Aug. 29--STAMFORD -- As public scrutiny of the city sewer agency's multimillion dollar waste-to-energy project continues, a committee has chosen auditors to review the plan's technical and financial feasibility.

The project aims to build an energy plant to power the city's water treatment facility through gasification of dried wastewater sludge. Last week, a Water Pollution Control Authority subcommittee selected Aecom, a Los Angeles-based environmental and energy support services company, to review the technical feasibility of the project. The committee selected HDR, a consulting firm based in Omaha, Neb., to review the project's financial feasibility.

The WPCA has not yet negotiated the cost of the contracts, said Jeanette Brown, executive director of the agency.

"When you procure engineering services, you do it on qualifications and not price," she said. "Now we have to define the scope of services and then look at the price associated with it and negotiate the price."

Once the deal is settled, the companies will have 75 days to complete the review, Brown said.

This spring, the water treatment agency had appeared to put the waste-to-energy project on hold after members of the public raised concerns about its feasibility. In April, the WPCA board withdrew a request for the city to appropriate $40 million for the project in the capital budget, with some board members saying they preferred to have an independent third party review the cost and

technical aspects of the project before seeking the funding.

Yet earlier this month, the board voted to hire a Canadian biomass energy company to develop a plan for the energy plant. The WPCA has hired Vancouver-based Nexterra for $45,000 to detail the logistics, process design, engineering, construction, cost and timeline for the first phase of the project. Half the cost will be funded through a federal Department of Energy grant, Ben Barnes, the city's director of operations and the WPCA board chairman, has said.

Barnes has said Nexterra was an attractive choice because the company has experience powering gasification systems with wood fuel, and it partners with Fairfield-based General Electric, whose Jenbacher engine is made to run on nontraditional fuel. The WPCA has looked into using wood waste to supplement a sludge-powered electricity system.

At the time of the Nexterra selection, members of a loosely organized group of Stamford residents who oppose the waste-to-energy project expressed concern the agreement was approved before an independent financial and technical audit was completed.