CANDLEWICK LAKE ASSOCIATION, INC.
ISSUES RELATED TO AQUA ILLINOIS
NOVEMBER 7, 2013 UPDATE
I. INTRODUCTION: In our October 15, 2013 Aqua Update, we summarized our progress on gathering documents and information upon which we could work with our engineers in analyzing all of the legal and regulatory issues concerning Aqua’s past Sanitary Sewer Overflows (“SSO’s”), and but also in analyzing what our options are for addressing the issue of Aqua’s SSO’s in the future. Please refer to our prior updates for more background. As was the case with our past updates, it is important to note that while we have made a great deal of progress in analyzing the various issues, everything contained herein is still preliminary, and that additional documentation or information can still dramatically affect where we stand. It is for this reason that this writing is again intended simply as an update, and not yet as a definitive position.
II. INVESTIGATION:
A. Gathering of Documents and Information: Our engineers have reviewed and processed the various pieces of information contained in the roughly 5,000 pages of documents we have obtained via Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) responses. We have also provided our engineers with a great deal of information upon which their analysis and recommendations will be based.
B. Engineering Report: With the documents and information we currently have in our possession having been reviewed and analyzed by our engineers, they were ready last week to reconvene with counsel, staff, and our President to discuss questions they have on a number of topics. After the discussion, it was agreed that two things would happen as our next steps.
1. Preliminary Engineering Analysis and Conclusions: Our engineers are in the process of memorializing their initial analysis and conclusions, and organizing it in the manner suggested by counsel and staff. It is anticipated that a preliminary draft of the report will be completed before Thanksgiving.
2. Gathering of Additional Information: In our discussions with our engineers, they posed a number of technical, operational, and statistical questions regarding Aqua’s plant, system, and procedures, the answers of which are expected to either increase the reliability of our engineer’s conclusions, eliminate or elevate possible alternative suggested upgrades to the Aqua system (depending on what information is learned), and/or increase the reliability of conclusions and analysis. We are in the process of working with Aqua to gather this information, and hope to have answers, documents, and information from Aqua in enough time for the engineers to incorporate those findings in their preliminary draft report.
II. REPORT OF INFORMATION FROM AQUA: In our recent discussions with Aqua regarding our requests for additional information, answers, and documents, we recently learned that Aqua may be in the process of arriving at a list of upgrades to their system that they plan on implementing. It appears that they will be offering this set of proposed upgrades for our consideration and possible incorporation of one or more of them in the recommendations we expect to be given to us by our engineers.
III. UPDATE ON TIMING: We are hopeful that by the end of next week we will have information, answers, and documents from Aqua that our engineers will be able to incorporate into their report. It is further anticipated that by Thanksgiving, we will have a preliminary draft report from our engineers.
IV. CONCLUSION: As previously noted, in order to make the best decisions for CWL, we are taking careful, calculated steps to ensure that we have a proper foundation upon which decisions will be made with regard to Aqua’s actions, both past and future. We ask the Members continue to be patient as we methodically handle this situation in the right way so that the actions we take have the highest likelihood of succeeding in ensuring that past actions are appropriately dealt with, and future problems are avoided to the best of our ability. Until we are at this point, we ask that the Members be as patient as possible to ensure that the actions CWL takes are in its best interests in both the short term and the long term.