Veolia Wins Operations Agreement for Washington Wastewater Plant

After successfully completing the design and construction of Cle Elum, Wash.'s regional 3.6 million-gallon-per-day wastewater plant, Veolia Water North America -- West LLC (Veolia Water) won unanimous city council approval to operate the new facility for 10 years.

As part of the $4.6 million contract, Veolia Water will startup the new facility later this year, transition operations from the existing wastewater plant to the new facility and provide operations and maintenance of the new asset.

In September 2003, Veolia Water won a $14 million contract to design and build the new regional wastewater plant. The company completed construction ahead of schedule and on budget while maintaining an exemplary safety record over the 18-month construction period by working more than 40,000 hours without a single lost-time accident.

"Veolia Water demonstrated the benefits of the design-build approach to municipal facilities construction, and its operations will bring a best-value to not only the City of Cle Elum's customer base but also to our partners in this project, thereby benefiting the entire Upper Kittitas County region served by the new facility," said Erin Anderson, Cle Elum city attorney and project manager.

The new regional plant supports the needs of the surrounding communities of Cle Elum, South Cle Elum and Roslyn, including Suncadia, a 6,000-acre resort community on the Cle Elum River.

"The successful partnership we shared with Cle Elum designing and building the new facility while operating the city's existing facility clearly paved the way for this longer term agreement," said Chibby Alloway, president, Veolia Water North America -- West LLC. "While our contract was not structured as a design-build-operate agreement, Cle Elum's value-based selection clearly demonstrates the benefits of having one contractor oversee the entire process to create better synergy, improved delivery of service and overall cost efficiencies."

Source: Veolia