Enns Blames Morro Bay for No Wastewater Plant — Yet

Summary: Robert Enns, the president of Cayucos Sanitary District, told a group of residents that Morro Bay is the cause of Cayucos and Morro Bay — long-time partners in owning and operating the aging wastewater treatment plant in Morro Bay, which state agencies have ordered replaced — not building a new plant, wasting $2.2 million in efforts to develop plans for a new plant over the past eight years. He failed to mention the futile efforts of Cayucos and Morro Bay to gain permission to replace that old plant with a new one at the same site, which the California Coastal Commission staff had made clear was prohibited.

Robert Enns, board president of the Cayucos Sanitary District, which has been allied with the city of Morro Bay for 31 years in their Joint Powers Agreement to own and operate the wastewater treatment plant that serves both communities, heaped blame on Morro Bay for the muddle they find themselves in as both seek to build a new wastewater treatment plant — together or separately.

He blamed Morro Bay for the California Coastal Commission's denial of a permit to build a new plant where the 50-plus-year-old plant is located on Atascadero Road along the shore of Estero Bay. "We thought there was about a 50-50 chance it would be approved," he said. "But the Morro Bay City Council voted three to two to ask the Coastal Commission to deny the permit." It had cost Morro Bay and Cayucos $2.2 million in planning costs to get to that point, which was wasted, he said.

The new majority of the Council — mayor Jamie Irons, Christine Johnson, and Noah Smukler — reversed the permit request of the Yates-Borchard-Johnson-Leage Council majority, and asked the Commission to deny the permit, in effect withdrawing the city's application for the Coastal Development Permit. Why? Because the Commission staff made clear in several reports over the past five years that building the new plant at that location would violate the Coastal Act and the city's own Local Coastal Plan, and that the Commission should deny it.

As the City explained on its website last week, "the basis for denial included: Local Coastal Plan (LCP) - Zoning inconsistency, failure to avoid coastal hazards, failure to include a sizable reclaimed water component and the project is located within an LCP-designated sensitive view area." Those are points that the Commission staff made to Morro Bay and Cayucos over and over. But neither the Yates Council or the CSD board would listen. So they applied for a permit that was doomed from the start. Enns acknowledged that there were 14 other appeals to the Commission challenging the permit, most on the same grounds as the city's rationale for withdrawing the permit application. So he may have implied those filing the appeals — mostly Morro Bay residents — were also to blame.

And now, Cayucos still wants to upgrade and continue to use the old plant, and, if that doesn't happen, it wants to continue using it for disposal of its sewage there, despite hazards to the Morro Bay community (see what those hazards would be at Cayucos May Seek to Remain at Existing WWTP — to the Detriment of Morro Bay). And despite the clear fact that the Coastal Commission would not even consider it, much less approve it.

At least at the moment, Morro Bay and Cayucos are going it alone. Whether they will join again in seeking a site and building a new plant is anyone's guess.

"Many say we will get a divorce from Morro Bay," Enns said in his talk to about 40 residents at the Cayucos Library. "We are looking at what would be good for us," he said, "and Morro Bay is doing the same (for them)." Or, more importantly, what would be affordable — if anything that meets state requirements — for each independently of the other.

The unasked — at least publicly — question now, is whether Morro Bay would want to partner again with Cayucos in building a new plant after what can only be deemed as misguided thinking about "upgrading" the old plant in Morro Bay — when the Coastal Commission has made clear it would not be allowed, not to mention the Regional Water Quality Control Board, which also must approve what is built and which hasn't even weighed in on the question yet.

While Cayucos is expressing seemingly unrealistic hopes, Morro Bay is moving ahead with a reputable and able — for a change — consulting team to explore possible plant sites and recommend the best site by next December. That effort is the result of the effort by Irons, Johnson, and Smukler to recognize reality, abandon any plans for a new plant where the old one now sits and search for the best site possible — one that the state agencies will accept without more years of delays and high costs to taxpayers.

Enns told residents that the CSD has hired a consulting firm to review options and provide recommendations on what Cayucos should do to develop a sewage plant.

Among the sites that consulting team, Water Systems Consulting of San Luis Obispo, is reviewing is the California Mens Colony (CMC), which both Morro Bay and Cayucos have been eyeing for several months (See Morro Bay, Cayucos May Have to Go to Prison to Build WWTP). An employee of Water Systems Consulting and a former engineer for the city of Morro Bay is Dylan Wade, who co-authored the consulting team report for Cayucos.

These are the alternatives for a new plant as outlined by Water Systems Consulting:

1 — The development of a new WWTF (wastewater treatment facility) to exclusively serve the Cayucos Sanitary District area. A variety of site locations would be considered. But this alternative calls for continued use of the existing Morro Bay plant's outfall for disposal of Cayucos' effluent as the lowest cost for that function. And it would require disposal of brine produced by a new plant's reverse osmosis process at the same outfall. All of that depends on whether Morro Bay and state agencies would allow it.

2 — Continued use of the old plant to process Cayucos' sewage. But, the report acknowledges, the plant is in a "deteriorating condition," and improvements in its operating capability would be needed. It didn't say it, but informed residents know that would be costly, especially since it is assumed that Morro Bay would select "an alternate location" for its own plant. So Cayucos would have to pay for those improvements alone.

3 — Transmission of Cayucos' sewage to the California Mens Colony, just east of Cuesta College on Highway 1. To allow that, a "transmission infrastructure from the MBCSD" (existing Morro Bay-Cayucos plant) to the CMC would be needed. The report's assumption is that both Cayucos and Morro Bay would participate in this project, and the CMC sewage plant would require "capacity upgrades" to accommodate the additional effluent from Cayucos and Morro Bay, which the new users would almost certainly have to pay for.

It would be possible for Cayucos to afford this transfer of effluent to the CMC without Morro Bay, the report said, but "the cost increase without Morro Bay participation has not been quantified." What the report doesn't state is that the transfer of effluent from either Cayucos or Morro Bay or both will require the construction of a pipeline to carry it to the CMC and another pipe to carry recycled water back to Morro, both of which could cost $15 to $20 million in total. Whether Cayucos would be willing to pay or capable of paying that estimated cost if Morro Bay did not participate is an open question.

The report listed these costs for the Cayucos plant alternatives:

1 — To build a new plant just to serve Cayucos: $52 million.
2 — Continued use of the old plant: $11 million to process Cayucos' sewage.
3 — Use of the CMC: $77 million (if both Cayucos and Morro Bay participated). Cayucos' share would be an estimated $17 million.

It has not been determined yet whether those estimates are accurate. That may become clearer after the Morro Bay plant planning consultants hold a second workshop on October 15 (time and place to be announced) and they submit an "options report" to the Council at its regular meeting on Tuesday, October 22.

One other clarification is needed. During his talk, Enns said building a new plant in Cayucos with its effluent going to the outfall in Morro Bay would cost $17.4 million. But the Water Systems Consulting report"s "capital cost estimate summary" for that plan is $52 million, including $35 million for the cleansing of water for agriculture use — but no production of recycled water (for drinking and other household uses), which would be most costly and the Coastal Commission would be expected to require, based on its past staff reports.

A CMC solution with Cayucos and Morro Bay joining to plan and fund it appears to be the only practical solution to the dilemma (if that cost is competitive with what it would cost for Morro Bay to build a plant independently) because it seems likely that Cayucos can't or won't afford $52 million and may not have a site for a new plant that the Coastal Commission would approve. Why? Because virtually all of Cayucos is viewshed protected from development by the Coastal Act, and whether Chevron would be willing to sell part of its property up Toro Creek away from the ocean for a plant is uncertain and at a cost Cayucos would pay.

The Coastal Commission and its staff have made clear over the past five years that continued operation of the old plant, as Cayucos proposes, will not be permitted, except on an interim basis until a new plant is built, one the Commission and the Regional Water Quality Control Board would approve.

Belted Kingfisher Image on Banner by Cleve Nash