The completion of the San Mateo’s wastewater treatment plant faces another year of cost increases, likely going up by at least $25 million.
Constructing the area’s new treatment plant, located off Detroit Drive and next to Leslie Creek, is part of a larger, 10-year, $1 billion effort to enhance the city’s wastewater collection and treatment services.
“The objectives of this capital improvement project, which is the largest in the history of the city, was to replace the existing liquids treatment process with new facilities,” Deputy Public Works Director Deryk Daquigan said. “It will also increase wet weather management capacity to 78 million gallons per day. Our current one is only 68 MGD.”
Daquigan added that the new facility will treat wastewater for about 150,000 people from several parts of the county, including San Mateo, Foster City, Hillsborough and parts of Belmont.
“It is significant in helping keep our community clean,” he said.
Last year, staff requested an additional $7 million bump allocated in part to offset labor and material challenges, new regulatory barriers and delivery delays. This year, Daquigan said they plan to request about $25 million during the next budget cycle process, with the total wastewater treatment plant upgrade project nearing $600 million.
“There has been a significant amount of changes, and there are still changes we are tracking,” Daquigan said. “We’re estimating that we still need approximetly $19.5 million in construction contingency, which we will be asking for later on this year.”
About $5 million is also needed for soft costs, such as project management and consulting, he said.
The treatment plant is the largest of the capital improvement projects in the Clean Water Program, which also includes improvements to sewers, manholes and pump stations. The program kicked off in 2015 in response to a cease and desist order from the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which stipulated the elimination of “sanitary sewer overflows and unauthorized discharges of untreated or partially treated wastewater to San Francisco Bay,” according to a staff report. The treatment plant project began in 2019 but saw several pandemic-related delays.
Councilmember Danielle Cwirko-Godycki raised odor-related concerns from residents, however, Public Works Director Matt Fabry said the issues likely stem from Seal Point Park instead.
“I think that with the issues that the public is bringing up in the summertime, we’re pretty confident that it’s an issue that we’re dealing with at Seal Point Park with wetland ponds there, so we are in the midst of investigating that trying to figure out what’s going on,” Fabry said.
(650) 344-5200 ext. 102
(650) 344-5200 ext. 102
Daily Journal staff
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