The Fortuna City Council on Sept. 21 approved two amendments totaling $2,981,015 to the city’s engineering services agreement with Jacobs for the wastewater treatment plant’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System compliance project.
The council authorized $442,000 for Amendment No. 5, covering final design and bid-phase services for plant upgrades, and $2,539,015 for Amendment No. 6, covering construction and implementation of the project’s supervisory control and data acquisition, or SCADA, system. The action also authorized the city to contract directly with an electrical contractor for related installation work to avoid a Jacobs markup, according to the meeting minutes.
Public Works Director Brian Issa told the council that the plant upgrades include aeration basins and other major construction components. He described the SCADA system as the plant’s computer-based control and monitoring system and said staff decided to advance it on a parallel track after determining the existing system was too brittle to support the new facilities. The goal is for the new facilities to connect to the updated system when they are built, according to the recording of the council meeting.
Issa also said the project is intended to address denitrification, or the removal of nitrogen from the plant’s effluent. He said the city was still working on a revolving-loan-fund package and that the final scope would depend on the mix of loans, principal forgiveness or grants, and ratepayer funding. The minutes record the city’s finding that sufficient appropriations were available in the current fiscal-year wastewater capital budget, but they do not identify the project’s total cost or any projected effect on wastewater rates.
The vote was 4-0, with Mayor Mike Johnson, Mayor Pro Tem Tami Trent and Council Members Carlos Diaz and Abe Stevens voting yes. Council Member Kyle Conley was absent.
