PUBLIC SAFETY AND ENVIRONMENT COMMITTEE

OPEN MEETING    

Date: Tuesday, November 12, 2019, 12:00 p.m.Location: Second Floor Committee Room, City Hall, Fredericton

1. Committee Membership

Councillor Stephen Chase, ChairCouncillor Eric Price, Vice-ChairCouncillor Kevin Darrah, MemberCouncillor John MacDermid, MemberCouncillor Greg Ericson, MemberCouncillor Bruce Grandy, MemberCouncillor Eric Megarity, Member

2. Agenda

Declaration of Conflict of Interest

Members of Council must disclose if they have a conflict of interest in any matter which isthe subject of consideration before Council.

2.1 Fredericton Sewer Systems Consumer Products - Next Steps

PowerPoint Presentation by: (15 mins)

Neil Thomas, Sr. Water & Sewer  Engineer●

2.2 Mental Wellness at the Fredericton Fire Department

PowerPoint Presentation by: (15 mins)

Nina McCarthy, Deputy Fire Chief●

2.3 Climate Change Adaptation Plan

Progress Update & Public Consultation Overview

PowerPoint Presentation by: (15 mins)

Brittany MacLean, Environmental Leadership Coordinator●

2.4 Completed Energy Projects for 2019

PowerPoint Presentation by: (15 mins)

Bruce Good, Energy Analyst●

Fredericton Sewer Systems Consumer Products – Next Steps

Neil Thomas, P.Eng.

Sr. Water & Sewer Engineer

Nov 2019

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Water & Sewer and Pollution Control Divisions

• 48 staff members

• 2 Water Treatment Plants

• 1 Wastewater Treatment Plant

• 1 Aerated Lagoon – 30 lift stations

• 440 km water mains

• 390 km sewer mains

• On-Call 24/7

• ~ 17,500 customers 2

Two Main Classes of Avoidable Sanitary Sewer Problems

• FOG – fat, oil, grease from foods

• Consumer products – using the toilet as a garbage can

wipes (make up, baby, home cleaning, adult, toilet paper alternatives, labelled various ways)

feminine products, condoms, cigarettes, dental floss, garbage, hospital & nursing home fiber bedpans

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Consumer Products – Wipes

• Flushable terminology is product marketing

• We have been out marketed by INDA

• INDA - Assoc. Nonwoven Fabrics Industry

• David (us) vs Goliath (INDA) $6 billion/year business

• INDA recently petitioned State of California that our IWSFG technical standard was not scientific – same standard components we worked on with INDA from 2013-2016

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Consumer Products – Wipes

• INDA – Association of the Non Woven Fabrics Industry

• www.INDA.org

• “wipes have made a huge impact on the way we live and work”.

• No kidding - since 2008 municipalities told this to INDA

• “durable, easy to use, cost effective and light weight”

• Jessica Franken – Director of Government Affairs

• “address misconceptions”5

Consumer Products

• Garden Creek Lagoon- July 2019

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Consumer Products – so called Flushable Wipes

• Municipality of Perry, Iowa August 2017 court -municipal staff unable to identify any flushable wipes in the city’s wastewater systems.

• Australian state government lost a June 2019 court case against Kimberly-Clark in part because lack of evidence to tie the product to the problem.

• Lower St Mary’s

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Consumer Products – so called Flushable Wipes

• Canada #1 Lift – Memorial Park March 2018

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Consumer Products - Wipes

• Jean Coutu sold flushable wipes, 5 years old, shaken 2x day

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Consumer Products - Wipes• Why are so many brands of wipes so durable ?

• Some labels indicate “made with plant based materials”

• Reconstituted plant material (i.e. cellulose) becomes:

• Rayon, Lyocell, Tencel, also add in Polypropylene, Polyester fibers, plastic fibers

• Why do some manufacturer labels say they are safe to use in maintained sewers?

• But don’t use in home pump systems or RVs

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Consumer Products - Wipes

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Consumer Products – Wipes/garbageFredericton experience with wipes 2016

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Consumer ProductsFredericton experience with wipes

Removing wipes from Garden Creek Lagoon 2015, 2016, 2019

City cost approx: $20,000/yr

Headworks building required to

screen out wipes

Improvement to screening at

Barker Street

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What have Staff Been Doing ?

• Presentation to City’s Public Safety & Environment Committee, NB Department of Environment, INDA

• Revamped City web http://www.fredericton.ca/en/water-sewer/sewer-utility

• Social Media releases – generating 31,000 hits on FB

• City news releases, CBC Radio

• Home Real Estate magazine, newspaper OPEd

• City Engineering & Operations Newsletter

• Multiple Qtrly W&S Bill Stuffers

• W&S Div – Communications cooperation on-going

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Staff Efforts – Communication Strategy

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Staff Efforts – Engaged

• We are members of CWWA & MESUG, together with International Municipalities developing a Municipal flush standard (IWSFG) at http://iwsfg.org/

• Named Canadian Expert on Wipes

• Member of ISO Working Group 10 (Wipes)

• On Fredericton’s behalf MESUG filed formal complaint against Costco – Nice-Pak with Canadian Federal Competition Bureau

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Evidence based Solution(s)

• IWSFG – Publically Available Standards (PAS)

• Ryerson University March 2019 FlushabilityStudy

• Funded by CWWA, MESUG

• Toilet paper passed the study

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Solution(s) – involvement• March 2019 Ryerson University research

• 101 consumer products tested

• 90 failed (11 passed were toilet paper)

• Failure modes were lack of disintegration, clearing the drain line, 75% of the tested products contained synthetic materials, and inconsistent labeling even by manufacturer’s guidelines

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Next Steps• Staff are involved with CWWA, MESUG, IWSFG

• Staff are tracking costs and damage

• Staff reviewed draft Ryerson Report IWSFG PAS technical standards are completed

• Staff Recommended support to UMNB – Rextonmotion to ban wipes in NB

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Next Steps• Staff are meeting with UMNB this week

• Write letter to NB Minister of Environment

• Support letter to FCM Board who are calling for a national standard

• Adopt IWSFG PAS into City By-Law S-8 to exclude all wipes (allied products) unless pass PAS

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Questions - Discussion

• Photo courtesy of

• Jennifer Leno, MESUG Chair

• Town of Cobourg, Ont

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Mental Wellness at the Fredericton Fire Department

Mental Wellness at the Fredericton Fire Department

A Multilevel Approach

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Why the Focus on Mental Wellness?

1 in 3 Workplace disability claims are

related to mental illness. (Stats Can, 2003)

45% of people will develop a mental illness

in their lifetime. (The Working Mind First

Responders)

The longer a person with a mental illness is away

from work, the more unlikely it is they return to work. (Sroujian, 2003)

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30% develop

behavioural health

concerns

30% develop

behavioural health

concerns

How Does This Affect First Responders?

• 44.5 % “screen positive for clinically significant symptom clusters consistent with one or more mental disorders.”

(5,813 participants)

• That rate for the general population is 10 %.

In a recent study of First

Responders conducted by a group of mental health experts

from across the country, and

published in the Canadian Journal

of Psychiatry:

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First Responder Needs :

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Our Strategy – Multilevel ApproachResponse Model

CISM

Defusings and Debriefings

Peer Support

Preventative Model

The Working Mind for First Responders EFAP

Fitness Committee Resilient Minds (newest addition)

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Resilient Minds – Resiliency Program

Communications Centre

Building Resiliency One on one meetings with coach Liane Vail

Monthly self-assessment w/follow up

Access to medical professionals

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Changing the

Future

Shifting Culture

New Recruits

Organizational Level

Comms, Fire, Police, HR

Monitoring

● Usage

● Meeting needs

UNB Psychology

Department partnership

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Climate Change Adaptation PlanProgress Update & Public Consultation Overview

November 12th, 2019

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Adaptation Plan Overview

A framework and strategy to respond to the risks and vulnerabilities our community faces in a changing climate. This process will result in an action plan to minimize identified climate change risks and vulnerabilities while making our community stronger and more resilient to the impacts of climate change.

The plan will focus primarily on City owned/operated infrastructure and assets, operations and service levels.

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Timeline and Funding Model

• Funded through the province’s Environmental Trust Fund

• Spring 2019 – Background research and climate data analysis

• Summer 2019 – Staff workshops to identify impacts

• Fall 2019 – Public education and engagement –identifying impacts

• Winter 2019/2020 – Staff and public engagement –identifying potential actions; Final report by March 2020

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Preliminary Impacts • Over 100 impacts identified through staff workshops

• Relating to infrastructure, assets, operations, service levels, response

• Process will be replicated with the public

• Adaptation committee will organize into themes and assign risk and vulnerability scores

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Public Engagement Opportunities

Consultation #1: November 28th 2019

o Focus: Identifying impacts based on climate change projections

Online consultation: December 2019

o Focus: Prioritizing / refining impact themes

Consultation #2: January 2020

o Focus: Identifying potential actions to reduce impacts

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Public Consultation #1

• Identifying potential impacts

• Parallel the process undertaken with staff

• Inform the impact areas that we need to be aware of and create action around to adapt / create resilience

• Table –top discussions

• Scenario-based

• Facilitated by NouLab

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Communications and Public Education• Branding – Adapt Fredericton

• Internal website

• External website – adaptfredericton.ca

• Infographics

• Social media

• Primer document

Goals:

• Awareness

• Understanding

• Participation

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Thank you.Questions?

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2019 Energy Efficiency ProjectsCompleted, or in ProgressBruce Good, Energy Analyst

Building Services

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Overview of 2019 Efficiency Projects:• LED Lighting Upgrade Projects

• Solar Photovoltaic Power Generation Projects

• Building Automation System Enhancements

• Realized savings from 2018 projects, and anticipated savings from 2019 projects

• What’s Next: 2020 and Beyond

• Question and Answer period

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LED Lighting Upgrade Projects:• Willie O’Ree Place

• Regent Street Garage Depot

• Saint Mary’s Transit Garage

• York Street Fire Station

• Two Nations Parks and Trees Depot

• East End and Frederick Square Parking Garages

• Stepping Stones Senior Center

• St Marys Depot Cold Storage Building

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Why does it make sense to upgrade to LED:

• LED’s use 30-75% less power than other lighting types.• LED’s can have a lifetime of over 70,000 hours, Fluorescent’s

Lifespan is typically under 15,000 hours.• Referring to above statements:

– Less power = less heat generated = lessens load on Arena ice pads in winter and building air conditioning systems in summer.

– Longer life span of lights = less maintenance time spent on replacing bulbs

– Integrated occupancy sensing in each fixture allows them to be off when there is no people in the near vicinity. This technology did not exist just a few years back, and is very effective in spaces like equipment storage bays and Fire Station apparatus bays.

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Solar PV Power Generation Projects:• Fredericton Public Library

– 28.9 kW Array (anticipated 5% of Building’s electricity requirements). Online September 2019

• Fire Station #3 (Kimble Road)

– 50.1 kW Array (Our goal is to produce 100% of the Stations electricity requirement - achieve Net-Zero Electricity at Station 3!). Online early spring 2020.

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Highlighted Building Automation System (BAS) Projects:• LBR and York Arena Dehumidification

– Controlling on Dewpoint temperature instead of Relative Humidity. This saves thousands of dollars per year by not operating dehumidifiers during the cold winter months.

• St Mary’s Depot Equipment Storage Building– Installed new BAS which allows us to set back temperatures at night,

disable heaters when doors are open longer than 15 minutes, etc.

• York Arena Electricity Demand Loadshedding– Shutting down non critical equipment when Ice Plant is running. This

saves us thousands of dollars per season in power demand charges

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Savings from 2018 and 2019 projects:• 2018 LED Lighting upgrades, and Solar PV Power Generation Systems, have saved over $69,000.00 this

year, and every year going forward. (Fire Station 2, Grant Harvey, Killarney [Solar], others.)

• 2019 LED upgrades, and Solar PV Power Generation Systems, are projected to save over $65,000.00 every year going forward (Fire Station 1, Willie O’Ree, parking Garages, Library and Fire Station 3 Solar).

• Building Automation System Enhancements at the York and LBR Arenas have saved more than $26,000.00 over projected savings from LED Lighting upgrades alone.

• We Received ~$5400.00 from NBPower for actively participating in their ‘Peak Saver Program’ (Demand Response) last winter. When requested by NBPower by 2:00pm the previous day, we shut down our ice plants, etc. @ GH and Willie between 7:00am and 9:00am. These events are during NBPower’s peak energy consumption times of the year. NBPower initiates these requests a maximum of 12 times per season. Payment is based on $20.00/kilowatt demand reduced during that period.

• The value of these projects will continue to increase as electricity rates rise, and the cost of the current carbon tax increases from $20/tonne in 2019 to $50/tonne in 2022.

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What’s Next: 2020 and Beyond

• All 2 and 3 year simple payback projects have not yet been found! (LBR arena resurfacing snow melt system (2 year payback), City Hall power demand load shedding program (3 month payback, etc.)

• The cost of installing Solar Power generation continues to decline, and cost of electricity continues to rise, which makes investing in solar more attractive.

• Continue working with Building Automation Systems and Energy monitoring and reporting software providers to focus on projects for the buildings that have the highest energy use intensity per square meter

• More Control system Enhancements (All major buildings will have their power meters communicating with the Building Automation Systems[BAS], allowing for power demand loadshedding – easy to grab a few hundred dollars per building, per month, with this control strategy). Optimum start heating. Setpoint adjustments factoring in outdoor humidity to increase occupant comfort, etc.

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Question and Answer period• Lighting

• Solar Photovoltaic Power

• Building Automation Systems

• Savings

• Maintenance

• Ideas and Suggestions

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