Moroni council approves $478,000 payment to Pittman Farms for wastewater membrane replacements

The Moroni City Council on Jan. 16 approved a $478,000 payment to Pittman Farms to cover most of a $500,006.15 invoice for replacement of filtration membranes at the city wastewater treatment plant.

Council members voted unanimously after a presentation by plant staff and a discussion about the condition of membranes, the size of the invoice and a repayment plan for the fund that will be drawn down by the payment.

Isai Pereas, who identified himself as a city staff member, told the council the plant issued an invoice totaling $500,006.15 and said the membrane reserve account currently held about $478,301. He described a period in late 2023 when membranes were damaged and had to be pulled and replaced and said plant staff have since intensified testing and cleaning. “Towards the end of 2023, we were struggling processing water. We had to pull the membranes out, and a lot of them were damaged,” Pereas said.

Pereas gave figures for how many membranes and cassettes the plant has but two numbers in the discussion appeared to conflict: he said at one point the plant has about 2,400 total membranes, and at another point he said each basin has 12 cassettes of 200 membranes for a total of 4,400 (two basins). He also told the council the plant is testing weekly and monitors total solids; he said tests had improved to “close to 0 solids.”

City finance staff and councilors discussed how quickly the reserve should be rebuilt. Gary (last name not specified in the record) said he drafted a repayment schedule and recommended rebuilding the reserve to a target the council deems appropriate. Council members discussed a repayment plan in the neighborhood of $20,000 to $25,000 a month and instructed staff to meet with Pittman Farms and Mike (last name not specified) to finalize details. Council members said they would aim to restore the fund to roughly $500,000 within about two years, though they also discussed a 24-month repayment schedule as the working target.

At the meeting Councilmember Brett Atkinson made the motion to approve the payment and Councilmember Sherry Green seconded. The roll call vote recorded “yes” from Green, Atkinson, Prestwich, Bagley and Aldridge; the motion passed unanimously. Council instructed staff to produce a written repayment agreement and to meet with Pittman Farms and other stakeholders next week to finalize timing and amounts.

Council and staff emphasized that future plant maintenance would include annual inspections and routine cleaning and that further membrane replacements would depend on inspections, test results and chemical maintenance. Pereas said the current work replaces roughly half of the membranes, but that frequency of future replacements is uncertain and will be guided by inspections and weekly testing.

The council voted to have staff prepare a formal repayment agreement and to return with a schedule for rebuilding the reserve.