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Pleasanton city staff will be presenting an update to the City Council on different water supply alternatives to address the contaminated water inside city-owned wells during Tuesday’s regular meeting.
Over the last couple of years, staff have been discovering PFAS, technically known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, in the city’s groundwater supply facilities — specifically in three city-maintained wells.
These wells supply approximately 20% of the city’s annual water supply. The remaining annual water supply is purchased from the Zone 7 Water Agency.
In order to address the widely used and long-lasting chemicals, which break down very slowly over time, staff had previously recommended approving a PFAS treatment and wells rehabilitation project. The scope of work for the project was to treat and rehabilitate wells 5, 6 and 8 in Pleasanton and to create a new centralized treatment facility for PFAS treatment, disinfection and fluoridation.
But on Sept. 6, the City Council pushed pause on the project and asked staff to evaluate other alternatives due to a $46 million pricetag on the original project.
According to the staff report, the Water Ad Hoc Subcommittee has been meeting every month since last October with Brown and Caldwell, an engineering and construction firm focused on water and environmental sectors, to provide feedback and direction.
The firm has also been collecting and reviewing data from the city and from the Zone 7’s groundwater model to develop a list of water supply alternatives, which will be presented to the council during Tuesday’s update.
Staff will also be presenting a set of evaluation criteria that will be used to determine what alternative would be best for the city.
“This list is intended to be comprehensive, and alternatives that are not feasible or that have greater cost and lower benefit relative to the PFAS Treatment and Well Rehabilitation Project will be eliminated through an initial screening step,” according to the staff report. “Alternatives (or combinations of alternatives that can produce 3,500 acre-feet/year) that pass this initial screening will be evaluated in further detail based on evaluation criteria that was created based on feedback from the Water Ad Hoc Subcommittee.”
Some of the alternatives on the list include modified treatment only for Well 8; building a new well on the west part of the city outside of PFAS plume; having Zone 7 pump from the existing wells or purchasing 100% of the city’s water from the agency; constructing a joint, regional treatment facility with Zone 7; or local alternative supplies such as desalination.
After Tuesday’s update, the next steps for staff will be an initial screening of the alternatives at the Feb. 28 Water Ad Hoc Subcommittee meeting, development of cost estimates and evaluating of the shortlisted alternatives based on multiple evaluation criteria, according to the staff report.
The City Council meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Tuesday (Feb. 21). The full agenda can be accessed here.
In other business
* City staff will be seeking council approval to adopt the city’s 2022-23 midyear budget adjustments, which include a $960,000 increase to the general fund revenue budget.
According to the staff report, the revenue increase — along with a loan repayment from the golf operating fund and expenditure savings — is meant to secure a $2.5 million surplus in the general fund.
“Staff recommends keeping the projected surplus in the general fund until further analysis at year end,” according to the report. “This would provide council the flexibility to draw on the surplus funds if unanticipated costs incurred in the second half of the fiscal year.”
The proposed amendment to the general fund will be increasing the budget from $142.5 million to $143.4 million.
Other changes that staff will be recommending to the council will be decreasing the general fund expenditure budget by $1.1 million and decreasing revenue in all the other fund budgets by $2.3 million and increasing expenditures by $6.5 million.
Pleasanton follows a three-step operating budget process that starts with the approval of a two-year budget — which the council approved last June. Tuesday’s report is the midyear budget report for the second year of that adopted budget — there is also a midterm budget report that gets adopted after the first year.
* The City Council will be set to finalize the completion of the Muirwood Community Park court resurfacing project as part of the council’s consent calendar.
Consent calendar items are items that are routine by nature and are typically approved without discussion.
The project has been in the works since June 9 of last year when the council awarded the construction contract to Mauri Concrete Construction Company, Inc.
Since then, the company has converted two of the four tennis courts into six pickleball courts; resurfaced the basketball and tennis courts; installed new basketball hoop standards; and added new painting and striping to the resurfaced courts.
The city had previously allocated $513,000 to fund the construction, furnishings and other miscellaneous expenses for the project. According to the staff report, the total project expenditures ended up totaling $475,808, leaving a project balance of $37,192.
Staff have recommended that the remaining balance be transferred into the annual playgrounds renovation project funds.
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