San Mateo's wastewater treatment plant faces hurdles

But according to a staff presentation during the City Council meeting Monday, Feb. 5, commodity price hikes, pandemic-induced disruptions and geopolitical concerns are still wreaking havoc on global supply chains.

“The cost and schedule [on the contractors’] end has been impacted, and there have been unprecedented COVID and supply chain impacts that have impacted their delivery of the project,” Deryk Daquigan, acting deputy Public Works director said to the council. “In terms of the cost, there have been equipment and material escalations on their part, and there have been COVID workplace protocols they’ve had to integrate and implement. California laws have changed, and then there has been unplanned labor escalation, which has all increased their costs.” 

The City Council unanimously approved the Public Works Department’s requested increase from the already-appropriated $11 million this fiscal year to about $18 million, a $7 million bump allocated in part to offset labor and material challenges, new regulatory barriers and delivery delays. Daquigan said there are also design changes that have led to a reassessment of the project scope and overall budget.

“Some of the [scope changes] were design gaps that, during the course of design, the designer may have missed,” Daquigan said. “There’s also unknown conditions, such as when we’re constructing a pipeline and there’s subsurface conditions, such as other utilities that we may  not have foreseen … and also increasing the scope to allow for 72 hours of backup temporary generator fuel storage. These are safety measures, as well as operational needs, that improve and provide value to the project.”

Upon completion, the wastewater treatment project is estimated to cost about $570 million, which is partly funded by the city’s sewer rate fees. Last year, the council greenlit an annual 3% fee increase for property owners for five years. Expected completion of the new treatment plant will be in August 2025.