The Mount Pleasant City Council Tuesday gave KSA Engineers the green light to look into upgrading a plan for construction already underway to extend sanitary sewer service capacity to avoid a system shut down during wet weather. Shortcomings in the 2007 plan and decreases in construction costs since that time called for the council to revisit the plan scope, City Manager Mike Ahrens told the council.
John Ringler of KSA told the council that costs for the expanded plan remain virtually unknown at this point, but a shutdown during wet weather, under the current plan, would be inevitable.
The initial price tag on tying the new water treatment plant into the City's sewer system reads $715,225. Ringler said he believes the water board could credit back to the project $54,995.00 from the original bid with a change in the plan.
Ahrens said, "We are looking at a manpower system vs. full-automated system. Now transporting sludge to the landfill requires extra manpower, a truck and additional landfill charges to dump the sludge.
"We're building to have added capacity, but if we have to shut down," he told the council, "we're shooting ourselves in the foot. We are at a point in the construction we can do this with minimal financial impact."
Ringler said when the initial plan was being developed: "We designed to the dollar. Then the market went down and construction prices," he said. "We need to decide if we want to do an onsite sewer system. The current system design is the cheapest we can do. He said extended wet weather conditions could require the plant to be shut down.
Current waste system designs, developed in 2007, provide for a 28-acre irrigation site, irrigation pump station, 400,000 gallon mudwell, a mudwell mixing system, a decant return pump system and an on-site sewer system.
The construction of the new water treatment plant and the water lines to tie it in to the City's water system is being funded through a one percent loan agreement with the Texas Water Development Board
Ahrens told the Tribune, following the meeting: "In processing water at the new water treatment plant (currently being built - completion Dec 2011) sludge is created that has to be disposed of. The original design called for an on-site system that involved land application of waste water and transport of the sludge to the landfill. This would require more manpower and will have issues during rainy periods that could even cause the shutdown of the new water treatment because sludge and wasted water could not be disposed of.
"Instead of trying to treat the sludge on site at the new water plant, the proposed plan will tie the new water treatment plant in to the city's sewer system and send the wasted water and sludge to the sewer plant. This will involve a sewer lift station at the new water plant that will pump the water and sludge to the city's sewer system at about [Highway] 271 and about Tennison Road, where it will then flow by gravity in the existing city sewer lines to the sewer plant."
He said the upgraded plan would require the construction of a lift station at the water plant and a force main (under pressure) along the right of way of the new Loop.
"This will also help us with an issue at the landfill. We are required by our contract with Allied Waste to dispose of 'leachate' water from the landfill to the sewer plant. Leachate water is rain water that falls at the landfill and percolates down through the ground and is collected in a collection system. Because it has contact with landfill waste, it can not be allowed to drain off of the landfill site as would most commonly happen in most commercial developments. If we tie the new water treatment plant into the city's sewer system, we can easily connect the landfill leachate system to that system and allow the leachate water to be pumped directly into the city's sewer system instead of having to haul it by tanker truck as we do now which is very labor intensive - especially during rainy periods."
In order to move forward, as instructed by the mayor and council, Ringler said KSA will submit for the Texas Water Development Board approval for the use of funding for proposed changes in the plan. If approved, according to Ringler's report, KSA will complete the survey, environmental update, permits, plans, obtain quotations, complete change orders for both construction contracts.
Ringler said he could bring the cost quotations back to the council for consideration.
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