Ledger-Dispatch

By Jerry Budrick (jbudrick@ledger-dispatch.com= )=20

A number of Amador County residents = visit a new=20 sewage treatment plant built for the community of Mountain = House.

Photo by: Jerry = Budrick

Ione Mayor Andrea Bonham takes a closer = look at=20 the water recycling facility in Mountain House near Tracy. The = plant=20 leaves a smaller environmental footprint than most modern=20 facilities.

Photo by: Jerry=20 Budrick
Faced with an immediate need to = investigate=20 all the possibilities offered for sewage treatment, many officials from = the city=20 of Ione took an eye-opening ride on an Amador Regional Transit Service = bus to=20 Tracy Saturday morning. Near Tracy, an entire new city is under = construction,=20 named Mountain House.

According to Ione City Manager Kim Kerr, = who=20 arranged the "sewer tour," Amador County's westernmost city is operating = its=20 sewage plant under a cease and desist order. In addition, the city has = approved=20 more projects with houses that will produce more effluent than the city = has=20 available treatment capacity to handle. There is also an ongoing lawsuit = with=20 neighbors to the existing sewage treatment plant. All of this adds up to = a=20 painfully obvious need to correct the situation.

Recently, = principals=20 from Pacific Environmental Resources Corp. were invited to give a = presentation=20 to the city and interested officials and representatives from other = Amador=20 County entities. The information presented so impressed many in = attendance that=20 a tour to the plant built by PERC at Mountain House was = scheduled.

"I=20 think it's educational to take a hands-on trip," Kerr explained. = "Actually=20 seeing something is very important to understanding it."

On the = bus, Ione=20 Mayor Andrea Bonham said, "It's a great opportunity to explore our=20 options."

At full build-out, Mountain House is planned as a home = for more=20 than 44,000 people, substantially more than Ione envisions in its = future. At=20 present, however, Ione accepts effluent from the Sutter Creek wastewater = treatment plant, which processes its own sewage, as well as the Amador = Regional=20 Sanitation Authority flow from Martell.

The rule of thumb used by = PERC=20 for sizing a sewage treatment plant is the expectation that the average = house=20 will produce approximately 250 gallons of effluent daily. Using that = figure, the=20 designers of the Mountain House facility have designed the facility to = process=20 5.4 million gallons per day, the flow expected from 21,600 = houses.

The=20 completed facility has a capacity of 3 mgd. The additional 2.4 mgd will = be=20 processed in an expanded facility, when phase two of the total design = becomes=20 necessary.

In order to provide essential services to the = residents and=20 businesses planned in the development, a Community Services District was = formed.=20 Among the many types of service that will be managed by the Mountain = House CSD=20 is wastewater. Other services include water, refuse collection, power, = gas,=20 library and postal.

In the original Mountain House development = plan,=20 wastewater was going to be treated in a plant designed to conventional=20 standards, using common processes. Phase one of the plant was estimated = at the=20 time to cost $7 million, but budget overruns drove the cost for that = phase to=20 $14 million.

Alarmed developers, faced with fears of similar = costs in the=20 next phase, called PERC.

According to PERC Vice President Steve = Owen, in=20 addition to saving Mountain House money, PERC would provide = state-of-the-art=20 chemical-free sewage treatment that would yield an end product of water = clean=20 enough to be used for diverse applications, up to and including = irrigation of=20 feed crops for livestock, golf courses, landscaping and household use = through=20 purple pipe reclaimed water systems.

This PERC plant is not even = called a=20 wastewater treatment plant. The plant is known as a water recycling=20 facility.

The Mountain House Water Recycling Facility uses only a = fraction of the property that had been set aside for wastewater = treatment. With=20 the entire operation contained in tanks under a building that houses = blowers,=20 air filters, labs, offices and sundry equipment, the footprint is only 2 = acres.

The tour through the facility was conducted by PERC = operating=20 manager Casey Wichert, who described every step along the way, from = removal of=20 the solids and dispersion of nearly all sewage aroma, through the = aerobic=20 bacterial treatment of the effluent to its ultimate outflow as clear, = reusable,=20 recycled water.

"What impressed me was the nearly silent, = odorless=20 operation," said Ione City Councilman-elect Dave Plank, "with 24/7 = monitoring of=20 the entire process, plus redundancy on every step of that = process."

The=20 price tag on such a facility was roughly estimated by Owen at $14 to $16 = per=20 gallon of treatment capacity. The Mountain House facility tour included = a=20 brochure that listed the cost for building the toured plant at $15.5 = million.=20 "Their next phase was going to cost $11 million more than our PERC plant = estimate," Owen said of the earlier plant development plans. Design = commenced in=20 2003 and the facility was completed in the fall of 2005.

"I = couldn't be=20 more convinced, that wastewater has to be treated on a regional basis," = said=20 Amador Water Agency Director-elect Debbie Dunn. "We have an opportunity = to be a=20 state leader. Processing wastewater is a problem common to all 58=20 counties."

"I'm surprised that more people didn't come on this = trip,"=20 Bonham said on the way back to Ione. "It's a non-chemical process - = using only=20 air, bacteria and ultraviolet light."

Kerr closed the trip by = saying that=20 the city will be evaluating all its options.

Complete information = is=20 available on the PERC Web site, www.percwater.com.

Jerry = Budrick