Evansville utility board approves PFAS testing expansion, multiple engineering contracts and updated procurement rules

The Evansville Water and Sewer Utility Board on March 18 approved a series of contracts and policy changes, including expanded quarterly testing for PFAS at wastewater plants and 18 lift stations, engineering agreements for sewer modeling and inspections, an arc-flash study of lift stations and an updated purchasing policy and vendor master service agreement template.

Board action came during the utility's regular meeting, where members approved the consent agenda (minutes and payroll), an easement administrative settlement and a title change, then adopted the series of items described below.

The board approved an agreement with PACE Analytical Services for quarterly testing of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances at the utility’s wastewater treatment plants and at 18 lift stations. Kimberly Early, a utility staff member, told the board the additional lift-station sampling is intended to help determine where PFAS is entering the collection system. Early said the quarterly cost is $24,854.10, for an annual total of $99,416.40. She said the 18 lift stations were chosen after consulting Ryan Causey, identified in the meeting as the lift station superintendent, to represent an assortment of industrial, commercial and residential areas; the utility has 93 lift stations in total.

Board members approved an engineering services agreement with Powers Engineering Inc. for on-call sewer modeling and planning-level evaluations of flow impacts from new or changed development, for $117,480. Utility staff described the term as a one-year engagement running April 1 through March 31 to cover annual modeling maintenance and requests tied to development review and inflow/infiltration studies.

The board authorized four on-call sanitary-sewer inspection agreements used to inspect private-development sewer work. The vendors and the $30,000 initial authorization amounts referenced in the meeting were Patriot Engineering, Commonwealth Engineering, Pires Engineering and Loch Mueller Group; staff said the utility rotates among the approved firms to avoid delaying development and that each on-call contract is structured to start at $30,000 and be expanded by change order as needed.

The board also approved an agreement with PCI Consultants Inc. (identified in the meeting with an affiliated company name) for a comprehensive arc-flash study covering the utility-owned lift-station facilities, at $187,123 for project U1256. Staff said the study will include field work, arc-flash hazard analysis based on NFPA 70E and IEEE 1584 guidance, hazard labeling and recommendations for any necessary electrical improvements.

Separately, the board approved a $49,600 engineering agreement with Clark Deats, Inc., for design and bid documents to address HVAC issues at the West Wastewater Treatment Plant (project U1263). Staff said the design work stems from a 2024 review that found interconnected buildings and a tunnel network causing air-pressurization problems; the contract is intended to provide documents that can be bid to contractors.

The utility approved a master service agreement template that staff said will be used to require vendor insurance and other protections for contractors working on utility sites; staff said there is no dollar value attached and the template would be renewed annually with certificates of insurance brought to the board under the consent agenda. The board also approved a revised purchasing policy aligning utility practice with Indiana Code Title 5, Article 22 and formalizing longstanding local procedures; staff said the policy update formalizes practices that date back to a 2009 internal document.

On the consent agenda the board approved minutes from the March 4, 2025 meeting; payrolls for the weeks ending March 2 ($201,904.84) and March 9 ($436,078.42); the accounts payable register for March 18, 2025; an easement administrative settlement for $9,200 to Storemaster Funding X LLC for project U1072; and a title change updating the pretreatment coordinator position to pretreatment manager.

Board members moved and seconded each item in turn; the meeting record shows motions carried for each approval without individual vote counts recorded in the transcript. The board set its next meeting for April 1 at 3 p.m. at the Sunrise Pump Station and then adjourned.