This month, we are reviving the practice (a little late) of providing the MWRA Advisory Board members a summary brief of the month’s MWRA Board of Directors Meeting or the staff summary that is part of that month’s Board Packet.
November is when the Authority publishes its first “Orange Notebook” of the fiscal year, a summary of key performance indicators for operational, financial, workforce and customer service parameters. So we collected some highlights from this first quarterly report of fiscal year 2025.
Lower than Average Precipitation:
Reduced Precipitation was the big story in MWRA staff reporting on the FY 25 Q1 Orange Notebook. This period saw a marked break from past quarterly reports that were characterized by high precipitation. Precipitation during the period from July 1st to September 30th was down 44%, raining approximately 6.5” as compared to the 4-year average for this period of 11.4”.
Wastewater Treatment Impacts
Lower precipitation resulted in reduced flows to Deer Island (down 18% below the 4yr average and resulted in a slight (<1%)decrease in overall energy use for the plant due primarily to less wastewater pumping (down 13%). The energy demand reduction due to reduced wastewater flows was partially offset by higher-than-expected power use to support secondary treatment during the reduced flows and higher wastewater temperatures.
Water Supply Impacts
- Even with the ongoing fall drought, the water level in the Quabbin was very high at the beginning of the quarter. It ended the month of September at 89.6% capacity and is operating well within its normal range. Total volume decreased 8.7% for the quarter, representing 35.9 billion gallons of storage.
- One of the positive impacts of this long period of low precipitation is that the high precipitation of previous period resulted in a cessation of transfers from the Quabbin to the Wachusett Reservoir. Transfers were suspended at the beginning of 2024 due to excessive rain and the Quabbin released water throughout the last two quarters of fiscal year 2024. Transfers began again in June and were able to continue throughout the fall. These transfers resulted in improved water quality in Wachusett Reservoir as measured by reduced reactive organic matter and lowered the level of the Quabbin by four feet to bring it back within its normal operating range.
Total Coliform Positives Lower in 1st Quarter of FY24:
Lower than average precipitation led to two likely drivers of lower coliforms detected in the distribution system; lower levels of reactive organic matter in the Wachusett Reservoir and higher system demands resulting in lower water age.
Chrysosphaerella algae detected in Quabbin Reservoir:
With the exception of 13 taste complaints during July & August from customers in the Chicopee Valley communities , source and treated water surpassed all water quality standards during the first quarter of FY 25. These complaints were likely a result of a bloom of Crysosphaerella algae in the Quabbin Reservoir (a brown green phytoplankton that is non-toxic but can impart a metallic taste).
In response to the elevated algae levels in the Quabbin, DCR increased monitoring and MWRA staff performed increased sampling at Cosgrove Intake, Carroll Water Treatment Plant and the Brutsch Water Treatment Plant as well as visual inspections of standby reservoirs for cyanobacteria.
Chrysosphaerella levels started to decline in September and are now below MWRA and DCR’s enhanced monitoring threshold.
Violations at Clinton Wastewater Treatment Plant:
Despite lower precipitation, the 12-month rolling average of flows at the Clinton plant continued to exceed its NPDES (National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System) permit. The rolling average was affected by the carryover impacts of last fiscal year’s wet conditions and did decrease throughout Q1.
Effluent from Clinton was also over its permitted monthly maximum pH. The plant experiences a problem with its soda ash feed system so staff manually added soda ash to avoid going below the minimum permitted pH level and inadvertently caused the pH of the effluent to exceed its maximum permitted pH level. Elevated levels lasted for a few hours and did not result in evident environmental impact in the Nashua River.
Inverted Siphon Inspections and Cleaning above targets:
A new manager of Wastewater Maintenance implemented a new approach to inspecting and cleaning inverted siphons. Instead of doing this work throughout the year, they decided to concentrate this work in the first quarter of the year as it tends to stop between Oct and April due to cold weather. As a result, both inspections and cleanings are well above targets with siphon cleaning surpassed the annual goal.
Renewable Energy Production at Deer Island below targets:
Renewables typically provide approximately 25% of Deer Island’s process electricity demand and a good amount of its heat. Onsite renewable generation was down 2% in the first quarter due to: the annual maintenance of the thermal plant in August and but came back into operation in September, the rehab work on hydro-turbine 1 and a mechanical issue with hydro-turbine 2, mechanical issues with the remaining wind turbine and a failed solar inverter. Despite these challenges, on-site renewable energy sources where able to provide 23% of Deer Island’s energy needs during this quarter.
Staffing Levels Continue to Decrease:
Hiring in the first quarter of FY 25 (22) was lower than it was in the first quarter of FY 24 (36). Internal promotions were also lower than this period in the prior year. A combination of hard-to-fill positions and the timing of retirements and resignations in the first few months of the quarter led to a net reduction of 12 FTE’s since the end of June. At the end of September, staffing stood just below 1051 FTE’s, roughly 103 positions less than the budgeted target staffing level.
