Chuck Gillette indicated that Bowen Collins did a feasibility analysis on wastewater treatment. The City is looking at this because the City is planning on building an irrigation system. As the City is looking for a water source for the irrigation system, the City is realizing that water reuse is likely the most reliable source of irrigation water that the City can find that could be available right now. One option is to pump that water all the way up from Bloomington where the City of St. George currently treats the water. The cost to pump that water is 80 cents per thousand gallons, which is pretty close to the price that the City would like to charge for irrigation water. That brought up the idea of considering putting in Ivins own wastewater treatment plant, capturing the water before it loses all of its energy and goes down to Bloomington. Capture it higher up in Ivins and then provide it to those in Ivins. The City also received news that the Washington County Water Conservancy District is considering building another reservoir in Ivins and that has made the wastewater treatment facility even more feasible. If they're going to treat the water for reuse, you have to have a place to it, especially during the winter when there is no outdoor use and you have to store what is produced. Cody Moultrie provided a PowerPoint presentation to the Mayor and City Council, a copy of which is available as an attachment to this agenda. He indicated that the analysis that they performed addressed projected growth and wastewater production, wastewater treatment alternatives, site location alternatives and off-site improvements, sewer and irrigation water unit cost comparison, capital and operation and maintenance costs, impact fees and user rates and other considerations that include increased reliability of water sources, visual impacts and foul odors. Wastewater treatment alternatives include conventional activated sludge/oxidation ditch, sequencing batch reactor, membrane bioreactor and granular activated sludge. The granular activated sludge/AquaNereda process, is the most appropriate for Ivins City because the long-term operation and maintenance costs are less than the other treatment alternatives because it requires less power but treats the wastewater in a similar way as the sequencing batch reactor. There are a few off-site improvements required. The plant itself needs to get the wastewater from somewhere. All of the wastewater pipes go throughout the City and ultimately ends at the bottom elevation and from that point that water would be boosted up with a sewer lift station to the treatment plant. Depending on where the treatment plant would be located, that lift station would need to be larger or smaller depending on how far it has to pump the water and how high it has to pump the water. In most cases a secondary water booster pump station will be required for storage in the reservoir. Some of the different options that were considered in the analysis combined a treatment plant location, all of the infrastructure needed to get to one of the two reservoirs. Those two reservoir options are Graveyard Wash and Dry Creek. The estimated capital costs for the granular activated sludge/AquaNereda process treatment plant, which would occupy approximately five (5) acres, is just under $30 million dollars and the best location option for the reservoir would be Graveyard Wash which is located off of Highway 91 across from the storage units that are in Ivins and almost into Santa Clara. Chuck Gillette commented that if the City of St. George builds the reservoir in Graveyard Wash, they are also looking for a recreational beach and the Ivins plant location might be to west of the substation that is currently there. If they put it on the downhill side of Highway 91, they could tuck it at a lower elevation and place trees around it to where it would not be visible. Cody Moultrie indicated that pumping to Graveyard Wash is the most economical option. Chuck Gillette stated that Ivins may not have that option because the City of St. George is claiming exclusivity over that reservoir site and the City of St. George is saying that they are going to build that reservoir there next year so the reservoir that would be used for storage would be a reservoir in the dry wash. Cody Moultrie referred to the sewer and irrigation water unit cost comparison and indicated that the City of St. George's cost to Ivins for wastewater treatment is $1.67 per 1000 gallons and the charge that the Washington County Water Conservancy District charges for secondary irrigation is $0.85 cents per 1000 gallons, for a total of $2.52 per 1000 gallons. The proposed combined AquaNereda Wastewater Treatment and production of secondary irrigation water cost for Ivins is $2.23 per 1000 gallons. Council Member McDonald stated that rates for treatment are going up in January, 2022 because the cost for sludge disposal is doubling. Cody Moultrie indicated that in forecasting the long-term treatment costs, they have assumed that the treatment costs increase over time at 3%, the cost to purchase secondary irrigation water from the Washington County Water Conservancy District is estimated to increase over time at 5%, an additional cost of $250,000 is set aside annually, adjusted for inflation, to cover replacement costs and they have assumed a 20-year bond to fund the capital improvement at a 3% annual interest rate. Regarding impact fees, the existing impact fees are $16,229 and the proposed impact fees are $15,597, with an overall difference being $632 less for impact fees.
Aaron Anderson with Bowen Collins clarified that those are high estimates on the numbers and it would require that they go through an Impact Fee Analysis but this is a best guess and the takeaway is that the numbers would be within that ballpark. Council Member Gordhammer referred to impact fees for a secondary water resource and inquired if someone were to say they do not want any and therefore no irrigation, if that fee could be waived. Chuck Gillette clarified that is not usually an option because it is impossible to promise that someone won't do something based on what they represent. Council Member Gordhammer inquired if the City could then count on that impact fee. Chuck Gillette stated yes. Cody Moultrie indicated that another alternative is to do nothing and continue with treatment through the City of St. George and continue purchasing water from the Washington County Water Conservancy District. Chuck Gillette commented that would be assuming that the District has water to purchase. Cody Moultrie stated that the treatment plant would be more expensive to start with but over time would be less expensive. Based on the assumptions made, the project appears to be viable but is a long-term investment and additional work would be needed to refine financing options because there may be some federal grants and other funding options. Council Member McDonald commented that if the City were to receive grants, the cost to build the treatment plant could potentially be a lot lower. Chuck Gillette agreed. Aaron Anderson referred to the way that water rights work is that the water that comes into Ivins comes from the City of St. George and the Washington County Water Conservancy District and it is assumed that Ivins has the right to use the water but when that water is flushed down the drain, it becomes the Washington County Water Conservancy Districts again and may cost Ivins again. Chuck Gillette clarified that the City would want to secure some agreements with the District and the City of St. George regarding that. Council Member McDonald inquired at what point would Ivins apply for a grant. Chuck Gillette stated that if the City Council says they're in, the City would start writing grants and submitting applications. Mayor Hart inquired if the City could obtain a bond as a form of financing. Lane Mecham indicated yes, that is definitely a potential source of funding. Dale Coulam clarified that the City has the debt capacity but has always been conservative on the use of the debt capacity so the City could do that but would need to make sure the revenue stream was sufficient to make the payments and the more sources of funding like grants, that would lower the payments. Council Member McDonald inquired if it was possible to partially move forward and find out what kind of grants the City can get for this project. Aaron Anderson clarified that the City would need to at least have some sort of a concept. Chuck Gillette stated that he could look further into what the requirements are.
Council Member Mehr arrived at 8:07 p.m. and had no conflicts of interest or disclosures.
Mayor Hart indicated that buying water from the City of St. George and the District is impractical in the long-term. Council Member McDonald referred to the money that was set aside for the study and inquired if that means they need more money to keep going or do they have enough to keep going. Chuck Gillette clarified that the City Council approved the amount to finish the study and it sounded like the Council was comfortable with Bowen Collins finishing the study. Mayor Hart commented that it was realistic to believe that Ivins could find federal and state assistance for the project. Council Member Mehr inquired if the City decided to move forward with building a wastewater treatment plant, what year would it be online. Chuck Gillette stated that it would likely take a year to figuring out the financing and then another year to perform another study on wastewater and then the design takes between 14 and 18 months so it would be approximately 3 to 4 years. Mayor Hart indicated that the big discussions need to be with the Water District, the Bank and Federal representatives because this project could realistically be done in 5 years. Aaron Anderson agreed. Lane Mecham would like to at the combined secondary infrastructure, the water treatment plant and what that total cost is going to look like and how the City is going to finance it and that will likely include a rate study or an impact fee study to see what the impacts and costs are going to be. Chuck Gillette stated that if the City is able to obtain grants, the City could dive into amending the Master Plans and Impact Fees.