There are seven projects total, including a $2.3 million upgrade to the waste water facility's de-watering system, which McLellan said would reduce solid waste volume by 25 percent. The existing belt filter presses were first installed in 1983 and parts are no longer readily available. McLellan said every time a part breaks down, which has become more often, the city has to special order the piece, which can take months to get.
"We recently had one bearing burn out and the special order cost us $8,000," said McLellan. "Clearly we need to do something. It's just not the technology anymore. We did some pilot testing on a new belt filter press that has one moving part and will reduce volume by 25 percent. We were going to propose it in next year's budget and pay for it out of our operating budget, but if we roll it into the loan, that money will no longer be locked up."
Age is a factor in the remaining projects, as well. Other facility improvements include $1.9 million in upgrades to the waste water facility's oxidation ditches and covers, which were also built 33 years ago. A 1984 force main that crosses the Perico Island causeway also needs replacement for a cost of $1.2 million. McLellan said it's about a mile of plastic graded line that has experienced multiple failures. The most recent was in December.
"We were lucky that it didn't release into the environment," said McLellan. "It failed when a grader ran over the area of the pipe and it couldn't take the load. A replacement with a new pipe will eliminate any future concerns of any environmental discharges."
The overall project also calls for the replacement of two lift stations, one at Blake Medical Center and the second at Manatee Memorial Hospital. McLellan said the lift station at Blake was built in the 1970s and access to the electronics controlling the pump were placed within the hospital, making it difficult to reach. The Manatee Memorial lift station was built in the 1950s and requires a complete replacement. McLellan said all of these items are beyond the expected life span.
Ward 3 Councilman Patrick Roff said now was the time to act while the interest rate on the Florida Department of Environmental Protection's revolving fund loan is 0.82 percent.
"It's a great idea to take care of these long-range plans when interest rates are phenomenally low," said Roff. "For the citizens' education, we have two funding sources. We have property tax and the enterprise fund out of the general fund, which includes user fees. The payments on this loan will come out of that and won't impact property taxes."
McLellan said the last time the city did a waste water facility plan was in 2005, which included facility and reclaimed water use expansion.
"In 2005, we were on the cusp of a huge amount of growth that predicted 80,000 people within 10 years," he said. "Obviously the economy failed and as a result, waste water expansion wasn't needed. Since then, we have laid out a number of improvements in our capital improvement plan and these are a priority."
©2016 The Bradenton Herald (Bradenton, Fla.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
