Galt Drops Pipeline Proposal: The City Plans to Upgrade Its Wastewater Treatment Plant and Still Use Laguna Creek.
By Sandy Louey, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
May 21–The city of Galt is working on plans to upgrade its inadequate wastewater treatment plant, but it won’t be done by building a pipeline to the Sacramento River.
Early this week, the Galt City Council dropped the pipeline proposal, narrowing the improvement options to just two.
The upgrade of the treatment plant is required because the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board has imposed tougher water-quality standards. The city plans to complete the upgrades by 2010, unless a deadline extension is granted, said John Griffin, associate civil engineer for Galt.
“We’re showing them progress,” he told the council at its Tuesday meeting. “We’re serious about improvements and doing it on time.”
The plant upgrade would be paid for with sewer rate increases for current residents.
Griffin said the improvements are required regardless of whether Galt annexes land. If annexation occurs, the city also would need to expand the plant.
The plant, north of Twin Cities Road and east of Highway 99, is designed to handle 3 million gallons of effluent a day. The effluent is clean enough to irrigate crops eaten by cattle.
In the winter, Galt pumps effluent directly into Laguna Creek. In the summer, the treated wastewater is used to irrigate land.
The eliminated pipeline alternative, known as Option C, called for building a 12-mile pipeline along Twin Cities Road to the Sacramento River. The effluent would be discharged year-round at the current treatment levels.
Griffin said the recommendation to drop the pipeline proposal came after a meeting with water board officials in April indicated that the treatment levels likely would have to be increased for Galt to discharge into the Sacramento River.
As a result, the costs associated with Option C would have jumped to $71 million, an increase of $8 million from an earlier estimate. It would be the most costly of the three options for the upgrade and for later expansion, he said.
Now, two options remain.
Under Option A, the city would increase treatment levels slightly and continue the seasonal discharge into Laguna Creek.
Under Option B, the plant would increase treatment levels dramatically and move to year-round discharge into Laguna Creek.
Option A is estimated to cost $48 million, while Option B would cost $49 million.
“We don’t lose any ground by looking at both simultaneously,” Galt Public Works Director Gregg L. Halladay told the council.
At the meeting, the council also gave the Public Works Department the approval to spend $750,000 on four projects required for both remaining options.
Of the total, $590,000 will be used for four studies, while $160,000 will be spent on laboratory analysis of samples, pilot testing of equipment and chemicals, among other things.
A water quality study will help decide which option Galt should pursue — a recommendation that Griffin hopes to present to the council by the end of 2007.
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Sacramento Bee, Calif.
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