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The city of Portland is moving forward with a nearly $18 million project to construct a treatment facility that will reduce the amount of lead in its drinking water.

The Improved Corrosion Control Treatment project is being carried out to meet the requirements of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency‘s Lead and Copper Rule. The Portland Water Bureau and the Oregon Health Authority agreed to a compliance schedule that requires the facility to be in operation by April 2022.

Portland City Council voted Wednesday to accept a guaranteed maximum price of $17,989,637 from MWH Constructors to serve as the project’s construction manager/general contractor. The global firm, headquartered in Broomfield, Colorado, is the parent company of Stayton-based Slayden Construction Group.

The new treatment facility will be located alongside the Water Bureau’s existing Lusted Hill treatment facility in east Multnomah County. The facility will include a new building to house treatment systems, a utility water pump station, and associated piping and support systems.

The aim of the project is to reduce lead exposure from home plumbing systems by using sodium carbonate and carbon dioxide to increase the pH and alkalinity of the water. The increased alkalinity will improve the stability of the pH, which increases the effectiveness of the treatment and reduces the levels of lead at the tap by decreasing the amount of metals leaching from pipes into the water.

MWH Constructors was selected as CM/GC by an evaluation committee that reviewed three proposals submitted in January 2019. The project’s design process commenced in mid-2018, and construction is expected to commence this summer following execution of the contract.

MWH Constructors has committed to dedicating 25.91 percent of the project’s hard construction costs, or $2,460,409, to firms certified by the state’s Certification Office for Business Inclusion and Diversity (COBID). The project is one of three being monitored by the city’s Community Equity and Inclusion Committee, which provides oversight of Community Equity and Inclusion Plan (CEIP) projects valued between $10 million and $25 million to ensure that contracting and employment opportunities are provided for racial and ethnic minorities, women and economically disadvantaged individuals.

Projects executed under the CEIP have higher participation goals than those that are not. The plan requires 22 percent participation by COBID-certified firms, as well as performance of 31 percent of total apprentice-level labor hours and 28 percent of total journey-level labor hours by minorities and women.

MWH Constructors will self-perform about $4.7 million worth of the project’s hard construction costs, and approximately $9.5 million of remaining work will be distributed through a subcontracting plan in accordance with the CEIP. As part of a pre-construction services contract, MWH Constructors has advertised four early procurement packages for various aspects. The remaining subcontracts will be advertised after a construction contract is executed.

The project is one of two included in the Water Bureau’s Bull Run treatment projects program, which also includes the approximately $800 million Bull Run filtration project. Both projects were included in a Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act loan application filed by the bureau earlier this year; that loan will provide up to $745 million of funding for the projects.