Local chamber among seven to receive 2023 Advocacy Champion Award

The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce is one of seven chambers of commerce to receive the 2023 Advocacy Champion Award from the California Chamber of Commerce.

This is the first year the award has been given to recognize chambers for excellence in business advocacy. Representatives of the Advocacy Champion chambers were honored on May 17 during the CalChamber Capitol Summit in Sacramento. “Communities look to their local chambers to be problem solvers for the community,” Nick Ortiz, CalChamber vice president of local chamber relations said. “The Advocacy Champion chambers stepped up to the plate in a big way.”

Advocacy Champions published vote records of their state legislators on key business issues, joined coalition efforts to let state elected officials know about community sentiment on issues of interest to members, voiced the local chamber’s position at legislative policy committee hearings and met with state elected officials on important policy issues.

Other 2023 recipients of the Advocacy Champion Award are Fremont Chamber of Commerce, Laguna Niguel Chamber of Commerce, Lodi District Chamber of Commerce, Orange County Business Council, Roseville Area Chamber of Commerce and Torrance Area Chamber of Commerce. The California Chamber of

Commerce (CalChamber) is the largest broad-based business advocate to the government in California. Membership represents one-quarter of the private sector jobs in California and includes firms of all sizes and companies from every industry within the state. Leveraging our front-line knowledge of laws and regulations, we provide products and services to help businesses comply with both federal and state law. CalChamber, a not-for-profit organization with roots dating to 1890, promotes international trade and investment in order to stimulate California’s economy and create jobs. For more information, www. calchamber.com.

Arcadis given construction management services for Upper Valle de Los Caballos pump station and chlorine tank

Joe Naiman

Writer

Arcadis was awarded the Rancho California Water District construction management contract recently for the Upper Valle de Los Caballos pump station and chlorine tank.

The RCWD board voted 7-0 Thursday, May 18, to approve the professional services agreement with Arcadis, which is headquartered in The Netherlands and has an office in Riverside. The board action authorizes payment of up to $2,376,404.15 for the construction management services.

The Upper Valle de Los Caballos recharge and recovery facility is located in the 42100 block of Winchester Road. The facility has two main sources of recharge water: untreated imported water from the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California which is delivered through the Eastern Municipal Water District at Rancho Water’s EM-21 turnout facility and surface water released from Vail Lake which is subject to availability. The UVDC facility has five large percolation ponds which supply the underlying groundwater basin from the water sources and extract the groundwater from on-site and down-gradient groundwater wells.

A Domestic Water Supply Permit issued by the Regional Water Quality Control Board regulates the operation of the UVDC facility. The permit’s compliance conditions include a requirement for 4-log inactivation of viruses in the extracted groundwater. That treatment involves the addition of chlorine at the individual well sites along with the contact time provided by the available volume in the discharge pipelines which run from the wells to a compliance point established in the permit. Any proposed expansion of the UVDC facility is thus limited by the ability to disinfect the water ahead of the established compliance point.

In 2012, Rancho Water commissioned the UVDC Conjunctive Use Optimization Study which identified four phases of work to expand the UVDC facility to an ultimate recharge flow between 40 and 60 cubic feet per second. The first phase, which converted from gas chlorine to disinfectant generated on-site and increased recharge volume, has been completed as has the second phase which involved two new wells and new recharge piping and outlet structures.

Phase III includes the construction of the chlorine contact tank, a regional pump station, centralized disinfection and associated pipelines. RCWD staff is in the process of finalizing bid documents, and the bid advertisement is expected in mid-2023. Phase IV will construct four new on-site and down-gradient groundwater wells to supply additional recovery water to the Phase III chlorine contact tank and the pump station; construction on one of them will begin shortly and design on the other three has begun.

The new chlorine contact tank will provide the necessary volume to meet the permit requirements under the expanded flow conditions, dissipate entrained air from water produced by the existing UVDC groundwater wells and equalize pump station suction side pressure to allow for consistent and efficient distribution of expanded UVDC flows to the 1305 and 1380 potable water pressure zones. The regional pump station will deliver the higher volumes of supply water to both pressure zones. A new centralized onsite sodium hypochlorite generation facility will produce low-strength sodium hypochlorite for disinfection. Approximately 250 feet of new 36-inch diameter pipeline will convey existing UVDC well flows and future UVDC flows to the chlorine contact tank and the regional pump station. Approximately 1,000 feet of new 36-inch diameter pipeline from the new regional pump station will connect with the existing 1305 Pressure Zone transmission piping in De Portola Road. Approximately 1,000 feet of new 30-inch diameter pipeline from the new regional pump station will connect with the existing 1380 Pressure Zone transmission piping in De Portola Road. Approximately 3,500 feet of pipeline ranging in diameter from 20 inches to 36 inches will redirect flow from four existing downstream wells and ultimately convey flow from the four future wells to the chlorine contact tank and the regional pump station. Improvements to the existing UVDC ammonia station will deliver liquid ammonium sulfate to the new regional pump station for chloramine formation. Approximately 500 feet of new 12-inch diameter piping will be placed along De Portola Road between the existing Well No. 203 discharge piping and the Pauba Road intersection. The work is expected to take approximately 25 months.

RCWD staff issued a request for proposals for construction management services, March 7. Two proposals were received. The Arcadis proposal had the lower requested fee and also had the superior evaluation. Arcadis previously performed construction management services for Rancho Water’s Santa Rosa Water Reclamation Facility Rehabilitation project with the same project team. Joe Naiman can be reached by email at jnaiman@reedermedia. com.