Benicia Community Sustainability Commission will examine multiple funding requests Monday night, including one of its own that would reappropriate money for a second condensate recovery project at Valero Benicia Refinery.

Management Analyst Gina Eleccion wrote Monday that in March 2013, several members of the CSC applied for a $1.3 million water and energy conservation program.

“Specifically, the project is proposed to be funded using some of the funds designated as available in 2014 for the Valero Condensate Recovery Phase 2 (CRPII) project,” Eleccion wrote.

When CSC members submitted the request, the parties to the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee settlement agreement hadn’t met to discuss fund accounting, Eleccion wrote.

“In addition, there were questions regarding the water savings estimates provided in the grant application,” she wrote.

The settlement agreement fund was established for Benicia and Benicia Unified School District use through the Valero-Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement. All parties have agreed to the settlement, which is like a contract for the money’s disbursement.
Money in that account can only be used for specific projects or expenditures.

In 2008, the refinery and the steering committee agreed that of the $14 million settlement account, $200,000 should be spent on air quality monitoring; $50,000 for hybrid cars; $700,000 for trees; $1 million each for a refinery buffer and watershed acquisition; $400,000 for reducing greenhouse gas emissions by Benicia Unified School District; $10 million for water conservation; and $600,000 for Climate Action Plan projects.

In 2010, the pact was modified to allow $2.85 million be spent on the Community Center, $1 million for BUSD and Liberty Campus Community Center and $1.4 million for the Valero Condensate Recovery Phase 1 to save 23 million gallons of water a year.

In lieu of attorney fees, $150,000 also was earmarked for community gardens, a renewable energy manager, energy conservation, a school horticultural program and bicycle racks.

The signatories to the agreement have since agreed to the accounting, and an independent analyst, Zachary Burt, examined the project’s proposed water savings.

The CSC will review the analysis Monday and decide whether to recommend the City Council approve the expenditure, Eleccion wrote. “The issue regarding availability of CRPII funds will need to be addressed by the parties to the Valero Good Neighbor Steering Committee Settlement Agreement.”

The application, submitted by Kathy Kerridge, former CSC chairperson, would be for two separate awards of $650,000 during a two-year grant period, and specifies the money would come only from available Condensate II money.

The project would provide incentives for residential plumbing fixture upgrades; underwrite the exchange of grass lawns for drought-resistant landscaping, often called “cash for grass”; and fund drip irrigation systems in city-maintained landscapes using drought-tolerant plants and irrigation control systems.

It also would pay for a Class A biosolids process that would convert solid waste to fertilizer or a cogeneration system fuel, something the city’s wastewater treatment plant currently can’t do.

During the two years, the CSC proposes spending $80,000 on personnel, $25,000 for a solid waste study, $10,000 for advertising and $1,185,000 for other costs.

Kerridge wrote that the settlement agreement allocates $1.6 million for either the refinery’s condensate recovery project or other water conserving projects, and that the CSC’s project would provide money for high-efficient toilets and washers, lawn replacement and landscaping with drought-tolerant plants, and high-efficiency drip irrigation systems, first to low-income residents and older residents, then to the rest of Benicia.

“Water is precious, water rates are being increased in Benicia and water takes energy to move around our city,” she wrote in the application. “Saving water is a major component of sustainability.”

Burt, a doctoral candidate at Energy and Resource Group at the University of California-Berkeley, wrote a report about the conservation potential of the project.

He wrote that the coupon program through which appliances and fixtures could be upgraded at half the cost, and would benefit local participating companies.

Burt also pointed out that rebates of up to $500 for new toilets or washers “are far higher than those offered by similar programs in other cities.” But he suggested the CSC estimates — that 8,000 homes and 500 businesses would participate and reduce water use by 15 percent the first year alone — was optimistic.

Those estimates “do seem to be higher than might be expected, based on the research literature and past success rates found in other cities,” Burt wrote.

The CSC application also points to greenhouse gas emissions savings the panel links to saving water. Burt wrote that the sources cited in the application come from an environmental impact report for a proposed primate research operation at the University of California-Davis, and that the calculations “are not relevant to the estimation of potential water savings for the proposed conservation program, and should not be considered.”

A different formula for greenhouse gas reduction credited to Climate Action Plan Coordinator Alex Porteshawver “is good,” but Burt wrote the original source of the calculation “most likely” is a 2006 California Energy Commission report. “The water savings estimates put forward by the CSC do not reference an outside source,” he added. “It is therefore unclear on what these estimations are based.”

Burt supplied his own model to estimate water savings he said the program is likely to produce through residential customers only, citing three research reports published from 2002 to 2011 as well as data he obtained from the East Bay Municipal Utility District, which he said “has a proven track record of success, achieving results that are above average among water utilities.”

Burt said the program is more likely to produce water savings of .04 percent, should it be a “poor performer,” up to 4.81 percent annually, or between 1.6 acre-feet and 179 acre-feet.

The CSC also will hear applicants ask for 13 different grants. The largest request is from Valero Benicia Refinery, which is asking for $852,000 for a boiler water conservation project.

Submitted by Vice President and General Manager John H. Hill, the application said the project would improve boiler efficiency while reducing water consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

He wrote it may encourage other companies to save water, too.

The application states that $338,000 would be used for contract services, and $417,000 would be spent on supplies. The rest would cover other costs.

“The refinery has many steam generators or ‘boilers’ that heat water to generate steam for various refinery processes,” Hill wrote.

Currently, water is removed from the system manually to remove concentrated impurities, he wrote. The project would pay for boiler controllers on eight boilers, and a special blowdown valve on one boiler.

Hill wrote that the project would save more than 116 acre-feet of water — 38 million gallons — every year. In addition, the project would lower annual greenhouse gas emissions by 3,796 metric tons, he wrote, citing a 2013 test that he said verified both estimates.

The water savings represents the equivalent of that consumed annually by 347 average family households, Hill wrote.

“The project offers the city a significant annual water savings in a relatively short time,” he wrote. He expected the project to be finished about four months after grant approval.

Hill wrote that many of the Climate Action Plan’s specific strategies are outside the project’s scope. However, he added, “It is clear that the project addresses very important CAP goals.”

Among those are outreach to the public, involvement of industries and other businesses, water and wastewater conservation and greenhouse gas reduction.

“As a resident of Benicia, I am fully aware of the impact the drought is having on our citizens and that the State Water Project (SWP) has indicated it will not be delivering water to its customers.” Hill added that the project’s water savings would reduce the water deficit the city is facing.

Those savings would be documented by a third-party contractor, while Pacific Gas and Electric would monitor greenhouse gas reduction, he wrote.

Among other applications:

• Benicia’s Economic Development Division will ask for $500,000 to continue the Business Resource Incentive Program that lets Benicia Industrial Park companies have their operations analyzed to determine where they can save on energy and water as well as reduce the waste they produce.

The program began April 17, 2012, with Council authorization, and since then the city has reduced costs to 17 companies by $175,000 annually and greenhouse gas emissions by 436 metric tons each year.

• Benicia’s Department of Parks and Community Services wants $153,000 for a water irrigation control system and $46,000 to expand drip irrigation, and the Public Works Department is seeking $20,000 for water-efficient landscaping rebates.

• Benicia Unified School District is asking for $50,970 for CALSENSE, a computerized water management program expected to reduce the district’s water consumption by 25 percent, saving 2.4 million gallons and $8,000 each year.

• Benicia Community Gardens is seeking $105,680 to develop a Benicia Sustainable Backyards program.

• Benicia High School’s ECH2O Academy wants $11,328 so students can design, build and install a solar-powered rain collection system so similar projects could be done at home and schools.

• Solano Resource Conservation District will ask for $48,407.42 for a Suisun Marsh Watershed Education program developed in partnership with Benicia’s school district and the ECH2O Academy.

• Both Benicia Makerspace and the CSC’s Bicycle Benicia are asking for $40,000.

Benicia Makerspace would use the money to open a community workspace where members can build things and have workshops on sustainability, innovation and 21st century manufacturing.

The CSC’s Bicycle Benicia program would use its grant for route signs, bicycle racks, and if liability questions can be answered, bicycle repair and painting to increase ridership in the city.

• The CSC also wants $18,000 to spend on a feasibility study to be performed by Marin Clean Energy to determine whether Benicia would be eligible to join the Marin community choice aggregation that is an alternative energy provider to customers.

• Benicia Tree Foundation has asked for $35,000 it wants to spend to plant 1,000 trees.

In other matters on Monday’s agenda, Martha Amram, WattzOn chief executive officer, and Jon Enberg, director of programs, will ask to modify their company’s residential water savings program contract with Benicia.

The midpoint of their three-year contract has come during a California drought, the two noted in a letter to Eleccion.

“We found that we are doing more home visits than anticipated in the original budget,” they wrote, “but there is capacity in the budget to do even more. By shifting funds from unused line items, we can free up nearly $80,000 that can be used to help residents save water.”

They wrote that the unused money comes from changes in Benicia High School’s participation. “For example, they have not used demonstration project funds,” the pair wrote.

Their proposed revisions would increase home consultations, personalized reports for high water using residents and other changes. “We would like to start on these activities as soon as possible to coordinate with teh home visit program provided by PG&E and Rising Sun,” they wrote. “Our intent is to leverage their outreach funding, this creating a wave of activity in Benicia this summer.”

The Community Sustainability Commission will meet at 6 p.m. Monday in the Commission Room of City Hall, 250 East L St.