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Costs of steel are drastically up and an identified toxic plume of contaminants from an industry are adding costs to the early stage of construction of the $16 million levee recertification project.

“The county is concerned with bids as the cost of U.S. steel has skyrocketed,” said Shannon Rossman, executive director of Lycoming County Department of Planning and Community Development during City Council’s public works committee meeting Tuesday.

“Steel cost has nearly doubled,” said Jon Sander, city engineer.

One of the bids for replacing relief wells, one of the first repairs needed to certify the levee as sound, came in at $3.7 million, Ross said.

The problem with that is the county has secured a $1 million state Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program grant, which must be used for construction and not the rehabilitation, Ross said. The county estimated the well replacement and repair to be about $2.5 million, she said.

“Some wells near Faxon area are slated for replacement and other wells do require maintenance,” said Ghazoll Motlagh, an engineer with Wood, a company doing design and coordination work on the project.

“We will rebid the project, hopefully, in the fall,” Rossman said.

To reach the relief wells, access ramps must be designed for heavy equipment to get to the sites, Rossman said.

Another concern is the need is to treat any water impacted by a Textron-Avco plume.

“The challenge is these particular contaminants do not attach themselves to sediment and are in the groundwater,” Motlagh said.

The water is likely to be carrying more contaminants such as tri-chlorethylene and bags that filter the water will not capture what is needed, she said.

“We think there can be a possibility to create a treatment train on site and propose that to the state Department of Environmental Protection,” Motlagh said.

Wood’s specialist who worked on the Textron plume suggested a carbon filter to hold the water.

Efforts are underway to see if on-site treatment of any silt water can be done to lessen costs for contractors, she said.

Also, there was an issue with South Williamsport’s side, Ross said.

The consultants looking to bid on the project in South Williamsport were concerned about where the collector system carrying the water from the relief wells was and it required a video of the system, Rossman said.

The recertification of the levee, built by the Army Corps of Engineers, became necessary following strict guidelines from the Federal Emergency Management Agency following the devastating effects of Hurricane Katrina.

Without the certification, those protected by the levee would have to pay for flood insurance, Rossman said.

The levee protects an estimated $4 billion of real estate, she said.