Hopewell council reviews options to shore up wastewater plant as consultants cite urgent staffing and capital shortfalls

Consultants presented to the Hopewell City Council a range of options to address urgent safety, compliance and operational shortfalls at the Hopewell Water Renewal Treatment Facility and urged the city to move deliberately but urgently on leadership, staffing and capital investment.

The consulting team told council members the facility currently treats about 27,000,000 gallons of wastewater a day and serves the city, nearby installations and several large manufacturers. "The Hopewell Water Renewal Treatment Facility currently treats, as you all know, 27,000,000 gallons of wastewater a day," the consultant known in the record as Bob said during the presentation. He and other presenters said an engineering assessment and follow-up studies show substantial backlog and ongoing risks.

Dewberry’s condition assessment, presented by city consultants, identifies high-priority safety and compliance items that the consultants summarized as about $21,000,000, with additional mid-level and continuous-improvement buckets of roughly $420,000 and $2,000,000, respectively. The presenters cautioned that some Dewberry items are initial studies that must be completed before final cost estimates can be confirmed.…