City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: February 8, 2022
Agenda Item: 3.B
1 of 4
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Rick Valte, Public Works Director, Public Works, Water Resources Subject: Approval of Modification to Purchase Orders for Water Treatment Antiscalants & Cleaners
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Authorize the Procurement Manager to issue a change order to purchase order #22200672 in the amount of $210,000 with Avista Technologies for the provision of water treatment antiscalants and cleaner chemicals for the Public Works Department. This would result in a revised purchase order total not to exceed $685,000, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval; and
2. Authorize the Procurement Manager to issue a change order to purchase order #22200758 in the amount of $100,000 with King Lee for the provision of water treatment antiscalants and cleaner chemicals for the Public Works Department.
This would result in a revised purchase order total not to exceed $200,000, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Summary
The City of Santa Monica’s Arcadia Water Treatment Plant treats water through a series of processes to ensure a safe, reliable water supply for residents. One of these processes is reverse osmosis. The reverse osmosis treatment system at the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant uses antiscalant and cleaning chemicals to support its operation and deliver the greatest amount of potable water possible. Over the past 18 months staff has been working with the City’s authorized chemical suppliers (Avista and King Lee), to adjust the antiscalant chemical dosing, balancing increased chemical use with cost, to increase production efficiency and realize a net savings of up to $100,000 per year in operating costs for the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant. Staff recommends the City Council approve the modifications for purchase orders with both Avista and King 2 of 4
Lee for supplies of the antiscalant and cleaning chemicals to meet the operational requirements for higher production efficiency at the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant.
Discussion
Reverse osmosis membranes filter out minerals, organic materials and salts, and require antiscalants and cleaning chemicals to prevent clogging of the membranes due to mineral scale, biological debris, and other buildup on membrane filter surfaces.
Without antiscalants and cleaners, water-processing efficiency would decrease due to clogged membranes and the expected five-year membrane lifespan would be shortened dramatically, requiring costly replacements.
Over the past 18 months, operations at the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant have increased its use of antiscalant chemicals to increase water production efficiency (i.e., percentage of how much clean, potable water is produced from raw groundwater produced from the groundwater aquifer) from 80-82% to 83%, resulting in savings in imported water purchase and sewer disposal costs by producing an additional 1% of water at the plant. For example, at 80% water production efficiency, the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant produces 80 gallons of high-quality drinking water for every 100 gallons of raw groundwater treated and 20 gallons is wasted as a concentrated salt stream.
In addition to optimizing existing operations, staff also use antiscalant chemicals to support pilot-scale testing of two new production efficiency enhancement technologies to upgrade the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant and, once completed in 2023, the fullscale upgrade will increase the production efficiency to 90% or greater. By increasing the production efficiency to 90%, the Arcadia Water Treatment Plant would be able to produce additional drinking water (e.g., for every 100 gallons of raw groundwater treated, 90 gallons of high-quality drinking water would be produced instead of the current 80 gallons) with the same amount of groundwater extracted to help maintain the sustainability of our local groundwater aquifers.
3 of 4
Vendor Selection
In July 2018, the City issued Request for Proposals (RFP) #180 inviting vendors to submit proposals for antiscalant and cleaning chemicals. Avista Technologies was selected as the primary vendor and King Lee Technologies was selected as the secondary vendor. Purchase orders for both vendors were authorized by City Council on October 9, 2018.
Past Council Actions
Meeting Date Description
10/09/2018
(Attachment A)
Award of RFP #180 and authorization of purchase orders
with Avista Technologies & King Lee Technologies for the provision of water treatment antiscalants and cleaner
chemicals.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve available funding from the Water Fund to increase the amount of the purchase orders with Avista Technologies and King Lee Technologies for reverse osmosis antiscalants and cleaner chemicals to support water treatment. Future year funding is contingent on Council budget approval.
Purchase Order Modification Request
Purchase
Order #
Purchase
Order
Authorized
Amount
FY 2021-22
Budget
Modified
Request
Amount
Dept Account #
Future
Year
Amount
Total Revised
Contract
Amount
Avista Technologies
22200672 $475,000 $60,000 50500003.525081 $150,000 $685,000 King Lee Technologies
22200758 $100,000 $50,000 50500003.525081 $50,000 $200,000 4 of 4
Prepared By: Thomas Poon, Senior Administrative Analyst Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. October 9, 2018 Staff Report (Web Link)
B. Oaks Initiative (Avista)
C. Oaks Initiative (King Lee)