HomeMy WebLinkAboutAgenda Report - November 16, 2005 K-04AGENDA ITEM 141
A% CITY OF LODI
COUNCIL COMMUNICATION
TFC
AGENDA TITLE: Approve "Will Serve" Letter for Potential NCPA Power Plant Project at
White Slough Water Pollution Control Facility
MEETING DATE: November 16, 2005
PREPARED BY: Public Works Director
RECOMMENDED ACTION: That the City Council approve preparation of a "Will Serve" letter for
a potential NCPA power plant project at the White Slough Water
Pollution Control Facility.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION: The Northern California Power Agency (NCPA) currently operates a
small (49 MW) power plant located at the City's White Slough Water
Pollution Control Facility (WSWPCF). This plant uses treated water
from the City's facility for cooling and further treats a portion of the
water for steam injection into the power turbine.
The City's site is being evaluated by NCPA for construction of a second, much larger power plant — on
the order of 250 MW. While this plant would not use steam injection, it would require substantially more
water for cooling, not just because of its size, but its expected operating efficiency would be high enough
that the plant would run many more hours throughout the year.
NCPA is conducting a preliminary feasibility analysis for the facility — a decision on lease and other
aspects of the project are premature, however, in order to further consider this site, NCPA needs to know
if land is available, if the City will make its treated wastewater available to the plant and if we can accept
any discharge from the power plant. These three issues are described separately below.
Land — The power plant would occupy up to approximately five acres out of the City's total of 1,040 acres
and would be located on used lands adjacent to the current plant. Staff does not see this as a significant
issue.
Water Availability — The proposed plant would use approximately 2.3 million gallons per day (MGD) at
the highest days and 1.4 MGD on a typical warm day. Overall annual averages would be lower. The
WSWPCF currently processes approximately 6.4 MGD of domestic waste which is discharged to the
Delta during fall, winter and spring months. During the summer, this flow, plus roughly 2.1 MGD of
industrial waste is used to irrigate the 890 acres of farmland at WSWPCF. While from these figures it
appears there is plenty of water available, staff's preliminary observations are that there would be
shortages of irrigation water during the course of the summer if the power plant operated as much as
indicated. However, staff also believes these shortfalls could be relatively easy to manage and possibly
matte up with utilizing some return flow from the plant, pumping shallow groundwater or utilizing our
water rights to pumping Delta water. Regardless of the irrigation issue, the reduction in discharge
volumes for the rest of the year would be beneficial to Lodi.
APPROVED: /~
Blair King, Ci onager
.hC0UNCILW W 11ServeLet1er,dot 111812005
Approve "Will Serve" Letter for Potential NCPA Power Plant Project at White Slough Water Pollution
Control Facility
November 16, 2005
Page 2
Discharge — The proposed power plant could return approximately 0.5 MGD on the average of "used"
cooling water. This water would be higher in Total Dissolved Solids (TDS), roughly three times as high
as the treated wastewater (444 milligrams per liter - mg/L). This could be an issue for irrigation, but
would certainly be an issue for discharge to the Delta as the current discharge is just below the Delta
water quality TDS standard of 450 mg/L. Commingling the higher TDS return flow with the City's
discharge would raise the TDS to over 500 mg/L. NCPA has indicated they can proceed with the power
plant on a "no return" basis, utilizing heat and evaporation ponds to reduce the return water to solids,
thus City staff does not recommend that we accept return cooling water. Domestic waste from the
support facilities would be acceptable.
Staff recommends that the City issue a cooling water "Will Serve" letter to NCPA for the proposed project
subject to lease terms to be negotiated on a "no return" basis.
FISCAL IMPACT: The property lease and provision of water would be on a market -rate basis
and would cover City costs and financial impacts.
FUNDING AVAILABLE: Not applicable.
Richard C. Prima, Jr.
Public Works Director
RCP/pmf
cc: David Dockham, Interim Electric Utility Director
Del Karlin, Wastewater Treatment Superintendent
Wally Sandelin, City Engineer
J:I000NCIL1051WRIServeLetter.doc 1118!2005