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Good news all around at Greencastle water plant
Honestly, it isn't often that good news comes out of the Greencastle Board of Public Works and Safety meeting.
The sessions are usually marked by topics like funding large utility concerns, requests to write off sewage charges for major water-leak customers or the unpopular possibility of utility rate increases.
But the December meeting was decidedly more upbeat.
It came with the announcement that a pair of City Water Department employees -- Ed Phillips and Oscar King -- have passed the dreaded WT-5 operator test that few candidates ever seem to pass.
"This is wonderful news," Mayor Sue Murray said as Water and Wastewater Department Superintendent Rob Lovell announced the timely development during the board meeting that included a tour of the city's expanded water treatment plant.
Lovell agreed.
"To get that information was wonderful," he said after the meeting. "We were sweating bullets there for a while. We were basically two weeks away from not being in compliance (with EPA and Indiana Department of Environmental Management regulations)."
A WT-5 is a level 5 licensed water treatment plant operator. New Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulations in play now that Greencastle's population exceeds 10,000 require around-the-clock monitoring of the city's water treatment plant. That means the city requires WT-5 manpower of five licensed operators in order to function 24/7.
The city had been in discussion with Aqua Indiana to provide additional monitoring of the water system but that won't be needed now that Greencastle has four WT-5 operators (three fulltime) of its own.
Besides Phillips and King, that group includes a new hire John Nikoloff, and Lovell himself (although he can't be a fulltime operator because of his duties at the wastewater plant as well).
"We have an opening for one more fulltime operator," Lovell said, noting that he also has a part-time operator who is retired from the Crane Naval Depot and now works a couple days a week for Greencastle.
The new system allows there to be remote monitoring via cell phone and laptop, and Greencastle wil take advantage of that. Response time, however, requires action be taken within 30 minutes.
Operations can be shut down remotely, it was noted, but corrective action must be done on site.
"So the priority is still to fully staff the plant," Lovell said.
Nikoloff, a WT-5 addition from outside the department, heaped praise on the additions and changes at the plant.
"You're really in great shape here," he said. "You're way ahead of the curve with a little better than a state-of-the-art plant here."
That pleased the Board of Works members, Mayor Murray, Trudy Selvia and Thom Morris, the latter attending his final board meeting.
"That's really good to hear," Selvia said, "especially after all that money (spent for the water plant project)."
Lori Young of the firm Curry & Associates consulting engineers and architects provided an update on the IDEM compliance.
She said IDEM officials made a recent visit to the plant and came away "extremely happy with everything. We didn't hear any negative comments at all. Everything is operating well."
The chlorine feeds do need tweaking, she reported, noting that major shutdown factors tend to be chlorine and turbidity.
Mayor-elect Bill Dory took the developments as a good sign, adding that the goal should be "no visits from IDEM."
"Oh, we don't mind the visits," plant superintendent Lovell responded, "it's when they stay ..."