A New Wastewater Treatment Plant?

At the September 1, 2015 City Council Meeting, Council directed staff to amend the City's existing agreement with Mulhern, MRE and expand the scope of work to include a supplemental analysis of three privately owned parcels located on the eastside of the Animas River approximately 1.5 miles downstream of the existing Santa Rita Wastewater Treatment Plant Site. The results of this analysis are included in the attached report. WWTP Alternative Site Addendum (PDF) | Report Appendix A1 (PDF)

In June of 2015, City contracted with Mulhern, MRE for the purpose of evaluating the technical and financial feasibility and efficacy of relocating the City's wastewater treatment plant downstream of the current location. Mulhern recently completed the Santa Rita Wastewater Treatment Plant Alternative Site Investigation which outlines the findings from this analysis.

Following a review of the Dewberry cost estimates associated with relocating the City's WWTP to an alternative location, City Council instructed the City Manager to commission a more detailed study of possible alternative sites and costs associated with locating the plant downstream of the High Bridge. As part of this process the City asked Mulhern to identify and evaluate two possible site locations; investigate in detail three infrastructure conveyance alignments to transport the wastewater to a new site; and to provide costs estimates for the total relocation including the costs of a new treatment plant, land acquisition, pipelines and all necessary pumping systems.

The costs comparisons from the Study for the rehabilitation and expansion of the plant at the Santa Rita Site versus the two alternatives are include in the below table. Details of this study are included in the attached report and outlined in the Mulhern's presentation given to City Council at the August 11, 2015 Study Session and presented at a Public Meeting held on August 12, 2015.

Mulhern's August 11 Presentation (PDF) | WWTP Alternative Site Investigation Report (PDF) | Report Attachment (PDF)

A supplemental presentation given by City Manager, Ron LeBlanc at several public meetings regarding the site selection process is available here.

City Manager's Presentation (PDF)