Tuesday, 15 May 2007 00:56

City Of Plymouth Looks At Waste Water Treatment Plant Expansion Options

slide16On Thursday Plymouth had their Bi-Monthly City Council meeting in which they discussed and reviewed three different proposals for the Wastewater Treatment and Disposal Facilities Improvement plan. The first discussed was a proposal from KASL consulting and Engineers providing civil water resources surveying based out of Citrus Heights, Ca., the Second proposal was presented from Nolte Associates Inc., based out of Manteca, Ca, and the third was submitted by Stantec Consulting Inc. from Sacramento.  A Wastewater facilities master plan was prepared by Toma & Anderson in December of 2006.

This master plan identified potential Plymouth area development projects, possible annexations and infill land uses that could increase the number of household equivalents served by the City’s collection, treatment and reclamation facilities from 561, currently, to an estimated total of 1959. This increase in demand would also increase the City’s average dry weather wastewater flow (ADWF) from .095 million gallons per day(MGD) to an estimated.331 MGD and increase the estimated peak wet weather (PWWF)from.56MGD to 1.85MGD. The City’s current Waste Discharge Requirements (WDR) Order permits the inflow of 170 MGD, average dry weather flow. WDR Order Number 5-01-195 was adopted by the Regional Water Quality Board for the City of Plymouth on April 27th, 2001.

slide21Changes to the existing Waste Discharge Order will be required to expand the capacity of the City’s wastewater facilities to serve projected demands. Before a new Report of Waste Discharge can be completed, a concept Level Wastewater Facility Improvement Plan must be prepared. The plan must include the most cost effective alternatives for expansion of the existing facilities. The plan is comprehensive and must also identify the most likely sites that can be acquired for additional effluent storage and wastewater reclamation, a feasible plan for the phased expansion of wastewater transmission, treatment, storage and reclamation improvements, and realistic cost projections for phased improvements must be developed. Also, an overall study should be considered and should make recommendations for wastewater system connection and expansion fees to be collected from new hookups. The cost of the wastewater improvements should be appropriately applied to new developments, annexations and infill projects and not unreasonably applied to existing Plymouth residents.

KASL Consulting Engineers has a history with the City of Plymouth and is familiar with the City’s wastewater facilities through the preparation of the Plymouth Spray Irrigation Management Plan, Spray Field improvement Report and Nitrogen Loading Report in September 2005, and the City of Plymouth Sludge Management Plan in December 2005. Some of the Key services that Nolte Associates Inc. offer include wastewater engineering, Water supply Investigation, Water Quality Assessments, Sanitary Surveys, Source water assessments, Permitting assistance with Department of Health Services, Regulatory Compliance, Treatment plant facility plans, Ground water development not to mention Water recycling and Structural engineering. Stantec has an 80 year tradition of providing quality, innovative, timely and cost-effective professional services to northern California. Their firm has assisted local communities like Plymouth in the ability to work cooperatively with local agencies and citizens. Each proposal offered a wide variety of services and consisted of different avenues for the City of Plymouth to consider for such a large and monumental project. Currently the City council will be discussing and studying the different proposals on which they will make a decision on in the near future.