Advance Marine Preservation United to coat eight million gallon reservoir

Joe Naiman

Village News Correspondent

Advanced Marine Preservation will be re-coating the Fallbrook Public Utility District’s 8 million-gallon reservoir in DeLuz.

The FPUD board voted 5-0 to approve an $804,060 contract with AMP United for the re-coating of the reservoir located off of Donnil Lane, Aug. 28.

In 2012, FPUD developed a 10-year program to re-coat all of the district’s steel reservoirs to ensure continued service life and avoid more costly replacements. A dive inspection of all tanks identified those which required immediate action to protect the steel from structural damage due to the deterioration of the painting system. The re-coating of the exterior and interior of the tanks protects the steel from corrosion.

“Hopefully our reservoir tanks will be good for another 20 years,” FPUD general manager Brian Brady said.

FPUD staff prepared a bid package for the reservoir, and seven bids were received by the Aug. 10 deadline. The $804,060 bid by AMP United was the lowest bid and is under the budgeted amount of $1,170,000. Simpson Sandblasting had the second-lowest proposal at $908,445.

Previous AMP work for FPUD has been deemed satisfactory. In January 2016, AMP was awarded the contract to re-coat the two million gallon reservoir in DeLuz and the Toyon reservoir near Red Mountain.

A reservoir shutdown will be necessary for the re-coating, so the work will take place in winter months rather than during a peak water usage period.

“It will be done in the next several months when demand is lower,” Brady said.

The rehabilitation work will be complemented by third-party oversight. The FPUD board voted 5-0, June 26, to authorize a new contract with MCS Inspection Group for up to $86,000 which will cover inspection services at the eight million gallon reservoir along with the Sandia reservoir and the 2.8 million gallon reservoir, which are also in DeLuz. The Sandia reservoir is scheduled for re-coating during fiscal year 2018-2019 and the 2.8 million gallon reservoir has a 2019-20 re-coating schedule.

“We bring in specialists,” Brady said. “The inspection services are inspecting on behalf of the district.”

In October 2014, the FPUD board awarded MCS Inspection Group a contract for as-needed coating inspection services for four FPUD reservoirs including the eight million gallon reservoir. That contract had a limit of $96,790, so a new request for proposals was issued. MCS submitted the only bid, which was determined to be satisfactory.