From: Melani Smith
Morro Bay
Thanks for your thorough summary of the issues pertinent to local jurisdictions' decision-making relating to the critically important design and siting of the replacement Morro Bay/Cayucos waste water treatment plant. While the residents of this unique and very special region of our state can't be responsible for the big planning decisions that were originally made decades ago, we can and should exercise a bit more vision, and aim a bit higher as we think about meeting our infrastructure needs for the decades to come. Given the limitations of the water supply, the pressures of global climate change, and the opportunities provided by new technologies - we can and must do better!
As a new property owner in the Harbor Tract in Morro Bay, and an urban planner, I've been following these contentious infrastructure planning issues on the Central Coast pretty closely, as my husband and I recently purchased a weekend home here. However, the whole thing became a bit more personal as we had our first opportunity last weekend to take our dogs on a walk from the house, to the beach. Or at least we tried to find the most direct route to the beach . . . our path was first blocked by the behemoth dinosaur power plant and its giant fenced land mass. Then as we turned north to try a different route, we walked on the secluded bike path, through a brushy area tucked nearly beneath the edge of Highway 1 - not a place I would have gone alone, that's for sure! After turning toward the coast on Atascadero Road, we first passed the City Yard, then came to the Waste Water Treatment Plant, before finally hitting the beach. All I could think about, as a planner, was why in the world would any City give up its precious coastal zone land to utilitarian, "back of house" uses that are completely incompatible with the scenic natural beauty that we all love and appreciate, and which contributes to the economic well being of the area?
I very much hope the City leadership reconsiders the path it is on, and listens to the input from the Coastal Commission. It would be a huge missed opportunity if the alternatives analysis were not to be opened up again, in order to fairly reconsider alternative, lower impact siting, and a more functional and 21st century design, of the waste water treatment plant.
From: Peter Risley
Morro Bay
Those of us who were there to try to get the JPA to build a new plant saw the machinations of the Morro bay staff and of course the Cayucos good old boys, discovered that the truth was they did not want to do anything, they were and are very happy to continue the old plant with no regard to the environmental damage it does every year.
They want to continue a old technology that is not sustainable, because it is easy and cheap. Also Cayucos gets a great deal, they do not pay what I think is a fair charge for the service, Morro bay gets the short end of the stick, which they are happy to continue. Also the JPA
agreement basically gives Cayucos the ability to dictate what Morro bay
must do, which in short is to keep the special privileges that allow a
very small group of buddies in Cayucos to run the whole system with the
ability to stop anything they do not like.
So all of the sewage is shipped to Morro bay where the smells and the
majority of the waste is dumped into the bay where the sea currents
send it south and away from Cayucos and towards and into Morro bay's
estuary.
I have not mentioned the damage it does to the sea life, which I have
never ever seen one instance of these guys exhibiting any concern
whatsoever! I have seen them spend city monies trying to prove that
there is no damage at all. Of course they must protect their right to
pollute. Both for continuing the inadequate present waste water
treatment plant, but to also protect the power plant outfall and also,
which hardly ever gets mentioned, the outfall to dump waste from the
desalination plant.
Morro Bay city staff wishes to continue the tax benefits of their
outfall scam, which is the lynch pin for extorting taxes from the owners
of the power plant, and as a cheap way to eliminate sewage by just
dumping it in the ocean and to keep the possibility of increasing the
use of the desalination plant so that there are no constraints on future
development.These three issues are the reason they will continue to
accept a very unbalanced JPA agreement that protects special interests
in Cayucos.
The election of a slate of very reactionary city council members who
favor the continuance of the pollution of our bay is a very unsettling
development. What is needed now more than ever are open minds, who are
able to understand the situation JPA and Morro bay find themselves in,
necessary compromise with environmental facts, and the ability to
compromise, both with new technologies and also in not choosing not to
use the same old companies that benefit so much from keeping the same
old systems. Can you not see that the present cast of characters are the
same ones who gave us the Los Osos debacle?
I am afraid this is what will happen here. We now have a staff and
council who are antagonistic to the coastal commission, who want the
plant not to change, who do not see the problems that must be confronted
and will use every trick in the book to stall and stymie as long as
possible, because they want this plant to stay just like it is. A
confrontation with the coastal commission, the state of California, and
the entire environmental community is on the way, and the present JPA
and Morro bay will not win this one. I do not include Cayucos because
they will not be hurt by this. Their control of JPA will mean that they
will somehow dodge the big costs, and the people who call the shots will
profit handsomely on the future raising real estate values that will
result.
Who will lose the most? The people of Morro bay. In the end we will have
a new plant and it will cost way more than it should. The people will
have to pay. I think I will get some stock in MWH and all of their
vendors and subcontractors. They are going to make a killing!
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