PARADISE — A sewer pipe to Chico as part of a Paradise sewer project is back on the front burner, just 17 months after it voted to look to secure funding for preliminary engineering work (environmental review, project design, and right of way) on a local treatment plant.
The town heard a report from HDR Engineering on Tuesday night that recommends the Town Council walk away from its May 2019 decision, which reversed a 2017 vote that had asked for feasibility studies on both the Chico option and local treatment plant.
Now the Chico option is back as a lone recommendation.
The council didn’t make a decision on the sewer Tuesday night and, as usual, Mayor Greg Bolin and Councilor Michael Zuccolillo had to excuse themselves from the sewer discussion as the Fair Political Practices Committee has advised the town that there is a conflict of interest for them. Both men own business properties in the areas where the sewer is likely to be installed if that occurs.
But a decision is expected next month when a new council is seated, which at this point, looks to include Steve “Woody” Culleton and Rose Tryon.
In 2019, the council was given five options to decide from, but on Tuesday the council was given three options. Along with the pipe to Chico, the other treatment plan options HDR that presented were a plant along Clark Road or along Neal Road.
Both Neal Road and Clark Road options called the potential storing water on the valley floor near state Route 99. HDR said Paradise would need about 409 acres of land — on low yield grazing land.
The study by HDR also calls for the potential of a wastewater treatment plant at the Kunkel Reservoir that includes the use of the Miocene Canal. However, that option is highly expensive.
To choose the recommended path HDR scored the three options in five categories of which the Chico option had the highest score of 748 with the local land application process (a local plant) scored 514. The Miocene Canal option finished third with a score of 381.
Much like in 2019, town engineer Marc Mattox supported the regional solution to Chico. And much like then, Chico’s political culture was a concern Tuesday night. However, Mattox told the council it has to put politics aside to make the best choice for Paradise.
But as Jody Jones said in 2017, in a perfect world Chico would be the better deal, but the plan still had its problems.
“The political realities in Chico, I believe,” Jones, who was mayor at the time, said then, “would significantly delay our project.”
Despite news that Chico’s City Council will be significantly different in December, Jones still voiced concerns that Chico would be cooperating with them.
She wanted to know what kind of indications of co-operation with Chico could be secured before Paradise moved ahead with an environmental impact report on the Chico pipe. Mattox noted that staff in Chico have been largely co-operative with Paradise.
However, Jones made a point that co-operative staff isn’t the issue, and instead focused on the council relationship.
“How can we get some indication of the willingness of the council, not just staff?” she said. “But that the council in Chico will work with us before we take a vote saying ‘This is where we are going.’”
Mattox said staff will work on that before December. HDR are also recommended to the town that they use a gravity system because it eliminates septic tanks.
HDR also pointed out that back in 2017 the town estimated it would cost $182 million to build a sewer system and pipeline to Chico. It now says the cost of the project will double.
The company also estimates that construction costs from 2017 to the present has grown by 23% — and also expects that contingency costs will grow by 22%. Estimated contingency costs are the unexpected cost of construction. In 2017 those costs were estimated to be 20% of the project’s overall cost. HDR wants to increase that estimate to 40%, saying that’s because if unknown costs are more than the town anticipates they won’t be able to come back for more funding later to cover it.
HDR expects that implementation costs have gone up by 37% since 2017 and now they are assuming a 9% increase in costs to connect to Chico. That number is based on the assumption that Chico will increase its connection fee costs.
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November 13, 2020 at 07:01PM
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Sewer line to Chico back in front of town council - Chico Enterprise-Record
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