Restoration Project Groundbreaking

A July 15, 2004 groundbreaking ceremony at the Oro Loma Sanitary District Wastewater Treatment Plant on GrantAvenue in San Lorenzo signaled the start of an historic $34 million plant restoration project. The undertaking is jointly funded by the Oro Loma Sanitary District and the Castro Valley Sanitary District, which owns 25% of the plant. Present at the ceremony were board members and the general managers of both districts, as well as representatives of HDR Engineering, project designers, and Monterey Mechanical of Oakland, which will be responsible for the project's construction.

The project, which is funded through cash reserves and future cash flows, is the largest in the District's 96-year history, and it is unique in that its intent is to restore the 20 million gallon per day capacity of the original plant design. The original treatment plant capacity was reduced over time because of tightening environmental requirements on the plant's effluent quality standards. Over the last forty years, the District's ability to treat wastewater has essentially been cut by 25%.

In addition to three new 120-foot diameter secondary clarifiers, the plant will gain two new bar screens, an expanded influent pump station, a new chemically-enhanced primary treatment system, aeration basin modifications, bypass channel modifications, a new secondary solids pumping system, sludge heating improvements, and an extension of the existing disinfection channel. All of these improvements will, as Oro Loma's General Manager Mike Cameron said, "... provide plant staff with all the tools it needs to create a quality discharge now and well into the future." The project is a sound investment in the water quality of the San Francisco Bay.

In addition to securing adequate capacity for modern discharge requirements, the project provides redundancy in several key process units, which will allow a standby unit to process wastewater during periods of maintenance on parallel equipment.

Construction is scheduled to start in mid-September 2004 and will take approximately three years to complete. There will be no interruption of service during this period. Work in the initial intake area, the boiler room, and the chemically enhanced primary treatment (CEPT) area will begin first. Pile driving for construction of the three new secondary clarifiers will begin in October, 2004 and will continue for approximately two months.

Representatives from Oro Loma, Castro Valley, HDR Engineering, and Monterey Mechanical stand ready to start turning the first dirt in the $34 million capacity restoration project.