City Council approves additional Wastewater Treatment Plant expense

Tuesday's Green River City Council meeting saw a second change order for the Wastewater Treatment Plant Replacement Facility, this time for a redundant screen.

Initially two screens were included in the facility building plans, however, one was removed from the primary bid in a cost-cutting attempt. Public Works Director Mark Westenskow said that it has become clear that an added screen could be installed while construction is currently underway at a reduced cost versus installing the screen later with potential problems in doing so. Westenskow also noted that installing the screen now will reduce potential system delays and will help the system as a whole become more accessible for maintenance.

The change order increases the contract amount by $328,278, bringing the construction total to $51.6 million. Council Member Jessica Maser had some concerns about added costs to the project, questioning what the potential impact would be if a second screen wasn't added. Westenskow reiterated that it was not only his belief but also the Department of Environmental Quality's belief that not installing the second screen now would potentially cause a disruption in the system by having to manually adjust equipment to ensure proper redundancy.

Council Member Ron Williams also had concerns about the possibility that adding the additional screen would cause the timeframe for completing the facility to increase significantly. He cited the fact that ordering specific components had already taken up to six months. Westenskow said that ordering and installing the screen would not cause significant disruption or too much added construction time. However, there is some urgency to making sure the screen is ordered promptly to stay on track for completion as close as possible to the intended date.

The Department of Environmental Quality recommended that the change order be made. Mayor Pete Rust expressed his confidence in DEQ's recommendations, believing that they should be followed to avoid future problems.

The motion passed four to two with Maser and Williams being the dissenting votes.