Wastewater treatment plant may cost more than thought

Now that spring is on its way, Cedar Corp. is working on Cornell’s wastewater treatment plant facility plan amendment, with what the firm calls conservative estimates on how much the project will cost. Kevin Oium was on hand March 5, to go over information with the Cornell City Council.

Cedar Corp. looked at information on the city’s existing plant and broke it up into two phases. Phase 1 consists of a new headworks building, fine screen, grit removal and sampler.

“Big item here, is for sludge storage,” said Oium.

There had been talk of cake vs. liquid sludge storage, but Oium says it’s cheaper to go with liquid.

“That would be sized for basically a year’s storage,” said Oium.

Oium reminded members that they are at the mercy of the weather for land applying the sludge. The phase also plans for a digester that is allocated for transfer of the sludge for truck hauling to land apply.

Along with site improvements, Phase 1 is estimated at $6 million.

Phase 2 consists of creating aeration basins for activated sludge, which would replace the rotating biological contactor (RBC). A final clarifier, additional blowers, maintenance on the control building and a back-up generator, would also be included.

The cost for Phase 2 is estimated at $5.3 million.

However, if the council decided to do all the projects on the treatment plant at once, it would only be an estimated $8.6 million.

“When we first started on this on Phase 1, it wasn’t $6 million, was it?” asked Floyd Hickethier, council member.

Oium says it was estimated around $2 million at the time.

“How come there’s such a big difference?” asked Hickethier.

Oium said a lot of the cost depends on current market conditions and that prices keep going up. Council member Steve Turany asked how tall the sludge building is supposed to be.

The tower with a cover is slated to be 30x50 feet.

“It’s probably going to be close to $1 million, just for that part itself,” said Oium.

“So, there are things we can probably tweak on this (plan),” said Turany.

Oium reminded members that there is also contingency needed, as well as overhead costs.

“And we can’t build our own silo, right?” said council member Ashley Carothers, to which Oium said no.

Derek Braun, utility/public works superintendent, says the council also has to take into account, the city ran out of storage at the sewer plant recently and had to pay to have some loads hauled to a Rice Lake facility. That was only to get Cornell by until they could land apply, which they still had to pay for.

“I don’t think it’s…over-the-top,” said Braun of the plant cost estimates.

Oium says the city also generates, on average, $25,000$30,000 from septic tank intake.

“If we get this holding tank, can we generate more (revenue) coming in?” said Hickethier.

Braun says that is dependent on how the updates affect the system, that it would be a learning curve.

“This should be a better system than what we currently have,” he said.

City administrator Dave De-Jongh asked what capacity the large holding tank would have. Oium says he is not sure how many gallons the tank will hold, but mentioned that the longer the council waits to make a decision, the more things go up in cost.

Oium also said if members go with two separate projects, they have to keep in mind that there will have to be two bidding processes and they will have to do site restoration twice.

“That’s why we kind of wanted to get the information to you, so you could see the big picture,” said Oium.

Mayor Judy Talbot asked what kind of timeline the city is looking at for the whole project, as opposed to just phases. Oium said to do the project all together, it could be done in two years, while phases would require an extension for the Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) funding the city has already received.

Talbot says the city also needs to make sure they are compliant with the DNR.

“We don’t have a 10-year window to wait,” she said. “We’re living on borrowed time already.”

The city has already received the guaranteed $1 million CBDG money, with Cedar Corp. trying to find other options to go for funding. Oium says it is a possibility the city could have to raise sewer rates.

The council members agreed this is something they need to discuss further, before making a decision. Oium asked that members reach a decision soon, as plans and bids are on hold until such a time.

Braun said he doesn’t think it’s worth it to tie a lot of money into trying to save something that has reached its life expectancy.

“We got our 40 years out of the sewer plant that’s down there,” he said. “It’s not going to get cheaper to wait.”