Title
Discuss and consider action to authorize the City Manager to approve the purchase of replacement water treatment plant membranes from ZENON Environmental Corporation (also known as SUEZ) in the amount of $537,040.00.
Summary
All five trains of the membrane units at the Surface Water Treatment Plant have seen significant damage from zebra mussel shells over the past year and half. This item is proposing to replace the water treatment membranes for train 3 which has seen the most damage, has the oldest modules of the trains at 7 years, and currently is out of service due to the damage. While the standard life of the membrane modules is generally around 10 years, zebra mussels have decreased this expected life of the membranes. Train 3 has significant damage that is consistent with zebra mussel damage seen on trains 1 and 2 that were previously replaced in 2019.
SUEZ Water Technologies & Solution was contacted and an autopsy report was completed on the membrane modules to see if they could be repaired instead of replaced to extend the life of the existing membranes. This autopsy report showed that any repairs performed could not be guaranteed to produce a membrane train that would produce acceptable results and stay in compliance with TCEQ regulations regarding membrane integrity testing.
Furthermore, while we have currently started the process to identify the expansion design for the Surface Water Treatment Plant, this process will take significant time which will require this membrane train to be in service until the final expansion is completed. Given the rough timeline of how long the expansion will take; this replacement membrane train is expected to last until it is completed.
If replaced, this membrane train would remain off until the strainer relocation project is completed to prevent zebra mussels from entering the plant to ensure that we get the longest possible life out of these new membrane modules. The strainer relocation project an...
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