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TO: Mayor Richard C. Irvin
FROM: Mark Phipps, Engineering Coordinator
DATE: September 2,2021
SUBJECT:
Resolution to award a contract to Strand Associates, Inc. in the amount of $62,000.00 to update the Financial Capability Assessment of the City's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan.
PURPOSE:
Evaluate the potential benefits to the City of requesting a time extension from the IEPA for implementation of the City’s approved Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan.
BACKGROUND:
More than a century ago, cities across the United States, including Aurora and other communities up and down the Fox River, built combined sewers that took both sewage and stormwater away from homes and streets and discharged it directly into the River. In 1927, decades before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) began requiring sewage treatment, forward-thinking Aurora residents supported the construction of a sewage treatment plant and new sewers. Those combined sewers are still in operation today and carry sewage and waste to the Fox Metro Water Reclamation treatment facility in Oswego, which cleans the water before returning it to the Fox River.
The combined sewer system can handle Aurora's typical volume of both sewage and runoff, but during heavy rainstorms and snow melt too much water floods the sewers. When that happens, untreated sewage overflows into the Fox River or backs up into basements. This is called a combined sewer overflow, or CSO.
As a first step toward solving this problem, Aurora and other cities across the country eventually began installing more modern storm sewer systems separate from the sewers that carry sewage from homes and businesses. The USEPA’s 1994 CSO Control Policy required communities like Aurora to further develop and implement a CSO Long Term Control Plan (LTCP). Aurora’s LTCP was submitted in 2010 and approved by the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency (IEPA) in 2015. The Plan relies on various strategies ranging from sewer separation and green infrastructure to the construction of storage and treatment facilities. Implementing the Plan has cost the City $51.6 million so far and is expected to cost another $105 million by the time the scheduled projects are completed in 2030.
The City’s approved LTCP includes a list of projects that must be constructed. Another component is the timeframe in which the City is required to complete those projects, which is based on a Financial Capability Assessment, or FCA. The FCA incorporates numerous factors such as Aurora’s Median Household Income, the cost of utility bills, trends in local employment or unemployment, and the City’s financial information. All of those factors have likely changed over the past decade, but the Lead Service Line Replacement Program that has been mandated by the State will increase the City’s utility expenses by $200 million over the next 30 years. Therefore, it may be in the City’s best interest to request a time extension from the IEPA for implementing the LTCP.
DISCUSSION:
Exhibit A is a proposal from Strand Associates, Inc. to update the City’s FCA and evaluate the benefits of an extension of the LTCP implementation schedule by five years, seven years, and ten years. Strand Associates, Inc. is uniquely qualified for this project as the firm that prepared the City’s LTCP.
Project B031 account 281-1856-512.73-09 has a remaining balance of $1.5 million.
IMPACT STATEMENT:
The services provided under this Purchase Order will have no impact on the public.
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Staff recommends the proposed resolution be adopted.
cc: Infrastructure and Technology Committee
CITY OF AURORA, ILLINOIS
RESOLUTION NO. _________
DATE OF PASSAGE ________________
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A Resolution to award a contract to Strand Associates, Inc. in the amount of $62,000.00 to update the Financial Capability Assessment of the City's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan.
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WHEREAS, the City of Aurora has a population of more than 25,000 persons and is, therefore, a home rule unit under subsection (a) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution of 1970; and
WHEREAS, subject to said Section, a home rule unit may exercise any power and perform any function pertaining to its government and affairs for the protection of the public health, safety, morals, and welfare; and
WHEREAS, the City's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan was submitted in 2010 and approved by the IEPA in 2015 with a list of construction projects and a schedule for completing those projects by 2030; and
WHEREAS, the City is on schedule to complete the remaining projects, but is faced with an unfunded State mandate to replace all the lead service lines in the City at an estimated cost of $200 million over the next 30 years; and
WHEREAS, it may benefit the City to request an extension of time from the IEPA for implementation of the City's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan; and
WHEREAS, Strand Associates, Inc. of 1170 South Houbolt Road, Joliet, IL 60431 is uniquely qualified to assist the City with this project due to its prior work on the City's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan, and
WHEREAS, project B031 account 281-1856-512.73-09 has sufficient funds for this project.
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Aurora, Illinois, as follows: that the award of a contract to Strand Associates, Inc. in the amount of $62,000.00 to update the Financial Capability Assessment of the City's Combined Sewer Overflow Long Term Control Plan is hereby approved, and the Director of Purchasing is hereby authorized to enter into such a contract on behalf of the City.