and Alamar way, and paved Shamrock Drive after leak repair was finished.
 Helped parks with a leaking irrigation line.
 Dug a 50-foot trench at WWTP for some instrumentation.  Paved Shamrock Drive after leak repair was finished.
 Repaired a leak in ally between 11th and 10th with an estimated water loss of 6,480 gallons. 0 5
10 15
20 25
30 Connect Disconnect Occupant Change Service Action
Number of Calls
Service Call Type
Consent Item 4g

Table 1. Water leak rate and water loss estimates for October 2022.

Wastewater Collections System
 Utilities cleaned 10,000 feet of sewer main. Being proactive with sewer cleaning helps with reducing or eliminating sewer backups. The utilities team had no sewer plugs in the month of October with no overflows.
 The utilities crew installed one new sewer connection on 12th St.  The crew worked with Wendt construction to repair broken sewer main on Holman way.

Miscellaneous Tasks
 The utilities division performed monthly maintenance on the division’s heavy equipment, including greasing and checking all fluids.

Water Treatment/Wastewater Division- Chief Plant Operator Wastewater Treatment
Table 2. October wastewater plant effluent flows for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG) and Million Gallons per Day (MGD).

Date Location Pipe
Information
Estimated
Leak Rate
(Gallons per
Minute)
Leak
Duration
Total
Estimate
Leak
Volume
(Gallons)
10/2/2022 Shamrock @
Emerald
6’’ A.C. 1040 40 Min 41,600
10/31/2022 Ally between 10th &
11th
¾’’ Copper .25 18 Days 6,480
Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Total Monthly Flow, MG 27.701 27.824 28.002 30.780 26.500 Maximum Daily Flow, MGD 1.053 1.103 1.132 1.590 0.940
Average Monthly Flow, MGD 0.894 0.898 0.903 0.993 0.855 Consent Item 4g

Figure 2. October wastewater plant effluent flows for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG) and Million Gallons per Day (MGD).

Wastewater Events & Maintenance Tasks Completed:
 Staff tested the chlorine gas leak alarm. All plant staff, including those at the City’s Corporation Yard received an alarm text. Staff familiarized themselves with the alarm response procedure, and rehearsed evacuating the facility.  Staff completed work on rehabilitating the submerged metal of one of the plant’s two secondary clarifier suction arms.

This unit is now ready for activation once flows increase with the rainy season.
 Staff cleaned out digester gas piping and associated
appurtenance, including replacing a valve and calibrating a gas pressure meter.
 The General Services division assisted staff with trenching and burying an electrical cable from the effluent flowmeter to the effluent sample compositor (see photo inset right). This will enable flow-proportional sampling of the effluent. 
Water Treatment
Table 3. October potable water production for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG). 24 25
26 27
28 29
30 31
32 0

0.2 0.4

0.6 0.8
1 1.2

1.4 1.6

1.8 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Total Flow, MG
Flow, MGD
Total Monthly Flow, MG MAX Daily Flow, MGD AVG Daily Flow, MGD Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Total Production, MG 33.762 34.055 40.025 34.726 33.925 Maximum Daily, MG 1.439 1.478 1.915 1.46 1.842
Average Daily, MG 1.09 1.099 1.291 1.12 1.094
Consent Item 4g

Figure 3. October potable water production for the past five years in Million Gallons (MG).

Table 4. Average October depth-to-groundwater static levels in the City’s active wells for the past five years in feet.

Figure 4. Average October depth-to-groundwater static levels in the City’s active wells for the past five years in feet.

Water Events & Maintenance Tasks Completed:
 A contractor removed three, large bull pine tree stumps from the City’s water wells site.  Staff assisted the General Services division with removing fencing around Vancil reservoir.

This is necessary for loggers and their equipment to access the trees around the reservoir.

The logging operation, which will commence in November, will create a defensive buffer 0 0.5
1 1.5
2 2.5
30 32
34 36
38 40
42 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Flow, MGD
Production, MG
Production Max Daily Avg Daily
0 10
20 30
40 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Static Level, ft
Well #1 Well #2 Well #4 Well #5
Year 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022
Well #1 30 28.7 29.6 30.4 30.2
Well #2 27.1 25.8 26.6 27.4 27.3
Well #4 32.6 19.6 32.1 33 32.7
Well #5 33.4 32 33.9 34.8 34.4
Consent Item 4g

between the forest and the reservoir, and eliminate
the threat of damage to the reservoir from a fallen
tree or limb.
 Staff removed from service one of the two
aeration towers at the water wells site. The bottom
plate was badly pitted and leaking. Staff
disassembled it for a contractor to weld on a new
bottom plate (see photo inset right).
 Staff worked at Hillside tank, clearing vegetation
and setting in place four, 10,000-gallon temporary
tanks. This is in preparation for removing Hillside
tank from service to re-coat it soon.
 A contractor assisted staff in moving four, 10,000-
gallon temporary tanks from Vancil reservoir to
Campton Heights tank. This is also in preparation
for removing Campton Heights tank from service to re-coat it soon.

General Services and Streets - General Services Superintendent The following is a list of scheduled assignments completed by the General Services staff in October:
 Staff prepared traffic control measures for
Apple Harvest Festival.
 Park staff prepared the Bike Park for asphalt
concrete in failing areas. Both departments
worked together to install new asphalt
concrete (See picture inset right).
 The micro slurry project was completed with
Crisp installing new thermal plastic striping
in the greater Kenwood area.
 Staff placed rock and graded the access road to the Campton Tank reservoir.  Staff cleaned and prepared storm drain drainage inlets for inclement weather.

Consent Item 4g

 Staff removed vegetation encroaching along Fortuna
Boulevard.
 Staff completed potholing utilities on Twelfth Street for a storm drain project.
 Staff repaired the school sign flashing light. The sign with the light and a separate power box and controller
were hit by a passing motorist (see photo inset right).  Staff removed temporary cold patch from multiple
utility ditches on Newell Drive. Staff replaced with new asphalt concrete.
 Staff installed cages in the kennel to house cats.
 Staff installed a yield sign on Carson Woods Road.
 River Life Foundation removed 2,200 pounds of trash and debris from a transient camp along Strongs Creek.

In addition to the special tasks noted above, staff also engaged in the following regular routine maintenance activities including USA’s, street sweeping, recycling and trash management, road maintenance, vegetation management, and safety training and inspections. Staff is available for questions, requests, and emergency responses to the community.

RECOMMENDED COUNCIL ACTION:

Receive Public Works Department Monthly Report. Consent agenda vote.