Anchorage Assembly votes Tuesday on $4.3 million in water chemicals

Two contracts worth up to $4.34 million would keep fluoride and a clarifying coagulant flowing to Anchorage's main water treatment plants if the Anchorage Assembly approves them at its meeting Tuesday, Aug. 18.

Riverland Trading LLC would supply sodium fluorosilicate to the Eklutna Water Treatment Facility for $162,720 in the base year. Three optional one-year renewals would add $175,608, $191,484 and $211,338, bringing the total to no more than $741,150. Anchorage Municipal Code requires the Anchorage Water and Wastewater Utility to fluoridate the water supply. The utility says it adds fluoride at 0.7 milligrams per liter, a level it describes as the nationally recognized recommendation, and calls the program a public health measure that protects teeth and reduces decay.

Univar Solutions would supply DelPAC 2020, a liquid polyaluminum chloride coagulant, to the Eklutna and Ship Creek facilities through July 31, 2029, for up to $3,601,780. That total breaks into annual costs of $1,148,420, $1,199,380 and $1,253,980.

A memorandum before the Assembly says three bids were opened July 15 for that solicitation, ITB 2026B054. It names Alaska Mill & Feed and Pacific Rim Chemicals as nonresponsive and identifies Univar as the only responsive and responsible bidder. The memo does not explain those determinations. It also does not reconcile them with an earlier Assembly record for the same solicitation that named Alaska Mill & Feed as the recommended awardee at $2,746,380, well below Univar's price.

Both contracts are non-encumbering and would draw from AWWU operating accounts as needed. Eklutna supplies about 92 percent of the water delivered to the Anchorage Bowl and Eagle River, serving roughly 225,000 people through nearly 57,000 accounts.