Civil Notes

City of Palmdale Sewer Fee

thomas — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 11:00:10 +0000

GIS Screenshot Similar to Palmdale Sewer Fee Audit Showing Sewer Lines,Parcels Charged (green),Parcels Not Served (yellow), Parcels to Check (red)

In July 2009, the City of Palmdale assumed responsibility for the maintenance and operation of its sanitary sewer system – a responsibility that had previously been performed by another government agency. As part of the change, Palmdale implemented a new sewer collection fee and provided notice to property owners and rate payers as required by California’s Proposition 218.

An audit was performed to identify parcels that were being incorrectly charged. While a typical audit process might be to import billing information from the previous year into a database containing Los Angeles County Assessor’s data for all parcels within the city limits, this approach was problematic for Palmdale since some areas of the city are served by private septic systems and not subject to the fee. Instead, the billing information was imported into a Geographic Information System (GIS) which contained both assessor’s parcel data as well as the location of city-maintained sewer lines. The GIS enabled the use of spatial queries to identify properties that were being incorrectly billed. A typical query might be, “highlight all residential parcels within 50 feet of a sewer line where last year’s sewer fee was zero.” The resulting data could be reviewed visually and exported to reports that were provided to the City of Palmdale.

While the GIS review identified a few parcels that were being charged when they should not have been, it identified many more that should have been charged and were not. This initial review identified over $150,000 in additional annual revenue.

The author performed the initial GIS review, prepared an Engineer’s Report, and assisted with subsequent audits involving city staff and other consultants.

Thomas Brightbill is a Bay Area civil engineer with experience in water, wastewater, stormwater, and public finance projects. He is currently looking for a position with a consulting firm or utility district. If you are looking for a civil engineer or are merely curious about his qualifications, visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/thomasbrightbill

Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority (TRLIA) – Maintenance Assessment

thomas — Wed, 02 Feb 2011 01:00:42 +0000

An Excavator Constructs a New Slurry Wall Along the Feather River Levee

The Three Rivers Levee Improvement Authority (TRLIA) is a joint powers authority responsible for improving and maintaining approximately 27 miles of levees in south Yuba County. As part of the levee certification and accreditation process, TRLIA needed a new funding mechanism for ongoing maintenance and operation of the levees.

Earlier hydraulic analysis had indicated that some areas of the proposed assessment district were subject to flooding from both the Yuba and Feather Rivers while other areas were subject to flooding by only one river. In addition, the anticipated flood depths varied throughout the area. Ultimately, an assessment methodology was developed where areas of similar flood probability and similar anticipated flood depths were grouped into four zones of benefit. The methodology also used benefit, based on flood probability and anticipated flood depth and damage, to determine the relative rates between zones and the relative rates between different property types.

Public opinion surveys and focus groups were used to gauge property owner support for a new assessment. Community outreach meetings with civic and neighborhoods groups were held to discuss why a new assessment was needed and how the funds would be used.

In March, 2009, the TRLIA Board of Directors voted to begin an assessment proceeding. As required under Proposition 218, assessment ballots were mailed to property owners, and after the close of the balloting period the ballots were tabulated. The result was that a majority of the ballots, weighted by the proposed assessment amount as required by Prop 218, were in favor of the new assessment. (The tabulation results also showed that even without the required weighting, more ballots had been submitted in favor of the assessment than opposed.) The new assessment provides dedicated annual funding of slightly over $800,000 for operations and maintenance of the improved levees.

The author was responsible for development of the assessment methodology, authored the engineer’s report and managed the assessment process.

Alameda County Water District – Water Treatment Plant No. 2

thomas — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 04:00:53 +0000

Water Treatment Plant No. 2 is located in Fremont near the intersection of Mission Boulevard and Interstate 680. The plant has a capacity of 28 million gallons per day and includes a hydroelectric generation facility that generates electricity from the incoming raw water. After emerging from the hydroelectric facility, raw water flows through pre-ozonation, flash mix, and hydraulic flocculation.

Water Treatment Plant No. 2 from the East

A view of Water Treatment Plant No. 2 from the east shows more of the plant than is visible from Mission Boulevard. The tile roof at the left of the photo is the administration building. In the center of the photo the sedimentation basins can be seen. The tile roof towards the right of the photo is the solids handling building which contains two filter presses. To the right of this building, one of the solids thickening basins is barely visible above the hill. WTP No. 2 also processes sludge from the Mission San Jose Water Treatment Plant located about a mile up the hill.

The author was responsible for civil site design, yard piping design and participated in other areas of plant design including pump selection, piping layout and equipment layout. In addition, the author reviewed shop drawings, answered requests for information (RFIs) from the contractor, and performed other construction management tasks.