City Considering Building A New Wastewater Treatment Facility
— by Jeffrey Wisniewski — 30 July 2010 — 7 comments below »
The City formally broke away from the existing joint Pinole-Hercules wastewater treatment facility just over the Pinole border when it announced its intention to switch to the West County Wastewater District (WCWD) in Richmond. The City Council recently approved $1.16m in preliminary design fees to make the switch. However, the cost to switch is high, with estimates of approximately $60m for construction of the transmission lines and upgrades to the WCWD facility.
And then Hercules would officially be out of the wastewater business, albeit shifting costs to the customers, er, its residents. But I agree with the switch. Of course, I was hoping for Pinole to come along, freeing up a redevelopment opportunity at the unsightly existing facility along the shoreline (and Pinole Creek).
The sheer cost of the switch however — and the ability to pay for it — leaves the ultimate future of Hercules’ wastewater up in the air. The City is considering its options (which it should). One leading alternative is to allow a private wastewater treatment company, likely from Southern California, construct a new facility within the city. The location is unknown, but sources familiar with City discussions suggest the large amount of land available (500 acres) in the annex is a prime candidate.
A Big League Dreams sports complex is currently planned for a portion of the annexed property. And, unfortunately, efforts to develop a strip mall and big box stores along Hwy 4 also remain prevalent in the City’s mindset, simply in order to harvest sales tax revenue. I am not sure how a wastewater treatment facility would mesh with a sports complex and a big-box anchored retail center, however there is no denying there is plenty of land available to make it work.
And bringing in a private entity to construct, maintain and manage the facility reduces the financial impact on the cash-strapped city. Mike Sakamoto, former City Manager and now a consultant to the City, is leading the effort in studying the alternative’s viability. And upon initial inspection, it looks promising from the City’s perspective (more cost effective than the switch to WCWD), although that may not be a good thing.
Do residents agree that annexed property should be used for a new wastewater treatment facility? (Or even big-box anchored retail, for that matter?) And if the City doesn’t mind a wastewater treatment facility within proximity, why not select the cheapest option of jointly upgrading the Pinole facility, since the City of Pinole is set on doing that anyway?
Waterfront residents have long been weary of the potential for the Point to be re-utilized as a wastewater treatment facility. That would be a horrific idea, and the landowner has unequivocally rejected it. The City has recently entered negotiations to purchase the Point (11 acres) with plans for a regional park.
I don’t think the City and residents can afford this. This could turn into a huge fiasco and the residents will pay pay pay!
@ Susan Keeffe — It would presumably cost less to the City since a private company would construct, maintain and manage operations. The rates, however, may go up for customers.
If Pinole is dead set on upgrading the existing water treatment plant, then there’s no hope in repurposing that waterfront property for something more appealing, so we might as well go with the cheapest alternative and join with Pinole on the upgrade.
Ideally I would much rather see Pinole join us in looking for an alternative way of treating their waste water, thereby freeing up the land the current plant is on for something more conducive to recreation and nature.
My wife is a consultant in the water and wastewater business and 99% of the time private operation equals far higher cost to the residents. This is because private operators require a hefty return on their investment and also build in profits to the rates. My personal opinion is that private operation would be a huge mistake and that we should be working with Pinole on a solution.
Jeff,
A good article to check out on the subject is:
http://www.scribd.com/doc/29906788/Public-Private-Partnerships-Issues-and-Difficulties-with-Private-Water-Service
Such a situation happened in Fairfield-Suisun where the city privatized their sewer service only to take it back later due to unexpected results.
I don’t know why the City Manager and Council did not set-up a couple of workshops with residents of Hercules to explore all the options. There is no question in my mind that our rates will double and we could have done better with Pinole. Remember, there have been very few reports from our members of the JPA monthly meetings and for the most part our representives have kept us in the dark. Business as usual.
Hiring a private operator is not the answer since one only has to look to Richmond as well as numerous other cities to see what happened when they contracted their wastewater treatment etc to private companies. It doesn’t take very long to go the direction that Gareth quotes. Initially the private companies will be cheaper (to hook the city) and then a few years in. the rates will explode!