Cambria water plant EIR on its way to the public, regulatory agencies

It’s done! The long-awaited draft environmental impact report (EIR) for the Cambria Community Services District’s Sustainable Water Facility was to have been released to the public and regulatory agencies on Wednesday, Aug. 31, after The Cambrian’s press deadline.

The report explains in precise detail how the emergency design of the water-reclamation-and-treatment facility would be modified, and how the final design would affect the environment and the people of the district.

For instance, according to statements made by district officials at some previous Board of Directors meetings, instead of a using a pond to hold leftover brine from the filtration-treatment process — and noisy blower systems to help that liquid evaporate more quickly — the new plan will recommend hauling the brine to an out-of-town facility. The pond would be cleaned out, sterilized and modified to serve as a storage basin for potable water.

The EIR is a crucial step along the CSD’s path toward getting permission to use the plant any time, rather than just during declared water-shortage emergencies. Its former name was the Emergency Water Supply project, built under a fast-tracked county permit because district officials asserted that the town could have run out of water during the prolonged drought.

CSD Director Greg Sanders said Tuesday what appeared to be a final flurry of emailed changes to the EIR had volleyed back and forth for days between district staff and consultants. He said CSD engineer Bob Gresens was to file the draft document with the county clerk early Wednesday, before his busy day filled with meetings.

Sanders, half of the two-director ad hoc committee on the EIR, said the next steps would be telling the public that the EIR is ready for their review, and getting the document to the State Clearinghouse, which would then release it to representatives of agencies that regulate various aspects of the plant and its operation.

He said the 45-day formal review period for the draft document would begin Wednesday when the document was filed with the county, but he hopes to persuade his peers to extend that deadline a bit so the public can be formally told that they have access to the EIR, and then have 45 days after that to study it.

Until and unless that extension is approved, however, the review period ends Oct. 14, according to the “notice of availability of a draft subsequent environmental impact report and notice of public hearing.”

The 45 days allows interested parties to read the document and, if they have concerns or comments, they can file those with the district before the period ends. Those would be incorporated into the EIR.

The document will be available at the Cambria Library, 1043 Main St., at the CSD offices at 1316 Tamson Drive, Suite 201, and soon online at http://bit.ly/2bCyvtn.

Comments can be filed up to 5 p.m. Oct. 14 (or the modified review period) at those locations or by emailing them to Gresens at bgresens@cambriacsd.org or mailing them to him at CCSD Planning Department, at the district office address. For details, call 805-927-6223.

Sanders and his ad hoc committee counterpart, board President Gail Robinette, both say the district plans to hold a workshop at which CSD staff and consultants from Michael Baker International can explain the document and plans for the project.

According to the notice of availability, that workshop is tentatively set for 9 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 6.

Robinette said Tuesday that some district representatives, including General Manager Jerry Gruber, had been “pushing hard” for an early release of the EIR because “they want to get it out as soon as it’s the way it’s supposed to be.” Robinette said she felt “it’s better to have it right … we owe it to the public to do our very best job” before the document was put out for review.

The EIR is likely to be a hot topic for the next couple of months for another reason: Sanders and Robinette are both up for re-election, as is Director Amanda Rice. There are four challengers in the race: Harry Farmer, R. Thomas Kirkey, Dewayne Lee and Jeff Walters.

Gruber couldn’t be reached for comment Tuesday. He’d been in Sacramento for two days, making the governmental rounds with Dean Florez of Balance Public Relations. They were seeking legislative and agency acknowledgement of Cambria’s tree-mortality crisis and seeking grants and other funding with which to combat that problem, to upgrade the town’s sewage-treatment plant and address other district issues.

Fire delay

The Board of Directors unanimously decided to cut short their Aug. 25 meeting, delaying until Tuesday, Sept. 6 some items on the agenda.

The decision was based on the impact of the Chimney Fire, not only indirectly on Cambrians but on area residents who had been poised to flee from the flames and some whose cabins and property had been destroyed or damaged by the wildfire.

The Sept. 6 “continued” meeting will start at 4 p.m. at the Veterans Memorial Building, 1000 Main St., with a closed session set for an hour earlier. Issues to be addressed include: Possibly lifting suspended outstanding intent-to-serve letter(s) and discussing the CSD’s Stage 3 water emergency; establishing a fund balance cash reserve policy; hearing a report from Balance Public Relations, including on the Sacramento visit; and various staff reports.

At the Aug. 25 meeting, the directors approved on a 4-1 vote continuing through Oct. 31 the suspension of any penalties or surcharges for customers who use more water than they are allocated.

This story was originally published August 31, 2016 at 9:01 AM with the headline "Cambria water plant EIR on its way to the public, regulatory agencies."