Momentous Decision on WRF Looms

by Jack McCurdy

Nearly twelve years after a state agency ordered Morro Bay and Cayucos to bite the bullet and replace their decrepit, polluting, wastewater treatment plant with one that will do all the things a modern plant can do.  It will produce recycled water, for a big example, that won't pollute the ocean with unprocessed sewage. The Morro Bay City Council is on the verge of doing what past Councils failed to do and has cost the city untold millions from delays. That money is gone forever from Morro Bay taxpayers' pocket books.

But next week on Tuesday, December 9, a new Council trio that came into office in 2012 vowing to do what the state agency commanded, will be ready to order up — not just another sewage or wastewater treatment plant but a new scope water reclamation facility (WRF). This facility will not only process waste from homes and businesses, but will produce recycled water that can be used citywide. This will bring to Morro Bay the security it must have to prevent the current drought from causing a waterless catastrophe to the community.

Those three council members — Mayor Jamie Irons and Council Members Christine Johnson and Noah Smukler — are expected to make the decision on the new water reclamation facility along with new Council members Matt Makowetski and John Headding, both of whom will be sworn in the day before, on Monday, December 8.

Meanwhile, Prop. 1, a state ballot measure approved on Nov, 4, could provide potentially-important financial assistance to Morro Bay and possibly Cayucos in developing a new WRF/WWTP. The measure authorized $7.12 billion in general obligation bonds for various water supply infrastructure projects, including a new competitive grant program for water storage projects.

Rob Livick, the city's public services director, said this grant program is likely to have a preference for projects that reduce dependence on imported water, which is what Morro Bay depends on—state water reliance that must be alleviated with the drought upon us. "That being said," Livick added, "guidelines for Prop 1's application policy have yet to be developed."

He said Monica Reid of Kestrel Consulting and an expert on water and wastewater grants has recommend to us (Morro Bay) that "we put the best project together that meets the needs of the community and develop a solid financial plan supported by rates to show to the granting agencies that the project can be delivered. Then any grants received would bring rates down." She also has said, he added, that reducing "10% of project cost in grants is great, 20% is exceptional."

Livick said "grants are not provided for the status quo, i.e. meeting the minimum requirements. We need to show how our project is innovative and has scaleable and transferable benefits."

Some in Morro Bay have been concerned about the costs of such a project (to residents), and the now-approved state bonds could alleviate those concerns.

Irons, Christine Johnson and Smukler made a new plant one of their stated goals in the election campaign in 2012 and launched into it in January, 2013, as soon as they were seated. It has taken them two years to get their cards in order because the previous Council had left nothing to build on, requiring the new Council members to start from scratch. The past Council had sought to plan a major upgrade of the old plant. The California Coastal Commission staff had made it  crystal clear that such an upgrade would be unacceptable and in violation of the California Coastal Act. The Commission itself vetoed it in January, 2013.

At its last review of reports, studies, and recommendations in November on plans for the water reclamation facility, the Council put off a potential planned final decision until this month, now scheduled for December 9, when a key final report by Carollo Engineering is to be submitted on the merits of building a new water reclamation facility at Rancho Colina, a few miles east of the City just north of Highway 41, or at the California Mens Colony (CMC), which has an operating wastewater treatment plant that some have considered capable of serving Morro Bay and Cayucos.

Thus far, the City favors Rancho Colina. The Cayucos Sanitary District (CSD) favors the CMC.

But the big factor between the two is cost. For one thing, Morro Bay and/or the CSD would be required to build pipes to transport waste from the two communities to the CMC, which would cost many millions (more than to Rancho Colina). How much recycled water would be produced by the CMC is not clear. Nor is how to get it to Morro Bay.

The CSD emphasizes it doesn't need water (the community has five ground wells) and is reluctant to share the costs to produce the recycled water that Morro Bay needs so badly.

In its tentative report submitted to the Council last month, Carollo Engineering, a consultant that has been comparing Rancho Colina with the CMC, concluded that "there is not sufficient capacity" of facilities at the CMC "to accommodate flows from the City of Morro Bay and Cayucos Sanitary District."

The City's primary consultant on the potential sites for the plant is John Rickenbach. His JFR Consulting report has made "a compelling argument the optimal site, for the benefit of Morro Bay, is the Rancho Colina site."  That decision carries significant weight.

Morro Bay's Water Reclamation Facility Citizens Advisory Committee (WRFCAC) last month recommended the Council delay a decision regarding site selection until after the report from Carollo Engineering is complete and the WRFCAC can review it and make a recommendation to the City Council. Its meeting to do that is set for Wednesday, December 3.

How the different interests of Morro Bay and the CSD are to be resolved remains undetermined. They appear to be irreconcilable.

At their most recent meeting last month, Rob Livick, City Public Services Director, and new City Manager David Buckingham presented a lengthy review of all the research that Rickenbach, other consultants, and staff have assembled about the Rancho Colina vs CMC issue. It seemed to weigh heavily in favor of Rancho Colina, which didn't seem to sit well with CSD board members.

Since it was his last meeting, Board member Mike Foster seemed to reflect the sentiment of most other members: "The tension between the two committees (Morro Bay and the CSD) has really been awful, and we are all guilty. It's crazy." He added that the Council and the CSD should focus on "the things we have in common."

CSD Board Chair Robert Enns followed Foster by saying, "We need an agreement on how we can work together," and emphasized that should be reflected in a new JPA (the present agreement has been under review for several years, and in that status,, its function in guiding cooperation between the City and the CSD has not been made clear).

Smukler called for Morro Bay and the CSD to make a greater effort to "work together," and Christine Johnson said she favors developing "shared goals" and possibly a joint meeting to "look at cooperation."

The Council and the CSD are scheduled to meet on Thursday, December 11, after the Council meets on December 9 and may pick a site in the best interests of Morro Bay. How the JPA meeting will fare is the big question mark.