By DIANE S. WILLIAMS

Last year the city handed a $2 million project to rebuild huge sewage treatment tanks to a private contractor. But in an unprecedented upset, Local 1320 and District Council 37 snatched the job back — after the contract was awarded.

“We proved we could do the job in the same amount of time for considerably less money than the competition,” said James Tucciarelli, president of the local of Sewage Treatment Workers and Senior STWs.

The project at the Hunts Point Wastewater Treatment Center in the Bronx is the first contract that DC 37 members have won back after it was awarded to a private company.

In this latest union victory against privatization, Mr. Tucciarelli and the members of Local 1320 beat out the contractor with a formula that not only keeps the repair work on the 18 tanks in-house but also pays the workers time-and-a-half to do it.

The local’s agreement with the Dept. of Environmental Protection limits the contractor to supplying the equipment and includes a commitment from Commissioner Joel Miele that he will not seek to contract out the project again.

For decades, STWs repaired equipment and the tanks, which are each the size of two railroad cars. But as waste management increasingly became big business, the mayor opened the door for independent operators to move in on public services. Landscaping, sludge removal and other DEP capital projects were up for bids. The mayor even threatened to privatize the entire agency.

“You have to constantly be on the watch,” Mr. Tucciarelli said. “Everyday, I comb through the contract bids advertised in The City Record.” He advises other local presidents to be just as prudent.

This privatization attempt was foiled once District Council 37 met with DEP management. Threatened with a court challenge that would have delayed the capital project for an untold number of years, the DEP began to see things the union’s way and all but dismissed the private contractor.

“Contractors are wary of doing business with the City of New York because they know DC 37 will be there to fight them tooth and nail,” Mr. Tucciarelli said. “They know they will lose money if they try to come in our house.”