The City Council chose an estimated $95.75 million option to expand its existing plant to meet state requirements
The letters began arriving in November 2015, during a time of turmoil for Beaumont, which was under criminal and state auditor investigations.
Yet no one responded to the memos from the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board, which had learned that flows from Beaumont’s wastewater treatment plant had exceeded 75 percent capacity. Passing the threshold triggers a requirement that the city share what steps it will take to add treatment capacity.
“It just got caught in the changes,” said Amer Jakher, Public Works director and city engineer, who joined the city in late March. “Nobody was aware of it.”
By May, seven former high-ranking Beaumont city officials were charged with felony corruption, including embezzlement and misappropriation of public funds. They have pleaded not guilty, and the case is pending.
And the city had finally responded to the water board – but only after water officials sent a notice-of-violation letter in April.
The Beaumont City Council took a significant step recently in dealing with the issue, deciding to expand its existing wastewater treatment plant. The choice was made over a more costly option to pay for an expansion of a Yucaipa Valley Water District plant and pipe the city’s sewage 22 miles away for treatment.
The council took action Monday before a packed audience of customers, many of whom were concerned about the potential for increases in their rates, something the city will not be ready to address until 2019.
Construction, expected to be completed in 2020, is estimated at $95.75 million. The project’s 20-year life-cycle cost – including construction – is $130.43million. The Yucaipa option would have a life-cycle cost of more than $205 million.
The proposed project will expand the treatment plant from 4 million gallons a day to 6 million gallons a day. Some elements will be designed for an ultimate expansion to 8-8.5 million gallons a day.
The council has authorized a contract with Albert A. Webb Associates of Riverside – which did the feasibility study – for $725,216 for preliminary design work and to file a loan application with the state. That design must be submitted to the regional board by May 31, 2017.
The city still will have to build a pipeline to carry salt brine from the city to a regional disposal line in San Bernardino.
“You should reduce the salt that goes into the basin” to protect the quality of the groundwater available for use, Jakher said.
The plant upgrade will include a microfiltration process – which uses frames of spaghettilike hollow fiber membranes – and reverse osmosis, which helps remove salts.
“It’s a much better pretreatment for reverse osmosis,” Brian Knoll, vice president of Webb, said of the filtration. He noted it also takes up much less room at the plant than current methods.
Councilman Lloyd White said Beaumont city leaders and staffers “have to move forward” and meet the state deadlines. He noted that the notification letters came during a time the city had two interim city managers and others in temporary positions, including a 12-hour-a-week city engineer.
“I personally was surprised that staff had not addressed it before we got the final letter,” he said.
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