City may consider new technology for wastewater plant

BARSTOW — The City Council will hear a presentation July 5 from a new firm competing to earn the city’s multi-million dollar wastewater facility upgrade and may consider canceling its existing contract and forgoing nearly $1 million already spent.

Despite that potential loss, MicroMedia Filtration, Inc. claims the city could save money by using their company rather than HDR Consulting, Inc., the current contractor. However, the young company’s lack of a track record with the proposed new technology, which the firm claims uses a simpler process, could be an obstacle.

“I will consider anything that best fits our community that reduces costs and saves the people money,” said Mayor Lawrence Dale. “What I’m looking for is a full-blown, all-encompassing presentation from MicroMedia to make a good decision.” He said he has not yet decided to motion to cancel the existing contract — although he attempted to make such a motion at a recent council meeting — but seeks new information from MicroMedia.

“We offer a simpler process and could save the city $900,000 to $1 million a year and $5 to $10 million up front,” said MicroMedia CEO Sam Luxenburg. The company’s design uses less electricity and fewer workers and would incinerate the sewage sludge produced instead of having to pay to dispose of it, he said.

Not everyone is happy about the possible contractor change due to the time and money already spent.

“Assuming that the council would terminate the HDR contract, I believe that would be a foolish decision,” said council member Joe Gomez. He said that the contract would not automatically be awarded to MicroMedia and that another bidding process would have to take place.

The city is already under contract with engineering firm HDR Consulting and has spent “well over $1 million dollars” on design and engineering costs, which could not be recouped if the contract is canceled, according to an e-mail from City Manager Hector Rodriguez.

Gomez has said he is skeptical of MicroMedia’s relatively new process and short history. The company is four years old and only has one wastewater-treatment facility operating in Gold’s village, a small community in Northern California, Luxenburg said. The company is pursuing a contract with Adelanto, he said.

HDR’s plant designs use a water-filtering technique called membrane filtration, essentially a fine screen, to clean pollutants from wastewater. HDR lists more than 40 successfully implemented facilities on its Web site, and Luxenburg himself said HDR’s technology is well-established, though expensive.

MicroMedia’s technology uses a sand-filtering system with a coagulant that bonds to waste particles. This design would result in quicker construction, lower operational costs once the facility is online and an overall cheaper contract price of $15 million, Luxenburg said. HDR projected the entire upgrade to cost $21 million, according to Rodriguez.