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The new water recyling facility is owned by Santa Paula Water LLC, a partnership between PERC and Alinda Capital Partners and was constructed under the Design/Build/Operate/Finance model. According to Brian Cullen, president of PERC Water, the facility is the first water treatment facility in the nation in a public-private partnership. The plant is now treating wastewater for the city’s approximately 30,000 residents; the plant was built for future expansion and Santa Paula’s projected build-out of 50,000 residents. Above left, Brian Cullen talks about the new facility. Above right, the Santa Paula Chamber of Commerce conducts an official ribbon cutting with Mayor Fred Robinson, PERC Representatives, and Chamber members. |
Open house officially recognizes completion of Water Recycling Facility
June 10, 2011
By Peggy Kelly
Santa Paula News
PERC Water founder CEO Johan Perslow said each plant built by the company gets better, but Santa Paula’s “is the best,” a statement typical of the remarks at Thursday’s grand opening of the water recycling facility. Good work and working together is what quality is all about, and Perslow said the most important team member is the client.
Earlier in the day the public had been invited to tour the $62 million facility located just south of the city’s now defunct - and no longer funky - old wastewater treatment plant. The city’s plant, built in 1939, had been unable to keep up with changing environmental mandates, and in 2003 the city found it was facing millions in fines for polluted discharges into the Santa Clara River.
The new facility is owned by Santa Paula Water LLC, a partnership between PERC and Alinda Capital Partners, and was constructed under the Design/Build/Operate/Finance model. According to Brian Cullen, president of PERC Water, the facility is the first water treatment facility in the nation in a public-private partnership.
Philip Dyk, co-founder and partner of the New York-based Alinda, said Santa Paula reminds him of his Salinas hometown. The city wanted the best, and as “proud partners,” Dyk said, the Santa Paula facility continues to win awards and is “a showcase for us.”
Other speakers addressed various aspects of the financing and construction of the plant, completed four months before the September 2010 deadline and fully certified by the state in December. The plant is now treating wastewater for the city’s approximately 30,000 residents; the plant was built for future expansion and Santa Paula’s projected build-out of 50,000 residents.
“I’ve been in Santa Paula most of my life,” and Mayor Fred Robinson said the odor from the old wastewater treatment facility was a continuing problem. But a bigger problem was the polluting discharges that the city learned in 2003 could results in millions in fines from the state Regional Water Quality Control Board. A settlement was reached where the city could apply more than $8 million in fines to a new facility.
Robinson said after years of study the council decided to enter into a DBOF agreement, resulting in the new plant with a water feature in front of the compact facility. “There is no odor,” and the treatment process chambers sit below the “aesthetically attractive” facility. Now, treated water is discharged into percolation ponds to help recharge the aquifers.
Robinson noted he was not yet on the council when the decision was made to award the contract to the PERC-Alinda partnership Santa Paula Water. But he said Vice Mayor Bob Gonzales, at the time the contract was let, was the city’s mayor and was “intimately involved” in the process.
Robinson said Gonzales, who was unable to attend, had just called and said Robinson should stress the “public private partnership” forged that resulted in the facility. “It’s a great day for PERC, a great day for Alinda and,” said Robinson, “a great day for the City of Santa Paula.”
Santa Paula was under the gun to get the plant built: the groundbreaking for the facility, with a $125.5 million cost spread over 30 years, occurred July 2008, a week before the court ordered start date of July 15. The city has a buyback option for the plant.
Councilman Ralph Fernandez was also on hand at the grand opening, as was former City Engineer Cliff Finley, who served as the project manager for the new facility and former Mayor Ray Luna, a councilman at the time the contract was finalized. Councilman Mike Morgan of Camarillo and Martin Hernandez, representing Supervisor Kathy Long, were also among those attending the open house.
