The Finance Committee held a special meeting on 02/05/2025 prior to the Common Council meeting. The one item on the agenda was a request from city staff to approve a resolution authorizing emergency replacement of the sodium hypochlorite tanks at the Appleton Water Treatment facility.
All three tanks are around 25 years old and are suffering leaks and structural compromise. At least two if not all three will need to be replaced. Utilities Director Chris Stempa gave a ballpark estimate of $350,000 to purchase and install replacement tanks. This cost could be covered by unused funds left over from other projects. Additionally, the emergency replacement cost was not expected to impact utility rates.
The committee unanimously approved the request and the Common Council then went on to also approve it during the Council meeting immediately following the Finance Committee meeting.
I’ve prepared a transcript of the discussion for download:
The sodium hypochlorite (bleach) tanks were commissioned in 2001. They are typically expected to have 15 years of life before relining is required. The tanks have been relined but have all experienced pin leaks, and one tank in particular has more extensive issues necessitating extensive emergency repairs in January 2025. Director Stempa told the committee that the outer shell of the tanks were flexing to the point where the interior glass lining was cracking.
The water treatment plant would still be able to function via workarounds if two or even all three of the tanks catastrophically failed, but the issue does still need to be dealt with quickly. Director Stempa said at least 2 of the tanks would need to be replaced this year. He hoped to hold off on replacing the third tank until next year when its replacement could be included as part of another project.
Director Stempa had specifically not included cost estimates in his memo because any number at this point would just be a ballpark estimate. When asked about cost he said the estimate for replacement tanks started at $50,000 for a basic tank which did not include some of the features that they would need. Additionally, that did not include removal of the old tanks and installation of the new ones. He guesstimated that the entire project might cost around $350,000 which could be covered by unused funds left over from other projects.
The nature of the emergency authorization staff was seeking would allow them to take whatever actions they needed to correct the emergency, so they would be authorized to go through the entire purchase, payment, and installation process for the new tanks without coming back to the committee or Council for further approval. However, City Attorney Christopher Behrens noted that while this was a situation on which they needed to act quickly the response did not need to be as immediate as some emergencies; therefore, although there was no requirement for city staff to come back and report to the committee, if there was time then Director Stemp could still do that.
Additionally, Director Stempa told the committee that they were going to be looking at getting tanks that were competitively priced and were seeking quotes from four different suppliers across the country; although he noted that timing in addition to price would also be a deciding factor in who they went with.
Alderperson Denise Fenton (District 6) asked if they replaced all of the tanks at the same time would they end up in a similar situation where everything was the same age and failing at the same time. Was there something they could do to build redundancy into the system?
Director Stempa said that was one of the reasons he hoped to hold off a year on replacing the third tank if possible. Having said that, he added, “It’s really hard to have a replacement scheme or a construction scheme where you would be adding something at a different point in time and then having a replacement schedule, because I can’t think of anything like that, whether it’s rotating equipment or tankage or anything else. It’s not like street pavement, where you can say, I’m gonna target this block and then so much per year. So really it ends up being—and I don’t want to speak badly for how planning has been—but it really is doing a more predictable replacement schedule, and you have to honor that, right? So, one of the things that we’re looking at doing in the next year, maybe later this year, is reevaluating our capital planning at the facilities, whole scale, from the assets on up through operations and maybe even staffing levels.”
The committee voted unanimously to recommend approval of the emergency repair authorization, and the Common Council then also unanimously approved that recommendation.
View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1278591&GUID=7AB92924-ADF1-4A2C-BF99-6E271BCD48A8
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