"Thank you" to Mr. Burke for all of his good work! It's nice to see a qualified, intelligent, engineer make such a thoughtful, comprehensive, strategic presentation to the BCWA Board in behalf of the ratepayers/taxpayers who have to rely on & pay for this.

Too bad the former Executive Director & the expensive lawyer didn't get a redundant supply in place. How much is Delise's lump sum pension, anyway?

As the public revealed, BCWA has no backup water supply. After all the money BCWA has spent all these years. Jannitto knows it. Mack knows it. Malik knows it.
Mack & Jannitto should be replaced. For a lot of reasons.

Jannito repeatedly asks abuot credentials. We wonder....what are Jannitto's qualifications & credentials, anyway? A doctorate? Nope. Master's? Nope. Bachelor's? Nope. Associates degree? Nope. (See extended interview- Hummel Report.)

Okay. So what is it that got this guy appointed? He told Hummel (extended interview on YouTube) that being "born & bred" in Warren is really important. That must be it.

Mr. Klepper said that the Tri-Town Councils need to be involved. Which Tri-Town Councilors cared enough to go to the meeting last night? Barrington's "council liasons"? Anybody?

I would ask why you have to go all the way to Pawtucket when you have the twin pipes coming across the bay from Scituate Reservoir? Have we forgotten them? That may be a bit shorter on the pipeline. Also, there is no guarantees with bond proposals with the voters. Many municipalities are going underwater due to pensions liabilities and bond service agencies are taking aim and downgrading them. Just look up the East bay at East Providence - junk bond status! Is the tri-towns ready for that headache? BCWA has been a poorly managed utility for a number of years and I understand the concept of backups. I would ask where they were when the construction of the twin lines across the Providence river were built. Oh, I think at that time (late 60's) the BCWA said they were "all set."

I only disagree with one thing stated in this article, It states that the water will be "finished" water to be sold to our area. Even though they are treating that water in Pawtucket, Water traveling that distance will need to be treated a second time somewhere in our area. Very seldom does a source travel a distance such as that with out what we call a touch-up treatment locally. BCWA would still have to maintain equipment here for such a situation. But I suppose in the big picture of things, thats a minor issue with all that needs to be rectified.

Ken Burke is a smart engineer!! He pointed out last night one of the fatal flaws of BCWA's business plan for the Shad Pipeline which is that BCWA still does NOT have long term agreements with the state of Massachusetts, or the Town of Rehoboth, or the Anawan Club, for water rights.

So why dump millions into a project where at some future date, someone in Mass might have the clever idea to up the ante for those water rights after BCWA spends tens of millions in construction costs? One could rightly characterize this project as the perfect extortion setup against BCWA rate payers.

What many don't understand is that back in 1993, the Bristol County Water Supply Act required BCWA to begin the project by first getting all those long term agreements in place. 18 years later, BCWA has made no progress on obtaining those long term permits. That didn't stop BCWA from spending millions on this boondoggle in engineering costs, upgrades, extra employee costs, etc.

Chairman Jannitto has characterized all of this as "rate payers getting in the way".

Thank you Mr. Burke, for candidly providing information and solutions.

Obviously, Jannitto has been “asleep at the switch” for years, leaving the public at risk without a redundant water supply. According to BCWA's past published annual reports, etc., BCWA was moving ahead just fine with the Shad project. For years. And years. But of course, this was untrue.

It was the public who got wise to the 18-year Shad fiasco, and the "pretend treatment plant". Now it's a generally accepted concept. Only BCWA kept up the expensive pretense far too long.

And, Jannitto is fine with BCWA continuing to pay Mack $375 per hour (was $475) - while BCWA puts critically necessary infrastructure replacement projects “on hold” due to lack of funding.

The public correctly exposed these problems.

Jannitto’s reaction?

He questions the credentials of the East Bay Four, sent unauthorized "probing" investigatory letters, threats of pretend lawsuits, and all the lying.

What are Mr. Jannitto's credentials? Apparently, Jannitto's only standard is that one must be "born & bred" in Warren (see Hummel Report 12/11.) One must ask why such a thing is so important to Mr. Jannitto. Perhaps that is all he has?

In large part, the BCWA mess is the result of the Tri-Town councilors reappointing their crony directors year after year. Not one Tri-Town Councilor was at the BCWA meeting last night to hear Mr. Burkes presentation. Some councilors need to be voted out as well.

It would seem that the Warren Town Council is getting a very good grasp on some of the issues, but unfortunatly there is so much on the table rite now...it's going to take an act of "God" to even remotely straighten out a small fraction of the problems. It starts to turn into information overload with all the things that have happened over the years with that place.....Each Council has enough everyday troubles to deal with. It is rather apparent at this present time, the BCWA in it's present make-up cannot correct any of the issues at hand, some of these guys should just through in the towel. If they really care about the rate payer they would walk away and let some fresh minds or expierienced people move in their spots. Sorry to say, they are in over their heads! I want to start hearing Good News, this stuff is getting sickening with these guys.

Thank you for the enlightenment! I have been supportive of this water authority being under the watchful eye of the PUC anyway. All these little games would go away.

Thought you would appreciate that......:)

Why is the child st. treatment sitting idle. The is no reason why they cannot produce approx 1.5 million gpd at this time. Let's stop playing games and get politic's out of this. Also let's use real numbers in the cost of a pipeline to Pawt. not numbers that people want to hear but true cost of the project.

There is a very high cost of chemicals to turn polluted Shad / Kickemuit water to drinking water...isn't that the reason?

And 1.5 million gpd is not even a sufficient amount of redundant water. And I understand that the heavily treated water is not exactly tasty.

The "matrix of options" goal should be to find the least expensive way to obtain high quality water from the primary source, and also have sufficient high quality redundant water. And don't forget that the source water from the Shad can be turned off with one-year notice to BCWA (Anawan lease has a termination clause). So, it would be unwise "to put all our eggs" in the Shad.

I think Mr. Burke is on the right track.

Bristol County Anonymous' Im not so sure the chemical expense is correct in any way shape or form, the numbers don't "Jive" I have a little expierience w/this stuff and something is amiss. The 1.5 mgd figure is an approximation, this particulare plant is one that has seasonal changes in quantity, so I think several months during the winter & spring the number is probably a lot higher. Of course no one really knows because the Board will never tell us the actual answer, if in fact they even know themselves. But I don't think it would take much to get the plant back on-line if need be. The problem with a start up after things have been sitting for a long time. is the re-chlorination of all the valves & pumps and associated equipment. Thats very time consuming and you flush a great amount of water down the drain to complete the task. And the story goes on............

B&E found that “given PWSB wholesale water rates are far lower than the cost of water obtained from BCWA’s treatment facility one would have to question why BCWA would want to lower the wholesale water purchases. And “Strictly from a financial point of view, it makes not sense to continue to produce water at the BCWA treatmetn facility”. See page 39 and 49 of the B&E report.

Easy math proves that B&E is correct. The chemical costs, cost to purchase Providence Water, and percentage of “produced” versus “purchased” water are listed in the BCWA financials. The math shows that the high chemical costs alone to convert the Kickimuit / Shad polluted water far exceeds the the cost of water purchased from Providence Water.

Not rocket science.

I first heard about the excessive chemical problem and polluted raw water problem from officials at RIWRB, just after the big rate hike. I then verified what I was told by reviewing BCWA financials (and doing the easy math), and then I saw the theme verified again throughout the May, 2010 CDM “Final Report”.

A some point, I drove to the Kickemuit and was amazed to see all that green pond scum, abbutting cow pasture with manure piles, drainage culverts flowing under the abutting road into the Kickemuit, and all the pollution.

There’s no doubt about fact of excessive chemical costs to convert polluted Kickemuit / Shad water. The financial data, reports, and RIWRB information are readily verifiable.

When the link to Pawtucket is put in place the BCWA can be dissolved and the pretend treatment plant can be decommissioned and the assets can be sold. A skeleton crew would act as go betweens for contractors and for billing.

That's it shut it down.

In the BCWA "matrix of options", there also remains the pressing issue of the local distribution piping network. In the past two BCWA board meetings, the condition of the local distribution network was discussed and it's not good.

It was recently discovered that the interior condition of the pipes serving the Franklin Senior Center in Bristol were so coated with junk (tuberculation) that they would not pass water in sufficient quantity for fire safety. 1200 feet of pipe have to be dug up and replaced at an approximate BCWA cost of $250K (which may have to be borrowed).

The problem is that BCWA previously insisted the problem was NOT in BCWA's pipes. So the Franklin Senior Center had to spend $15,000 of their own money to prove the problem was NOT in their connection pipe. After spending $15K, BCWA finally agreed it was their problem.

The big issue is that BCWA didn't know the condition of their own pipes even when the Franklin Senior Center told them of the problem. This brings up the issue of the condition of the other 200+ miles of BCWA distribution network.

Tuberculated pipes are not only an engineering problem, but a health risk as well (e.g. Cryptosporidium parasites appear to love the living conditions of tuberculated pipes).

In light of the above, the Board should now be be asked to produce what records and programs exist covering this important matter. I suggest this is a bigger problem than the Shad pipeline or the water treatment plant.

The 2009 PARE report found problems with BCWA’s old water mains, some with asbestos, and advised BCWA to continue the annual water main replacement project.

But BCWA had to stop the project due to lack of funds.

E. Prov and other towns received stimulus funding, but BCWA said “too much red tape”.

Meanwhile, Ms. Mack is paid $375 per hour (was $475).

Excerpt from article (link below):

“Aging water infrastructure can pose risks to public and environmental health.
June Swallow, a drinking-water infrastructure expert at the Rhode Island
Department of Health, explains that breaks, leaks, worn spots and holes can introduce
pathogens from soil into drinking-water mains (the reason for “boil-water”
alerts during main breaks). Those pathogens generally disappear after repair, but
there is a possibility, Swallow says, of them “finding a home” in biofilm, or slime,
that sometimes exists inside a main. Even when pipes do not break, they can
develop tuberculation, corrosive buildup resembling barnacles, caused by a chemical
reaction between treated drinking water and metal pipe. According to the
EPA, bacteria growth in tubercles can cause health problems. Swallow says that
tuberculation is not the most pressing issue in water mains — the issue is that so
many mains are “reaching the end of their useful life” simultaneously, creating an
epidemic of failure."

http://www.metcalfinstitute.org/dl/whats_on_tap.pdf

There are many ratepayers that are very concerned about the "muck" in the pipes and the fact that BCWA has apparently stopped flushing pipes on regular basis. Does anyone now if this is maintenance procedure that is mandated for water authorities. Can they just stop doing it at will to "save money"? This Franklin Court scenario is a nightmare!!

Marina,

I googled “water utilities flush water pipes”…to learn what other water utilities do.

Based on a quick search, it looks like Utilities do a "flushing" procedure on an annual basis as part of regular maintenance. I wonder if BCWA should be doing this "flushing" procedure?

As an example, the following is excerpted from the Hanover County, VA website:

“What is flushing?”

“Each fall the Department of Public Utilities begins its comprehensive unidirectional flushing (UDF) program throughout the County. The goal of this program is to ensure the maintenance of water quality at its optimal level and to properly maintain the County’s water distribution lines. Flushing is a process by which water is moved through a water pipe at a high velocity so that a scouring action is created. Water is then discharged through a hydrant which in turn removes any material build-up from the pipe. The material removed from this process is harmless and requires no special treatment. Use of this flushing technique is critical to the maintenance of water quality and the County’s water system.”

http://www.co.hanover.va.us/utilities/flushing.htm

A flow test was done on hydrants on Franklin street Bristol by BCWA employees along with a private co. Over 1200 gpm was supplied by the water main. Has anyone found the information on their fire pump in the building. Is the pump oversized? There seems to be many unanswered questions. Lets get politics out of this. Cost is not 250,000.00 dollars. It will be much more. MORE REASEARCH NEEDS TO BE DONE

Also anyone believing the b&e report has a serious problem. Former disgrunteled board members should have better things to do. Let management run the authority the way it should be run and board members should not interfer with the daily operation.

Downtown could you please tell me what employees are making 100.00 per hr and getting thriple time and a half. I'll buy you a coffee if you can tell me if this has happened in the last 26 years, and as a bonus a donut if you can tell me when. .

Downtown the 75,000.00 was that legal fee's because it sure wasn't for janitoral services. Also as I stated before RWU did pay a small portion of the cost of the pipe line to the tank, but remember the same attorney @ 475 hr. represented both BCWA and RWU. This was stated at a board meeting. Politics must be removed from the authority. Also why only one bidder for the so called audit which has numerous flaws money was just wasted. As far as stimulis money goes prevailing wages must be paid which increased the cost threefold.

No that $75,000 was for janitorial overtime and when questioned they said it was homeland security related so they couldn't talk about it. Wait someone will chime in on this and verify that's what was said.

Who will maintain the RWU water tower (pumps, painting & whatever else comes up)?

I hadn't remembered hearing that Mack represented both RWU and the BCWA. How could the BCWA allow for that more than obvious conflict of interest?
The more I read about the people running it (not the workers) the more I know they represent something other than the owners which are the local residents.

There certainly is a need for employees running the local system here but it doesn't make sense to have this expensive bureaucracy in place when the water is coming in treated.

I know that the 75,000.00 figure was wrong. Both the former executive director and b&e are wrong with that figure. I'll request the info but remember they have 10 days to get me the info and it may be in their attorneys office.

The BCWA board voted on the agreement which was negoated by their attorney who represented both parties at a cost of ????? POLITICS AS USUAL

I remember Mr. Jannitto's "Homeland Security" comment. That one is memorable. The fact that the board sat in silence when it was said is telling of why residents lost faith in BCWA leadership.

I have the numbers for overtime and base salary 2007 - 2010 for each BCWA job classification (all 34) and it doesn't appear that $75K for janitorial services is a reliable number if it was being done on overtime.

I'll have to go back and see who was doing the work, but it does appear B&E might have gotten that wrong.