Council gives OK to effort to fund study of Valero refinery project

Benicia City Council agreed unanimously Tuesday with Public Works Director Graham Wadsworth’s request to seek federal and state grants to fund the first steps that could lead to a recycled water project at Valero Benicia Refinery.

Valero uses half the city’s water, and Benicia has promised to supply the refinery with water for 20 years.

Should the project be built, 2.2 million gallons of treated wastewater could be delivered daily to the refinery for use in its cooling tower. The project would reduce demand on city water by more than 20 percent, Benicia’s 2020 goal, Wadsworth said. Rates that Valero pays for its water could change, because recycled wastewater can be more expensive, he added.

He described the project as a much less expensive alternative to a proposal to use effluent in Valero’s boilers, because water for cooling towers doesn’t have to be as pristine.

Had such recycling started when proposed in 2009, the city might not have had to spend $900,000 on water last year after the State Water Project released only 5 percent of contractors’ allotments, Wadsworth said.

He said if the project is built, Benicia could bank water in Lake Berryessa, then draw on that source during future droughts.

The grants Wadsworth is seeking would pay for a feasibility study and a planning report for the recycled water project. That includes the expense of powering a 98-foot lift to move the water to Valero.

The $303,576 preliminary study and report could be underwritten by a $150,000 Federal Bureau of Reclamation Title XVI Water Reclamation and Reuse Program WaterSMART grant, for which Wadsworth applied March 3, and a $75,000 California Water Resources Control Board Water Recycling Funding Program Water Facilities Planning grant. That application is in the works.

The city’s Wastewater Connection Fee Fund would pay for the remaining $78,576.

Mayor Elizabeth Patterson, who removed the item from the Council’s consent calendar so it could be considered separately, said, “I support the whole process.”

She said her action meant the public could hear about the proposed project’s importance.

Noting that Benicia and the rest of the state is dealing with a severe drought, she added, “I support the diversification of our water portfolio.”

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