The South Salt Lake City Council approved a report by the wastewater division that was then sent on to the Utah Department of Environmental Quality. The report was presented to the council during their April 12 meeting. The report was presented by Corby Talbot, the South Salt Lake wastewater division manager.
In the operations and maintenance section, the report stated the revenues are sufficient to cover operation, maintenance and repair/replacements costs both at this time and over the next five years. The report also said the collections systems have sufficient staff to ensure proper operations, maintenance and repair/replacement costs. However, the report stated there is no dedicated sinking fund to provide either repair/replacement costs. A sinking fund is created by periodically setting aside money for either repayment of debt or replacement of an asset. In this case, having a sinking fund would help pay for any eventual repairs necessary on the collections system as it ages.
The city scored poorly in the capital improvements section of the report. While there are sufficient present revenues to cover all costs and provide funding for capital improvements, there is not sufficient projected funding sources for the next five, 10 or 20 years. Talbot explained to the council this was due to a lot of unknown elements surrounding the approved improvements at Central Valley Water Reclamation Facility in Salt Lake City.
According to the report, the cost of projected capital improvements in 2017 is $1,000. In 2018, it will be $1,500. In 2019, it will be $600. In 2020, it will be $2,000 and in 2021, it will be $1,000.
Talbot explained a highlight of the report was there were no incident that have occurred over the last fiscal year. These incidents, as defined by the DEQ, include sanitary system overflows, or backups that have affected more than five private structures, one or more public/commercial/industrial structures.
The report also stated all collections systems operators are up to date on their certifications and participate in continued training in operations. The collections systems also has an annual preventative maintenance program, a written emergency response plan, an updated operations and maintenance manual and a written safety plan.
A description of the physical condition of the sewer collections system stated it was 60 percent clay piping in fair condition, 40 percent plastic piping in good condition and the three pump stations are all in good/fair condition.
Over the next 10 years, South Salt Lake plans on having several spot improvements and some capacity improvements that will be completed over that span of time based upon results of the master plan and redevelopment projects. The report also stated the collections system works with the South Salt Lake community development department to see what new city developments there are and how that impacts the capacity of the sewer system.
The report was unanimously approved and sent onto the state.