Wastewater Treatment Plant Moves Forward

by Jack McCurdy

A crucial step in the development of a multi-million dollar new wastewater treatment plant, which will directly impact Morro Bay and Cayucos residents through higher sewer rates and major capital costs that could compete with basic services in Morro Bay like water, recreation, police and fire, is ready to be taken this month when the environmental impact report (EIR) for the planned new plant is scheduled to be released to the public.

One of the key issues in the EIR review is the location of the new plant, given the potential availability of near-pure recycled water for use for farming, outside irrigation and replenishment of the city's unproductive wells, which could produce a huge savings to the city and taxpayers by reducing the use of expensive state water. And making the wells the main sources of city water once again.

Another major issue involves the fact that the present plant on the bay front in Morro Bay is situated on sand saturated with water, which makes it unstable and vulnerable to destruction from an earthquake. The present plan is to build a new plant in the same location but would likely be reinforced with new soil that would have to be compacted—at a significant cost.

For the first time, residents who will pay the bills for the plant—now estimated to cost $31 million or more—will have an opportunity to see what kind of design will conform to the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), which requires EIRs to be conducted by local and state agencies to analyze and publicly disclose the potential impacts of developments of all kinds. And, more pointedly, how the tentative design of the plant will fare under environmental review.

The EIR is scheduled to be posted on the city's website on September 13.

The design engineer is the controversial MWH, Inc., (Montgomery Watson Harza), which is under investigation for allegedly overbilling the city of New Orleans and has been the target of criticisms for its handling of the Los Osos sewer project. Its design for the Morro Bay/Cayucos plant has been termed "traditional" by one city staff member, which some residents think is inadequate to serve Morro Bay and Cayucos for decades to come.

An alternative company, PERC Water, is preparing a competing design based on what it claims is the most advanced technology curently available. That custom design report is expected to be completed early this month, but it first will be jointly reviewed by the staffs of the city of Morro Bay and the Cayucos Sanitary District, which jointly own and operate the existing plant, with PERC Water. The much-awaited design report is not expected to be made public until sometime in October.

The city and district serve the two communities under the Joint Powers Agreement (JPA), which is directed by a board composed of members of the the Morro Bay City Council and the Sanitary District board, will meet next on September 9 at 6:00 p.m. at the Morro Bay Community Center. No agenda for that meeting was available.

The EIR covers a broad range of analyses and virtually all aspects of a development from size and shape to functions and effectiveness, and one of the most watched-for aspects will be the location of the new plant. The MWH design that has been studied for the EIR by Environmental Science Associates, the EIR contractor, calls for the new plant to be built next to the existing facility, the purpose being to make it less prone to flooding. The existing plant would be demolished after the new plant is constructed and begins operation, according to the city's website.

But some have called for the JPA to consider moving the plant eastward possibly somewhere up Highway 41 because if PERC Water builds the plant, its design would allow near-pure recycled water to be produced in significant quantities, which could be used by farms in that area, rather than having to build lengthy pipelines and pumps to deliver it there. That would save the city money by enabling it to cut back on importing expensive state water, which is dwindling in supply statewide.

By far the biggest cost-saving benefit would be to use the recycled water to recharge the city's own wells, which are much less productive than in the past, and to begin relying more on them for the city's water supply and reduce reliance on state water.

But Cayucos might oppose what is expected to be the added cost of building the plant in that more rural area when Cayucos has its own more stable and less costly water supply from Whale Rock Reservoir. In addition, the expense of locating the plant there may be greater than the EIR review will find to be justified—or environmentally acceptable.

But the cost of making the proposed site near where the plant is now located could be as expensive or even more than the rural area. The entire existing plant site is on sand and is saturated with water, some knowledgeable observers say. This type of soil is subject to liquefaction were an earthquake to occur.

For instance, during the the Loma Prieta earthquake in the Bay Area in 1989, most of the damage was blamed on liquefaction.

One of the recent engineering reports on the JPA plan calls for removal of the existing surface soil down to more solid soil—probably 10 feet or more—to build at the present site. New soil would have to be imported and compacted, called engineered fill. This could cause significant disruption from truck traffic on and around Highway 41, especially near Morro Bay High School.

Also, the sand that is on the site may be contaminated from spills of hazardous materials over past years, which would likely be expensive to clean up before a new plant were built on or near that location. And finding a location to dispose of it could be expensive and difficult.

By contrast, PERC Water's plan calls for a plant, if placed in or near the same location as the present facility, that will take much less ground space—often referred to as a smaller footprint. It has indicated that no engineered backfill would be needed because the bottom of the wastewater tanks would be submerged and placed on solid ground some 14 feet beneath the surface. Since the plant buildings will be located on the tanks, there will be much less need to excavate and haul away as much soil.

This, in large part, explains why PERC Water has assured the JPA that it could build a new plant for an estimated $10 million less. Its custom design report is expected to lay out details. And the EIR is expected to weigh all factors such as cost in comparing what MWH has proposed and what more environmentally-sound and cost-saving alternatives are available.

The notice of preparation of the EIR states that the EIR will assess potential impacts of the proposed project on aesthetics, air quality and greenhouse gas emissions, biological resources, cultural resources, geology and soils, hazards and hazardous materials, hydrology (water effects) as well as groundwater and water quality, land use and recreation, noise, traffic and transportation, and utilities and public services.

CEQA is a California statute passed in 1970, shortly after the federal government passed the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), enacting a statewide policy of environmental protection. CEQA does not directly regulate land uses, but instead requires state and local agencies within California to follow a protocol of analysis and public disclosure of the potential environmental impacts of development projects.

Because CEQA requires environmental protection to be a mandatory part of every California state and local agency's decisionmaking process, it has become a model for environmental protection laws in other states. It has also become the basis for numerous lawsuits concerning public and private projects.

Any project under CEQA's jurisdiction with potentially significant environmental impacts is required to undergo an EIR, in which agencies must identify mitigation measures and alternatives by preparing an analysis. The agencies may approve only projects with no feasible mitigation measures or environmentally-superior alternatives. The background on CEQA and the EIR is from the Wikipedia site.

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