HydroScience consultants will cost city $65K a month for
services
After more than five years of construction, when Hollister’s
wastewater treatment plant goes online in June or July, consultants
from HydroScience Operations, Inc., a company associated with the
plant’s designers, will operate the plant on an interim basis.
HydroScience consultants will cost city $65K a month for services
After more than five years of construction, when Hollister’s wastewater treatment plant goes online in June or July, consultants from HydroScience Operations, Inc., a company associated with the plant’s designers, will operate the plant on an interim basis.
“It is a limited contract,” said Clint Quilter, Hollister’s city manager. “They will not propose on the long-term operations of the treatment facility.”
HydroScience staff will run the plant for one year.
HydroScience staff are operating similar facilities at two casinos in California, according to documents from Hollister’s city council.
“The facilities that we’re doing contract operations for are pretty much HydroScience Engineers designed, so we worked very closely with them,” said Donald Brown, general manager for HydroScience Operations, Inc.
HydroScience staff designed and assisted with startup at a wastewater treatment plant in the city of American Canyon. Before construction was completed, American Canyon officials recruited their own staff to run the plant.
“They did operate their own from the beginning,” Brown said.
Hollister’s existing wastewater treatment plant is easier to operate than the new plant, Brown said. Hollister’s current plant operators will operate the new plant, Brown said.
“It’s not that they are not competent, it’s that you need seven of them,” Brown said.
Most operators in California have never worked with the level of technology in the new plant, Brown said.
“If you bring in seven people who have no experience with the technology, that’s pretty high risk,” Brown said.
American Canyon officials did it successfully, Brown said.
“They started with their own from the ground up,” Brown said. “They went through that first year with just some assistance from HydroScience, and of course some training.”
American Canyon officials were willing to pay big salaries to recruit plant managers, Brown said.
It will cost Hollister officials $65,000 per month for labor costs to operate the plant, according to the documents.
Hollister officials will pay HydroScience employees between $124,000 and $198,000 annually for the top four full-time positions.
HydroScience employees make less than that per year, Brown said. Those fees include enough for Hydroscience staff to cover their overhead and make a profit.
Several factors have driven up the salaries of plant operators.
An operator must go through a high level of training and testing, Brown said.
“Experienced, high-level operators, are dropping out faster than new people are reaching that level,” Brown said. “You really have to do some work to recruit and retain these people.”
Operators can face civil and criminal penalties if they distribute water that does not meet wastewater standards, Brown said.
“The higher level you go up, the more likely you are to be prosecuted for things that happened while you were on duty,” Brown said. “That risk level plays into a lot of the operating cost.”
“They would be far and away the highest paid employees in the city, and there would be problems with that,” Quilter said. “That’s just not how organizational structures are set up.”
City officials will decide in the next six months who will conduct long-term operations, Quilter said. City officials will either recruit staff or hire consultants.
“It’s an extremely complicated proposal process, which is why we did not try to do it concurrently with the construction process,” Quilter said.
In the next few months, city officials will send out a request for proposals for consultants to run the plant, Quilter said. They will compare the costs associated with consultants versus city staff.
Whoever can run the plant cheapest will be in charge of operations, Quilter said.
It is not uncommon for consultants to run city-owned wastewater treatment plants, Quilter said.
“That’s, for example, how the Gilroy and Morgan Hill plant are operated,” Quilter said. “They have it run by a company called OMI.”
Including labor and operations, it costs Gilroy and Morgan Hill officials $250,000 per month to run their wastewater treatment plant, according to information from Rick Smelser, Gilroy’s city engineer.
Whether city officials hire city staff or consultants, HydroScience staff will help train their replacements, Brown said.
The contract allows Hollister officials to hire their lower level plant operators.
“We get a little opportunity to showcase our talents, and they get a smooth running facility and the opportunity to recruit from our staff,” Brown said.
Annual cost by position
Senior Manager $23,920 (four hours per week)
Operations Supervisor $197,600
Senior Operator $166,400
Plan Operator $145,600
Operator in Training $124,800
