On February 14, 2022, City Council provided Staff direction to complete a thorough, evaluative process to identify costs, risks, and opportunities for various alternatives to either rehabilitate or rebuild Semper Water Treatment Plant.
This overview will share the work that has been completed to date. There are a number of parallel activities occurring on this short time-frame project.
Substantial efforts have been moving forward since the project began to evaluate current conditions of Semper and begin a thorough cataloging of needs for the plant. The consultant team is hard at work on the following tasks, among others:
- Generating 3-D models of Semper treatment plant structures necessary to plan a rehab option in complex and tight conditions.
- Generating 3-D models of the treatment facility's yard piping to assist in evaluating site flexibility.
- Cataloging Semper infrastructure items for condition assessment.
In addition to the engineering work being completed by the consultant team, Staff and consultants have been working on identifying property valuation for properties adjacent to Semper.
The overview will introduce a number of policy decision points on which Staff is seeking direction from City Council as more information becomes available and the project progresses. Staff will return to City Council with more detailed information regarding these policy topics in subsequent presentations over the coming months. These policy topics include the following:
- Treatment capacity and reliability;
- Risk and resiliency through construction and long-term;
- Adaptability for future regulations;
- Redundancy for failures;
- Ability to treat challenging water; and
- Water quality goals.
Cost discussions will clearly be an important component of these discussions. Cost assessments for the various alternatives will be available toward the end of the project. At that juncture, Staff will come to City Council with a full analysis during which pros and cons of each alternative can be weighed alongside the cost incurred to implement each option.
Staff will be returning to City Council in May for follow-up on progress and to continue to flesh out information necessary for City Council to ultimately make informed policy decisions on the path forward for the project.