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Sewer system agreement reached
Lake County Record Bee -
December
12,
2007
By Tiffany Revelle
Sewer system agreement reached
Lake County Record Bee – 12/13/07
By Tiffany Revelle, staff writer
LAKEPORT Recent, unexpected population growth in Middletown spurred a $144,450 agreement for sewer system improvements Tuesday at the Lake County Board of Supervisors meeting.
The agreement was between the Lake County Sanitation District (LaCoSan) and CH2M Hill, a Redding engineering firm.
County Special Districts administrator Mark Dellinger told the board that the agreement would begin engineering design for improvements to the Middletown Wastewater Treatment Plan that would anticipate future growth based on a master facilities plan developed in 2005. Dellinger said the plan was included in a request for proposals that went out to 10 firms earlier this year.
"We're having a very difficult time right now keeping up with the growth projections in Middletown," Dellinger said. "The growth projections that are occurring there have far exceeded anything that community development or the general plan can predict, and they've even outstripped our own predictions."
The engineering agreement adopted Tuesday will pay for the preparation of a bio-solids waste management plan, the design and construction inspection of a larger chlorination facility and design of the first phase of improvements that will increase capacity. The cost of construction will be determined at a later time and will mean a rate hike, Dellinger said. He added that Middletown's wastewater rates are the lowest in the county.
Dellinger said CH2M Hill was selected out of four responding firms because of its competitive bid and because the firm was the most responsive to the growth issue.
Middletown had an average growth rate of 3.8 percent between 2000 and 2006, according to Lake County Community Development director Rick Coel. "It was a spike," Coel said Wednesday, adding that a more typical growth rate is around two percent. Coel's growth projections for the area are based on permits issued and requested for the community. Coel said 128 permits were issued in Middletown in a seven-year period, and attributed a large part of that to a 50-unit apartment complex built in that time frame.
Dellinger's predictions rely on data from the U.S. Census Bureau, updated frequently by the California Department of Finance. Dellinger said an engineer in his department estimated Middletown's population growth between 2000 and 2005 to be between six and eight percent.
Coel said growth slowed considerably recently. "We see cycles of boom and bust in the housing industry, and we're seeing one now. We were in a boom a couple of years ago, now it's slowed down," Coel said. Coel added that two more developments with a potential 213 new housing units are tentatively planned for Middletown.
The board also accepted a donation of $118,200 from Twin Pines Casino to increase the system's capacity. Of that amount, 87,450 will go toward the engineering contract with CH2M Hill, Dellinger said. He said the remainder was already in the county's budget for this fiscal year. #
http://www.record-bee.com/local/ci_7706057
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