Title
McAlpine Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant Membrane Diffusers
Action
Action:
A. Award a contract in the amount of $130,500 with Environmental Dynamics International for the purchase of membrane diffusers, and
B. Award a contract in the amount of $200,000 with The Huffstetler Group, Inc. for the installation of membrane diffusers.
Body
Staff Resource(s):
Jackie Jarrell, Charlotte Water
Explanation
* McAlpine Creek Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) is the largest treatment plant in Charlotte Water's system.
* The contract with Environmental Dynamics International will provide membrane diffusers for the WWTP aeration system. The membrane diffuser is essentially a perforated rubber-like material that is stretched over an air pipe outlet to create tiny bubbles of air, which removes ammonia from the waste stream as part of the treatment process. The volume of air needed is much higher in warm-weather water than in cold.
* McAlpine currently has over 16,000 aerators. The diffusers currently in service were installed in 2013. In the past month, McAlpine Creek WWTP operations staff began to notice problems with the diffusers. Samples of the diffusers were sent to a third-party testing firm to diagnose the problem. The testing revealed the diffusers were beginning to fail prematurely - the typical life is expected to be five to seven years.
* Within a week, a substantial number of those diffusers failed very quickly and unexpectedly, and are not discharging air into the treatment process. This has caused an immediate need to correct the situation.
* Charlotte Water staff has negotiated a significantly reduced price of the new diffusers due to the premature failure of the existing diffusers, as the existing diffusers are no longer under warranty.
* On March 14, 2016, the City Manager's Office approved a request to waive all solicitation requirements under North Carolina G.S. 143-129 emergency exception.
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