Some of the proposed improvements that resulted in lower cost estimates were the ability to improve the hydraulics at the Lessalt treatment plant and obtain funding support to remove nitrates, along with enhanced treatment at San Justo Reservoir.
The cost estimate to implement the remaining portions of the Hollister Urban Area Master Plan - a long-term blueprint to improve water quality that calls for such projects as a new Sunnyslope wastewater treatment plant - has fallen by $17 million, according to the Oct. 21 status report.
A change of strategy lowered the future capital cost estimates from $96.2 million to $79.2 million, a 17.6 percent reduction. The main goal of the plan is phased demineralization of urban wells by 2015.
A large part of the reduction is attributed to the adoption of a new phased groundwater demineralization strategy. That new approach is based on the district's estimates of slower growth demand, reduced initial expenses, the lower costs for membranes used in the treatment process and additional opportunities for outside funding.
Conditions supporting this strategy include the drought, additional capacity calculated for the Hollister water conduit, relatively good quality of the recycled water, lower demand and economic conditions.
Local officials, however, were cautious about the new cost estimates.
"Many of these conditions are dynamic," warned Harry Bloom, project manager at the San Benito County Water District. "We have to be careful - these factors could change and raise the estimates in the future."
City Manager Clint Quilter stressed that the city would be carefully monitoring the regional solution to ensure that the costs are equitably distributed among the various users.
The total original estimate for the wide-ranging projects, including wastewater treatment, was almost $400 million. Hollister's wastewater treatment plant, meanwhile, recently was completed at a cost of approximately $105 million.
Sunnyslope County Water District recently received a letter of support from both the city council and county supervisors in their request to obtain an extension of the deadline for Ridgemark to meet the waste discharge requirements.
"This is in best interests of the city because it will allow all the parties to align the schedules to the master plan," Quilter told the council at Monday's meeting.
The 2009 budget for the planning phases was $416,000 with $242,000 - 58 percent - expended through September. The 2010 budget is under development.
Some of the proposed improvements that resulted in lower cost estimates were the ability to improve the hydraulics at the Lessalt treatment plant and obtain funding support to remove nitrates, along with enhanced treatment at San Justo Reservoir.
A major capital investment would be a second surface-water treatment plant similar in size to the current Lessalt plat, the development of an adequate supplemental water supply and modeling the distribution system to determine the best location for proper distribution of the treated water.
Marty Richman Got a question or a comment? Send us an email.
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