$160 million Morro Bay water treatment plant goes online — months ahead of deadline
Morro Bay officials celebrated the start of operation for the city’s $160 million wastewater treatment facility — months ahead of a state-imposed deadline — on a chilly, rainy Thursday morning.
The Morro Bay Water Resources Center is the largest municipal project in the city’s history, Scott Collins, Morro Bay’s outgoing city manager, said at Thursday’s ceremony.
Located at 555 South Bay Blvd. south of town, the new sewage treatment facility will use “scientifically proven, advanced purification processes,” including reverse osmosis and ultraviolet advanced oxidation, according to a news release.
The plant processes an average of 1 million gallons of wastewater a day, but can process up to 8.14 million gallons per day during storm events, according to engineer Erick Bevington.
The new facility replaces a circa 1956 wastewater treatment plant that was located in the tsunami and flood zone between Morro Bay High School and the sea.
The California State Water Resources Control Board first told Morro Bay to move its sewage treatment facility in 1986.
Waivers were granted for years until the board put its foot down, ruling that the final deadline was March 2023. The California Coastal Commission also mandated the move.
The new Water Resources Center is located about two miles from the shoreline.
“We were the first utility in the state to relocate a wastewater treatment facility off the coast, which is something we’re proud of,” Greg Kwolek, Morro Bay’s public works director, said Wednesday. “After the old plant is fully decommissioned and the land restored, we’ll also get to have that open space.”
Although the new wastewater treatment facility has already been operating for several months, “There are a few punch list items that still need to be done,” Kwolek said.
In the project’s final phase, according to Bevington and program manager Dan Heimel, wells will be drilled near Lila Kaiser Park.
Treated water will be injected into those wells so it can spend months being naturally filtered through the soil before reaching the aquifer before being extracted for use. An effluent pipeline transports leftover waste from the treatment process to the city’s existing ocean outfall.
To accomplish this, the city installed about 45,000 linear feet of underground piping, which meant that key streets in town had to be torn up.
Morro Bay Mayor Carla Wixom said during Thursday’s dedication ceremony that Morro Bay residents and business owners “showed such patience and cooperation” during the process.
Audience members applauded when she added that “the paving on Quintana (Road) is complete!”
The federal Environmental Protection Agency helped the city of Morro Bay pay for the new plant with a $61 million loan. The city also got other loans and grants toward the project.
Greg Haas, spokesperson for U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal, said Morro Bay is “the first small community to receive a loan of this size.”
Haas credited community members for their participation in the years-long process of replacing the sewage treatment plant.
They were crucial “in securing your water future, a safe source of drinking water,” he said.
This story was originally published February 23, 2023 at 2:39 PM.
