HomeMy WebLinkAbout08.a. Amend agreement with HDR Engineering, Inc. for Treatment Plant Planning, District Project 7301Central Contra Costa Sanitary District
' BOARD OF DIRECTORS
POSITION PAPER
Board Meeting Date: February 7, 2013
Subject: AUTHORIZE THE GENERAL MANAGER TO AMEND AN EXISTING
AGREEMENT WITH HDR ENGINEERING, INC. FOR PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR TREATMENT PLANT PLANNING, DISTRICT
PROJECT 7301
Submitted By: Initiating Dept. /Div.:
Samantha Engelage, Assistant Engineer Engineering /Environmental Services
REVIEWED AND RECOMMENDED FOR BOARD ACTION:
D. Lawson — Senior Engineer
D. Gemmell — Environmental Services Division Manager
C. Swanson
Provisional General Manager
ISSUE: Authorization from the Board of Directors is required for the General Manager
to amend an existing professional services agreement beyond staff authority limits.
RECOMMENDATION: Authorize the General Manager to amend an existing
Professional Engineering Services Agreement with HDR Engineering Inc. (HDR) from
$45,000 to $167,000 for work on the site - specific nitrification rate test under Treatment
Plant Planning, District Project 7301.
FINANCIAL IMPACTS: The Capital Improvement Plan shows an estimated budget for
District Project 7301 of $1.7 million and includes nutrient facility planning, modeling,
and site characterization studies.
ALTERNATIVES /CONSIDERATIONS: Instead of $122,000 for HDR project
management and technical services support, a smaller and less expensive test would
require a $97,000 amendment to the current HDR agreement. However, the smaller
study would not provide sufficient information to confirm cyanide as the primary cause
of site - specific biological ammonia removal inhibition or quantify the extent of inhibition,
which is needed for mainstream and sidestream design purposes.
BACKGROUND: The District's 2012 National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
(NPDES) Permit requires the District to evaluate by February 28, 2014 traditional and
alternative ammonia removal technologies for application at the District's treatment
plant. The majority of ammonia removal technologies are biological processes (i.e.
nitrification) that are known to have site - specific growth rates that are inhibited by
various compounds known to exist in the District's wastewater, such as cyanide.
Current planning -level capital cost estimates for a traditional biological ammonia
removal process are $62.5 million (Total Nitrification Study Report, HDR, 2010).
However, this cost estimate does not account for biological process inhibition due to
cyanide and other incineration process by- products captured in the furnace wet
scrubber return flow. District staff estimates inhibition could increase biological process
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HDR 2 -7 -13 Final.doc Page 1 of 3
POSITION PAPER
Board Meeting Date: February 7, 2013
subject. AUTHORIZE THE GENERAL MANAGER TO AMEND AN EXISTING
AGREEMENT WITH HDR ENGINEERING, INC. FOR PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR TREATMENT PLANT PLANNING, DISTRICT
PROJECT 7301
capital costs to approximately $100 million. Currently, a side - stream cyanide treatment
facility is estimated to cost $3 million (Total Nitrification Study Report, HDR, 2010).
The proposed pilot study would yield three outcomes:
(1) Determine the District's maximum nitrification capability,
(2) Quantify the extent of the District's cyanide inhibition, and
(3) Determine if other inhibitory substances, other than cyanide, exist in the
District's wastewater.
The proposed pilot study involves six reactors with three feed stocks, primary effluent,
secondary influent (primary effluent + furnace wet scrubber return), and secondary
influent without cyanide. Data collected from this study would be used to:
(1) Better predict the expected level of ammonia removal possible via biological
processes at existing facilities;
(2) Refine sizing and costs of required facilities for traditional biological ammonia
removal processes;
(3) Determine if cyanide sidestream treatment is necessary; and
(4) If necessary, to design and better estimate costs for a cyanide sidestream
treatment process.
The proposed contract amendment would have HDR compose an experimental plan,
guide the construction of the experiment, train District staff on operating and sampling
methods, provide general technical assistance, and analyze data. District staff would
operate the pilot study reactors for a period of 85 days. HDR was selected via a
previously completed competitive selection process under the Treatment Plant of the
Future Planning Exercise and has previous experience in conducting similar
experiments at other wastewater facilities.
Staff has concluded that the proposed agreement is exempt from the California
Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) under District CEQA Guidelines Section 15262,
since the agreement would be used for design studies for possible future actions, which
the District has not approved, adopted, or funded, and the outcomes of these tasks will
not have a legally- binding effect on later activities. Approval of this agreement will
establish the Board of Directors' independent finding that the action is exempt from
CEQA. The Board further finds that the District will produce appropriate CEQA
compliance documentation prior to undertaking any "project" arising from these design
studies.
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HDR 2 -7 -13 Final.doc Page 2 of 3
POSITION PAPER
Board Meeting Date: February 7, 2013
Subject AUTHORIZE THE GENERAL MANAGER TO AMEND AN EXISTING
AGREEMENT WITH HDR ENGINEERING, INC. FOR PROFESSIONAL
ENGINEERING SERVICES FOR TREATMENT PLANT PLANNING, DISTRICT
PROJECT 7301
RECOMMENDED BOARD ACTION: Find that this action is exempt from the California
Environmental Quality Act and authorize the General Manager to execute an
amendment to the existing Professional Engineering Services Agreement with HDR
Engineers, Inc. for Treatment Plant Planning, District Project 7301, to increase the cost
ceiling to $167,000.
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