Veolia Water North America Celebrates Forty-Year Relationship With The City Of Burlingame

Under its groundbreaking contract, Veolia oversees the city's wastewater treatment facilities, which includes a 5.5 million-gallons-per-day (MGD) activated sludge treatment plant, a lift station, landfill gas collection and treatment, the land application of 475 dry tons per year (dtpy) of biosolids, and a stormwater pollution prevention program. Additionally, Veolia oversaw the installation of a new co-generation power system that creates electricity onsite by using methane gas naturally produced by the wastewater treatment process.

The company has also assisted in the management of significant capital improvements to the plant infrastructure, including an $11.2M reliability improvement project, a $6.5M storm water retention basin installation, and a $330,000 centrifuge installation.

Of the partnership, City Manager Jim Nantell remarked during Burlingame’s Aug. 20 City Council meeting that, “If you take a look at all of our cost centers in the City and you take a look at how they have grown or not grown, Veolia has kept the costs down bar none - beyond anything else we’ve been able to do in the City. They’ve been a great partner and we appreciate it.”

In addition to operational excellence, Veolia has lent strong philanthropic support to the community of Burlingame. Local plant staff and leadership have worked with Burlingame High School to establish a Sewer Science Course and awarded $30,000 in scholarships to school students. For the past 11 years, the company has sponsored the Bay Front Clean-Up, which has resulted in the removal of more than 70 tons of debris in that period. In August of this year, Veolia presented a $5,000 check to sponsor Burlingame’s free Music in the Park Concert Series. The company stepped in nine years ago to support the popular event on an annual basis when finances threatened to shut it down.

“This anniversary marks a very important moment in the history of water treatment,” said Laurent Auguste, president and CEO, Veolia Water Americas. “Burlingame literally pioneered an entirely new model for providing important environmental services to cities. This partnership has helped establish greater synergies between public employees and the companies that are constantly creating and evolving new technologies and services. The public-private partnership model that was launched there in 1972 has since expanded in many directions, ensuring a wide range of solutions-driven partnership models designed to meet the different needs of cities. From New York City to Honolulu, the public is benefiting from these collaborative partnerships. We’re obviously very pleased to say that it all began in Burlingame.”

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