North Platte council approves industrial-wastewater ordinance and capacity agreement with Sustainable Beef LLC

The North Platte City Council on July 15 adopted an ordinance creating a procedure to calculate equitable service charges for users of the city's industrial wastewater system and approved a separate agreement allocating plant capacity to Sustainable Beef LLC.

The ordinance (No. 4214) sets a formula for apportioning operation and maintenance costs among industrial users and includes provisions requiring major contributors to post financial security to protect the city against unpaid costs. The council then approved an agreement that allocates capacity at the new industrial wastewater plant to Sustainable Beef and amended the agreement to reflect a 1.875 million gallons per day (MGD) design allocation for that company.

Council members and city staff said the ordinance is intended as a template that can be filled with site-specific numbers when additional industrial users connect. Brent (city staff) described the measure as a "generic blueprint" that will govern how costs and capacity are calculated if more users attach to the industrial system. Bill (city staff) said section 10 of the ordinance outlines options for financial security and requires major contributing industries to carry security through their 10th year of commercial operation.

City staff told the council the ordinance applies to the industrial wastewater facility specifically and not to other classes of users currently billed under the city's separate rate classes. Councilmember Ed asked whether other existing industries in town would be affected; staff said the ordinance addresses the industrial system only. Questions about how Union Pacific inflow is measured were answered by reference to existing ordinances that establish measurement and billing by utility class.

On the capacity agreement with Sustainable Beef, Council and staff explained that the agreement uses the BOD (biochemical oxygen demand) and flow projections to set annual and monthly cost shares. The council voted to update the agreement's capacity number from 1.5 MGD to 1.875 MGD and to adopt the associated updated loadings as prepared by the city attorney.

City staff and the council also discussed how future users would be handled if they sign on while bonds are still outstanding: if a new user connects before bonds are paid off, the new user would generally be allocated a percentage of costs tied to their percent use; if a user connects after the plant is paid for, the cost picture changes because the plant's capital cost would be lower or absent. Staff noted the ordinance and the associated user agreement are intended to capture those possibilities and to include provisions for additional charges if a future user requires expanded treatment capabilities.

The council waived three readings of the ordinance and approved item 2 (Ordinance 4214) and item 3 (agreement with Sustainable Beef as amended). The approvals were described by staff as enabling Sustainable Beef to use the industrial plant's capacity while protecting the city with financial-security requirements and annual reconciliation of actual operation and maintenance costs.

The measures are tied to later financing actions the council also approved at the same meeting, including a bond ordinance and service agreements that anticipate the plant's construction and operation. Staff said the plant currently has an interim flow configuration to receive wastewater during construction and that major construction milestones are underway, including pouring of a large aeration basin.

Council action summary: the council waived the three readings and passed Ordinance No. 4214 establishing a billing and charge procedure for industrial wastewater users; it approved an allocation agreement with Sustainable Beef LLC and amended that agreement to allow 1.875 MGD of capacity for Sustainable Beef as reflected in the council packet and attorney-prepared loadings.

Looking ahead, staff said they will use the ordinance as a template for future users and will annually reconcile actual plant operating costs and the specific loadings for each industrial user.