FPUD awards Zak Controls contract for Conjunctive Use Project SCADA services

Zak Controls has been awarded the Fallbrook Public Utility District contract for the supervisory control and data acquisition system programming for FPUD’s Santa Margarita River Conjunctive Use Project.

The Feb. 24 FPUD board meeting included a 5-0 vote to award the Phoenix-based company a contract for $301,738.

“It’s just for all the programming for all the controls and all the automation for the project. It’s basically to help make it so we don’t have to have people there all the time,” general manager Jack Bebee said.

The Santa Margarita Conjunctive Use Project being pursued by FPUD, U.S. Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation will enhance groundwater recharge and recovery capability within the lower Santa Margarita River basin and develop a program which will increase available water supplies for FPUD and Camp Pendleton. The Camp Pendleton infrastructure will include piping to deliver the water to the boundary of the Naval Weapons Station and Fallbrook behind the FPUD solar facility site on Alturas Road. Construction of the facilities from the NWS boundary is FPUD’s responsibility. The water will be treated at the Alturas Road plant and delivered into FPUD’s distribution system. J.R. Filanc and Alberici bid the project as a joint venture and Filanc Alberici JV was awarded the contract in July 2019. A design contract was awarded to Infrastructure Engineering Corporation in October 2014.

The design specified the necessary hardware and software for the SCADA system. Under the contract Filanc Alberici JV procured the equipment while FPUD is responsible for developing and implementing the SCADA system. FPUD staff issued a request for proposals to four SCADA programming consultants and received two responses. The two firms were interviewed by FPUD’s senior engineer, operations manager, senior instrumentation and controls specialist, and construction manager. The review identified the Zak Controls proposal as the one of better value to FPUD, and the district said it had a positive experience working with Zak’s designated project manager in the past.

Joe Naiman can be reached by email at [email protected].