CAPE MAY CITY – Engineering plans and the funding effort for a new, $30-million-plus desalination plant for the city are moving ahead, the City Council has been told.

The engineering and funding work are on parallel paths, consultants for the project told the council at its Dec. 3 meeting. The city hopes to begin the permit process, using preliminary designs, by the end of the year.

One of the consultants also said he has gotten positive responses from potential funding sources.

Cape May’s pioneering municipal desalination plant was built more than 25 years ago, as a response to saltwater intrusion into its wells. The plant also serves the boroughs of Cape May Point and West Cape May and the Coast Guard base and training facility.

But the plant has aged and is increasingly inefficient. Adding to the need for modernization is the growth of the city and its environs. Peak demand in the summer is now at a level that the plant could not handle if its largest well temporarily went out of service. In technical terms, the city does not meet firm capacity requirements set by the state Department of Environmental Protection.

The existing plant was conceived in 1995 and constructed and operational by 1998. With its current limitations all too visible, the city in 2022 approved an award for an engineering contract to CME Associates of Middlesex County.

The plan for the project includes expanding capacity while maintaining the reverse osmosis technology for three wells that make use of the Atlantic City Aquifer. The plans also call for creating space for connection to a new well with a separate reverse osmosis platform if expanding demand requires it in the future.

The city also has a well into the Cohansey Aquifer that will be separately treated to prevent iron infiltration into the water supply.

The project involves construction of a new building adjacent to the existing plant and a complete modernization of the electrical infrastructure.

Capacity expansion and better interconnection will mean the city can respond to the temporary loss of a well, even its largest, under the new design. DEP capacity regulations will be met.

Former state Sen. Nicholas Asselta, founder of a Vineland consulting firm, played a major role in putting together the team that will tackle the project. In addition to CME for the engineering design, Triad Associates was brought in to lead the effort to get grant and low-interest loan funding for the project.

Much of the work to date has been covered by a U.S. Department of Agriculture grant for preliminary design development.

Engineering efforts are on a parallel path with Triad’s work to identify and secure funding. Michael Zumpino Jr. of Triad explained at the Dec. 3 council meeting that currently there are four sources of funds that the project is pursuing.

These are the USDA, which was an early supporter of the city’s desalination efforts, the DEP, the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank and what he termed congressionally directed funding. He also said the Army Corps of Engineers is a potential partner.

Mayor Zach Mullock has frequently said engineering must follow funding, meaning that the city can only go as far in the design of the new facility as funding permits. At the Dec. 3 meeting, City Manager Paul Dietrich added that the time frame within which funding unfolds will determine when bids can be sought on construction of a new building.

Plans call for using preliminary designs to start the permit process by the end of the year.

No hard numbers were used in the discussion as to potential grant amounts from the various funding sources. The schedule is also free-form and subject to significant changes. What was clear is the project is close to initiating final construction plan development. Funding is also progressing with what Zumpino described as positive actions from the potential sources.

A $600,000 grant from the USDA that has funded much of the consulting work to date will be fully exhausted by the time the finishing touches are put on the preliminary design documents. New funding will be needed, probably early in the new year, for detailed refinement of the plans for construction.

Asselta said the current approach calls for one general contractor for construction. He also identified three eventual contracts that he said maximized the chance for finding sources of principal forgiveness. He did not elaborate, but repeated comments made in earlier meetings that the goal is the lowest possible burden on the city’s taxpayers.

Of the three eventual contracts, one would be for the new building and the desalination technology equipment. Another would be for the iron removal portion of the project. The third contract would be used for site work, including solar support of the site’s energy needs.

The design does preserve the over-century-old water treatment building on the property. The historic building’s architecture and brickwork will be copied to develop a similar façade for the new plant, which will sit adjacent to the older building in an area currently used for parking. Beyond the façade, the new building will be of steel construction.

Dietrich put the council on alert that the city will be working to develop new rates that will allow the accumulation of a surplus adequate to cover the city’s matching shares on grants. No mention was made about negotiation of rates and contract lengths for the other municipalities and the Coast Guard center, a subject of previous council discussions about the new plant.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.