Amador County – Ione City Council approved a contract for wastewater-related tasks on Tuesday in an effort to keep on schedule with state mandated orders.

The council voted 5-0 to approve a contract with Winzler & Kelly to provide an analysis of alternatives for a city wastewater plant, and a “Report of Waste Discharge” for a 10-year-old leakage problem. The agreement for professional services was for the “not to exceed amount of $241,290,” and a motion by Vice Mayor Daniel Epperson stipulated that the Council “prefer that Winzler & Kelley not contract with any firm in litigation with Ione.”

The city faces a lawsuit by former contractor Robertson-Bryan Incorporated (RBI), which performed a Seepage Discharge Compliance Plan given to the state, and other work that the city disputed. The Council ultimately paid RBI about $1,800 instead of the $18,453 RBI sought.

In public comment, Jim Nevin asked why Winzler & Kelley was subcontracting for the Report of Waste Discharge, and if they could hire RBI to do it. He said it was the same company that gave the city a Seepage Discharge Compliance Plan “that is still not approved by the Regional Board.”

City Attorney James Maynard said the Plan was OK’d, and Winler & Kelly does not have the ability to prepare the discharge reports, so the city asked the firm to subcontract out for that. Maynard said “I suppose we could (contract with RBI) but I don’t know why we would.”

Councilman Lloyd Oneto said: “I thought the Seepage Discharge Plan was OK.” Maynard said: “I would say that we got the OK from the Regional Board because they asked us to proceed with the Report of Waste Discharge.” He said the Regional Board did ask for an addendum to the Seepage Plan, which the City provided. Oneto said “if everything is copasetic, that’s huge to me.”

The approval of the list of tasks included sampling city wastewater storage ponds, the discharge report, two meetings with the Regional Water Quality Control Board and three updates to the City Council. Maynard in a report said costs reflected a savings of $36,000 from previous estimates.

Maynard said six of the tasks “are critical, time sensitive tasks that must be undertaken immediately to adhere, as closely as possible, to the schedules the City has previously submitted to the Regional Board,” and “because the City has lost two months, it is unlikely that the City will meet the Regional Board’s May 30, 2012 deadline for the Report of Waste Discharge.”

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