To:
From:
Re:
F. Motion:
Attachments:
Discussion:
City of Nashua, Public Works Division
Board of Public Works Meeting Date: February 29, 2016
David A. Simmons, Superintendent
Wastewater Treatment Facility
Long Term Management of Wastewater Biosolids
To approve the award of the three year contract for the Long-Term Management of
Wastewater Biosolids to Casella Organics of Concord, NH, in the amount of $1,212,030.
Funding will be through: Department: 169 Wastewater; Fund: Wastewater; Account
Classification: 54 Property Services.
Long Term Management of Wastewater Biosolids Bid Comparison
The wastewater facility operates an anaerobic digester, which digests both primary and
secondary sludge. The biosolids that are generated are designated Class B Biosolids after
anaerobic digestion. The facility requires a service provider to remove the dewatered sludge
cake from the premises. This removal is required to be in an environmentally sound manner
and be in accordance with all applicable federal, state and local laws, rules and regulations.
Requests for Proposals (RFP) were solicited from several firms on January 5, 2016 and the
offering was posted on the City’s website under reference document RFP1088-020416.
_ There was a mandatory pre-bid meeting held on January 19, 2016 with four vendors in
attendance. Pricing was requested for a three-year period on a per wet ton basis. Additional
pricing for removal of biosolids was requested for three additional one-year extensions and
for emergency removal of non-Class B biosolids.
Bids were received from two contractors as follows:
Casella Organics Concord,NH $40.90/wet ton
Resource Management, Inc. Holderness, NH $42.00/wet ton
The NWTF processes approximately 8,900 wet tons of biosolids using the newly installaed
sludge dewater equipment. It was stated in the RFP that the initial contract award shall be
awarded based on unit price per wet tons of biosolids for the three calendar years. This
results in a bid amount of $1,092,030 from Casella Organics versus a bid total of $1,121,400
from Resource Management, Inc. for three years.
In addition, it was determined that per industry standards, the use of diesel fuel surcharge
price adjustment was appropriate to protect the City from higher bid prices due to
uncertainties of future costs of diesel fuel, especially for long-term contracts. An additional
$20,000 allowance is added to contract amount to cover this cost. Also, there needs to be an
allowance to account for process upsets in which the dewatered sludge does not meet Class B
biosolids standards and the plant must pay the service provided extra costs to haul off non
Class B biosolids. An additional $100,000 is included for these situations.
References for Casella Organics have been checked and found to be satisfactory. Based upon
the submitted bids, we recommend awarding this three year contract to the low bidder,
Casella Organics of Concord, NH in the amount on $1,212,030.
