Stockton municipal utilities staff outline projects; wastewater upgrade nearly complete

City of Stockton Municipal Utilities Department leaders briefed the Water Advisory Group on staff roles and major infrastructure projects on Oct. 27, 2025, highlighting a nearly complete upgrade to the regional wastewater facility, progress on an automated meter project and a planned groundwater recharge program.

Mel Bridal, director of municipal utilities, told members the Regional Wastewater Control Facility modifications project — since rebranded in signage as the City of Stockton Wastewater Recovery Center — is effectively 99% complete and reached technical compliance in June 2024. Bridal said the project replaced the plant’s older secondary-treatment equipment with an activated-sludge system, added ultraviolet disinfection, and moved filtration and tertiary processes to the same site to improve efficiency and regulatory compliance.

“The project basically consists of removing the biotowers and secondary clarifiers, building new aeration basins and secondary clarifiers, installing a new filtration system and ultraviolet disinfection, and a final discharge pump station,” Deputy Director Ali Gergozlu said during a facility overview. Gergozlu described the treatment train in plain terms: a headworks (screens) to remove large debris; grit chambers; primary sedimentation to remove settleable solids; a biological secondary process (now activated sludge) to remove dissolved…