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The Zone 7 board is set to consider moving forward with new ozonation projects and approving water rates for calendar year 2018 during its public meeting Wednesday night.
The Del Valle Water Treatment Plant (DVWTP) ozonation project — initiated to enhance water quality and treat cyanotoxins at Del Valle — would include the construction of new facilities like an ozone generation building, contactor structure, new chemical facilities and storage, a new utility water pump station and some new impervious area.
The proposed project, though, has raised some backlash from community members, who feel that it is unnecessary and expensive, and will result in increased water bills for Zone 7.
According to a memo by Tami Church, assistant water resources planner, the DVWTP ozonation project has been included in Zone 7’s capital improvement program for several years. In 2008 and 2009, Water Quality and Treatment Solution (WQTS) started evaluating the use of ozone as a disinfectant and as a way to improve the water quality at the Del Valle and Patterson Pass water treatment plants.
In 2015, after cyanotoxins were discovered at Lake Del Valle, WQTS completed another study on the best treatment for cyanotoxins and found that ozone use was the best manner available.
“At the DWTP, Zone 7 is proposing to construct new facilities and modify existing facilities entirely within the existing fenced site to incorporate ozonation technology (Project),” said Church. “The project will improve the plant’s ability to handle raw water quality variations, resulting in a safer, more reliable, and higher quality water.”
The Zone 7 board awarded a contract to CDM Smith to design the DVWTP ozone system, pending CEQA compliance. A draft initial study and mitigated negative declaration (IS/MND) was prepared, with mitigation measures identified in arenas found to have significant impact: air quality, biology, cultural resources, geology/soils, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology/water quality and tribal cultural resources.
The board received no comment letters during a 30-day public review period, and so the final IS/MND remained unchanged and is posted online. Staff recommends that the board adopt the IS/MND, after the public hearing Wednesday night.
“Adopting the document at this time will be advantageous in securing loans for the project,” Church said.
According to the 2017 AMP Update, construction of the DVWTP ozonation project is expected to come out to $36 million, with an additional $13 million allocated for an ozonation project at the Patterson Pass plant.
Specific funding mechanisms are still up in the air, though the board is considering either pay-as-you-go financing or debt-financing for the ozone projects. The update states that 100% of funding for the Del Valle project will come from Fund 120 — Improvement, Renewal & Replacement.
The Pleasanton Weekly has received emails frome nine residents — also sent to the Zone 7 board — opposing the project from Zone 7 customers, taxpayers and members of the group Citizens for Sensible Water Rates.
Many of the messages started out by stating, “Zone 7 is building an unnecessary, expensive Ozone plant to treat an intermittent, controllable, taste and odor issue,” and then going on to detail why the plant is unnecessary and why cyanotoxins are not a problem within the Zone 7 jurisdiction.
In other business, the board will also consider approving water rates, for both treated and untreated water, at Wednesday night’s meeting.
In October 2015, the board approved a three-year rate schedule with a temporary drought surcharge, to compensate for the lower water usage in light of mandatory state conservation measures. The surcharge — initially intended for 2016 but extended through December 2017 — was for $0.57 per 100 cubic feet (CCF).
Staff recommends that the board halt the temporary drought surcharge, and that no changes should be made to the previously adopted 2018 treated water rate of $2.04 per CCF and fixed charge of $15.8 million.
In Pleasanton specifically, the annual fixed charge for 2018 is for $4.7 million. Those costs will be passed through to Pleasanton ratepayers — just as they will for the other Zone 7 customers, including the city of Livermore, Cal Water Livermore and the Dublin San Ramon Service District (DSRSD).
The proposed rate for untreated water is $129 per acre-foot (AF), an increase from the current rate of $113 per AF.
The pass-through costs for residents and businesses served by Zone 7 retailers is not immediately known.
During a closed-session meeting an hour and a half before the open meeting, the board will confer with legal counsel regarding the retirement of Jill Duerig, who has served as the general manager of Zone 7 for over a decade.
The open-session meeting is scheduled to begin at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Zone 7 Administration Building, 100 North Canyons Pkwy., Livermore.
Zone 7 never did any real outreach to the residents to get feedback in the “30 day comments period”. Did they send an email to all the people on their mailing list saying that they would like to build a $55M plant with $5M annual operating cost? Nope.
Did they put flyers in all our bills saying this? Nope.
This is the zone 7 staff and board of directors building a bigger castle to have a bigger $. Plain and simple.
Their use of the ozone plant is well beyond the need.
There are much cheaper alternatives if smell and odor is the issue.
Come out tonight 7 pm at the zone 7 meeting if you care about your water bill going up substantially!
Ozonization is the state of the art method for water treatment, and I for one am extremely happy to see it coming to Pleasanton. I don’t want to wonder about odd smells or tastes, even a couple times a year. I drink a lot of water and as a former environmental chemist there are lots of things I don’t want in my water – cyanotoxins being one of them. I sympathize with people who don’t like high utility bills, I agree, but having a quality infrastructure for one of our most valuable resources is worth something. We are very lucky to be in a place that can deliver this to us. Way to go, Zone 7!
What’s the problem we are trying to solve?