Public Works and Utilities Committee Mon, Aug 31, 2026 · Public Works and Utilities Committee https://santafeminutes.space/meeting/974-public-works-aug-31-2026 == Executive Summary == The Public Works and Utilities Committee met on August 31, 2026, to discuss several key infrastructure projects and departmental updates. A significant portion of the meeting focused on a post-construction analysis of the North Guadalupe multimodal operations and safety, revealing improvements in bike lanes and ADA accessibility, but also highlighting areas for further enhancement such as physical separation for bike lanes and better pedestrian crossings. The committee also delved into lessons learned from past projects regarding community and business engagement, with a strong emphasis on improving communication strategies for future endeavors. The Wastewater Management Division provided a comprehensive update on collection system projects, the successful implementation of new SL-RAT technology for sewer line assessment, and ongoing improvements at the Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP). Despite recent operational successes, the WWTP is facing a new EPA administrative order due to various violations, prompting discussions about long-term solutions for the plant, with cost estimates ranging from $100 million for rehabilitation to $300 million for a new facility. Committee members praised the WWTP staff for their dedication and progress, and a future meeting at the plant was suggested for a facility tour. == Key Decisions == - Approved the agenda unanimously. - Approved the consent agenda unanimously. == Motions & Votes == - Motion to approve the agenda — Passed unanimously by voice vote. - Motion to approve the consent agenda — Passed 4-0 (Councilor Chavez - Yes, Councilor Bustamante - Yes, Councilor Faulkner - Yes, Councilor Feghali - Yes). == Public Comment == No public comments were made during the public comment period. == Topics == - Wastewater Treatment Plant - North Guadalupe Street Safety - Wastewater Plant Upgrades - Wastewater Plant Compliance - Copper Contamination - Wastewater Plant Future Investment - Sewer Line Inspection - Guadalupe Street Business Impact - ADA Accessibility Guadalupe - Citywide Cleanup Event == Full Transcript == Let me know when we're live, please. Madam Chair, Councilor Chavez, we are live. Thank you so much. I call to order the Public Works and Utilities meeting. It is Monday, August 31, and it is 5:00. Could I get a roll call, please? Yes, Madam Chair. Councilor Chavez? Here. Councilor Barrett? Excuse. Councilor Bustamante? Here. Councilor Faulkner and Councilor Feghali? You have a quorum, Madam Chair. Thank you. Next is approval of the agenda. Are there any changes from staff? No changes from staff, Madam Chair. Move to approve. Second. Motion and a second. All those in favor, signify by saying aye. Any opposed? I see none. Motion passes. Next is approval of the consent agenda. Were there any items pulled? No items pulled, Madam Chair. Move to approve. Second. I have a motion. I have a second. Could I get a roll call vote, please? Councilor Chavez? Yes. Councilor Bustamante? Yes. Councilor Faulkner? Yes. Councilor Feghali? Yes. Motion passes. Keeping us on our toes. Super controversial vote. Public comment. Is there anyone in chambers that would like to speak to us today? There is nobody here. Presentations. The presentation by Kimley-Horn, Planning and Engineering Consultants, providing an overview of the North Guadalupe Post Construction Multimodal Operations and Safety Analysis. Erick Aune is here, SFMPO Division Director. All yours. Thank you, Madam Chair, members of the committee. First, I would like to say hello and welcome to Carl Vermillion, who will be joining me tonight. I want to kick this off with a little background of what we're going to be speaking to tonight. For those of you who are, and I'm sure most of you are aware of the, what I would submit is a really fantastic project that took about a decade, almost 12 years to complete, is the North Guadalupe reconstruction. A little data point: prior to the 2025 transformation from four lanes to two along this half-mile stretch, part of Santa Fe's high injury network, recorded nearly 480 crashes over those 15 years. Of the crashes, 12 pedestrians and bicyclists were struck and were injured, and one was killed. It does not say enough to underscore when the road safety audit was procured in 2014, how important to reduce what I would submit as speeds, static energy, and the potential for harm. Fast forward to 2023, we're all aware that the construction was delayed for a couple years, leading to some stress amongst the businesses, resulting in last summer, a public engagement meeting with those businesses led by Johanna Nelson, with all of the team members who would help that construction instill in process. During that meeting or that time, our conversations with Director Wheeler at the time were to consider a post-construction safety audit of sorts. Subsequent to that, Regina had retired, and the conversations continued to ensue with Director Burnett, the Economic Development Office, and several others, including the Mayor, to get a sort of consensus to move forward. So fast forward after that, and we have a work product that includes a couple really, I would submit, powerful things. The work product was a combination of the technical prowess of Kimley-Horn's team, Carrie Trimblett with the MPO leading the project, and then the Economic Office of Economic Development, Maciek and Johanna helping out with the business engagement. There was a meeting about two and a half months ago on Guadalupe Street in the morning, inviting businesses. We had over 20 business owners and proprietors show up to the meeting to articulate and express their concerns, fears, and what they value. They also expressed an observation in the field that we cannot often do, even they work there, is observable traits of now vehicle and pedestrian movements. Fast forward another month, about a month ago, we met several business owners with the team from Kimley-Horn and staff and did a walking audit. A walking audit starting one end, going up and down and looking at through the eyes of the businesses who are witnessing what they believe to be some challenges. And on the street during that meeting and part of the partnership was Complete Streets Division Director, Marco Esquivel, which I cannot say enough for his support to where we are. So with that, that is the background. And the last thing before Carl takes over on the more technical elements of the report is that it is, I just want to be clear that this was not a review of the previous construction. It was more of an opportunity to say, "How could this be better?" And what we, what is delivered to you and to the city, are recommendations that we believe would make a really decent project much better. So with that, I'll turn it over to Carl to run through the power. Oh, and feel free to ask questions. We will during the process as we speak. Alright. There we go. Thank you so much, Madam Chair, Councilors. I appreciate the opportunity. As Erick mentioned, I'm with Kimley-Horn. My name is Carl Vermillion. I'm a traffic engineer. I live down in Albuquerque, New Mexico, but I do a lot of work here in Santa Fe. And I'm greatly honored to be a part of the team that looked at this post-operation and safety analysis for North Guadalupe Street here in Santa Fe. So what you can see in front of us is kind of a before and after photo. I know it's kind of hard to see, but essentially, what Erick had mentioned, the roadway went from a four-lane section down to a two-lane section, so one lane in each direction. And that construction was completed last year. That's when Erick and his team approached Kimley-Horn and asked if we would be interested in helping out with an audit of sorts to essentially establish the, establish the, established that the construction of the corridor met anticipated improvement goals and guidelines. So, looking at a couple of things, so multimodal means many modes. Right? So this presentation will focus on bicyclists, pedestrians, and vehicles. So along the, along the corridor, the construction project really focused on bringing several of these things to a better, a better standard. Essentially, the bicyclists, they added bike lanes. So bike lanes were not present on the corridor on North Guadalupe Street previously, and many cyclists are using the corridor even before the construction. So those bike lanes are an important aspect of North Guadalupe Street, and they're being utilized today. This slide shows kind of a before and after. So, Erick's team did a before count of bicyclists, and you'll see several of these slides with volumes. But he looked at bicyclists in 2023 before the construction happened, and then we looked at it again in 2026 this year. So you can see the red line is the 2023 before data, and the blue line is the 2026 data. But you can see we're in pretty similar ballpark of volumes. I will say, the 2026 actual, you can see some of the peaks from the 2023, and some of those volumes today are a little bit lower. In all, in the whole day, looking at the volumes, we're looking at there's about 20 less cyclists using the corridor a day, which is interesting. Although, from a safety perspective, it's very important because even before and now, there's quite a number of cyclists using it. I have the numbers. So in 2023, it's 139 in a day, and today, it's 118. So critical infrastructure that promotes safety for those users. So what Kimley-Horn wanted to do with this study is really point out things that did, things that were great about the project, and some things that really could be beneficial in the future to incorporate more safety, to separate cyclists, enhance these features on the roadway. So I mentioned the bike lanes were a great improvement. Six-foot bike lanes throughout the project today. Some things that could be beneficial in the future. So you can see this photo in the bottom of this slide. There's areas of the corridor where they didn't have enough room to add, offer area of bike lanes. So, essentially, out there, they have bike lanes, which is great. But additional infrastructure, additional space would be great to have. I know there's definitely some constraints along the roadway, but my first bullet point is physical separation. So we're talking, like, flexible delineators to add, like, a vertical element in the future, just to make sure that vehicles have their space and bicyclists have their space and their two definitive separation. And then another thing, so Erick had mentioned this walking on it that we did in July. And several crossing opportunities of bicyclists crossing North Guadalupe to get in the appropriate bike lane. So, of course, you ride with traffic in typical bike lanes. There, so on this roadway, it's difficult because I mentioned there's only one lane of traffic in each direction. So the volume of vehicles is a little bit more in each lane, so it's more difficult for a, for a cyclist to cross the road. So I, I'll get to it here in a minute too with pedestrians, but there's kind of cross, cross elements, if you would. So I'll talk about the mid-block crossings for a minute, but bicyclists are more than, more than happy to use those, and they're provided for them as well. So there we go. So now we'll talk about pedestrians. So one of the main focuses of pedestrians was making ADA accessible design. So in this corridor, you, you may all be aware, but prior to construction, there, you can see a photo of one of the, one of the, one of those sidewalks, prior to construction. There were utility poles, walking, accessibility throughout. Now today, a lot of that, a lot of that infrastructure is, is wider. The sidewalks are all six-foot. They're ADA compliant. They, they meet the requirements for, for ADA. One of those things I mentioned, wider sidewalks. Another thing, so I already talked about the bike lanes being an addition. Because of the bike lanes, there's actually a little separation between vehicles and, so because of that bike lane there, have a little bit of separation there. I mentioned two new mid-block crossings along North Guadalupe Street. One closer to Paseo De Peralta and one down close to Johnson Street on the south end. And, along the lines of those mid-block crossings, there's also updated signalized crossing, meaning pedestrians can push, push button, and they're, they're signalized. So it allows pedestrians to have a movement just dedicated to crossing. Although some of those phases with vehicles are still there, they have provided for, what they call it now. So LTI is a leading rescue. So they push the push button, and they're provided a, a certain time to go out in front of any movement in the box, which is great. So here's one of those, another one of those data slides. So this one's for pedestrians. So similar colors and similar results. So a little bit, a, a little bit fewer pedestrians along the corridor. And we, we thought along with, throughout this process, so we're about, about a year out from the end of construction, and we think that monitoring these in the future, I did that because we feel like they're still kind of balanced. Everybody's trying to still figure out how to, how to travel. Right? So, and with the pedestrians, so I mentioned the full-day numbers of bicyclists or pedestrians. There was 1,318, 1,318 pedestrians back in Flint. Today, there were 950. So either they're finding new alternative routes, or they're kind of, you, you can have a variability from day to day. It's hard to, it's hard to really pick out what exactly it is. Perhaps even back in 2023, there was a, or something happened that day when they took those counts. So one of the, one of the things that we noted, so that little table on the bottom, so we wanted to count how many pedestrians were actually crossing Guadalupe. The very top row is the mid-block crossing that's closer to Paseo De Peralta. The very bottom row is the mid-block crossing that's closer to Johnson Street or just north of San Francisco Street. And then the middle one, as part of this design, they actually designed three mid-block crossings. One of them, through the construction process, wasn't able to be built. But we were curious at that location where they designed one, are there pedestrians still utilizing it? So you can see the numbers kind of show that 35 people chose to still cross the street where there was not a mid-block cross, which if you think about it for a whole day, 35 people, that's really not a lot, but we want to be considerate. There were probably reasons during the design why they chose the block crossing there. And my professional opinion is that as businesses develop, the corridor kind of develops back to what it is post-construction, with new businesses and things, that might be a thing to keep an eye on. And it's important because what we don't want to happen is a lot of global class mid-block there. So, a point to point out here is that that section where there isn't a mid-block crossing, it's only about 300 feet where a traffic signal or someone. So it's kind of an element of a pedestrian just choosing to cross because it's quicker for them than going to a safer alternative traffic signal. A couple of improvement opportunities that we noted for pedestrians. So I already mentioned this, monitor the conditions at the mid-block crossing that didn't hit at Jefferson and McKenzie. So that's that photo there. So there's a median there today. So, essentially, that median, I'll talk about the median a little bit when I talk about vehicles too. But, essentially, the median makes it a little more difficult for us. Things like that. So second bullet point, install a median. Pedestrian refuge median will improve processing speed. So that bullet point is more for the pedestrians that are crossing in seas. So, Erick Aune and his team did a roadway safety audit back in 2014. And one of the considerations was to decrease the amount of time that the best to start. At that intersection, I have a long time. And it's not possible because the radius of the intersection and the geometry of the intersection pedestrian didn't there. So we feel like a little pedestrian island in the middle would be a great benefit for pedestrians especially. What is RRFB? Ah, yes, that's a great question. So RRFB is Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon. So one of those photos of the crosswalk sign, so the little flashing lights underneath. So one of the things that weren't installed as part of the project was little flashing indicators when a pedestrian is ready to cross. So, essentially, a pedestrian comes, pushes the button, and these light up. They light up, one at one and then the other. And you can put them so that there's one in the median, one on the side of the road and make it much more apparent that the pedestrian is actively ready to blast. I mean, that's one of the things we actually saw as part of this study is that the vehicle compliance rate wasn't super great. And we feel like an RRFB, so the Rectangular Rapid Flashing Beacon, is something that's easily installed on the existing poles and really brings out that there's the best. And then the last two bullet points are install wayfinding signage. So, essentially, I talked about pedestrians wanting to just cross the street because it's the easiest, quickest route. With wayfinding signs, it kind of points pedestrians to where the biggest generators are. So where does a pedestrian really want to go? It's easy for a pedestrian to just cross the street, but with signage in place to point them to the appropriate place where to cross, where to maneuver, things like that. It brings a lot more compliance rate for pedestrians across the right places. And then, the last one right in the middle. Sorry, I'm kind of going out of order, but that's okay. Install advanced pedestrian crossing warning signs. So that's that other little crosswalk sign that's up there. So today, there's just the crosswalk signs right at the mid-block crossings. And some of the geometry, so there's a curve in the road at one of those crossings, which makes it difficult to see when a pedestrian is waiting. So with these advanced signs, you get to know that there's one coming, but also with the flashing beacons, it brings a lot more awareness. What we're trying, our goal is really to make it safe. Last thing is the vehicles. So a couple of things were added with the project, with construction. So I mentioned the medians. So with the medians, it actually closed off some of the access to some of these businesses, but it pointed vehicles to more appropriate ones, like left turns. This created more of an area at signals where we want people to. So with how it was previously, it was kind of opened, and you could make left turn maneuvers wherever you'd like. And when you do that, it creates more conflict with vehicles, which we were trying to avoid. So with the construction project, they did that. So, that was one great improvement that they did. The second one, we already talked about. They reduced it from a four-lane road to a three. So that's a two-lane section in the middle. And then the biggest improvement along the road is the street light. And the street lighting, I should mention, is bicycles, pedestrians, vehicles, all of the above. So street lighting really makes it safer for all. So similar results from the vehicles. So there's a little bit less vehicles on the road on North Guadalupe today as well. And so that kind of leads us to think, like, yeah, maybe something was happening that day, some kind of strange result. So it's typical to do traffic counts occasionally on roadways to kind of monitor what's going on. But the other thing, so the graph on the bottom right there, so we checked the speeds of both prior to the construction and after the construction. And this is important because North Guadalupe is supposed to have a 25 mile per hour speed limit with a school zone in the middle, which has flashing lights and, yeah, during certain. So we did our speed counts, not bearings. So what we were focused on, I don't know. Our, so you can see before, well, that's the red lines. Speeds were 31, 39, and five. So we did this at four different locations. And people going a little higher than the speed limit. What the project wanted to do, so they did this during the project. So after construction, we wanted to look at this again if what they constructed is helping. You can see that with the at the north, just north of Alameda, southbound, that's the very top line. It was significant. It made a big dip. So it was previously the, so I should explain what the 85th, the 75th. So 85% of all the vehicles driving. 31 miles per hour. 85% of vehicles are driving. After it decreased down to 24, that area. All the rest of the areas, so northbound, just North of Alameda, southbound, the El De Peralta, and northbound, that's the El De Peralta. All saw an increase just slightly. We're talking one, one and a half miles per hour faster. So what we really wanted to consider is what kind of elements, what kind of things can we do to that's this. So one of the things, so the sign that's on the bottom right of the screen of feedback, essentially telling people what their speed is, that flashes, things like that. They have a lot of different products out there that you can install. But there's a speed limit sign posted out there today, and I feel like not many people are, most people are driving faster. So that's the first thing. The other thing, so I mentioned these mid-block crossings. There's opportunities to implement raised crossings. So that means it's like a speed bump. So, essentially, the crosswalk is at the same elevation as the sidewalk as well. But vehicles have to go over this. That will essentially slow down the vehicles. That will result in more compliance, having speeds. And, again, I mentioned the wayfinding signage because one of the things that we noticed was because the medians were added, there's more U-turns at some of the locations, at some of the city, which if you know most kind of tight, there some of those areas aren't met. There are U-turns. There's on the floor. So one of those things we want to do here is provide wayfinding signage where they can. And then I already mentioned the feedback signs. So a lot of great opportunities to increase awareness of safety, increase awareness of cyclists, pedestrians, and make sure that vehicles are doing what they should. So I'm up for any questions that you have. Thank you. Are there any questions or comments from the committee? Yeah. Councilor Malle? Thank you for that. I, when I bike to work, that is how I come. And I have to say that the fact that you can't turn at Jefferson and McKenzie onto Guadalupe, and you basically can't cross any part of that, along Guadalupe or across Guadalupe on foot is real bad. So, like, I have to take a different route home, essentially, just so that I can turn left to get back on Guadalupe from here. And if you're walking north or south on Guadalupe and you're on the east side of the street, yeah, like, a pedestrian refuge and crossing there, I think, would, and the crossing that you could use on a bike. I'm very confused why we don't have turns at the streets, like at Jefferson and McKenzie and at Water Street. That seems, it's like my brain can't really wrap my head around that. Like, I understand not being able to run a business, but on the streets is weird. No, it is tricky. So I know that during construction, they had a lot of, had a lot of where, what, where were the locations that were really driving the left? And I feel like the cross. So it was kind of the mix of what seems right. That's kind of why. Because there wasn't a huge, people. I get that, but I feel like you should be able to turn onto a street at least as a bike. You know? I just, I don't need that much space. I need to be able to turn. And, and, yeah, like, the, I know that Jefferson is not that far from from Katrin, but if you're trying to go mid-block and you're on the wrong side of Guadalupe and you're a pedestrian, like, you're like, oh, cool. I'm going to go even further and then crossing. No one's going to do that. Those, those are those 35 people who are crossing the middle of the block. Well, that's my super helpful feedback. All right. It's definitely, I, I heard that it was very different. Very channel. Yeah. And I, I've heard from business owners both on Water Street and across from McKenzie and Jefferson that they were on Water Street, they had no idea that they weren't getting a turn, like, that they would, folks would be prevented from turning in. And the folks close to McKenzie were told that they were getting a crosswalk. So, that, I guess it was in the plan and disappeared. Be nice if we could get that. Yeah. And a pedestrian refuge at that weird, it's the K intersection if you're looking at it, would be great because, yeah, it's, it is really far. And there's cars, like, in three directions. It's super weird. Thank you, Councilor Feghali. Councilor Faulkner? Did you do any, like, deep dive into lessons learned about around communicating with the community on this project? Madam Chair, members of the committee, absolutely. The, the deep dive was a result of the, I would submit, the public meeting that occurred last summer where the business owners, the end event. There were two elements about that. It was a presentation from the technical side of the delays were caused by X, Y, and Z because of a line break and human bodies being found and a lot of different things that were unforeseen. And the second part of that was a recognition that in the future, and I'll pick on Cerritos Road when they've been tearing that up and redoing that, in the future is a recognition that there needs to be a little bit more, if not a lot of bit more, engagement with the businesses. So they have someone or a group of team who they can go to and not rely on Cody, who was the project manager, even though he had the information, he was so busy trying to fix things in the street that he was not in a position to engage those businesses. So, yes, lessons learned, deep dive. We also have submitted to the Office of Economic Development a conversation about, for example, when Cerritos Road begins to close from Saint Francis to Saint Mike's, not if, but when, that we go above and beyond what, no picking on traffic engineers, what they have provided. And what does that look like? Well, it establishes, first of all, the project engineer team will establish a website. But moreover, it's who is on staff with the city. Someone can call and not get a busy signal and get some immediacy. That was one of the, what I found is really fantastic. And Carrie's here too. She can speak to this, about this post project was listening to the business owners. What was her biggest grief is not being listened to. Powerful to be able to spend time listening and then being honest. And the team that built this did their best being honest, but there wasn't that availability through the human-to-human con. So, yes, big lessons learned. And one thing that I don't understand why the city doesn't do what I'm about to mention more is the use of QR codes. Our website is in willful need of a rework. But there are QR codes. A lot of people in the public can just zap them as they're going by and then have some kind of messaging available where people could leave opinions or whatever. We need to start using technology a little bit more for some of this. And I do definitely think it was unfair to Corey that he was the tag on the communications with the community because that really was a huge job. If there's anything I can do to help, I'm more than willing to help. I started as a community activist. I've worked on projects, not in the transportation sector, but on other projects where there's some tricks to engage in community that are very effective, and there's some that are not. And so if there's anything you do to help, I'm more than willing to help. But I do think communicating with community way in advance and allowing some of the more passionate members of the community to be a part of some degree of the decision-making can alleviate a lot as we go through the committee process. So those are just my comments. Thank you so much. Thank you, Councilor Faulkner. Any other comments, input? Thank you so much for the detailed report. It sounds like there's things that we could work on and continue to improve on. I think there's people here that'll push to make that happen. So that'll be great. Thank you so much, Erick. You guys have a great evening. Just a quick, what's next? Oh, yes, please. So we have submitted to Marcus Esquivel essentially the list of potential improvements, which is pretty lengthy and solid. So we're going to be working with the Streets Division on a strategy for prioritizing them. And then how we're going to fund. And so that's next up. And if all goes well, good job. Yes, thank you. Good job. And reach out to us if you need anything, if there's anything we can do to support that work. Alright. Thank you so much. You guys have a wonderful evening. Next presentation is going to be Presentation on Wastewater Management Division. Michael Dozier is here, Wastewater Management Division Director. Madam Chair, members of the committee, good afternoon, evening, I should say. So I wanted to go through and talk a little bit about Wastewater Division. We're not only the wastewater treatment plant, but also the collection system, everything to get all the sewer water to the actual plant. So we'll start off with the collection system of what we've been working on. The collection system staff monitors the system continuously, clearing blockages, any calls that come out, repairs in the lines. Some of the stuff is contracted out because it's just way larger than our crew could take care of. And I have some notable slides in the next couple. So Alpha Saint Francis between Alamo and Camino De Las Cruzitas, basically about 300 feet of 12-inch line that had to be encapsulated in concrete since it was in that arroyo section. So we did the upper part of that line was the edge of Calle Mejia all the way back up into that, I guess their apartments, I believe, the lofts. Back from that area all the way over and down all the way to West Alameda, we did what we call pipe bursting. This segment, we could not do pipe bursting and had to have it encased concrete because it is also the Royal Flow area that's right there in that little, that little piece between Saint Francis and there's a little dirt pathway in the back. And that whole area had to be taken up, and we couldn't just drop a line in there because we'd run the chance of it floating up to the top and coming out on a major flood or something. So you can see in the picture, it's roughly about 15 feet down where the pipe was put in. And then that whole section, those of the gentlemen are working on putting footing, siding to fill that whole entire area with concrete. We actually left the second layer up to about two layers of those Jersey barrier blocks. We just poured the concrete and left those in there. It's basically the back portion of the concrete. But the project probably went about maybe four months and cost around $200,000 just for that segment. The next one is off of a hospital or Saint Michael's right on the edge of the hospital. The one of the bottom turns in. That was a really difficult project. And since I started in 2019, we've had issues with that line, and we've been trying to get that corrected. And it was a real big relief to see all of that get done because we didn't, we don't have to be in there anymore. Both sides are really tough to get into. Now we, we segmented it out and made it to where we have clean, easy pathway in on both sides, and the job is pretty much all complete. There is one issue that was the contractors on the other side of the hospital. They were putting in the lines, and one of the parts where they were excavating dug up a large power line, and that had to get blocked off. And the power line will get replaced and repaired. But we haven't, we haven't finished that. We're, we're not the power people, so we let them deal with it, and we'll get that taken care of. But that replacement area was around $430,000. This next project is the interesting one, and it's kind of funny that Councilor Faulkner, you were talking about wanting us to use technology. This is probably the coolest thing that we've found for sewer systems that is just amazing the information we can get from it, and it's helpful in that the next, the next ten years, it'll take probably about three or four years to get the rest of the entire sewer system done. But what this SLRAT is, is two units, one ascending unit, one receiving unit. They set it into the, they set it into a manhole on either side, and the signal runs through the manhole while the receiving unit picks up that signal. And if it's not perfect, then it gives you some amount of problematic issues inside of the line. So if there's a piece that's collapsed or you have a root or is there some kind of blockage, this equipment will find it. So how this helps us is all the segments that we're taking care of. Right now, we, we started off that we basically chose Saint Francis and everything east of Saint Francis. We're running this system and checking everything. What it does is it turns into, it can classify our lines of either zero blockage, which means we don't have to go and look at it for another year, and there's no issue that we'll look in there. Has some, some manageable blockage that can be cleaned out by us or some other catastrophic blockage that needs to get cured and taken care of by either contractors or us depending on the size of the job. What this will do for us is this whole segment that is basically this neighborhood and everything towards Saint Francis, it's our older areas, it's our more problematic areas, but we won't have to go in and clean every single line in a blocked out segment, like, say, in the yellow section. We won't have to come in and check every line and run cameras or run cleaning equipment through every line if it doesn't need it. So we can focus more on the problematic lines and the problem areas, and it, it keeps, it keeps our operators moving quicker in that aspect that they don't have to do every line, but also that there, it should help us with any kind of blockages that turn into payouts in the end because it flowed into someone's home. Well, this is, it's really exciting to get something that's an actual equipment that is, you know, simplicity. You can even see it there. It's funny that it collects the data in three minutes or less. It takes us longer to open the manholes and get in the, get in that area than to drop the equipment in and run the test. So, The, when I went on tour of the wastewater treatment plant, you guys were talking about this technology. I'm so excited that we have it as it saves so much time and money. It is really amazing technology, and I'm glad we got it because I was kind of excited about it when I went on the tour. Yeah, it is exciting, and it's something that, it's something that changes the game for us because you don't have to go out and clean every single line or run a camera through every line when you have something like this that has just told you that, hey, it's perfectly fine. Move on to the next segment. So the one issue that we do, that we have had with it in this area is the upper part above City Hall or going towards, like, Hyde Park area, a lot of the dirt road locations have been very difficult because some of our manholes on those dirt road locations are two or three feet underground because the dirt just gets keeping packed on and they resurface it and then they'll throw some more dirt on it. But our manholes never get risen to get out of the dirt partially because we don't want the blades to hit them when they're doing the roads. So it's kind of a trade-off, but it's been a little longer time and we've got actual other, the employees out there helping the contractors that we're using to uncover and clear all that area. But it's very, very amazing technology. Alright. Let's head into the plant now. Picture on the side with the nice vine growing on it was our old building for our standpipe operator, and that poor thing was pretty beat up. It was from the late eighties, and we got it switched out this year from a company out of Albuquerque actually takes ConX boxes and turns them into offices. So it's small office with a restroom, pretty neat. We literally craned it and put it on top of a piece of cement and you're done. It was pretty simple and easy. We've got our new conference room set up finally. We are waiting on a few things for it, but it's pretty much set and ready to go. And it's been helping a lot in, in our conferences and also in training. So we had a place that we could get every operator into a room, which was really nice. And we have some other projects that are not completed but still all in process. There's a picture there of a clarifier empty. That's one of the things that we're working on, rehabilitation with clarifiers. Today, we had some companies out for an RFP or an ITB that we put out for getting our SCADA network and all of the rest of our fiber wires interconnected. The plant drain pump station was actually completed last week. They finished that. And then we've been rehabilitating a couple of the disc filters and adding variable frequency drives to some of our pumps to actually be able to ramp up and down the pump and not just have to have an on/off, and actually change flows and speeds, which will become really helpful for us. The other thing we did is this past year, we used one of our grants and got 2.2 megawatts of backup power. So we have two 800 kW generators for the actual plant and then another 600 kW generator that is actually just running our UV system. So if power goes out, we can keep all the lights on now. It's really nice. This past fiscal year, we had our challenges back and forth with the E. coli, nitrogen, and phosphorus. But if you look in the graph a little bit into the middle of February on, we've been doing really well with our E. coli results. We've had a couple of spikes, but none of them have been higher than the daily max. And it's been a lot of work that I can attribute to the employees that they've just been working diligently trying to make sure everything is correct and things keep running correctly how we can. Nitrogen values are a little harder to pull in, and a lot of the issues have come from working on everything from having just a little bit more solids than you needed, or it took just too long for solids to get back into the process. Anything can change that. Anything with the nitrogen solids will start affecting the count and the amounts. It's been a little bit of a task to get it there, but we're doing a lot better today than we were on June 1. Now phosphorus is a little bit tougher of a thing to control because you have to have the correct bacteria to make the phosphorus get phosphorus removal. We were previously running a different style of process with our plant. Now that we have more aeration basins and better control of our return flows, we're starting to get a lot better and starting to hold it a lot better. Some of the lower numbers, if you look from February on, that were a lot lower, were times that we were adding a chemical to remove the phosphorus. And lately, we haven't had to be adding the chemical, but we have it on hand if we need it. Two weeks ago, the EPA served us with another administrative order. This is the newest version, or the newest administrative order, and it is from the previous October 25 to June 26. The violations that we've had in that time, the E. coli, phosphorus, and nitrogen, they're all the ones we just spoke through, the nutrients and E. coli. Those were actually doing really well in the past six months. We've been staying within. We also have copper, chlorine residual, and total suspended solids. The chlorine and the total suspended solids were one-time issues. One, we had a pump turn off and the solids went up. It also brought up nitrogen, phosphorus, and E. coli all in the same, so all of them got hit that same instance. And then the chlorine residual is, if we add any chlorine to the system, we have to quench it or make sure it's completely gone before it goes out to the river. So we had one instance that it was 0.12 micrograms, and the limit is 0.11 micrograms. So it was like, really? It was close. The issue that we have with copper, though, is one that we cannot remove at the plant. So instead of trying to figure out how to purchase the biggest and greatest equipment to get rid of the copper, we're going to first start with source tracing. So we're going to be testing segments of the city collection system to see if we can trace back where it's coming from and either stop it or slow it down in some other, some more of the former fashion before it even gets to the plant so we don't have to try to treat it at the facility. And now where are we headed? Retro repair, replace, or some hybrid in between. The RFP was released. We do have a candidate that we're looking to start working with. New facility cost and design and rehabilitation costs, we have a close number for one, not the other. But I'll actually hand it off to Director Roach so he could talk through a little bit about the thought process that we're having with this. Thanks, Mike. So, yeah, just to add a tiny bit more, we do have a design builder that we're working towards a contract with who provided a high-level conceptual scope and number for a new, largely new facility. And we also are working with two of our on-call consultants to focus on, okay, what would it look like if we were to rehabilitate more of the existing equipment, and could we get a reliable solution with that methodology? So right now, this is a little bit crystal ball, but I think we're probably going to have two or maybe three possible long-term solutions that we will cost out to a level where we can have a staff recommendation, but then bring it back to the full governing body, or Public Works and Utilities first, depending on what you all think, so that we can vet it a little bit before we make this decision because we're talking major investment here. The order of magnitude that we may be talking for a large, like, replacing most of the liquid train is $250 to $300 million, and hopefully something more in the $100 to $150 million range on the, you know, repair what we have there, in a manner that we feel would be reliable for the next couple decades. We're talking 20, 30-year solution we want here out of either option. And so we're trying to really bring to bear all the best thinkers we can, the best subject matter experts we can get a hold of to make sure that we have all the information there to really lay out, okay, here are our potential paths forward and then bring it to the policymakers to weigh in and make the final decision. Thank you, Director. I think running it through Public Works would be wise so that we could have a conversation on what would be an option to lean towards going to the final vote. It's such a hard situation because we've been piecemealing this facility for years. I remember when I first took my seat, Director Dozier, you did a presentation, and it was like, it sounds much better now. It's much more positive because you guys have done amazing work in just rehabilitating what you have so that it's at least more functional and it's not like that emergency situation, which was where we existed, what, like, five years ago and all the time before. But it's such a complicated thing because it's like, will the rehabilitation lead us to a situation where we're back to putting out fires because it's not solid? And I feel like this team really deserves a solid solution and an investment in it because of their time and energy that they've just put in all these years. And, yeah, so it would be great to be part of that thought process if you could bring that to Public Works first. But any questions or comments from committee? Councilor Wagner? I just want to comment from the four that I had when I first got on the council to now, you guys have done amazing. And any councilors who have not gone to this treatment facility, it is the most fascinating thing I've ever, like, all the stuff that goes into managing the water and recycling, all of it is, I was shocked at how complicated it was. And the fact that they do it a lot without chemicals is amazing. It is truly worth the visit. You learn so much about what goes into keeping our, like, dealing with our waste as a city. It is complicated, but it is fascinating. And I'm just excited. You guys have come so far even, like, in the two years going on three that I've been on council, it's amazing to see all the advancements you guys have made. You guys should be really proud of yourselves. It's incredible. Any other comments or input? You've been, have our new, oh, well, maybe we do have a meeting in our, in the new, yeah, meeting room. In the new conference, I'm like, what's the name? I'm tired. I'm sorry. But maybe we could do a meeting in the new conference room so that our new councilors, because probably Councilor Barrett hasn't been either. Yeah. It was probably my most favorite field trip when I went because it is. It's like a giant science experiment and the way they walk you through and just all of the different things. And then you're thinking, like, one thing could go wrong. And the pressure that is behind the roles of every individual that's there is a lot. And they've had a lot of things and recovered beautifully and just have put so much effort and improvement in this and thought. And so thank you for that. But maybe we do a meeting in October before it, wait, what month are we? We could probably do one at the end of September. Yeah. Absolutely. Last day of August. So, Director Roach and I can look at when to hold a meeting out there. It would be great. Alright. Any other questions or comments? Alright. Thank you so much. Alright. Okay. I'm going to direct it back to you, Director Roach. Do you have anything else to add for this evening? Not on this item. Thank you. On any items? Matters from staff. Yeah. There is a Tassenomas Fall Citywide Cleanup Event coming up on September 19, and that's being organized by Keep Santa Fe Beautiful group. And there is going to be a photo op that morning at Siler Road. Christine and her group are just going to put flyers into your boxes here in City Hall a week from today. So watch for those, and we're hoping some folks will come for that, that photo op. And that's all I have from staff. Thank you. Any matters from committee? Again, matters from chair. Our next meeting is Monday, September 21.