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Apr 22, 2024

Jamestown committee to decide approach on lime press replacement project

JAMESTOWN — The city of Jamestown's water plant could be facing a more expensive project due to the potential of it being the state's first project under the requirements of the Build America, Buy

JAMESTOWN — The city of Jamestown's water plant could be facing a more expensive project due to the potential of it being the state's first project under the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act.

The Jamestown City Council will need to decide if the lime filter press replacement project should fall under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, bond it directly to the market for funding, or have the project fall under the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and package it with a future reuse and recycle project.

The Jamestown Public Works Committee in a 4-0 vote on Thursday, Aug. 24, moved the discussion to its next meeting in September on how to approach the project after the committee learned it might be subject to being the state’s first project under the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act. Councilman David Schloegel was not present at the meeting.

Darrell Hournbuckle, senior project engineer with Interstate Engineering, said the North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality notified him that the lime press replacement project would be the state’s first project under the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act.

The Build America, Buy America Act focuses on maximizing the federal government’s use of services, goods, products and materials produced and offered in the U.S., according to the website of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Development. The Build America, Buy America Act requires that all iron, steel, manufactured products and construction materials used in federally funded projects for infrastructure be produced in the U.S.

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The estimated cost of the lime press replacement project is $1.6 million. Hournbuckle said the project cost will increase 15% to 25% if it is deemed part of a Build America, Buy America project.

Two almost 30-year-old filter presses used in the water-softening treatment process experienced major breakdowns last summer. The filter presses remove water from the lime sludge used to soften the drinking water.

The city of Jamestown uses well water, which is relatively hard and needs to be softened. The lime — the main treatment component to soften the water — is added as a softening agent and helps pull the iron and manganese from the water to lower the calcium and total hardness of the water.

During the water-softening treatment process, the water treatment plant ends up with a lot of lime sludge that gets sent to the lime press room to be removed. The press filters extract the water from the sludge itself and leave the particulate behind.

Hournbuckle said there are two State Revolving Fund programs — one for drinking water and another for clean water. He wrote in a memo to the city of Jamestown that the Department of Environmental Quality indicated that the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program does not require the project to fall under the requirements of the Build America, Buy America Act but it will need to be packaged with a reuse and recycle project at the water treatment plant to be eligible for the program.

The city’s plan was for the lime press replacement project to fall under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Program.

The two State Revolving Fund programs are low-interest loan programs that assist communities with a wide range of water quality infrastructure projects, according to the Department of Environmental Quality’s website.

The city of Jamestown’s reuse and recycle project — which is projected to happen a few years down the road — is to reuse and recycle the backwash and lime sludge water that the city currently sends to the wastewater system. The estimated cost of the project is $1.2 million.

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According to the memo written by Hournbuckle, the impacts of the city’s reuse and recycle project include eliminating discharge to the wastewater lift station which will allow for more users on the existing sanitary sewer system, reducing water from the well field, no longer needing the ponds south of the water treatment plant, using less chemicals for the water treatment process, moving staff hours to more beneficial use and avoidance cost of $500,000 for new dredge.

Hournbuckle said it will cost an additional $300,000 to continue the lime press replacement project under the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund Program. The total payment including principal and interest would then be $2.3 million.

If the project is bonded at 5% for 20 years, the cost of the project would be $1.6 million but it would cost almost another $1 million in principal and interest, he said.

If the lime press replacement project falls under the Clean Water State Revolving Fund Program and is packaged with a reuse and recycling project, it would cost about $3.4 million which includes about $600,000 alone in principal and interest.

Hournbuckle wrote in a memo that combining the projects would save over $110,000 over 20 years.

Mayor Dwaine Heinrich said it would be nice to do the lime press replacement and reuse and recycling projects at the same time but the City Council will need to know the final financial impact of each option.

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