PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County has received three bids for the design and membrane reactor equipment to support the construction of a multimillion-dollar Port Hadlock wastewater treatment facility to serve the Tri-Area’s commercial core.
Joel Peterson, county associate planner and lead for the wastewater facility project, said the bids will be evaluated during the next two weeks and a firm will be recommended to the three county commissioners, who will award a contract.
Bids were received from Aqua Aerobics Systems Inc. of Loves Park, Ill., at $1.6 million; GE Water & Process Technologies of Canada at $1.52 million; and Enviroquip Inc. of Austin, Texas, at $1.09 million.
Peterson said the contract would be awarded to the “lowest available and responsive bidder.”
The county’s contracted engineering firm for the project, Tetra Tech of Pasadena, Calif., will assist Peterson and the county Department of Community Development staff in the bid evaluation process.
After the design is complete, another notice will be sent out to proceed with building the treatment plant.
If all goes like clockwork, Peterson said, construction — starting with pump stations and lines in the Tri-Area’s commercial core, including Rhody Drive — will begin next year, and expansion of the treatment facility in modules would be possible after 2014.
The county has until 2024 to complete work on the system, which the state Department of Ecology estimates will cost about $27.3 million.
The county retains the right to terminate the project at any time.
The project “has economic impact, including jobs and affordable housing” in Port Hadlock and surrounding Chimacum and Irondale, Peterson said when the call for bids went out.
Shovel ready
County Commissioner David Sullivan, D-Cape George, said the project was in line to be “shovel ready” for federal economic stimulus dollars from the Obama Administration.
Jefferson County late last year received state Department of Ecology approval for its Port Hadlock/Irondale General Sewer and Wastewater Facility Plan and Environmental Report, which helps the county secure low-interest loans and other funding to build the system.
Ecology also has made a preliminary determination that the sewage collection and treatment system construction project is 100 percent eligible for a State Water Pollution Control Revolving Fund loan.
County officials said such water could be used to recharge fish-bearing Chimacum Creek at low-flow periods of the year.
The second phase of the 20-year project would run north to Chimacum Creek and Irondale.
In response to the 1990 Growth Management Act, Jefferson County has pursued an urban growth area designation in the Irondale/Port Hadlock area since the GMA went into effect.
A sewer system is part of the requirement for establishing an urban growth area.
A map of the sewerage urban growth area can be seen at www.porthadlocksewer.org.
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Port Townsend-Jefferson County Editor Jeff Chew can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at jeff.chew@peninsuladailynews.com.
