The city moved closer to choosing a cutting edge sewage
treatment facility that would cost about $26 million to
construct
– nearly double the initial estimates conveyed a year ago.
The City Council selected a
”
preferred alternative
”
for how Hollister will treat wastewater during the next three
decades. The plan includes a higher quality treatment
– yet a heftier construction cost along with a likelihood for
skyrocketing residential sewer rates to help make up the
difference.
The city moved closer to choosing a cutting edge sewage treatment facility that would cost about $26 million to construct – nearly double the initial estimates conveyed a year ago.
The City Council selected a “preferred alternative” for how Hollister will treat wastewater during the next three decades. The plan includes a higher quality treatment – yet a heftier construction cost along with a likelihood for skyrocketing residential sewer rates to help make up the difference.
Those monthly rates for Hollister sewer customers will likely need to rise 50 to 100 percent, according to City Manager Dale Shaddox, who will request the Council approve such an increase in the coming months. During recent years, the city’s sewage service billing has been generating an annual shortfall of about $400,000, which has been pulled from the General Fund reserve, Shaddox said.
Of the estimated $26 million for the cost of the facility’s construction: $12.5 million would come from the redevelopment agency fund; $3.5 million from a sewer reserve fund; and the remaining $10 million or so would be financed.
“We cannot borrow the money until we demonstrate we have a revenues stream sufficient to service the debt,” Shaddox said.
The treatment option selected Monday – called a “membrane bio-reactor” (MBR) – will be subject to scrutiny by various agencies and the public during the next few months. The city has set a deadline for Dec. 15 to finalize its selection. Officials expect the MBR to treat local wastewater at a relatively high quality level, which is widely referred to as tertiary.
“If we’re going to do it right and go to tertiary… they (treatment ponds) are up at around 25 and 30 million dollars these days,” Shaddox said.
Hollister is still on schedule to complete the new sewage treatment plant by an October 2005 deadline set forth by the state’s regional water board, said Public Works Director Clint Quilter on Monday. Several deadlines mandated by the state carrying potential fines – along with a building moratorium against new construction – stem from 15 million gallons of wastewater spilling into the San Benito River bed in May 2002.
The current multi-pond wastewater plant, located on the west end of town adjacent to Highway 156, would be replaced by the contemporary and much more expensive method. The new plant will likely be located near the current ponds.
The regional water board in recent months insisted city officials scrap intentions of building another set of basins, according to Quilter. A year ago, officials initially considered building another pond system, which was projected to cost about $14 million.
While an update of the archaic system would be less costly, the regional board wanted a new plant that allows for nitrification and de-nitrification – an assurance the wastewater would be treated to relatively high levels.
The other three treatment options presented Monday included some that would be slightly less expensive than the chosen alternative, but none would be as inclusive. The MBR is the most reliable, flexible and expandable of the four, according to Quilter’s report.
“So really it’s a matter of dollars versus what’s right?” Councilman Tony Bruscia asked – to which Quilter responded, “Yeah.”
Under the preferred treatment option, untreated wastewater would be mixed in an indoor facility, aerated to the point of bubbling and de-nitrified. For a final filter process, it would enter membranes, which Quilter described as big tubes shaped like straws.
The facility would be much smaller than the current set of ponds. And it would emit no smell – under one condition, Quilter said: “If you’re standing over it.”
The modern treatment option is not widespread in California; officials recently toured one of the state’s rare MBR facilities in American Canyon of Napa County.
The decision Monday does not include options or costs of disposing the wastewater after it is treated. That will cost an additional $4 million to $10 million, according to Quilter. The city currently percolates water into the ground but has expressed a need to eventually recycle its wastewater for future uses.
