Cambria’s water plant EIR hearing short, with few remarks
Four dozen or so Cambrians attended a public hearing Tuesday, Oct. 11, for their chance to speak out officially about the environmental impact report for Cambria’s sustainable water facility and the changes that are being proposed.
But only five audience members spoke out.
Representatives of the Cambria Community Services District and consulting firm Michael Baker International convened the session to hear what Cambrians think about the facility’s Draft Subsequent Environmental Impact Report, but not their opinions of the project itself, according to Glenn Lajoie. He’s Michael Baker’s project manager for the report (EIR) that “tiers” off a previous EIR for the district’s Water Master Plan.
That restriction on comment topics may have kept the meeting short: 40 minutes from start to finish.
Written comments still can be submitted through 5 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, by mail or hand delivered to District Engineer Robert Gresens, CCSD Planning Department, 1316 Tamson Drive, Suite 201, Cambria CA 93428. Or email comments to bgresens@cambriacsd.org.
The heavy-duty report includes 10 sections that contain 42 chapters, plus seven appendices, 25 exhibits and 60 tables. The environmental analysis section alone covers aesthetics, air quality, biological resources, cultural resources, hydrology/water quality, noise and compliance with land use regulations and the county’s Local Coastal Program.
The draft EIR is posted at www.cambriacsd.org.
Comments will be answered and incorporated into the final EIR, Lajoie said. Then the CCSD board will review and vote on the document.
CCSD Director Greg Sanders estimated later by phone that it will take “at least 90 days” after the comment period ends Oct. 26 before the final document is ready, putting that ETA into late January or beyond. Sanders said the public will have several more opportunities to speak out about the EIR and the project.
Gresens said that, years ago, the Army Corps of Engineers studied a wide range of possible solutions to Cambria’s recurring shortage of potable water, and selected the process of treating brackish water near San Simeon Creek as the most technically feasible.
By late 2013, state Department of Public Health officials were advising California water providers to “look at alternative water supplies” because of the deeply worsening drought conditions, Gresens said. CCSD officials were “concerned we’d run out of water by fall,” so in early 2014, the board declared an official water shortage emergency.
The district sought and got an emergency permit for, and then built, the emergency water supply project (since rebranded as the sustainable water facility). The emergency permit required the district to also get a regular coastal development permit for the project. The EIR is part of that process.
The plant draws from underground a brackish blend of dilute ocean water, fresh water from creek underflow and treated wastewater effluent. The blend goes through microfilters, three stages of reverse osmosis and advanced oxidation before being reinjected into the aquifer and flowing toward district supply wells.
Gresens said the process has a “92 percent recovery rate,” leaving 8 percent as “brine.”
In the current operation, that brine goes into a large pond, where it is supposed to evaporate, a process that caused a variety of problems.
In the revised plan’s “preferred option,” trucks would haul away the brine, either to a Kettleman City facility or to a closer site with an ocean outfall, an option that apparently can’t be finalized as quickly.
The hauling process triggered two of the five comments made at the meeting. Crosby Schwartz and Bob Kasper asked how much less it would cost if the brine-disposal area were closer than Kettleman City.
Gresens didn’t have the answer handy, but said “it will be much less expensive if we can find a local outfall.”
Laura Schwartz said the EIR also should address environmental impacts the plant would create, including traffic, when the town reaches its “build-out” cap of 4,650 residential water connections. There are 3,850 connections now, she said.
As of the hearing, the district had received about 80 comment letters, Gresens estimated, but none yet from regulatory agencies or other interested governmental entities.
This story was originally published October 12, 2016 at 10:22 AM with the headline "Cambria’s water plant EIR hearing short, with few remarks."