Program Management Services for the Palmdale Regional Water Augmentation Program

The Palmdale Water District (District) is accepting proposals from qualified, experienced professional engineering firms for the program management and engineering services for the Palmdale Regional Water Augmentation Program (PRWAP). The District entered into an agreement to purchase 5,325 acre-feet of tertiary water from Palmdale Water Reclamation Plant owned and operated by Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County, District 20 (LACSD 20). Initially the District was pursuing a recharge and recovery project and recently completed the drilling of a test well at the recharge area which resulted in recharge rates much lower than previously modeled. Based on the information collected for the project, the project has been pushed to the future and water augmentation project has determined to be more suitable for fully utilizing tertiary water. District staff hired a consultant to evaluate the feasibility of utilizing tertiary water from Palmdale Regional Water Reclamation Plant of LACSD 20. The feasibility study examined the treatment train systems that make up the Advanced Water Purification Facility (AWPF). The feasibility study examined the utilization of tertiary water for either groundwater or surface water augmentation. The report can be found here . The result of the project for this phase is to complete the initial studies required to confirm the aquifer is suitable for the groundwater injection, update the Bureau of Reclamation Feasibility report with the water augmentation alternatives, submit funding applications, obtain environmental and regulatory permits, complete demonstration facility documents and testing, create the bridging documents for progressive design-build (Design complete to the 15- to 20-percent level), and prepare a request for qualifications of the design build teams, assist and participate in the design build team qualification and selection, and subsequent request for proposal documents for the design build process. The District desires to construct a 1.0 million gallon per day (MGD) demonstration facility which will transition to be used as a learning center, brine minimization study, and finally the full scale facility including injection wells. The Antelope Valley aquifer is an adjudicated basin and information can be found in the "Resources" section on the Watermaster's website . The detailed scope of work for the program management services can be found here . The program management firm will act on the behalf of the District as a technical reviewer and leader of PRWAP. Separation of the program manager from the design tasks is important to District. The proposal must clearly demonstrate the separation is clear by identifying what tasks the primary firm is performing and clear separation. If proposer intent on proposing on the completing the full scope of work, proposer must clearly describe how the separation of the work will be performed. Below is the approximate schedule of the project. Phase 1 of Program Management is identified below. The District may or may not continue with the Program Management firm into Phase 2 based on whether the performance during Phase 1 meets the District's expectations. The District is moving towards a web-based project schedule software called SmartSheet (www.smartsheet.com) for tracking projects with outside firms to maintain updated a project schedule. It is requested that the selected consultant use this software to develop a cost loaded schedule for the project. The District's current software operating system is Microsoft with the Microsoft suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint). The Palmdale Water Reclamation Plant of LACSD 20 currently provides primary, secondary, and tertiary treatment for a design capacity of 12 million gallons of wastewater per day (MGD) and serves a population of approximately 150,000 people. The Palmdale WRP Facilities Plan can be found here . The treatment system is presented in the figure below. The Antelope Valley region has a salt and nutrient management plan, Salt and Nutrient Management Plan for the Antelope Valley The Palmdale Regional Water Augmentation Program strategic goals are the following. Schedule - maintain the program schedule to get the full scale facility funded and under construction by 2025 Outreach - build a understanding of water purification system, water augmentation and the natural water cycle Grant funding - obtain grant funding to decrease the financial commitment of the District's current and future rate payers Regulatory Approvals - obtain the necessary regulatory approvals to move the project forward in a timely fashion