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Sort of wish you were a fish...NOT!  OCSD used to say the effluent was good for the ocean

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Joey's Corner

On detached duty, Joey is working with SLO, Cayucos and other Central Coast water quality stakeholders to eliminate the next-to-last waiver in California (San Diego will be the last) and improve the health of the watershed.

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A-B-C Plan
A regional waste water treatment plan for the Morro Bay Estuary Watershed

regional problem, regional approach, regional solution

   
Added
June 19, 2005

The A-B-C Plan by Joey Racano

The A-B-C Plan is named for the cities it would involve and the site on Los Osos Valley Road that would be its treatment hub.

'A' is for Alternative, the out-of-town alternative wastewater treatment plant will include secondary, tertiary and "quaternary" (polishing ponding system) treatment levels.

Contrary to some distributed misinformation, the owners of the proposed alternative site(s), which are environmentally and ecologically superior, say they have never been contacted and would indeed be willing sellers.

'B' is for the cities on the bay, of which there are two, Morro Bay and Los Osos.

'C' is for Cayucos, a city currently sending the sewage it generates to Morro Bay for treatment (or lack thereof as Morro Bay holds a 301(h) waiver, allowing it to dump sewage into the ocean at a depth of 50' through a 27" pipe, with less than full secondary treatment -and all at a distance of less than 2800 feet from shore.

The fact that Cayucos already sends its sewage 'product' to the Morro Bay Waste Water Treatment Plant means that much useable infrastructure is already in
place and would need only be 'sleeved' as was recently done successfully and cost-effectively in Huntington Beach, California.

Some unsleevable pipes, etc would have to be replaced, also the case in Morro Bay, where -as in Cayucos- flaws in the deteriorated system make it subject to
surcharge during rainstorm events and emergency.

The waste water from both Morro Bay and Cayucos will receive primary treatment, be sent either to the advanced WWTP at the alternative site via the effluent pump station at Morro Bay, or else would take advantage of the
"Duke Option".

The
Duke Option would mandate that Duke Power Plant purchase Morro Bay/Cayucos' waste water and use it, supplemented by cooling towers, instead of the estuary, for cooling.

This is already being done in Casa Grande Arizona, where the local power plant is required to buy the waste water and use it in their cooling process (resulting in a $200,000.00 annual windfall for that city).

The Duke Option would eliminate the single-pass cooling intake from destroying estuarine life and raise funds for the municipalities. It would also heat the waste water before it is sent - via a Morro Bay pump station - to the Advanced Alternative Waste Water Treatment Plant.

This elevated temperature makes much of the waste water less expensive and energy-intensive to treat. Should Duke Energy opt to leave the coast, The A-B-C
Plan would not be affected.

In Los Osos, the infrastructure would be built so as to send waste water directly to the Advanced Alternative Waste Water Treatment Plant, eliminating the need to destroy several large and robust environmentally sensitive habitat areas, as well as to relieve poor and elderly residents within the 'exclusion zone' from footing the bill for the pollution of an entire region, including a large prison with a chronic habit of spilling raw sewage.

The A-B-C Plan:

  • Eliminates the Morro Bay sewage outfall (now dumping more than 1 Million Gallons per Day of sewage and currently receiving only substandard treatment)

  • Eliminates the Duke Power Plants outfall (currently using a 316(b) thermal waiver to dump water heated far above ambient temperatures)

  • Eliminates the Duke Power Plants dangerous and destructive "once-through cooling" intake, saving 1/3 of the larvae in Morro Bay National Estuary and many other marine creatures

  • Eliminates leach fields from 90% of the septic tanks used in Los Osos, replacing them with interceptors

  • Moves the Los Osos Waste Water Treatment Plant (as currently proposed) off of the Monarch Meadows 'Tri-W' site

  • Protects another large environmentally sensitive habitat area by eliminating the leach field on the hillside at Broderson, and

  • Eliminates the need (during storm events) to dump raw sewage into the ocean from both the existing Morro Bay Waste Water Treatment Plant and the currently proposed Los Osos WWTP by moving these operations to the higher elevation enjoyed at the Andre (or one of two other) site(s).


Another enormous advantage of The A-B-C Plan is cost reduction for all involved. Cities of less than 10,000 just miss out on low cost loans. A regional plan would
make grants and/or these low-cost loans once again available.

Several reputable environmental organizations have already expressed an eagerness to help make this funding available should the A-B-C cities pursue the
regional waste water treatment course.

Yet another advantage of The A-B-C Plan is it would send effluent to strategically positioned 'injection wells' to counter the salt water intrusion now threatening our aquifers.

Further, The A-B-C Plan provides effluent for irrigation to cemetaries and agriculture, eliminating the need for them to purchase fertilizer, or for them
to continue tapping our aquifers of large amounts of pure water, better used for drinking reserves.

More of the effluent would stay on-site at the Advanced Alternative Waste Water Treatment Plant in percolation ponds, where it would mimic the natural percolation process, such ponds not only serving to recharge our thirsty aquifer, but also doubling as wildlife refuges.

Finally, The A-B-C Plan would utilize desalination technologies to process effluent, producing water so clean that organic matter must actually be added to give it taste -a process already being utilized by our astronauts.

Thank you for your interest in this important matter,

Clean water for life!

Joey Racano

Ocean Outfall Group

   
   
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