City Council
Report
City Council Meeting: September 9, 2025
Agenda Item: 4.I
1 of 4
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Rick Valte, Public Works Director, Public Works, Water Resources Subject: Award Contract to Trojan Technologies Corp for Maintenance of Trojan Ultraviolet Advanced Oxidation Process (UV AOP) System
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Adopt a finding of categorical exemption pursuant to Section 15301 (Existing Facilities) of the California Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines.
2. Authorize the City Manager to negotiate and execute an agreement with Trojan Technologies Corp for maintenance of the Trojan Ultraviolet Advanced Oxidation Process (UV AOP) systems. This recommended award is made as an exception to the competitive bidding process pursuant to Santa Monica Municipal Code (SMMC) Section 2.24.250(b) and is for a total amount not to exceed $1,700,000 over a five-year period, with future year funding contingent on Council budget approval.
Summary
The City of Santa Monica’s (City) Water Resources Division is charged with providing safe and reliable water, wastewater, and recycled water services to all customers. The treatment facilities for groundwater remediation (Olympic Well Field) and advanced treated recycled water (Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project) use Trojan Technologies Corp’s proprietary Ultraviolet Advanced Oxidation Process (UV AOP) systems to meet treatment regulations. The Trojan UV AOP systems require routine maintenance by the manufacturer to ensure peak performance, preserve treatment efficiency, and maintain regulatory compliance. The Trojan UV AOP systems are proprietary which require specialized Trojan technicians for maintenance. Staff recommends issuing a contract for maintenance services for a total not to exceed 2 of 4
amount of $1,700,000 over a five-year period to provide routine service at both treatment facilities.
Discussion
The City recently completed the Olympic Well Field Restoration and Arcadia Water Treatment Plant Expansion Project, which included construction of the new Olympic Advanced Water Treatment Facility (Olympic AWTF) to treat contaminated groundwater from the Olympic subbasin. The Olympic AWTF consists of two greensand filters to remove iron and manganese, two UV AOP trains with hydrogen peroxide to remove 1,4- dioxane and other contaminants from historical industrial activities, and four granular activated carbon (GAC) trains to remove the hydrogen peroxide and other contaminants from the AOP process.
The City’s Sustainable Water Infrastructure Project (SWIP) Advanced Water Treatment Facility (AWTF) treats a combination of wastewater and stormwater to provide recycled water. The SWIP AWTF uses a rigorous multi-barrier treatment system to purify stormwater and wastewater to potable reuse standards for groundwater recharge. The final purified water is high-quality, safe to use, and drought resilient. The final treated water produced from the facility meets the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) Division of Drinking Water (DDW) Title 22 requirements for potable reuse groundwater augmentation. To meet the Title 22 requirements, the AWTF utilizes a membrane bioreactor, cartridge filtration, reverse osmosis, UV AOP, and chlorine disinfection to achieve the water quality standards necessary for groundwater recharge.
The Olympic AWTF and SWIP AWTF both use Trojan UV AOP systems to meet strict contaminant removal requirements and treatment regulations. To ensure continued system performance, the City would issue a contract for proper maintenance of these proprietary systems, without which the City’s drinking water and recycled water facilities cannot function to produce safe, high-quality water for the community. The service contract for each facility includes eight monthly general system inspections (e.g., check power distribution and system control center, inspect UV reactor and UV intensity 3 of 4
sensor, and calibrate proprietary Optiview system), three quarterly general inspections (includes all services covered in the monthly general system inspection plus cleaning of the Optiview system), and one annual general inspection (includes all services covered in monthly and quarterly inspections plus inspection of high voltage power distribution, manual cleaning of all sleeves, calibration of all instruments, and replacement of required accessories on the Optiview system). The service intervals and requirements are based on treatment capacity and contaminant removal requirements at each of the City’s facilities that utilize UV AOP as well as a typical individual lamp life of 18,000 hours. On average, the annual service cost for the Olympic AWTF UV AOP system and SWIP UV AOP system is $176,000 and $100,000, respectively (not including annual escalation of 5%). Staff confirmed the proposed maintenance scope, frequency, and cost proposed by Trojan is comparable with other utilities in the region that are operating similar Trojan UV AOP systems.
Vendor Selection
Exception to Competitive Bidding
Staff recommends that Trojan Technologies Corp. provide maintenance of the City’s UV AOP systems as an exception to competitive bidding, per Muni Code 2.24.250 (b).
This award meets the City’s exception to the competitive criteria under subsection (b), as the UV AOP requires proprietary expertise and specialized equipment that only Trojan Technologies can provide.
b. when a good or service is copyrighted, patented or only available form one license holder, including, proprietary goods, original equipment manufacturers and/or exclusive distributors.
Environmental Review
Routine maintenance of the City’s UV AOP treatment systems at the Olympic AWTF and SWIP is categorically exempt pursuant to Section 15301 of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) Guidelines. Section 15301 exempts Class 1 (Existing Facilities) projects from CEQA, which include the operation, repair, maintenance, permitting, leasing, licensing, or minor alternation of existing public or 4 of 4
private structures, facilities, mechanical equipment, or topographical features, involving negligible or no expansion of existing or former use.
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Staff seeks authority to approve available funding from the Water Fund and Wastewater Fund to award a contract to Trojan Technologies Corp for the maintenance of the City’s UV AOP systems.
Contract Request
FY 2025-26
Request Amount
Department
Account #
Future Years
Amount
Total Contract
Amount
$200,000 C5009070.689410 $903,500 $1,103,500
$110,000 51500001.55001N $486,500 $596,500
$310,000 Total $1,390,000 $1,700,000
Prepared By: Thomas Poon, Engineering Support Services Administrator Approved Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. FY 25-26 Oaks Initiative (Trojan Technologies Crop)
B. FY 25-26 Levine Act (Trojan Technologies Corp)