43
Niles starts construction of $35 million wastewater treatment plant
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
A ceremonial groundbreaking Monday has marked the official start of construction of the city’s $35 million waste-treatment plant.
The facility, at the Summit Street site of the current wastewater plant, is not expected to be completed until December 2018.
The Ohio Environmental Protection Agency determined in 2012 that the current treatment plant, built in 1985, is incapable of complying with EPA standards, which forced the city to commit to new construction.
Without upgrades, Niles would have faced citations and fines from the EPA for noncompliance.
“When completed, we will be able to process 13 million gallons compared to the 6 million we handle now,” said Andy Catanzarite, plant superintendent. “We’ll be able to handle a peak of 20 million gallons if necessary.”
Catanzarite said heavy rains and flooding last June stretched the plant’s capacity to 13 million gallons, well above its normal capacity.
The superintendent said the new capabilities will include removal of nutrients such as phosphorus and ammonia from the Mahoning River.
“Both of those absorb oxygen in the water, which could kill fish, vegetation and other aquatic life unless they’re removed,” Catanzarite said.
The city had faced a number of obstacles during its planning process. In 2014, the total estimate from MHW Americas, the design engineer, ballooned to $43 million bringing intense opposition from city council. The company later said it had only included construction costs in its original estimate.
The final figure of $35 million is considerably below the initial estimate.
For financing, the city has secured a 20-year loan at 0.73 percent interest.
“We’re saving millions,” Catanzarite said. “If we had gotten the loan at the market rate of 3.4 percent in October, it would have cost us an additional $11 million.”
“You don’t normally see rates that low,” said Angel Adkins of the OEPA engineering and financial assistance division, which had assisted Niles in getting the loan.
Although Niles has been in state-declared fiscal emergency since October 2014, its general fund shortages are not expected to impact the city’s payment of the loan. The plant is funded through other accounts called “enterprise funds” that include revenue from users. City council approved a series of 15 percent sewer rate increases for four-consecutive years beginning in 2014 and lesser amounts in subsequent years.
The $35 million cost includes more than $28 million for construction. A.P. O’Horo Co. of Youngstown is the general contractor. Project Manager Duane Thompson is more than intimately familiar with the facility. He was assistant project manager when the original plant was built by the same contractor 30 years ago.
“That was my first job for O’Horo, and now that I’m 71, I suspect this will be my last one,” Thompson said.