Background

The City of Bisbee, through its Public Works Department, is responsible for providing wastewater collection services to its residents, including the Tintown community. In 2012, wastewater collection coverage was estimated at 98% through 2,700 sewer connections. All of the collected wastewater is treated at the San Jose Wastewater Treatment Facility, which has a treatment capacity of 1.22 million gallon a day (mgd).

Residents of Tintown do not have access to a centralized sewer system and mainly rely on substandard cesspools and failing septic systems, posing an environmental risk for contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water, as well as a health risk for residents from direct contact with raw sewage and related diseases.

To remedy this situation, the City is proposing a project to expand its wastewater collection system to provide first-time service to Tintown residents.

Description

The project consists of the construction of a wastewater collection system in the community of Tintown and a conveyance system to connect to the treatment plant. The main project components include:

• Construction of a package lift station, with a 5-kilowatt, high efficiency photovoltaic on-grid system to generate sufficient energy to operate the station;
• Construction of a 558-foot force main;
• Replacement and realignment of 1,970 lineal feet of a gravity main;
• Installation of approximately 2,900 ft. of sewer lines;
• Installation of 32 residential sewer connections; and
• Decommissioning of septic systems and cesspools The current treatment plant has sufficient capacity to accept the additional flows from this project.

Benefits

The project will reduce environmental and health hazards associated with inadequate sewage treatment and disposal, thus providing a cleaner healthier environment for local residents. Specifically, an estimated 12,300 gallons a day of wastewater will be collected and treated.