Orenco Septic Tanks for Mound Systems

Hello Savvy Septic Fans,

Just a quick note to clear up some confusion we've been hearing here at City Hall today. Some of you have been seeing giant green tanks that look like AdvanTex systems going into the ground out by the Whispering Spruce / Wilderness construction side and Alder way. These are actually just regular old Orenco septic tanks- there is no pod or insulation because they are being put in with the mound systems. King Bee and Lanning Engineering decided to use the same manufacturer of the AdvanTex systems (Orenco) to supply them with regular septic tanks. I know how similar they look! I did a double take the first time I saw them too, because we are all used to the giant green septic tanks being AdvanTex systems. Fear not, we delivered the notice to proceed to Rockwell Engineering today, and they shall be down to put in the insulated AdvanTex systems as soon as possible. For now though, the only green tanks going in the ground are being put there by King Bee and they are for the Mound Systems. Please refer to pictures below. Give us a call if anything else comes up.


Mound System Tanks Before Insulation




AdvanTex systems Last Year




AdvanTex systems This Year (with insulation)



Have a great weekend and think sun!

Laura

Ebb and Flow

The Septic Blog has been quiet lately because things have been quiet in City Hall lately. Some of you may have noticed King Bee’s workers finished grading & hydroseeding the Phase I installations and then packed up and headed back to Fairbanks for a week. They needed DEC’s approval to construct and Lanning to stake out property lines and important things at their various mound sites. The site engineer, Dave Lanning, had to be at a conference in the lower 48 for the last week, so construction on the mounds began a week later than anticipated. Indeed, even the temperature monitoring data collection was put on hold to give the hydroseeded grass a chance to establish without being trampled and messed up.

Finally, with the rain and fog came a go ahead from DEC and a notice to proceed for King Bee’s men, who left Valdez in a sunny state of mind and returned to a more typical type of construction weather for Prince William Sound (but we aren’t complaining, we needed the rain). Hopefully we still have some warm sunny days left to help construction along. They have been working steadily on the first true mound system of the program on the corner of Wilderness and Whispering Spruce. They plan to move down Whispering Spruce toward Alder for their next construction site. Their schedule has changed since it was last posted, because they need homeowners to move some things in their yards in order to gain access to sites. They are generally going to wherever is most prepared for their arrival. The last we heard they would try to do the two sites on Alder after their first and finish up on Whispering Spruce before heading westward toward Nordic.

Rockwell has their contract documents in order and have asserted they are ready to come to Valdez. We are waiting on DEC’s approval to construct before issuing Rockwell their notice to proceed. We been assured it will be issued very soon. We are as anxious as Phase II residents to see Rockwell down here and working.

On another note, ADEC has decided to do their own effluent testing of all Phase I systems. The city was informed that the state is working with Phase I residents for access to property and expects to be pulling effluent samples this next Monday and Tuesday. Mike Congel, the local AdvanTex maintenance man, has asked that care be taken with the newly graded / hydroseeded areas. He will accompany the DEC on their rounds.

Community Development was not able to get an Option 2 revision on the table for Council to approve this week, we will work hard to have something for them by August 3rd. We also have an Oversight Group meeting scheduled for this Monday, the 27th of July, in Council Chambers. We are discussing the end of Phase I, the progress of Phase II, reviewing the Option 2 details we talked about last Oversight Group Meeting, and the success of the subdivision wide plan.

In any case, the King Bee mound action is picking up again and we expect to have Rockwell down here shortly. We’ll keep you in the loop. Till next time :).

Contracts A & B Awarded

City Council approved the Rockwell Engineering bid for Group A and Group B last Monday, July 6th, with a 4-2 vote. We have been issuing notices of intent to award and expect the contract documents to be fully signed by the end of today. Dave Lanning has met with Rockwell Engineering to discuss their schedule and timeline for septic installations in Valdez.

Several things have to happen before Rockwell engineering can actually break ground. The DEC has to issue approval to construct. They apologized for the length of time it was taking for them to review the materials but they are dotting every i and crossing every t to see this program reaches its fullest potential. Rockwell engineering has to submit their Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan(SWPPP) to the federal government and get their approval for excavation and dewatering procedures. Rockwell is a SWPPP pro though, so we are hoping that won’t take too long. And Rockwell has to get all their training and personnel in order. With a little luck all the paperwork and mobilization can happen simultaneously and we can see ground breaking within a few weeks. We will track this progress and report all our findings faithfully to the Savvy Septic readers.

The DEC has asked Lanning Engineering for some clarification on the mound system construction requirements before issuing final approval to construct. Dave Lanning is addressing them this week and hopes to have approval wrapped up for mound systems by this weekend.

Phase I homeowners have seen a flurry of activity in their yards. Final grading & topsoil has been placed on the majority of Phase I installations. It is our understanding that the hydroseeders have been moving from site to site as well. Because of the heat and lack of rain, the City recommends Phase I homeowners water the recently seeded areas. We expect to see the majority of Phase I installations completed by the end of this week. Again, as a reminder, Phase I pods were not insulated with blue board because of the risk of damaging the systems during excavation and the fact that the systems are working fine without it. The city will continue monitoring these systems closely to make sure everything is in order.

In the meantime, City staff has been working with some possible last-minute additions / substitutions to Phase II system replacements (due to imminent septic failure) and has been working through some individual homeowner construction issues. Additionally, we have been adding spring construction details to Phase I homeowner files and updating Phase II homeowner files. Making sure each file is up to date and has all relevant information for each homeowner is a surprisingly complex endeavor...

Well, that’s all for today. We’ll keep trying for the best, swiftest and most painless septic installations we can manage :).

A Septic Summit in Valdez

Good morning Savvy Septic readers. Monday night’s Septic Summit work session was reasonably well attended. There were Alpine Wood representatives from Phase I and Phase II, Oversight Group members, ACAT members, residents from Alpine woods who were thinking about enrolling in the program, a local radio station and news reporter, and city staff. Of the guests the City specifically invited, Dr. Mark Gross, an Orenco engineer from Oregon attended; Tom Varney, an Anchorage Tank representative attended; Oran Woolley from the Alaska Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) attended; as well as Bob Tsigonis (a well respected package treatment plant engineer) and the City’s contract engineer from Lanning Engineering, Dave Lanning. King Bee attempted to send their representative, Sheldon Shaw to the meeting but the plane malfunctioned in Fairbanks. Erik Williamson, the author of the University of Anchorage and Jeff Garness, the engineer of the Quanics systems, as well as a variety of other Alaskan Septic Installers were invited but were unfortunately unable to attend. Mike Congel, the local AdvanTex maintenance man, was there to answer any specific maintenance questions.

And now for the numbers we’ve all been waiting for: The effluent results were great! All 6 of the systems tested passed with flying colors. The DEC was very pleased with their performance. Much of the meeting was still spent discussing the temperature of the tanks and whether or not insulation would still be needed but in the end, the DEC and the Orenco Engineer both felt insulation would not be technically necessary although it wouldn’t hurt the program. The City has already purchased the Phase II AdvanTex tanks with insulation but, after a long discussion with the City engineers and the DEC, it was determined that the risk of damaging the pods by installing retrofit blue board insulation was not worth it for Phase I residents. Instead of blue board insulation, the city will continue monitoring the Phase I pods and take several more effluent samples (at different times of the year) to confirm and add to these field results.

Some of the positive notes of the septic summit were:

Valdez systems have had extremely low numbers of alerts, alarms and unscheduled maintenance visits. Tom Varney indicated this was one of the smoothest start-ups he has ever seen and that Mike Congel was as busy as the Maytag Repair man.

The DEC made a chart to compare the AdvanTex effluent with a standard septic system effluent and the City’s Sewer Treatment Plant limits (which are extremely strict because they discharge into the Prince William Sound). The AdvanTex results show the systems performing better than even the Sewer Treatment Plant limits (the lower the numbers, the cleaner the water).












For a copy of the full SGS laboratory report, click here.

Oversight Group member and ACAT board member Gary Minish pointed out that Alyeska’s ballast water treatment system has been operating at about 38 degrees Fahrenheit for many years and it is a biological system which has worked quite well in Valdez. He made this comparison because of the high AdvanTex effluent quality despite the low temperatures and cool groundwater.

Dr. Mark Gross and his fellow Orenco engineers have been running heat sink models simulating Valdez field conditions for the last two weeks and can provide anyone who is interested with the math and results. Just contact him at (541) 459-4449 or email him at mgross@orenco.com. He is also available for any other technical questions or requests. He spent two weeks reading everything posted on the City website pertaining to the septic project and he listened to the last several Council Meetings on tape prior to his arrival here so that he would be prepared to answer any type of questions we had.

Statistically, to accurately represent the number of systems in Valdez, the City would have only had to test 3 systems. We tested six. Taking into account the samples variability and the margin of error, the City can be confident of the sample results representing a typical system to within 5 mg/L.

As reported in these pages before, Anchorage Tank’s own test results confirmed the independent laboratory results shown here, and Anchorage Tank tested all of the systems (to see a copy of these results click here).

Bob Tsigonis brought information on his Lifewater package treatment plant systems and made himself available to Alpine Woods residents for questions. We have copies of his information available at City Hall and you can contact him at (907) 458-7024 or email bob@lifewaterengineering.com. Lifewater treatment plants are a great option for anyone who would like to explore alternative to the AdvanTex systems. Although Jeff Garness couldn’t make it to the Septic Summit, several residents picked up his information packets (which we also have available at City hall). These systems are an excellent alternative to AdvanTex systems as well. You can contact him at (907) 337-6179 or email jeff@garnessengineering.com. As the City staff works through its revisions to Option 2 they will bring them forth to the City Council, who can review and approve reimbursement amounts and outlined steps for Option 2. Providing they are approved we will, of course, immediately post the guidelines on the website.

In conclusion
After the Council asked the DEC and the engineers their own questions (mainly were the systems working properly [yes] and does the DEC approve of their installation and operation [yes]) the mayor was kind enough to open up the work session to public input and allow any of the residents present to ask their own questions. By 10 pm most of the questions had wrapped up and when the City Manager asked the Council for direction on how to move forward, the City Council told him to ask Rockwell Engineering (the low bidder for the AdvanTex systems Group A & B) if they would still honor their bid (after 45 days they no longer have to honor it). If they would honor it, the Council requested the City Manager to bring the Rockwell bid back to the Monday City Council Session (July 6th) for action. Lisa spoke with Rockwell Engineering yesterday and they are willing to honor their bid.

Whew! That was a long one. There is a lot of sewage sentiment flowing from City Hall this week. Hopefully it was spellbinding. If you still want more you can listen to the full meeting audio tape on the City Website here. Thanks to all the readers that attended the Septic Summit. We hope this gave those of you who couldn’t make it a good idea of the meeting highlights. We’ll keep you posted!