Ridgewood officials present water and wastewater contract requests, report permit progress for booster station

Ridgewood — Ridgewood Water staff used the Feb. 5 Village Council workshop to present a series of recommended contracts, emergency payments and capital requests for council review, and to report progress on permitting for a distribution booster station intended to address low-pressure problems.

Rich Calbee, director of Ridgewood Water, outlined the department’s requests and described an emergency repair and permitting milestone. He recommended a not-to-exceed contract award for qualified end-user soil removal, testing and disposal to Repco for up to $100,000, to handle spoils from distribution repairs. Calbee said the soils contract covers both clean fill and ID-27 soils (characterized as nonhazardous but containing certain contaminants).

Other proposed or sole-source contracts reported to council included a granulated activated carbon (GAC) media exchange sole-source with Calgon Carbon at a not-to-exceed $278,400; one remote telemetry unit (RTU) from Emerson Process Management for $31,607.06; and an annual corrosion-inhibitor supply contract (polyphosphate) at $285,080.40, which Calbee said showed a 4% price decrease for the year. Calbee noted the utility’s 2024 lead-sample pool averaged 2.7 parts per billion (ppb), well below the action level of 15 ppb.

Security work for new PFAS treatment plants and several existing wells — 44 CCTV cameras and 16 door controls — was presented as a cooperative purchase not to exceed $305,855.43. Calbee also listed equipment and construction items for the water pollution control facility and treatment plants that were presented under prior capital or cooperative purchasing: two digester mixers ($462,900), two return-activated-sludge pumps ($219,480), a skid-mounted NWP booster system ($4,248,990), an 8-inch trailer-mounted diesel bypass pump ($163,225), and a dissolved-oxygen sensor system ($17,822.57).

Calbee described an emergency water-main break on Jan. 18 in Midland Park that required tree removal and contracted repair work; the emergency expenditures cited were $4,850 to Down's Tree Service and $16,534.08 to Conquest Construction. He said the village declared an emergency at the time to allow the work and that the Feb. 5 agenda included a codifying item related to that emergency.

On permitting, Calbee said the permit application for the West Glenn booster station was submitted to the DEP, deemed technically complete, and had advanced to supervisory review. The booster station project — intended to move water from the low zone into an intermediate zone to avoid low-pressure and boil-water advisories — will include mostly below-ground components and a small above-ground access can and an electrical cabinet; staff said the installation may be permanent rather than temporary.

Council members asked routine clarification questions about tonnage assumptions, contract terms, tree replacement for an emergency removal and equipment ages. One council member suggested asking contractors that remove trees during emergency work to provide a replacement tree where feasible. Several council members praised staff for moving permitting and distribution fixes quickly after last year’s distribution advisory.

The Feb. 5 workshop record shows the items were presented and discussed. The transcript does not record final roll-call votes or identified motion texts for the contracts and capital purchases shown on the agenda; the recommended awards and budgets were described on the record and will appear on subsequent formal agendas for action as required.