Water-reclamation plant gets green light from SLO County Planning Commission
Cambria’s long-idled, often controversial water-reclamation facility got a unanimous go-ahead by county planning commissioners Thursday, when they authorized the decade-old installation for operations at times other than just during declared severe water-shortage emergencies.
Commissioner Anne Wyatt made the motion to approve the Cambria Community Services District’s coastal development permit application for the project. The vote came after a three-hour hearing.
If opponents appeal the Planning Commission’s decision, county supervisors would be next in line to consider the multi-million-dollar project, possibly followed by the California Coastal Commission.
CSD representatives said they expect that and have been consulting with Coastal Commission staffers and other regulatory agencies for several years.
One Planning Commission suggestion that made it into the final document was further investigating a possible alliance between the Cambria and San Simeon community services districts. That possibility was one factor in recently intensified discussions, Matt McElhenie, general manager of Cambria’s CSD, told The Tribune Friday.
The two CSDs have considered that possibility off and on for decades and had always backed away from it in the past due in part to ratepayer objections in both communities.
San Simeon has been trying for more than a year to divest itself of its major responsibilities, handing them off to the county or another agency. Among the stated reasons for those actions were fiscally onerous requirements by the Coastal Commission.
One of those requirements is finding a new location for the tiny town’s wastewater treatment plant, currently in a flood-risk zone between homes, a small business plaza, Highway 1 and the sea.
Possible pipelines between the two CSDs could carry treated brine from Cambria’s reinvigorated water facility to San Simeon’s existing ocean outfall, which is being extended. A second pipeline could transport San Simeon’s wastewater to Cambria’s treatment plant. The county is doing a study on the feasibility of that, McElhenie said Friday.
Another option is hauling Cambria’s brine to a South County facility, which could run up a hefty bill very fast, the CSD’s staff said Thursday.
Cambria’s wastewater plant is also relatively close to the ocean, but it’s located on a hill at about 15 feet above sea level.
A recent pilot test on an adjunct “zero liquid discharge” process to remove more water from the brine was successful, but cost to buy and operate such a process hasn’t been established, and grants to help pay for it would be needed, according to McElhenie.
Planning commissioners had suggestions for water project
Commissioners dropped from the water-reclamation proposal a recommendation that would have completely removed a failed 9-million-gallon brine-evaporation pond.
Instead, commissioners, staffers and attendees agreed that a better concept could be to keep the pond for water storage, primarily for a firefighting supply, while removing bulky equipment at the pond’s edge.
Aircraft could get water from the pond by submerging suspended buckets or using extended “snorkels” to siphon water into holding tanks.
The CSD could encircle and camouflage the pond with plantings to hide it from view, especially from the nearby State Parks campground, while also improving the habitat.
The pond removal concept had been unofficially endorsed by Coastal Commission staffers consulting with the CSD about the plan.
But at a recent on-site meeting, the state commission’s representative seemed to consider keeping the additional firefighting protection, Wyatt and McElhenie said.
The CSD GM said he believes that other mitigations could be substituted, including possible conservation easements.
Water reclamation in Cambria has a long, sometimes divisive history
The water-reclamation plant has been under laborious redesign by the district and review by the county for years.
In the meantime, ratepayers have been shelling out annually toward the big loan that’s still paying for the original plant that hasn’t operated fully since 2016.
It is tested and maintained regularly to keep the facility ready to work, according to CSD staffers.
During the year when the facility ran regularly, it did so under an emergency development permit that authorized operations only during those drought-triggered water shortage emergencies.
The CSD undertook numerous studies backing up its claim that the project would help the community and do no harm to the habitat.
Through the years, opponents disagreed with that analysis, often vociferously, saying permission to operate the plant regularly would encourage growth the community cannot handle and cause irreparable harm.
At the hearing, there were few negative comments from attendees, but earlier, many had been submitted in writing.
During the 35 minutes of public comment, three Cambria residents spoke against the project, and nine said they were in favor of it.
Jim Townsend called the plant “a nightmare for Cambria residents,” but Mark Rochefort said the permit application is “local government standing up to its responsibility to its constituency and the resources.”
Bob Detweiller called the plant “a true gem in this community,” which can provide a protection from a disastrous fire in the heavily forested area. Through the past decades, the CSD has “continued to lurch from one activity to another without real progress. It (the plant) won’t solve all our problems, but it will be a good step forward.”
