SACRAMENTO, Calif. – The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District awarded a $1.83 million contract Sept. 30 to Au’ Authum Ki, Inc. of Tempe, Arizona, to upgrade a wastewater treatment plant at Fort Hunter Liggett in Monterey County.
The contract consists of two projects. The waste water treatment plant upgrades will replace 30-year-old sewage pumps and motors with new, more efficient pumps and energy efficient motors. The second part of the contract will install fire protection and alarms in the existing building and make other additions such as a new electrical feeder. These upgrades are expected to be completed late fall 2015.
“Replacing the old inefficient motors and controls on the waste water treatment pumps will help the installation achieve net-zero electricity,” said Jerry Iacopini, Sacramento District project manager.
All of this work will prepare the building to house a waste-to-energy system that will generate electricity through incineration of waste products. The waste-to-energy system will be built under a government grant to demonstrate that the technology works in a real world application.
The Army selected Fort Hunter Liggett as one of several installations to achieve net-zero waste and net-zero energy consumption as a pilot program by 2020. By then the installation will create as much energy as it uses, and reuse and recover all of its waste products. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District is helping Fort Hunter Liggett by building several environmentally sustainable projects under the Army’s Energy Conservation Incentive Program.
Au’ Authum Ki is a designated small business under the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Historically Underutilized Business Zone program, known as HUBZone. The HUBZone program provides federal contracting preferences to small businesses in high-unemployment or low-income areas.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Sacramento District provides planning, engineering, project management, environmental restoration and construction services to military and civilian customers in parts of eight western states, including California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Oregon and Wyoming.