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Water & Resource Recovery Center requests investments to reduce odors and improve reliability; sewer rates proposed up 9%
Summary
WRRC Director Deron Muehring presented a FY2027 budget that includes a proposed 9% sewer rate increase, multi-year investments for odor control (chemicals, digester cleaning, instrumentation), a $1.38M redundancy equipment allocation, and a multi-year industrial controls upgrade through 2029.
Deron Muehring, director of the Water & Resource Recovery Center, presented the facility’s FY2027 budget and a multi-faceted strategy to improve process reliability and reduce odor impacts while meeting permit requirements.
Muehring summarized the utility and staff structure: the center treats about 7 million gallons per day (roughly 2.5 billion gallons per year) and employs about 17.7 full-time equivalents. He described five initiative areas for FY27: reliable treatment/process performance, physical equipment reliability and redundancy, workforce training and safety, facility planning (20-year facility plan and nutrient reduction study), and organizational improvements (data systems and computerized maintenance management).
WRRC proposed a 9% sanitary sewer rate increase that would raise the average household monthly sewer fee (3,200 gallons) from about $31.86 to $34.73, an increase of roughly $2.87.
To address odor and process upsets, staff outlined chemical dosing programs (hydrogen peroxide and ferric chloride), which staff said reduced hydrogen sulfide and struvite formation in digesters by roughly 90% where applied. The FY27 budget includes ongoing dosing ($462,000) and funds to clean activated sludge trains (about $42,500 over a three-year program per train) and add instrumentation for near-real-time monitoring to avoid five-day BOD measurement lag times.
Capital improvements include industrial controls/MCC upgrades phased through 2029 (first two process areas under contract), reliability spare parts and redundancy ($1.38 million in FY27), hauled-waste receiving improvements funded in FY26 (a $2 million federal community project funding helped lower planned tipping fees), and ongoing equipment replacement funding.
Muehring also provided an update on recovery from a December 2024 explosion that caused roughly $3.4M in damage to systems and noted most systems were operational within months and electrical control replacements are being integrated into the MCC upgrade project.
Council asked about objective odor metrics, and Muehring described plans to pilot e-noses and explore drone-mounted sensors to better map odor sources, and agreed to provide routine public updates (monthly) about mitigation activities and anticipated construction periods likely to affect odors.
