New Water/Sewage Plant Takes Off

by Jack McCurdy

Just one month shy of two years since the California Coastal Commission rejected the previous Morro Bay City Council’s misguided idea of replacing the city’s old wastewater treatment plant at the same site overlooking Estero Bay, the new Council has embarked on an enterprising plan to build a Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) farther inland during the next five years. The WRF also would process wastewater and produce recycled water for a variety of home and community uses.

The WRF must be the most significant and productive capital project in city history, given the desperate need for water in the community as the ongoing drought here and elsewhere in the region threatens to extend indefinitely into the future and place the security of Morro Bay as a city at risk. The capacity to serve tourism would be seriously undermined. Morro Bay has come to rely totally on expensive state water supplies purchased by the city, which are regarded as having an uncertain future.

In addition, the present wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) faces hazards such as: tsunami, storm surge and coastal flooding, making reliance on it for wastewater treatment another significant risk to the community.

The site for the new plant approved by the current Council (mayor Jamie Irons, Council members Christine Johnson and Noah Smukler and recently-seated members Matt Makowetski and John Headding) last month (Resolution #77-14) is located at Rancho Colina about one mile east of the city or 1.7 miles from the ocean along the north side of Highway 41 on a property adjacent to the Rancho Colina Mobile Home Community. The Rancho Colina site won Council support over the other strong candidate for a new regional plant at the California Men’s Colony (CMC), located just east of Cuesta College on the north side of Highway 1. The plan is for about 10 to 15 acres of the 187-acre Rancho Colina site to be purchased for the WRF.

Morro Bay and the Cayucos Sanitary District (CSD) have jointly owned and operated the wastewater treatment plant in Morro Bay since 1982, but now that the state has ordered a new, more secure and environmentally-protective plant be built, it is unclear whether the CSD will go along with the Rancho Colina idea. The state-ordered plan calls for the old plant to be demolished. The CSD had favored the CMC for both it and Morro Bay.

The Council and the CSD board met under their Joint Powers Agreement just two days after the Council approved the Rancho Colina site, and finding a new location for the WRF plant topped the agenda. After some discussion, they agreed to explore a possible framework for collaborating in jointly developing the Rancho Colina parcel.

Cost may be a, if not the, determining factor in whether the CSD will join Morro Bay in building a plant at Rancho Colina. “It boils down to how much (the CSD) is going to have to pay of the cost,” board president Robert Enns said at the meeting with the Council.

How the construction and even operating cost would be shared also is likely to hinge on how the expected volumes of recycled water are shared by Morro Bay and the CSD. Enns is famous for saying years ago that Cayucos doesn’t need any more water. The community gets its water from four or five private wells within Cayucos.

The decision by the Council to select Rancho Colina boiled down to two factors: cost and control vis a vis the CMC.

A plant built at Rancho Colina would cost between about $74 million and $81 million while a CMC plant would cost about $161 million, according to a detailed report by planning consultant John F. Rickenbach (link). “Construction cost was a prime consideration” because “keeping costs low was by far the most commonly-cited issue expressed at public workshops during the preparation of the Options Report” on various potential sites for the WRF, his report said.

Since the county and state agencies would be involved in developing and operating a new WRF at the state-owned CMC, the Rickenbach report stated, getting them to work together effectively could be a challenge. “The following are substantial logistical constraints at the CMC site: A lack of a coordinated effort and differing goals between the City of Morro Bay and CSD relative to moving forward with a new WRF; and the fact that the four potential (local and state) partner agencies have not engaged in any preliminary coordination efforts toward a potential working framework, an effort that would need to be led by the County. Collectively, these interagency logistical issues present significant challenges…” (For more details, go to Morro-bay)

For a multi-agency facility at the CMC, the report said, “the City and/or CSD would still be responsible for constructing and maintaining pipeline infrastructure to and from (both communities), even though the plant itself would be owned by the State Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. This complex arrangement could lead to conflict among the agencies relative to shared responsibilities in the event of a breakdown in the system.”

What it boils down to in terms of control is this, the report said: “The City would own a facility at Rancho Colina but would likely be a customer or non-majority partner at CMC.”

Furhermore, the report said, “Because of a variety of logistical constraints, it is not realistically possible to achieve the City’s 5-year goal at the CMC site.

And, at the Rancho Colina site, the report added, “because of a willing and cooperative property owner, and the fact that neither the State nor the County would be involved in the ownership or operation of the facility, the City’s 5-year goal may be achievable.”
In addition, the local and state agencies who would be involved in development of a new facility at the CMC have shown little enthusiasm for such a regional project and, the report said, “have not engaged in any preliminary coordination efforts toward a potential working framework.”

“Because of a willing and cooperative property owner, and the fact that neither the state nor the county would be involved in the ownership or operation of the facility, the City’s 5-year (construction/operation) goal may be achievable,” the Rickenbach report said. “Overall, the Rancho Colina site can be much more realistically accomplished within the framework of the City’s goals related to timing, water supply benefits, and reclamation potential.”

The Council directed city staff to begin the Facilities Master Planning and Environmental Review to continue the analysis necessary for the Council to authorize construction of a WRF at the preferred location at the Rancho Colina site under the five-year schedule.

But the prospect of joining with the CSD isn’t over yet. For one thing, it would cost the city less to share the project with the CSD. For another, the CSD may have little option other than join with Morro Bay—or build a wastewater treatment plant of its own. The cost of developing its own plant at the CMC by itself—and the estimated 22 miles of piping to and from the CMC—seems potentially unaffordable for the smaller CSD.

The Council and CSD board agreed to have their staffs meet and explore a cooperative arrangement and then for the Council and CSD board to meet later this month. First Enns suggested “we will take the staff reports under advisement and study,” indicating no commitment to working together. He was referring to Rickenbach’s and the city staff’s reports. Christine Johnson spoke up and suggested “we can move ahead (together) with joint action and without constraints,” and city public services director Rob Livick quickly followed with a suggestion that the city and CSD staffs “can work together on an RFP (request for a proposal to build a WRF).” And near the end of the meeting, Enns agreed that the CSD should work with “Morro Bay on making plans and an environmental review.”

As background to the issue of building a WRF, Rickenbach noted, "Until the late 1990s, the City of Morro Bay had relied completely on groundwater from wells in both the Chorro Valley and Morro Valley. Increasing limitations on the use of groundwater, including a (state) Regional (Water Quality Control) Board-mandated requirement to maintain a minimum streamflow in Chorro Creek, the potential for seawater intrusion, and contamination of a City well in the Morro (Creek) basin, prompted the City to acquire State Water in the late 1990s.

"Today, except for the limited use of groundwater wells as needed, and the potential for a small amount of water from its desalination plant, the City of Morro Bay is currently almost completely dependent on State Water for its long-term supply. The City typically receives 95% of its supply from State Water and the remainder from Morro Valley wells that are treated for nitrate removal at the City Water Treatment Plant. Now with the reliability of State Water in question, and historic limitations on the use of groundwater, finding new sources to augment existing supply supplies is highly desirable. A new WRF is potentially a large part of this solution, either by creating a new source of water that can be reclaimed for non-potable uses such as agriculture and landscaping, and/or potentially by recharging groundwater basins to make existing City wells more reliable.”

That water deposited as potable from a WRF to Morro Creek groundwater basins could then be pumped out by city wells for community use such as water for drinking and washing in homes.