Estimates for Morro Bay’s proposed new sewer treatment and water reclamation plant have jumped to $133.1 million to $134.8 million overall, the City revealed last week with the release of a key planning document.
The so-called, “Facilities Master Plan,” written by consultants, Black & Veatch, narrows down the possible technologies for the sewage treatment portion of the 2-phased project, to a sequencing batch reactor or a membrane batch reactor. Both are expensive, energy-intensive technologies, but B&V said each produces high quality effluent that would help further the City’s goal of recycling the wastewater.
It should be noted that a master reclamation study, now underway but not expected to be released until next March, would delve into just what the City could do to get beneficial reuse of the treated wastewater.
For the SBR option, the FMP estimates a total cost of $118.6 million and $120.3M for the MBR option.
In the SBR option, building of the on-site facilities for a treatment plant is estimated at $38.4M ($41.5M for the MBR). Add in $9.4M for operations of the facility (same amount for the MBR). Microfiltration and ultraviolet disinfection adds $7.9M with SBR ($5.6M); an item labeled “general conditions” adds $6.7M; building, permits and sales taxes are $3.6M ($3.7M); and “insurances” at $2M ($2.1M), among other lesser costs.
Phase-2, which would produce the reusable water, lists $6.3M for a reverse osmosis system with the two types of treatments within $20,000 of each other. Add another $1.8M for a pipeline to dispose of brine — the byproduct of this process — for discharge into the ocean, as is done now.
The figures include sizable contingency amounts — $21.5M for SBR and $21.8M for MBR — just for Phase-1, some 25% of the construction costs.
Phase-2 has a construction contingency of 25% for some $2.6M. Once again the two options are within $7,000 of each other.
The FMP for the first time also looks at demolishing the existing plant and pegs that cost at $4.9M, to be shared with the Cayucos Sanitary District.
It also briefly discusses building a solar energy farm to power the plant, something the City would look to a private company to partner with, selling the energy to the City at a steady rate (the same thing was done at local schools). It did this recently with the installation of solar panels atop city-owned buildings.
In a site plan, Black & Veatch lists some 16 “structures” — buildings housing key equipment — totaling 66,830 square feet clustered in the east and northeast portion of the nearly 30-acre parcel that the City intends to purchase from the owners, the Tri-W corporation. The FMP also plans to move the City maintenance yard out to the new site, including the City trolleys and Dial-a-Ride operations.
As for how the City plans to move a million-plus gallons a day of sewage to the new plant site, Black & Veatch has proposed a large pumping station be built at the maintenance yard, next door to the current sewer plant. That’s in a flood plane and needs to be armored against the potential flooding of Morro Creek, which has only happened a few times over the past 40-plus years.
A large forced main sewer line would run from Atascadero Road to the new site, mostly under Quintana Road. An option would be to turn up Radcliff Street and run the sewer main under Bolton Avenue and then through open range lands on the east side of Hwy 1 to the new plant site, above the end of South Bay Blvd. Either way, it’s about 2 miles of pipe.
And it’s looking like the City wants to pipe the reclaimed water back over the hill to the Morro Creek water basin, and inject it into the ground. Then extract it back out and run it through the desalination plant for treatment to be ultimately blended with other water sources.
With the estimated costs rising far higher than before, the City is claiming that reuse of the wastewater, ultimately into the drinking water supply, would allow them to cut back if not entirely cancel State Water Project deliveries, some 1,313 acre feet a year of fully treated drinking water.
“The facility will allow the City to achieve locally-controlled water independence,” reads a news release from City Manager David Buckingham, “potentially no longer dependent on state water supplies which are drought-affected and, in the decades ahead, facing substantial cost increases that cannot be controlled locally.
“The City estimates a likely reduction in water users’ costs of at least $1.5M a year, or $45M over 30 years. The Plan also indicates the City can likely reduce the anticipated combined Phase I and Phase II construction timeline from seven years to five years.”
The City is taking comments and questions now on the draft plan and readers can email to: [email protected] before Dec. 1, so they can be included in a Dec. 6 presentation to the Water Reclamation Facility Citizen’s Advisory Committee (WRFCAC). The document is expected to go to the City Council on Dec.13.
See: morrobaywrf.com to download the Draft FMP.
