I. RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends award of the Alum removal project to California Water Services in the amount of $199,932.00.
II. BACKGROUND:
The Water Treatment Plant (WTP) treats water received from the Coalinga Canal with Alum which causes fine particles in the water to clump together and settle out of the water as part of the overall treatment process. The settled materials are collected and removed from the treatment process and sent to drying beds. The dry material is then removed and stockpiled at the WTP.
III. DISCUSSION:
The WTP is unable to store any more sludge from the drying beds. Due to the Alum content in the sludge, the sludge must be off hauled to a landfill that is permitted to accept sludge with high alum content. This landfill is located in Chowchilla, Ca.
The cost is $199,932 per 2,067 tons of sludge removed. Over the years, the WTP has stockpiled approximately 2500 tons of sludge.
IV. ALTERNATIVES:
Do not approve. Staff can rebid the project but lower bid prices are not anticipated due to the Alum content in the sludge. There is no more room to store the additional sludge the WTP generates every day. Only one of the three sludge drying beds are available for use as the others are being used to store dried sludge too.
V. FISCAL IMPACT:
This project is a budgeted item within the Water Enterprise Fund. Sufficient funds are budgeted for this project. This project will have no impact on the General Fund. |