The Kenai City Council adopted a resolution that would authorize an agreement for Professional Engineering Services as a term agreement to provide construction documents for the Waste Water Treatment Plant Digestor Blower Replacement Project. This resolution awards professional services work for replacements of the Waste Water Treatment Plant Digestor Blowers and appurtenances identified under the term agreement. HDL Engineering was the firm provided with a notice of award in May 2020 to provide for these services.
Director of Public Works, Scott Curtin, tells the City Council:
“So as you recall, we are working the capital improvement plan. we had our previous project several years ago where we replaced three aeration basin blowers. That project was tremendously successful and it has saved a ton of money on utility costs. These other two blowers are the largest consumer of electricity at the plant. The existing units are 40 years old. We have two of them in our backup redundant units are, and have been, failing for years. We’ve been able to keep them running only on, honestly, the abilities of our staff including representatives from the shop coordinating with our operators to keep the equipment up and running. They are well beyond their useful life. This’ll be a huge project for the department getting these done.”
The Public Works Department seeks to complete the design this summer/fall season with the goal of having a shovel ready project. Grant applications have been completed for this project with a Congressionally Directed Spending request form being submitted through Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s Office. The total grant request will be $3,650,000 with $2,900,000 being requested as the Federal Share, with the already appropriated $750,000 covering the city’s share.
Curtin says that replacing the equipment with newer technology will reduce operational costs, safeguard the treatment process, and allows the city’s ability to maintain permitting requirements into the future. He adds that completion of the work now properly positions the department for competing for these grant opportunities.