20-Year Wastewater Facility Plan Public Hearing TONIGHT

The Department of Public Works along with their consultant Strand and Associates has completed the final draft of the Wastewater Treatment Plant's 20-year facilities plan, according to an e-mail from the city.

The public hearing will be held at 6:30 p.m. TONIGHT during the Board of Public Works meeting at City Hall.

 The plan may be viewed at:

• City Hall Clerks Office; 201 Delafield St.
• City Hall Annex - 130 Delafield St.
• Waukesha Public Library; 321 Wisconsin Ave.
  
• Online

Director of Public Works Fred Abadi explained in a recent interview that the wastewater treatment facility needs infrastructure updates to address aging facilities. The plan also includes the possibility of changing regulations.

“New regulations by the DNR or EPA would require you to change processes to treat the water,” Abadi said.

As for the aging facilities, the longer the city waits to upgrade the infrastructure, the more it will cost in energy. Parts of the system are rusted and no longer efficient, Abadi said.

“Compare it with new furnaces to old furnaces,” Abadi said. “They are more energy efficient. … The old components are more costly to operate and they require more manpower to run it. The same goes for the buildings. The roof gets old, you need to replace it.”

Because the plan is a 20-year plan, some of the projects are in the plan as a “placeholder,” Abadi said. The items don’t yet need to be implemented but are part of the plan.

However, Abadi estimated in a recent interview that about $36 million worth of projects will need to be completed in the next three years.  Abadi said the city could receive a low-interest loan from the state.

Abadi estimated that there could be a 5 percent to 8 percent rate increase to pay back the loan.

“The debt service to pay back that loan would be paid over 20 years,” Abadi said. “We would be charging that to the rates.”