By Neil Farrell ~
The Cayucos Sanitary District has been working diligently on a plan for a new sewer treatment plant and has made quick progress in just a matter of months.
At a Feb. 18 town hall meeting (6 p.m. Cayucos Vet’s Hall), a final analysis of different potential sites will be unveiled and a preferred site chosen out of three that have survived the screening.
Months ago, the CSD hired the landscape architectural company, Firma, as project manager and to do much of the analysis including an environmental impact report; and Water Systems Consulting, Inc., for engineering services, bringing in former Morro Bay special projects manager, Dylan Wade, something the CSD feels was a bit of a coup.
Firma and WSC, along with the CSD General Manager, Rick Koon, and a member of the CSD board, make up their project team with just two basic goals — to provide Cayucos with efficient, reliable and adaptable wastewater treatment; and deliver a sustainable and cost effective water resource — all on a “stream lined schedule.”
The Feb. 18 meeting will unveil Firma’s comparative site analysis, comparative site costs, and selection of a preferred site. Koon explained that they could start right away with a facilities master plan, getting it done by the end of this year.
Over the past 10 months, the CSD came up with a dozen potential sites, narrowing that down to five and then further to three that will be the subject of the coming report.
Essentially, the town has three canyons stretching eastward and there is one preferred site up each of the three — Toro Creek, Willow Creek (Old Creek Road area) and Cayucos Creek, which heads east from Hardie Park.
The road to this point has been a pretty smooth ride for the CSD. People came to them looking to get the plant on their property, mainly to have access to the recycled water for farming operations.
Board President Robert Enns told The Bay News that the level of a landowner’s interest was “very important. We were very respectful of anyone who was not interested. If an individual was not interested we simply moved on.”
It became apparent quickly that there was a lot of interest. Some were dropped because they were in a flood plain, or the terrain required too much grading and the distance from town was too far, explained Koon. Another site up Cayucos Creek Road was under protection of the Williamson Act, a pact that neither the State nor the County supports breaking.
Recycling the water has been at the forefront, as Koon and Enns both said the State is very likely to require recycling of wastewater in the future.
“We have to look at the short term costs versus the long term beneficial use,” said Koon. “How will the water be reused?” Right now they would prefer to store it in Whale Rock Reservoir, which is owned by the Whale Rock Commission, but in reality is run by the City of San Luis Obispo. All of Cayucos’ drinking water comes from Whale Rock and is treated at the County’s water treatment plant below the cemetery. With Whale Rock, the County has the ability to wheel that water to Santa Margarita Lake for additional storage if needed, and eventually the goal is to also tie in Lake Nacimiento to this piping system. “We wanted to be a part of the County-CMC piping,” Enns said.
“That’s what we wanted to do, but Morro Bay killed that.”
Koon said there currently are no State standards in place for lake storage but they anticipate those being set by end of this year. “That’s a long term goal,” he said about the Whale Rock option. One site, up Willow Creek sits just about 200 or so yards from the reservoir.
Another site up Toro Creek Road is owned by Chevron, the old marine terminal. “We’ve been talking with Chevron for years,” said Enns.
The big differences between the sites seems to boil down to how close is it to the existing infrastructure (i.e. linear lengths of pipe that would need to be laid down), and how much would the collection system need to be changed? They plan to use the sewer line that runs through North Morro Bay to the existing sewer plant on Atascadero Road and use its ocean outfall for brine disposal. Cayucos owns 35% of the outfall capacity; Morro Bay the remainder.
One thing they’ve made sure of — all the sites are outside the coastal zone and away from the Coastal Commission’s jurisdiction.
A fourth possible site will also be looked at — going back in partnership with Morro Bay, which is focused on the Rancho Colina property on Hwy 41. But, other than offering a benchmark for costs ($30 million with no ownership, no control of the wastewater or rates, said Enns) there’s little chance of the CSD going back.
How’d they get so far so fast? Enns said they operate differently in Cayucos. “We run this like a business,” he said. “Each of the board members is a business person and there is very little politics in our community.” Every town hall meeting draws 100 or more residents and Enns said not one person has ever stood up and argued they should go back in with Morro Bay.
Readers can go online at: www.cayucossd.org to download the site analysis and other studies that have been conducted for the project.
