The state’s regional water board recently ordered San Juan Bautista to pay $116,000 in fines that have collected over the past three years for continuously exceeding a salt discharge cap in the water system.
San Juan Bautista paid the fine before a deadline toward the end of December – though the regional water quality control board allowed the city to use $66,500 of the amount toward infrastructure upgrades that are necessary to curtail salt levels. Outside of the funds going toward improvements, the city – with a general fund budget of around $1 million annually – shelled out $49,500 to the state.
By fining San Juan with the caveat, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board is making it clear – the agency wants the Mission City to get moving on its reclamation water project.
City Manager Roger Grimsley on Friday called the matter “tinkering” for the already completed, massive water project undertaken in San Juan about three years ago. That infrastructure overhaul was funded through a more than $11 million bond approved by the council in 2008 that will cost about $26 million to pay back.
The total fine amount of $116,000 is an accumulation of monthly fines handed down over the past three years as well, Grimsley said.
“They put a mandate on us to implement our water reclamation project,” Grimsley said. “We’re commencing on that.”
Grimsley said he had first discovered the accumulating fines last year, while he contended the prior city administration had known about it beforehand.
He explained that as the city processes effluent through the wastewater treatment facility, it is exceeding the discharge limit of 200 milliliters of salt per liter. He said the water is poor quality, and it goes into the wells and groundwater residents are using.
“We should be using that reclaimed water instead of discharging it into a local creek,” he said.
As part of its reclamation project, the city will use reclaimed water at several locations such as Abbe Park, the library and a subdivision.
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