Amador County – Sutter Creek City Council directed staff Monday to draft a “Request For Proposals” for the city sewer master plan, which might include cost estimates for project options.
City Engineer Grant Reynolds told the Council that the City Sewer Committee tried to make decisions for a future municipal Wastewater Treatment Plant, but “got to the point where it was a little bit past some of our decision-making capabilities.” They tried to determine what they would need for a Request For Proposals (RFP) from contractors, and came up with a list of options, some without costs. One of those rated a bunch of storage areas on Gold Rush Ranch property, without cost estimates. Reynolds said “looking at previous water balances,” that storage does not appear to be large enough.
He listed a scope of work for potential options, such as partnering on a regional system with Ione. They also must consider the value of the Amador Regional Sanitation Authority (ARSA) system, and “evaluate the capital and operational costs of maintaining the current ARSA service level.”
Reynolds said the RFP should help “evaluate the cost of upgrading the existing ARSA system to increase capacity,” looking specifically at storage, piping (and further analysis of existing pipe), spray fields, and poplar tree plantation.
City Manager Sean Rabe said the object on Monday was to “use this framework for part of what the RFP will contain,” and the draft RFP “will be brought back to the Council for approval.” He will also run it by ARSA at its next board meeting.
Among the scope of work, Reynolds noted that they should evaluate capital and operational “costs of pumping and a transmission system between the existing city sewer plant and the Gold Rush site,” evaluating for four effluent scenarios of raw wastewater, primary effluent, secondary effluent, or piping raw effluent from Martell to a plant at Gold Rush while “maintaining the city’s current plant” for city customers.
Reynolds said “we need hard and fast numbers on the capacity of our wastewater treatment plant.” Evaluations included the cost of revising the city “waste discharge requirements” for secondary or tertiary treatment and spray disposal, and reviewing “current population and growth projections taking into consideration a current list of approved projects.”
The scope mentioned creating a “decision matrix” to aid Council decisions. Planning Commissioner Frank Cunha said the Council would be “deciding if it is better for Sutter Creek to go on our own,” or team up regionally.
Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
