Phase 1 comes in below budget
It has been a long, arduous road for the city of Hollister since
the state first imposed a building moratorium after the city
spilled 15 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the San
Benito River in 2002.
Phase 1 comes in below budget
It has been a long, arduous road for the city of Hollister since the state first imposed a building moratorium after the city spilled 15 million gallons of partially treated sewage into the San Benito River in 2002.
Since that time the city has drafted plans for a new $120 million wastewater treatment facility; averted $200,000 in fines by creating a new timeline for the project and royally pissed off residents by increasing water rates to pay for the new treatment facility.
Still the city has maintained that it is on schedule to have a completed project Phase I by December 2008 at the latest.
Most recently, the city council signed off on the project’s Environmental Impact Report and has hired C Overaa and Co. of Richmond to construct the first phase of the project for $57 million, $14 million less than the originally estimated $71 million price tag.
“We over-estimated the cost of the project in an attempt to stay ahead of the curve,” City Manager Clint Quilter said. “I think it also helped that there were three bidders. If only one company had bid on the project I think things could have come out differently.”
Councilman Doug Emerson said the council is pleased to be at the point they are now.
“These were some pretty big steps, but pretty routine, we’ve been waiting four years for the contract,” Emerson said.
He said there are still some issues with disposal of treated effluent, but that part of the EIR can be addressed later. Plans call for the treated water to be sprayed over nearby fields.
The $120 million sewer system project will meet required higher treatment standards, which will protect groundwater and allow for the reuse of treated wastewater. It will provide additional capacity allowing renewed community growth and economic revitalization. In addition, it will allow much needed expansion for health care, public safety and educational facilities.
The new sewer system will consist of three integrated projects; the treatment plant which has a due date of 12/08; the seasonal storage pond system which the city will have a finished plan for by March of 2007; and a recycled water distribution system. The plant is sized to accommodate population growth per the city’s approved general plan to the year 2023 or a flow of five million gallons per day, according to City Manager Clint Quilter in a previous Pinnacle article.
The total price tag for all three portions will likely be less than the estimated $120 million since the treatment plant was originally estimated at $71 and came in significantly less, there is a possibility the other projects have been over-estimated as well.
Last October the city averted $200,000 in sanctions after Quilter requested and was granted more time to construct a new sewage treatment plant by the Regional Water Quality Control Board. At the same time that it granted the extension, the RWQCB gave the city a series of revised deadlines.
The city met its first deadline in December of 2005 when it submitted a long-term wastewater plan. The other revised deadlines included awarding a construction contract for a new treatment plant by late 2006 – which it has now done through the contract with C Overaa and Company; and drafting a disposal plan for treated wastewater by March 2007. So far the city is on track with its revised goals. However, each deadline missed will result in more than $66,000 in fines being levied against the city.
Emerson said that the biggest issue the city encountered goes back a few years.
“The issue was never how were we going to build this, it was how will we dispose of the water when it can’t percolate because of the zero discharge requirement,” Emerson said. “The answer came from the county water board, the county and the city all working together.”
The three agencies signed a memorandum of understanding under the old council and the three entities agreed to work together to find a solution and have stayed on top of this since the beginning.
The MOU was signed in January of 2005, and work started then on the Environmental Impact Report. The EIR took almost an entire year to put together because of the scope of the undertaking.
“I feel very good about it all now. If you’d asked me last year if I thought we were gonna hit our Oct. 30 deadline, I’d have said ‘no’, but everyone did a through job,” Emerson said.
