Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Paradise sewer project costs balloon; council hears options to scale back and consider local treatment
Summary
Paradise Town Council on Dec. 10 heard that the previously planned regional sewer connection to Chico has become financially infeasible, with updated construction estimates in the hundreds of millions of dollars, prompting staff to present scaled local alternatives and a plan for community input.
Paradise Town Council on Dec. 10 heard a detailed update on the Paradise Sewer Project showing sharply higher cost estimates and discussing a possible pivot from a regional connection to local treatment and phased service areas.
Town public works director Mark Maddox presented the basis-of-design work completed by the town’s progressive design-build team and told the council the project as currently scoped — a regional export pipeline and collection system that would connect to the City of Chico’s treatment plant — is “financially infeasible” given current funding availability and revised cost estimates.
The presentation summarized past studies and funding secured to date and then laid out recent funding and permitting realities that have driven the team to consider smaller, local treatment options. Maddox said design work, a programmatic environmental impact report and a signed agreement with Chico produced needed technical detail but also revealed that costs have increased far beyond early estimates. “We are not on track to secure $450 million in grants to pay for the project as it is currently scoped,” he said.
Why it matters: the sewer…
Already have an account? Log in
Subscribe to keep reading
Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.
- Unlimited articles
- AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
- Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
- Follow topics and more locations
- 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
