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Los Osos Sewer Project Stymiedby Jack McCurdyAbout 35 years ago, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control board and its staff became worried over whether the septic tanks used by property owners throughout Los Osos were seeping sewage into underground aquifers that are the source of drinking water for the community and into Morro Bay, contaminating that estuarine jewel and jeopardizing its aquatic life and human health as well. Last month, a plan to address those concerns reached a crossroads when the California Coastal Commission, acting on a wide range of appeals lodged against the county's project to install about 235,000 feet of sewer pipe to replace reliance on the septic tanks for collection of sewage, refused to approve it. Instead, the Commission, by a 7-5 vote on January 14, sided with appellants - ranging from the Santa Lucia chapter of the Sierra Club to the San Luis Bay chapter of the Surfrider Foundation - and found that the appeals raised "substantial" issues that will have to be addressed, starting with another Commission meeting expected in the next few months. Those lodging appeals also included Citizens for An Affordable and Safe Environment, Fair Allocation of Important Resources and the Los Osos Legal Defense Fund. The appeals, a Commission report said, "cover all primary project elements (collection, treatment, and effluent disposal/reuse) . . . The majority of the appeals relate to the County's approval of a gravity collection system over a Septic Tank Effluent Pump (STEP)6 collection system. The common thread running through all of these appeals is an assertion that a STEP collection system avoids coastal resource impacts to the maximum extent feasible, while a gravity collection system does not. Some of the appeals raise issues with the type and location of the wastewater treatment plant facility." In general, the report said, the appellants challenge county-approved findings with respect to the sewer project's conformance with the Local Coastal Plan (which the Coastal Commission administers with local coastal agencies, such as the county and Morro Bay) in a number of areas. Those are "protection of agricultural, environmentally sensitive habitat area (ESHA), water quality, visual, archaeological, and coastal watershed resources." By a slim majority, and despite its staff's recommendation to the contrary, the Coastal Commission agreed. Commissioner Sara Wan, one of the most outspoken advocates of environmental protection on the Commission, filed her own appeal, as did several others. She said the county project had "serious deficiencies" in its Environmental Impact Report. She said there is no way to enforce the implementation of the project's water conservation and agricultural reuse programs. County officials sought to dismiss the Commission's action as minor. Paavo Ogren, county public works director, was quoted as saying the concerns the commission has are relatively minor and do not require a complete reworking of the project. But the Commission's action is far from minor. In effect, it agreed for the first time since the septic-sewer debate emerged in the early 1970 - to take responsibility for ensuring that the sewer project will comply with environmental protections under the Coastal Act, which it administers, and other state statutes. That alone was a momentous development that changed the entire review process and regulatory responsibility for passing judgment on the Los Osos sewer plan and put it directly in the Commission's hands for the first time. Many residents are alarmed over the cost of the sewers to them and whether they will be able to pay those costs and keep their homes. The county has estimated the cost to be $25,000 per dwelling, not counting operations and maintenance costs of the sewer system. Ben DiFatpa was quoted in the New Times in 2008 as saying the county's preferred system would be too expensive and would force many elderly and poor out of their homes. "Los Osos lives will be devastated," DiFatpa commented at a hearing. "And rest assured, you will be hammering the final nail in their coffins." The $165 million project would provide for wastewater collection, wastewater treatment, effluent disposal/reuse, and a water conservation program. The facility would be located at 2198 Los Osos Valley Road, called the Giacomazzi site, on a rectangular 38.2-acre portion of a larger 100-acre parcel north of Los Osos Valley Road and west of Clark Valley Road. The sewer system, the county says, would serve a buildout population of 18,428 within the collection area, which represents about a 17% increase over the present Los Osos population (approximately 15,000 at present). The Santa Lucia chapter's appeal stated: "There are two overall problems with the project as permitted which render it out of conformity with these coastal policies. First, feasible and practical alternatives that would result in the avoidance of impacts have been disregarded in favor of mitigation measures that allow impacts to occur and then mitigate for them, contrary to the intent of local coastal policies and CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act). Second, where mitigations are stipulated, the mitigation is often inadequate and could be supplemented or replaced by other measures or project alternatives that would substantially increase mitigation value. "The project fails to avoid or adequately mitigate potential significant impacts on coastal resources because it does not include a wastewater collection system that would result in the greatest protection against the release of partially treated or untreated wastewater, afford the greatest protection for the groundwater of the Los Osos basin, utilize the most cost-effective means to avoid impacts to cultural sites, avoid environmental impacts from deep trenching/ dewatering, and enable the use of renewable energy sources. "The project as proposed is likely to result in significant environmental effects for which feasible mitigation measures have not been employed consistent with CEQA Section 21080.5(d)(2)(A), which prohibits approval of a proposed development if there are feasible alternatives and feasible mitigation measures which would avoid or substantially lessen any significant adverse environmental effects which the project would have on the environment. We submit that only if conditioned as suggested herein to mitigate impacts as identified above can the proposed project be found consistent with the requirements of CEQA." At followup meetings, the Commission will examine the degree to which the project is protective of wetlands as defined and required by the California Coastal Act, how treated effluent will be distributed to assure the biological integrity of creeks and habitat, how the project will mitigate the environmental damage done by the sewer's false start several years ago, and how the County will go about disposing of five million tons of septage from abandoned septic tanks, the Santa Lucian - the local Sierra Club chapter's newspaper - said. Since 1983, Los Osos has been subject to a regional water quality control board waste discharge moratorium to address its conclusion that septic tank effluent is contaminating local groundwater and other resource areas, including the Morro Bay National Estuary. The Commission previously approved a coastal development permit for a different wastewater treatment project in Los Osos in 2004, but that permit expired and the project was never built.
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