Consider Next Steps for Implementation of Centralized Water Treatment Plant

The purpose of this case is to receive consensus direction from the City Council on how staff should proceed to implement the Centralized Water Treatment Plant project.
 
Attached is a copy of the latest draft Feasibility Study dated February 3, 2021 for the proposed centralized water treatment plant as prepared by SEH, Inc. The study is filled with information on the City’s water supply source, water quality and quantity, water supply system infrastructure, water treatment process options and recommendations, water treatment plant site evaluations, estimated costs, funding sources, effect on water rates, and project schedule. Staff’s intent is not to duplicate the information from the Feasibility Study within this case. Instead, only information that Council members may find most helpful in understanding the need for the centralized water treatment plant project is presented below.
 
The City of Ramsey utilizes groundwater from the Tunnel City-Wonewoc (TCW) aquifer, formerly known as the Franconia-Ironton-Galesville (FIG) aquifer, as its exclusive source of drinking water. A total of eight municipal water supply wells exist, with seven being available to supply water to the City’s municipal water users. Water test results from the municipal wells show that concentrations of manganese range from 0.02 mg/L to 0.37 mg/L. The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) recently established Health Based Values (HBV) for manganese of 0.100 mg/L for bottle-fed infants, and 0.300 mg/L for everyone else. Four of Ramsey’s eight water supply wells exceed the MDH HBV for manganese.
 
In 2019, MDH recommended that the City develop short and long term plans to reduce manganese concentrations in our water supply system. In April of 2019, the City began supplying water to municipal water users using only the three wells with the lowest manganese concentrations to make sure manganese concentrations throughout the water supply system would not exceed the MDH Health Based Value (HBV) for manganese of 0.100 mg/L. The long term solution requires construction of a water treatment plant to remove manganese from the municipal water supply system.
 
To properly plan for long-term solutions to reduce manganese and iron concentrations in the municipal water supply system, to properly treat any other emerging contaminants, and to ensure the existing aquifer used as the City’s sole groundwater source has adequate capacity to meet the future needs of the City, Staff solicited proposals from qualified consultants to provide professional engineering services under the following three general areas.
 

1. Analyze Source Water. Analyze and report on the overall accessibility, capacity, chemistry and limitations of the Tunnel City/Wonewoc (TCW) aquifer, the existing source water for the City of Ramsey’s municipal groundwater supply system, and on the long-term viability of continuing to use the TCW aquifer as the sole source of water for the municipal water supply system. This will allow the selected consultant to adequately prepare a preliminary design report by understanding the chemistry of the municipal groundwater supply system and therefore which primary, secondary and/or emerging contaminants will need to be treated over the anticipated life of the facility. This work will also allow the selected consultant to provide recommendations on the need for and use of alternative sources of water.

 

2. Develop Water Model. Develop a model of the City of Ramsey’s municipal water supply system using an industry standard software program. This model will allow the selected consultant to adequately prepare a preliminary design report, and will allow the City to evaluate future operations throughout the system by considering variable flow regimes when water is drawn from different wells and storage tanks at different times, variable water usage patterns by municipal water consumers, and proposed system expansions.

 

3. Prepare Preliminary Design Report. Prepare a preliminary design report exploring available options and recommending preferred processes for treating known and emerging contaminants that will potentially need to be treated over the anticipated life of a centralized water treatment facility in the City of Ramsey. The report must examine available treatment process options for identified contaminants potentially needing treatment, recommend a preferred treatment process for each identified contaminant, identify required space needs for preferred treatment processes, identify anticipated expansion needs, provide a recommendation as to the required size and preferred location for the facility, and provide cost estimates for constructing and operating the facility over its anticipated life.

 
On October 8, 2019, the Ramsey City Council adopted Resolution #19-248 awarding a contract to SEH Inc. for Improvement Project #19-12. SEH, Inc. has since completed a draft Feasibility Study addressing the three general areas outlined above, and their findings are generally as follows.

• The TCW aquifer will be able to continue to produce potable water to meet present and foreseeable future demands.
• The most cost-effective method for removing manganese and iron from the City’s drinking water is chemical oxidation followed by sand filtration. These processes require construction of a water treatment plant.
• Based upon an analysis of Ramsey’s 2040 water demand, the initial capacity of the water treatment plant should be 10 million gallons per day (MGD), with the ability to expand to 20 MGD.
• Four water treatment plant sites were evaluated including the Fire Station site, Public Works site, Water Shop site, and Vacant City property site. The Public Works site is recommended since it requires the least overall construction costs and offers the greatest operational efficiencies. In addition, in January of 2020 the City of Ramsey’s Planning Commission, Economic Development Authority, and Public Works Committee all voted unanimously to recommend City Council approval to construct the water treatment plant on the Public Works site.
• Two treatment process alternatives were evaluated including gravity filtration and pressure filtration. Gravity filtration is recommended.

 
It should be noted that Chris Larson, the former project manager with SEH, Inc. who developed the draft Feasibility Study and previously met with the City Council to discuss this project, left SEH in late December. The new project manager from SEH is Mr. Miles Jensen, who had worked closely with Chris to preform QA/QC reviews on the draft Feasibility Study. Mr. Jensen is therefore very familiar with this project, and will now be responsible for completing the project for SEH.
 
Next Steps
The City has been able to continue to supply its municipal water users with safe potable water without interruption by running the three municipal wells with the lowest manganese concentrations continually for almost 2 years now, which has and will continue to cause the existing water supply system infrastructure to wear out faster than normal.
 
The City has been utilizing Wells #5, #6 and #7 since April of 2019. Since such time, we have been running these three wells almost non-stop, which is very hard on moving parts such as meters, motors and pumps. Last fall the City had to repair Well #7, during which time it was out of service.  Then early this winter the same repairs were needed to Well #6, requiring this well to be shut down for a month while it was repaired. Luckily, these repairs were not needed during our peak water use time during the summer months when people area watering lawns, filling swimming pools, washing their cars, etc.
 
The City also recently had to replace the water meter at Well #6, and have had ongoing issues with Well #7’s water meter. A cooling unit also failed recently in the service cabinet for Well #6, which can cause the well to overheat and shut down. Staff believes the constant use of these wells contributed in large part to the required repairs. We have been lucky so far that the repairs were not needed during the summer during peak water use. If one of the wells would need to be repaired during the summer we would need to rely on another well with higher manganese concentrations, which would increase manganese concentrations throughout the system. Staff therefore recommends moving forward with implementation of the water treatment plant project as soon as possible.
 
In addition, Anoka County recently informed the City they are developing plans to make improvements to Bunker Lake Boulevard between Armstrong Boulevard and Sunfish Lake Boulevard in 2021. This corridor of Bunker Lake Boulevard is proposed to receive the trunk watermain improvements required to serve the proposed water treatment plant with raw water from the six municipal water wells in The COR, and to deliver treated water to the distribution system. To allow these watermain improvements to be constructed in conjunction with Anoka County’s interim Bunker Lake Boulevard improvements this summer, which will save significant project costs, the City must prepare watermain improvement plans as soon as possible so the project can be bid this spring. In order to meet these timelines, Staff recommends direct selecting SEH Inc. to prepare final plans and specifications for the required trunk watermain improvements, and to provide project bidding services.  In addition,  staff recommends conducting a request for proposals(RFP) for moving forward with the design of a centralized water treatment facility as recommended in the study.
 
If Council supports Staff’s recommendations by consensus, Staff will submit a case on consent agenda for the February 23rd regular City Council meeting.  

Approximately 60 minutes has been reserved for this case. Approximately 30 minutes is planned for presenting information, with another 30 minutes reserved for questions and answers after Staff’s presentation.  

Funding is not required for this case. Project funding is addressed in detail within the Feasibility Study, and funding will be discussed with Council in detail at the appropriate times during the implementation of the project.  

The City Engineer will present the case and will field questions during and after the presentation. Mr. Miles Jensen with SEH, Inc. will also be in attendance to respond to questions, if needed.  

Staff recommends direct selecting SEH Inc. to prepare final plans and specifications for the required trunk watermain improvements, and to provide project bidding services.  In addition,  staff recommends conducting a request for proposals(RFP) for moving forward with the design of a centralized water treatment facility as recommended in the study.
 
If Council supports Staff’s recommendations by consensus, Staff will submit a case on consent agenda for the February 23rd regular City Council meeting. 

Staff is seeking consensus direction from the City Council on next steps for moving the project forward, or for providing additional information as needed to assist the City Council in forming future direction to Staff on how to move the project forward.