The City Council approved a revolutionary $26 million wastewater
plant Monday to replace a pond system where 15 million gallons of
escaping sewage gushed away jobs, revenues and economic
stability.
The Council unanimously approved the treatment option
– as well as a contract with a design consultant – two months
after selecting it as a preferred alternative. The city hired
Hydroscience Engineers to draw up the building plans. Their $1.7
million is included in the total.
The City Council approved a revolutionary $26 million wastewater plant Monday to replace a pond system where 15 million gallons of escaping sewage gushed away jobs, revenues and economic stability.
The Council unanimously approved the treatment option – as well as a contract with a design consultant – two months after selecting it as a preferred alternative. The city hired Hydroscience Engineers to draw up the building plans. Their $1.7 million is included in the total.
The new treatment plant will not only be much smaller in size than the current ponds off Highway 156, but it will also provide more than a million gallons of added capacity, according to officials.
The urgency to replace the archaic and overwhelmed pond system soared after a sewer spill in May 2002, which was followed by a state-ordered building moratorium.
The moratorium, or cease and desist order, has disallowed any issuance of building permits within city limits from September 2002 until the plant’s completion. It has also crippled the local economy and halted developer impact revenues to the city.
“It’s a crucial thing for our city and there’s still a lot of work left to be done,” Mayor Tony Bruscia said.
He went on: “I’m certainly not ready to get too celebratory.”
If the city wants to avoid a $200,000 fine from the state’s Regional Water Quality Control Board, the plant’s final nail must be pounded by October 2005.
Along with the moratorium, the state board also imposed suspended fines potentially totaling $1.2 million, contingent on timely completion of several sewer-related projects.
The city hasn’t paid anything to the state thus far, though, because all milestones have been met. The plant’s completion would be the final hurdle.
Meanwhile, officials hope for a year of construction time on the plant project, according to engineer Steve Wittry.
“Typically, a plant like that would take about 15 to 16 months to build,” Wittry said. “But we have to compress that schedule to get it done.”
Bruscia expressed confidence the city, already pummeled by a bleeding budget, will make the deadline.
“I don’t think we have a choice,” Bruscia said. “We need to get it done when we said we’d get it done, and I expect we will.”
The membrane bio-reactor treatment option includes mixing the untreated waste in an indoor facility, where it will be aerated and filtered in large tubes.
And the plant, located in the vicinity of the current pond system on the west side of town, will emit no smell, officials say.
“As far as ease of use, expansion capabilities and actual upkeep and maintenance, this was the best choice presented by staff,” Councilman Tony LoBue said.
The $26 million to build a treatment plant does not include another $4 million to $10 million for whatever disposal option is chosen in the coming months. The current method is a percolation system – treated water has been filtered into the ground.
Ideally, officials want to eventually reclaim – or recycle – treated water for use in parks, golf courses and other recreational arenas.
Public Works Director Clint Quilter told the Council he would return at the Jan. 6 meeting to provide an update on disposal options. He has been “heavily” consulting with other agencies – including the San Benito Water District – on the matter, according to Wittry.
Funding for the $26 million plant will come from the Redevelopment Agency Fund, $12.5 million; a sewer reserve, $3.5 million; and outside financing, $10 million, according to Quilter.
In other business:
– Resident Ron Miller spoke during the public comment period for the second consecutive Council meeting. This time, he brought an easel with an enlarged picture of a lewd bear he says was allowed to remain in the office of Recreation Services Manager Robert Ornelas.
Ornelas was sued Nov. 18 by six women alleging he sexually harassed them. And for several weeks following the suit, a stuffed bear that contains the recorded voice of a women supposedly having sexual intercourse was in the office he manages at the Veterans Memorial Building, Miller says.
“We’re looking at this bear, and this bear was found in the recreation department of the Vets building,” Miller said. “To me, it’s sexual harassment as it stands. I think this is enough.”
After Miller finished talking, another speaker, Isaac Beltran, approached the podium with an audio tape he said contained the same recording from the bear. City Attorney Elaine Cass, however, interjected and asked that Beltran not play the tape.
“I need to ask you to please refrain from that,” Bruscia told Beltran.
Miller, from his gallery seat, spoke out: “It’s OK for a city department, but not for this chamber?”
Minutes later, during the portion of the meeting reserved for each Council member to provide a “report,” both Bruscia and Councilman Brian Conroy responded to the attendance of Miller and other residents at recent public meetings.
“If this bear and those sounds are such harassment and so offensive,” Bruscia said, “to come around and play this for the whole public to have to watch it, just adds to that, and it doesn’t solve the problem.”
– The Council approved the installation of traffic lights at the intersection of Meridian Street and Chappell Road at a cost of $140,000.
The installation’s need was spurred by a required study conducted after expansion of the McCray/Meridian Shopping Center in 2000. The developers of two nearby shopping centers will contribute $30,000. LoBue said he thinks the developers should be responsible for more of the share.
“I just think that’s an incredibly small amount of money,” he said.
But city engineer Steve Wittry told LoBue it is likely too late to request more money from the developers.
The study concluded a need for traffic signals by 2008, but resident complaints of traffic conditions provoked city officials to install the lights this year.
