Village Scraps Waste Water Treatment Plant Expansion—For Now

The Village of Mokena was all set to expand its Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP) later this year, but plans hit a snag when bids came in well over budget. After securing all the necessary permits and going out to bid on expansion plans for the facility, the Village Board decided to reject all bids for the potential facility after the low bid came in at $6.9 million.

Currently the Village has $6.1 million in escrow that is earmarked for the new facility.

Village Administrator John Downs did say that the bid process was merely an “exercise in due diligence,” because recent studies by the Village showed that similar projects were coming in, on average, more than 30 percent under projected budgets. He added that Mokena was hoping bids would come in between 25- and 30-percent under estimates.

“We went out to explore the market, optimally, if they would have come back in the range we thought was possible based on what we'd seen, we might be considering authorizing the bid,” Downs said. “We went out because that seemed like a possibility. If we hadn't had that kind of research, then we probably wouldn't have tried to bid it. We just tried to take advantage of what we thought was a good market.”

He added that the current facility can handle up to 2.5 million gallons of water per day, of which the village currently uses 2 million gallons a day. He said that the average three-person home uses about 300 gallons a day.

Should Mokena continue to expand at its current rate, the current WWTP can handle processing for three or four years before expansion is actually necessary, Downs said.

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