Google funding for Lincoln pipeline and pump station aims to reduce treatment burden and improve resiliency

Google told the Resilient Lincoln roundtable it has funded or partially funded several water and wastewater infrastructure projects intended to reduce impacts on city treatment capacity and to improve distribution resiliency.

Anthony Giovannoni said Google is funding a construction project to provide a separate pipeline for non-contact cooling water so that those flows are treated separately from sanitary sewer at a dedicated treatment facility before discharge to Salt Creek. He said the city will own and operate that treatment facility and that Google will pay a volume-based fee to treat and discharge the non-contact cooling water. Giovannoni explained that separating the stream avoids using hydraulic capacity at the typical municipal treatment plant for a water stream with low biological activity.

He also described a partially funded pump station project that will connect two pressure zones operated by Lincoln Water System, adding redundancy and the ability to move water between zones. City staff said some of the new mains and pump station work would allow additional residents north of the site to connect to the sewer or water systems and that Google has borne infrastructure costs to bring service to the site. City staff emphasized that Google has not been given tax incentives for the center.

Officials said they are open to future investments such as meter replacement programs and aquifer storage and recovery facilities but that those would require planning and coordination with Lincoln Water System.