Amador County – Consultant engineers Robertson-Bryan Incorporated submitted a letter last week withdrawing from further wastewater management work for the city of Ione, along with another request for final payment of $18,000 for work it says Ione City Council and city staff requested.

Michael Bryan, Ph. D., managing partner of Robertson-Bryan Incorporated (RBI) in a letter Feb. 9 said out-of-scope work done by RBI included attending five council meetings or workshops since Dec. 14, 2011, when it submitted a proposal to amend its program management and professional services contract with the city for implementation of the wastewater program.

In the letter, Bryan notified Interim City Manager Jeff Butzlaff that the company is withdrawing its proposal, and requested a close out of payment for the work. The extra work included preparing and presenting a Wastewater Update last September; and instead of assisting with a rate study of PERC’s project, the company oversaw and managed the rate analysis “to provide Council with information for decision,” which “included three scenarios rather than one.”

Bryan said the scope of the contract was to attend Ione Wastewater Committee meetings, but RBI attended meetings with ARSA, Senator Ted Gaines, and State Revolving Fund staff, and also prepared a request for proposals for the SRF.

Bryan said Ione City Council’s “decisions not to approve RBI’s Dec. 14 proposal, at two separate Council meetings … were puzzling to us because we believe we have provided timely, quality products and solutions to the city” and “put the city on a path to compliance with its Cease and Desist Order, including the construction of an affordable treatment facility upgrade project.”

City attorney James Maynard in a memo to the Council Tuesday said “RBI has withdrawn from any future work on this project,” although “RBI is completing its follow-up work on the City’s Seepage Discharge Compliance Plan and met with the Regional Board enforcement staff on Friday” to “discuss the proposed $4.3 million project” as described in the plan.

Maynard said the Regional Board staff “suggested the city obtain proof of raw sewage contamination at the bottom of both Pond 5 and Pond 6” through sampling “to confirm that low-oxygen conditions are causing the high levels of Iron and Manganese in surrounding groundwater.” The Board also “asked for the City’s back-up plan if evidence of raw sewage contamination in the city’s percolation ponds cannot be confirmed by sampling.”

Maynard said the Board “most significantly” asked the city “to prepare a new scope of work and compliance schedule as the city is already well behind the schedule” in the Seepage Plan. He noted that the Council has not retained an engineer to complete a Report of Waste Discharge, which is due to the Regional Board on May 30.

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