image description

$74 Million Wastewater Plant Upgrades Heads to City Council

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story
PITTSFIELD, Mass. — The mayor is asking for the authority to borrow $74 million for a major upgrade of the city's wastewater treatment center.
 
The expense has been a long time coming, starting with the city seeking to renew its National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permit in 2005. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency oversees those permits in an effort to keep waterways clean and had issued a permit in 2008 requiring significantly higher standards of phosphorus, aluminum treatment, and nitrogen removal.
 
"This is a very expensive and very impactful program to remove nitrogen, tertiary treatment for phosphorous, aluminum, and then we have to make other upgrades to our system associated with that in a secondary clarifier and sludge dewatering," Commissioner of Public Services and Utilities David Turocy told the City Council back in March.
 
The new standards were set under the Clean Water Act and the city's system doesn't currently conform. The city fought the standards in court but in 2009, a federal judge ruled in favor of the EPA.
 
"We exhausted all of our appeals and ultimately lost in federal court," Turocy said.
 
The city had then engaged with the engineering firm Klienfelder to design a new system. In March, the City Council authorized $4.9 million in borrowing to complete the design of the new system — adding to $1 million that had already been spent. Now, the design is apparently complete and Mayor Linda Tyer has submitted a petition asking for the authorization to borrow for the construction.
 
And she is hoping the council will act quickly. The EPA had issued a consent order setting timelines calling for the construction documents to be ready for bidding by the start of 2018 with actual construction starting this August.
 
"With that design compete we need to move forward with the construction of this project in accordance with the timeline contained in the EPA administrative order. Therefore, I would ask that you waive rule 27 so that you may discuss and vote on the order at your Jan. 23rd meeting," Tyer wrote in her petition to the City Council.
 
"A vote on the 23rd is required to ensure that the project remains on schedule. Any variation from that schedule could result in fines being levied on the city by the EPA."
 
The majority of the councilors have heard a presentation during a City Council of the Whole meeting in the spring of 2017 about the work when the administration asked for the design funds. At that point, the design was only 30 percent complete. Representatives from Klienfelder are expected to prepare an updated presentation to give on Tuesday.
 
In March, Alan Wells, of Klienfelder, told the council that the company "tried to control the costs as best as we can but it is still a large upgrade." It starts with the construction of a new tertiary treatment process and building.
 
That adds an additional level of treatment at the plant and currently, the primary systems are working fine, but the secondary systems date back to the 1970s and been pieced together over the years.
 
"The secondary clarifies are really the weak link," Wells told the council. "They are really at the end of their useful life."
 
The repairs there are need to ensure the new tertiary treatments work properly, Wells said.
 
Next, the city needs to expand the capacity of the dewatering plant. That plant helps reduce the disposal cost of sludge but with the rest of the systems being upgraded, Wells said the current equipment is too small. He said the plan is to expand the capacity, but not expand the building. And finally, there is technology to "optimize the removal of nitrogen."
 
Wells also said that while the cost is high, it is comparative to similar cities and towns that faced the same type of requirements.
 
"The price tag for this is tremendously high. It is $76 million. It is a tough number but it is what is going to be required of us," Turocy had previously said of the project.
 
Tyer said $50 million of the borrowing will be through the state's Clean Water trust fund, lowering the interest over the course of the bond. The payments on the borrowing would likely be wrapped into increases to the water and sewer bills — and thus through the water and sewer enterprise accounts.
 
The City Council had also already approved spending $8.4 million to replace primary pumps at the wastewater treatment plant.

Tags: municipal borrowing,   wastewater,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Pittsfield CPA Committee Funds Half of FY24 Requests

By Brittany PolitoiBerkshires Staff

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — A few projects are not getting funded by the Community Preservation Committee because of a tight budget.

The projects not making the cut were in the historic preservation and open space and recreation categories and though they were seen as interesting and valuable projects, the urgency was not prevalent enough for this cycle.

"It's a tough year," Chair Danielle Steinmann said.

The panel made its recommendations on Monday after several meetings of presentations from applications. They will advance to the City Council for final approval.  

Two cemetery projects were scored low by the committee and not funded: A $9,500 request from the city for fencing at the West Part Cemetery as outlined in a preservation plan created in 2021 and a $39,500 request from the St. Joseph Cemetery Commission for tombstone restorations.

"I feel personally that they could be pushed back a year," Elizabeth Herland said. "And I think they're both good projects but they don't have the urgency."

It was also decided that George B. Crane Memorial Center's $73,465 application for the creation of a recreational space would not be funded. Herland said the main reason she scored the project low was because it didn't appear to benefit the larger community as much as other projects do.

There was conversation about not funding The Christian Center's $34,100 request for heating system repairs but the committee ended up voting to give it $21,341 when monies were left over.

The total funding request was more than $1.6 million for FY24 and with a budget of $808,547, only about half could be funded. The panel allocated all of the available monies, breaking down into $107,206 for open space and recreation, $276,341 for historic preservation, and $425,000 for community housing.

View Full Story

More Pittsfield Stories