Engineers provide status update on wastewater treatment plant

The city of Graham’s engineering group Freese and Nichols provided a condition assessment of the wastewater treatment plant stating the facility will require a complete rehabilitation or replacement.

The Graham City Council approved a $354,800 agreement with Freese and Nichols in March to update the city’s Wastewater Master Plan and perform preliminary design on proposed renovations at the wastewater treatment plant.

“This professional services agreement is the next step in the development of our design concept for the substantial renovation of the city’s wastewater treatment facility,” City Manager Eric Garretty said in March. “This agreement is designed to produce an update to our Wastewater Master Plan, provide rehabilitation alternatives and provide cost estimates for each alternative.”

Garretty updated the Graham City Council during their meeting Thursday, June 5 regarding the condition assessment of the wastewater treatment plant.

“The condition assessment determined that two-thirds of all infrastructure at the plant is in poor or very poor condition and multiple structures will require complete rehabilitation or replacement,” he said. “...In addition, the entire electrical infrastructure of the plant will likely require full replacement.”

The city manager said a more detailed report of the assessment will be presented at a future city council meeting.

The city’s 2.1 million gallon per day wastewater treatment plant was originally constructed in 1978 and has not had major improvements since 1993. 

The goal of the preliminary design and costs for the improvements is for the city to be able to provide reliable service for the next 15 years.

In January, the city council approved Freese and Nichols to produce a new Wastewater Master Plan and conduct predesign services for a proposed project to rehabilitate the wastewater treatment plant.

“We’re beginning what will probably be a four-year journey, and that is to develop a wastewater plan that will make sure that the needs of the community when it comes to wastewater are met for the next 20 to 30 years,” Garretty said in January. “We’re (also) doing an update to our currently failing infrastructure at the wastewater treatment facility.”

The city set three project objectives that they are looking to achieve if they have the funding, which were presented to the council by the city manager.

“We’re going to update and revise the city’s current wastewater treatment master plan to reflect plan improvements under the rehabilitation project at a minimum, rehabilitate the entire plant, construct new infrastructure for plant resilience and create storage capacity for reuse water,” Garretty said in January.

The city manager said in March that the engineers could come back with a probable cost estimate that is outside the scope of what the city can afford, but they will not know until this process is completed.

“This is going to have a pretty hefty price tag on it. I’m thinking maybe $15 million-plus,” Garretty said in March. “We at least want to keep open the possibility of being able to apply for grant monies.”