Amador County – Ione city staff gave a presentation last week to a large crowd at Ione Junior High Auditorium on the city’s wastewater treatment plant issues, and pending decisions, including the next major fork in the road, which occurs next month.

Interim City Manager Jeff Butzlaff said new plant operator Art O’Brien gave a presentation which “was well received by a large number of the people who attended.”

O’Brien talked about “city wastewater issues, challenges, opportunities, strategy and potential rate payer implications of its development” of a new sewer plant to meet the requirements of the state.

Butzlaff said hiring O’Brien of Robertson-Bryan Incorporated, and financier Scott Smith, will help the city as it tries to determine what options will best meet city needs in the most cost effective manner, and do so in time to meet requirements of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board. Most importantly they want to do so with the “least impact on ratepayers.”

He said city staff will be exploring all avenues of cost sharing, from designing it then bidding, to the preferred method of getting one bidder to design, build, operate and finance the project.

Butzlaff said a low-end facility is going to be several million dollars, and they expect to spend $10 million to $15 million at the most. He said they will try to work with the public to broaden understanding of state requirements.

The city is in a position where it really has little choice but to go forward, Butzlaff said: “The question is how we do it,” the methodology and the most cost-effective approach.

Butzlaff said the final full project over a 30-year period could cost tens of millions of dollars. He said the best plan in the end “could determine several million dollars to the bad or to the good.”

The wastewater team is now discussing how it is all going to unfold. They need to know by mid-October if they will stay with PERC Water and work on the design-build-operate-finance approach, or if they want to take a broader look, and go in another direction.

He said getting one company to design, build, operate and finance the project was still preferred based on previous council direction, but the council and community want to see analysis to see if it is the best deal for the city and the best deal for ratepayers.

Story by Jim Reece This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.