Board Of Public Utilities

The Board of Public Utilities is being asked to approve a partnership agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for the first phase of the Llano Trunk sewer rehabilitation project, which will cover design, environmental review, and permitting work at an estimated cost of $3.049 million. The Llano Trunk is critical wastewater infrastructure that carries flow from Santa Rosa and Sebastopol to the Laguna Treatment Plant, and recent inspections found that about 50 percent of the pipe segments show significant structural degradation, posing risks of overflow and pipeline failure in an environmentally sensitive area. The federal government will cover approximately 75 percent of Increment 1's cost ($2.293 million under the Water Resources Development Act), with Santa Rosa covering the remaining $756,000 (reduced to $710,000 after Sebastopol's contribution) from the approved Capital Improvement Program budget, while future construction increments scheduled for 2028-2031 will require separate Board approvals and future budget allocations.

The Board of Public Utilities should award the boiler replacement contract to Bay City Mechanical for $1,237,795.03, plus a 15% contingency, for a total of $1,423,464.28. The Laguna Treatment Plant's two backup boilers have failed emissions compliance—Boiler 1 has been offline since 2014, and Boiler 2 violated nitrogen oxides standards after a 2024 malfunction, putting the city at risk of $10,000-per-day penalties if not corrected by the December 2026 deadline. The bid is reasonable relative to the adjusted engineering estimate despite appearing 44% higher than the initial estimate, which had omitted overhead, profit, and sales tax components.