The city of Snoqualmie has approved a $2,791,778 agreement with RH2 Engineering to provide consulting and design services to the city’s water reclamation and treatment facility improvement project.

Tom Holmes, wastewater superintendent for the city of Snoqualmie, explained that the improvements to the water treatment facility are needed to save more water and update old systems.

“The first project is recapturing backwash water at the water treatment facility. We need to capture backwash water, because all of the backwash of the treatment plant goes to the sewer system. That’s a waste of water. We would like to recapture that water, retreat it, so that it can be used for drinking water purposes, rather than go to the sewer plant,” Holmes said.

The other project is finishing design work for important improvements at the treatment plant. One of the elements that will be getting a design update from RH2 is the ultraviolet (UV) system. Holmes said the system disinfects the water before it goes back to the Snoqualmie River and Eagle Lake without adding any chlorine. The system in place is about 20 years old and needs to be upgraded.

The other design project is a new generator for the entire facility. Holmes said that right now only the most crucial water treatment systems are kept on generators in the event of a power failure.

“The other part of the design project is a generator that can power the entire facility. Currently we have a generator that can power just a few critical systems, but when the power is out, the facility is basically off except for disinfection and a few critical systems,” Holmes said.

Dan Marcinko, director of parks and public works for Snoqualmie, said updates are needed to stay in compliance with the Department of Ecology’s rules and regulations for wastewater treatment facilities.

“Technology has changed and wastewater is a technology-based system. We need to upgrade that tech and keep up with the current growth so we can meet or exceed the Department of Ecology’s rules and requirements that they impose,” he said.

RH2 Engineering was originally selected to do the initial “30 percent” design for this project, which includes an outline of needed changes and submitting an engineering report to the Department of Ecology, Holmes said.

Once the Department of Ecology approved the report, the city entered another agreement with RH2 Engineering to do the remaining 70 percent of the design.

Phase one of the final design, which includes the UV disinfection system and the new generator, will be finished by this summer and construction will begin by the end of 2016.

“Some time around June the final design should be done and we will be submitting to ecology for review and approval and all that,” Holmes said. “Hopefully we can send those out for bids from construction companies for mid-December.”