Largo approves $10.12 million, four-year Synagro contract for biosolids dewatering and hauling

The Largo City Commission on Dec. 2 approved a four-year contract with Synagro South LLC to handle dewatering and hauling of biosolids produced at the city's wastewater plant, a deal staff said will reduce the risk of expensive emergency shutdowns.

Kyle Hicks, the city's wastewater treatment plant manager, told commissioners the plant's dewatering equipment was installed between 1977 and 1991 and has ‘‘reached the end of its useful life,’’ producing a multi-week emergency shutdown this summer that required a contractor and cost about $130,000 over four days. Hicks said the city currently processes roughly 4.1 million gallons of sludge into about 180 tons of biosolids fertilizer per month and that operating the existing facility costs ‘‘just over $1,200,000’’ a year while fertilizer sales net about $60,000 annually.

Staff recommended contracting with Synagro to take over dewatering and hauling while city staff continue to operate digesters, allowing the city to decommission on-site dewatering equipment and buy time to evaluate longer-term options, including a planned $6.6 million replacement dewatering facility already budgeted for 2029. ‘‘This contract will buy us that four years to really be able to provide reliable services and then make the informed decision whether we stay with the contractor or we stick with our CIP plan and take back over the dewatering operations ourselves,’’ Hicks said.

Commissioners pressed staff on cost comparisons and maintenance spending. Commissioner DeBriese asked whether the contract would lead to higher wastewater rates and noted that the contract appears to cost more than current operations over a multi-year period; Hicks responded that staff believe a planned contract fee will be cheaper than repeated unplanned emergency expenditures because the frequency of failures is expected to increase. Staff said the city carries about $500,000 in corrective maintenance budget for unplanned repairs and that roughly $300,000 of the $1.2 million annual cost is maintenance-related.

The motion to award Bid No. 2626B846 to Synagro South LLC for dewatering and hauling services was made by Commissioner Holmes and seconded by Vice Mayor Johnson. The commission approved the contract 7-0. The contract was described in the staff presentation as an estimated $2,530,000 per year, for a four-year base term and options to extend; staff cited a total estimated base-term cost of $10,120,000. The contract requires city staff to weigh trailer loads and measure dryness for billing (billing by dry ton) and contains performance and QA provisions, including a maximum allowed downtime of 48 hours for vendor equipment failures.

Next steps outlined by staff include executing the contract, reallocating existing biosolids operating line items in the budget to pay the contract, and using an ongoing CIP roadmap study to evaluate whether to return to in-house dewatering technology before the 2029 capital project. The city will retain the digestion process on-site and, depending on regional facilities and future decisions, may send biosolids to the county facility or continue to a private composting facility under the vendor arrangement.

Action: Contract award to Synagro South LLC approved 7-0.