Some Cambria water-use restrictions may be revised

Water levels are high enough in the Cambria services district’s wells and aquifers that directors will consider revising the stringent water-use restrictions prompted by four years of statewide drought. Such an action would reduce inconvenience and extra costs for consumers who have set state records for conserving water.

At the meeting at 12:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, the Cambria Community Services District Board of Directors also could modify the agency’s maximum water-use allotment per person or account, and of the previously declared Stage 3 water shortage emergency condition that required the restrictions.

Some possible outcomes? According to recommendations of the district’s Ad Hoc Conservation Committee, surcharges and penalties could be eliminated, and customers could again use district water from the tap to wash vehicles. Outdoor watering of landscaping could continue on the one-day-a-week-per-account schedule approved in August 2015.

Other restrictions likely would remain in place.

If the board gives tacit approval to those concepts, a public hearing on the changes could be added to the district’s special hearing session Feb. 12, or to the board’s regular Feb. 18 regular meeting.

For details on that issue and other items on the meeting’s agenda, go to www.cambriacsd.org, and under Board Business, click on “Agendas & Minutes” under “Board Business” at the bottom of the page, then Jan. 28, 2016. The meeting happens in the Veterans Memorial Building, 1000 Main St.

More issues

But removing water-use restrictions and surcharges aren’t the only issues on the district’s plate at that meeting or in the near future.

For instance, directors likely will learn more about a huge pile of flood-borne debris – a logjam that has accumulated at the lower end of the district’s San Simeon Creek well field. According to General Manager Jerry Gruber, hauling away the problem-causing rubble could cost $25,000 … if the district can get state permission to remove it.

As of midday Tuesday, Jan. 26, none of the district’s wells in that aquifer was providing water to the community, and one of them had tested positive for coliform bacteria, probably because of recent flooding that covered the wells with feet of water.

Midday Tuesday, the district’s SR4 well on Santa Rosa Creek was the coastal town’s sole source of water, but water supervisor Justin Smith estimated that situation could have changed by later that day, after press deadline.

Fire and protests

What else is brewing? A long-awaited ad hoc committee report on the future of the Cambria Fire Department could be presented at the special hearing at 9 a.m. Friday, Feb. 12.

That meeting was originally scheduled solely for a hearing to determine whether the district could raise its water and sewage-treatment rates. Nobody knows yet how many protests have been filed against the proposed rate hikes, but opponents say the number is likely to be significant.

Community members may comment on both those issues (and any other) during the Jan. 28 meeting’s public comment periods, and official written rate-increase protests can be submitted there then or Feb. 12.

The protests, which must include specific information according to the state’s Proposition 218, also can be submitted at the district office (1316 Tamson St., Suite 201), or by mail to CCSD, Attn: District Clerk, P.O. Box 65, Cambria CA 93428.

The junk pile

Smith informed General Manager Jerry Gruber of the logjam problem Saturday, Jan. 23, saying the 10-foot-tall-plus pile “is most likely what led to the flooding that occurred in the well field on Tuesday, Jan. 19.”

Smith and district engineer Bob Gresens met at the site Sunday, Jan. 24, to discuss the district’s options and a possible action plan.

Later, Smith recommended contacting county and state agencies, perhaps including State Parks and/or the Department of Fish and Wildlife, to request assistance in clearing the logjam.

Although Smith believes “there is a very limited chance that they will grant us any assistance or allow us to clear the jam ourselves,” he advised that the district make the requests anyway. Doing so would be part of the CSD’s due diligence in getting the dangerously junky problem solved.

And, as Smith said, “the request would at least give us some liability coverage in the event of a larger storm happening this year and causing more damage” than was inflicted on Jan. 19.

Smith estimates that “the worst-case scenario would be a portion of the jam breaking free and clogging up the bridge in the State Parks campground, putting our main effluent- and water-transmission lines at risk. Or a clog near the effluent spray field, causing damage (to) the effluent ponds.”

Gruber said in an email to Smith, the board members and others that he’d reach out to those agencies, and the GM lauded Smith and Gresens for wrestling with the problem on a Sunday, their day off. “The two of you always seem to amaze me. The community is so fortunate to have two such dedicated employees.”

Well requirements

During the Jan. 19 flooding incident, the CSD shut down the wells in the flooded San Simeon well field. Officials notified state regulators at the Department of Drinking Water (DDW), who said that, before they’d authorize bringing the wells back online, the district would need to provide bacterial samples and results proving that water in the wells was safe.

Then, a test for coliform bacteria on SS3 “popped,” or exceeded the limits, “most likely due to the flooding” in the well field, Smith said, “as it was the hardest hit well from the flooding. …”

“We will continue to treat and monitor the SS3 well for coliform until the well is deemed safe.”

Rain runoff flowing through open and ag lands often picks up many elements, including animal droppings, but a positive coliform reading can have other causes.

Other well and sample results passed muster, Smith said, adding that he’ll return the SS2 well “to normal production after I receive confirmation from the DDW,” which he expected could have happened as soon as late Tuesday, Jan. 26.

In another twist, Smith also said that SS2 is the only San Simeon well that can be used for water production right now, because of the location of the other wells and the state’s requirement that there be a lapse of at least two months of “travel time” between when water is reinjected into the aquifer by the CSD’s $13 million Sustainable Water Facility and when the treated water gets to district wells. The plant was turned off Dec. 31.

“Since the SS3 well was deemed unable to meet that two-month travel-time rule,” Smith said, “it is required to be off” for the entire time the plant is injecting water, plus the two-month travel time after the plant is shut off. The well can be used for groundwater sampling required by the permit, however.

This story was originally published January 27, 2016 at 12:11 PM with the headline "Some Cambria water-use restrictions may be revised."