The board of trustees discussed a timeline Wednesday morning that would have the cell-membrane plant ready for construction in January 2009 at a Riverton site near 13500 South and the west bank of the Jordan River. The treatment plant was approved two months ago, after the board averted a construction moratorium in the booming southern portion of Salt Lake County by acquiring needed capacity from Sandy City and approving a new plant.

The sewer district submitted its final report to Salt Lake County on Monday. Pending that approval, the report would move on to the state and then it would await a federal OK from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Denver.

The trustees are looking at ways to fast-track its proposal through the bureaucratic processes.

"I estimate it would take about 90 days to get it all accomplished, but I have no idea how long it will take to get through the EPA," said consultant's engineer Ken Spiers. "I think it'll be a rubber-stamp process."

However, Spiers said, the facility was designed to 1970s and 1980s EPA standards, which may have changed.

"But if we have county approval and state approval, there should be no problem," Spiers said.

The district currently has three interested vendors vying to design the cell-membrane plant, including US Filter, Zenon and Kubota.

General Manager Craig White said trustees will visit the top two or three vendors' sites during the second week of May and select a design on May 23. The district would then submit the site-plan application to Riverton in mid-June and complete necessary road construction for access from Bangerter Highway by the end of 2007.

The final design process will likely take a year, which Spiers said was typical to custom build a $130 million facility - but that time frame concerns at least one trustee.

"I was hoping we'd be online by the end of 2009," said Mont Evans, Riverton's former mayor. "It sounds like we're covering ourselves, so why is it taking a year to design?"

sgehrke@sltrib.com