The Fernley City Council approved a $25,000 contract at its Jan. 7 meeting with Taney Engineering to prepare a comprehensive Request for Proposals (RFP) for improvements to the city’s water treatment facility to enable it to treat surface water from the Truckee Canal.
Last August, the council was told by CDM Smith, a consultant firm examining the city’s current water treatment methods, that several improvements and upgrades to the plant would be needed to add surface water treatment to the facility, which the city plans to do in the future.
Among the improvements CDM recommended was the addition of three drying beds, since surface water tends to add solids as a waste product of treatment.
CDM also recommended SCADA upgrades to the water treatment plant. SCADA stands for Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition, whereby all the plant’s analyzers go through a central control system to help operators make adjustments to the treatment process.
Treatment of PFAS, or long-lasting chemicals that break down slowly over time, was also recommended to be looked at by CDM, since the Environmental Protection Agency will impose a deadline for the treatment of PFAS in 2031.
The RFP from Taney Engineering will be based on the recommendations of the final Preliminary Engineering Report prepared by CDM, including treatment and distribution needs, PFAS-related improvements, SCADA enhancements, drying bed improvements and long-term capital improvement requirements, according to a staff report on the item.
In August, the City Council unanimously approved moving forward with the improvements recommended by CDM, at an anticipated cost of $40 million, and approved the use of $4 million to design the recommended improvements.
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