Los Osos sewer struggles may be ending

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• Government Watch: A roundup of this week’s agendas

  Government Watch: A roundup of this week’s agendas

  Arroyo Grande Planning Commission. Meets Tuesday. 473-5420. Discuss whether to recommend that the City Council approve an ordinance to establish a mandatory waiting period between sequential lot-line adjustments.

  Atascadero Planning Commission. Meets Tuesday. 461-5000. Oak tree removal request for shopping center at 7600 El Camino Real.

  Atascadero Unified School District Board of Trustees. Meets Tuesday. 462-4200. Annual financial audit; Citizens Advisory Committee presentation; update on bond-funded projects.

• Pismo Beach approves emergency permits to stabilize eroding bluffs

  Pismo Beach approves emergency permits to stabilize eroding bluffs

  In an effort to prevent a potential sewage spill, Pismo Beach officials have issued an emergency permit to stabilize eroding bluffs in Shell Beach.

  On the same day that the City Council set aside $12,000 for design work for two seawalls, the Coastal Commission questioned Pismo Beach’s need for an emergency permit.

  Community Development Director Jon Biggs issued the emergency permit Thursday.

• Department of Interior grant will help coastal habitats

  Department of Interior grant will help coastal habitats

  San Luis Obispo County has received a grant of $610,000 to improve coastal habitats in Los Osos, Pismo Beach and the Guadalupe Dunes.

  The largest chunk — $300,000 — goes to the county to prepare state and federal environmental impact reports for the Los Osos Habitat Conservation Plan. It will protect endangered species in Los Osos from new development.

  Preparing the plan is required by the state Coastal Commission as part of its approval of the Los Osos sewer system. The plan should speed up the time it takes to get a building permit in Los Osos, said county Supervisor Bruce Gibson.

• Double-digit rate increase is an outrageous request

  Double-digit rate increase is an outrageous request

  Golden State Water Co. has a rebellion on its hands. It deserves it. In several communities across the state, ratepayers are boiling over steep rate increases the water purveyor is requesting from the California Public Utilities Commission.

  Overall, the company is seeking a $58 million increase from its 256,000 customers in 2013, followed by anearly $9 million increase in 2014 and another $11 million in 2015. Customers— as well as some of the public officials who represent them — have been outraged.

  Ojai residents have asked a local agency, the Casitas Municipal Water District, to use the power of eminent domain to buy out the water company and take over service.

• Los osos sewer project may get a little cheaper

  Los osos sewer project may get a little cheaper

  State water officials will meet in Sacramento on Monday to consider lowering the interest rate on a loan for the Los Osos sewer project, a move that could shave millions of dollars off the price of the project, reducing the cost to residents.

  The State Water Resources Control Board will consider a staff recommendation to lower the rate on a $69.7 million loan from 2.6 percent to 2 percent. The county and Los Osos Community Services District are sending letters to the water board urging that the interest rate be reduced to zero in an effort to make the massive infrastructure project as affordable as possible.

  “The district board is wholly supportive of a reduction in the current interest rate of 2.6 percent to 0 percent, and we believe we speak for the overwhelming majority of the 12,500 residents affected by the project,” community services district board President Marshall Ochylski stated in a letter to the board.