MONROE - The new year has brought a new phase in the development of the city's $20 million wastewater treatment plant upgrade, which is expected to wind up in a two-year construction project beginning in 2013.
The Monroe Common Council gave George Thompson, director of the city's water and waste water utilities, the go-ahead Tuesday, Jan. 3, by approving a consulting agreement with AECOM Technical Services Inc. and authorization to proceed on the designing and bidding services for the plant. The contract with AECOM comes in at $998,000, about 5 percent of the total project cost.
That cost is covered by funds that have been set aside since 2006, Thompson said.
"Jerry Ellefson (WWTP superintendent until December 2009) started that," Thompson said. "I just kept adding to it when I came."
The wastewater treatment plant operates with user fees, not tax dollars.
AECOM was originally hired for $69,000 in April 2011, under a consulting agreement to help plan the facilities. Those plans were sent in December to the Department of Natural Resources for review and comment.
Project Timeline and funding
The new contract now allows Thompson and AECOM to begin drawing up engineering designs in earnest. Preliminary design engineering will be in process by the time the DNR approval returns, expected sometime in early spring, and completed by mid-April.
"The final design phase will be high paced and intense design phase," Thompson said, "and needs to be completed by the end of June for funding."
The utility has about $2.3 million in an equity replacement fund, which would cover only about 10 percent of the total project.
Thompson said the utility will apply for funds through the Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP), one of the state's subsidized loan programs included in the Environmental Improvement Fund (EIF). The CWFP provides loans to municipalities for wastewater treatment and urban storm water runoff projects.
As part of their contract, AECOM associates are tasked with tracking down other funding opportunities, such as grants.
Any remaining funding needed will have to be borrowed.
Thompson expects to receive final DNR approval of plans and specifications in September, just in time for the city to advertise for bids on the project. Final funding details will be completed and the construction contract awarded in January 2013.
If all goes according to the schedule, Monroe will start up its new wastewater facilities in September 2014.
What the city will get for its money
From preliminary assessments of the plant, AECOM recommended about 14 upgrades.
A quarter of the total cost will be in aeration tanks, about $5 million. Two new tanks will be built and the capacity of existing tanks will be increased. The tanks will be outfitted to help remove more phosphorus than the current process; DNR requirements on phosphorus limits are expected to become stricter in the next two years. At this point in the treatment process, floating mixers, a fine pore aeration system and a high speed blower will be added to the system.
Another $2.5 million will go into replacing and repairing equipment early in the treatment process. Clarifiers and sludge pumps will be replaced and deteriorated structures will be repaired and re-coated.
At the front end of the treatment process, raw wastewater equipment - pumps screens, grit removal and flow meters - will need about $1.7 million. At the end of the processing, digesters will be rehabilitated with mixing systems and covered, and sludge pumps replaced, coming in at a cost of $2.9 million.
The last, relatively big ticket fix will be the at the point of final clarification. A new, 70-foot diameter final clarifier will be constructed. An existing final clarifier, of the same size, will be retrofitted with the same mechanisms that regulate flow. A second existing clarifier will be decommissioned and repurposed for sand filter backwash. Output water "launder troughs" will be replaced and located near the clarifiers. The final clarification process will need about $1.5 million to upgrade.
For $1.4 million, the dome-style storage building, noticeably visible from the street, will be replaced with a new building to store biosolid cakes. The replacement addresses one of the biggest downfalls in the treatment plant's annual reports to the DNR.
In at least three previous annual reports, Monroe's wastewater treatment plant has received a grade F in biosolids management, caused mostly by the lack of space to store leftover solid waste.
The plant has a biosolid waste storage capacity of about 90 days, which met DNR compliance when the facility was upgraded in 1984. The DNR now requires a storage capacity of 180 days. Biosolid wastes are by-products, such as grit, sand and ash, which cannot be digested by micro-organisms in the cleaning treatment process.
A new operations building, constructed near the existing administration building, will house the plant's control room, as well as the employee break room and a locker-shower. The maintenance building will become the laboratory. The emptying space in the administration building will be remodeled for meeting and training rooms. Administration and laboratory facilities require $1 million.
The Monroe Common Council gave George Thompson, director of the city's water and waste water utilities, the go-ahead Tuesday, Jan. 3, by approving a consulting agreement with AECOM Technical Services Inc. and authorization to proceed on the designing and bidding services for the plant. The contract with AECOM comes in at $998,000, about 5 percent of the total project cost.
That cost is covered by funds that have been set aside since 2006, Thompson said.
"Jerry Ellefson (WWTP superintendent until December 2009) started that," Thompson said. "I just kept adding to it when I came."
The wastewater treatment plant operates with user fees, not tax dollars.
AECOM was originally hired for $69,000 in April 2011, under a consulting agreement to help plan the facilities. Those plans were sent in December to the Department of Natural Resources for review and comment.
Project Timeline and funding
The new contract now allows Thompson and AECOM to begin drawing up engineering designs in earnest. Preliminary design engineering will be in process by the time the DNR approval returns, expected sometime in early spring, and completed by mid-April.
"The final design phase will be high paced and intense design phase," Thompson said, "and needs to be completed by the end of June for funding."
The utility has about $2.3 million in an equity replacement fund, which would cover only about 10 percent of the total project.
Thompson said the utility will apply for funds through the Clean Water Fund Program (CWFP), one of the state's subsidized loan programs included in the Environmental Improvement Fund (EIF). The CWFP provides loans to municipalities for wastewater treatment and urban storm water runoff projects.
As part of their contract, AECOM associates are tasked with tracking down other funding opportunities, such as grants.
Any remaining funding needed will have to be borrowed.
Thompson expects to receive final DNR approval of plans and specifications in September, just in time for the city to advertise for bids on the project. Final funding details will be completed and the construction contract awarded in January 2013.
If all goes according to the schedule, Monroe will start up its new wastewater facilities in September 2014.
What the city will get for its money
From preliminary assessments of the plant, AECOM recommended about 14 upgrades.
A quarter of the total cost will be in aeration tanks, about $5 million. Two new tanks will be built and the capacity of existing tanks will be increased. The tanks will be outfitted to help remove more phosphorus than the current process; DNR requirements on phosphorus limits are expected to become stricter in the next two years. At this point in the treatment process, floating mixers, a fine pore aeration system and a high speed blower will be added to the system.
Another $2.5 million will go into replacing and repairing equipment early in the treatment process. Clarifiers and sludge pumps will be replaced and deteriorated structures will be repaired and re-coated.
At the front end of the treatment process, raw wastewater equipment - pumps screens, grit removal and flow meters - will need about $1.7 million. At the end of the processing, digesters will be rehabilitated with mixing systems and covered, and sludge pumps replaced, coming in at a cost of $2.9 million.
The last, relatively big ticket fix will be the at the point of final clarification. A new, 70-foot diameter final clarifier will be constructed. An existing final clarifier, of the same size, will be retrofitted with the same mechanisms that regulate flow. A second existing clarifier will be decommissioned and repurposed for sand filter backwash. Output water "launder troughs" will be replaced and located near the clarifiers. The final clarification process will need about $1.5 million to upgrade.
For $1.4 million, the dome-style storage building, noticeably visible from the street, will be replaced with a new building to store biosolid cakes. The replacement addresses one of the biggest downfalls in the treatment plant's annual reports to the DNR.
In at least three previous annual reports, Monroe's wastewater treatment plant has received a grade F in biosolids management, caused mostly by the lack of space to store leftover solid waste.
The plant has a biosolid waste storage capacity of about 90 days, which met DNR compliance when the facility was upgraded in 1984. The DNR now requires a storage capacity of 180 days. Biosolid wastes are by-products, such as grit, sand and ash, which cannot be digested by micro-organisms in the cleaning treatment process.
A new operations building, constructed near the existing administration building, will house the plant's control room, as well as the employee break room and a locker-shower. The maintenance building will become the laboratory. The emptying space in the administration building will be remodeled for meeting and training rooms. Administration and laboratory facilities require $1 million.