City Manager Bill Avera at a luncheon event this week said he “probably mishandled or misjudged” the severity of two 2016 cannery waste spills into the San Benito River bed.
On Jan. 13, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued the City of Hollister a notice of violation related to two discharges into the San Benito River bed. The first spill happened on or around July 16 and the second occurred Sept. 6. The water board requires a submission of information, including a technical report, by Feb. 27.
The city when initially responding to the issue filled the related leak of a diversion valve in a line from the San Benito Foods tomato cannery with inflatable plugs, one of which eventually failed. Council members, after the spills, approved an item relating to the replacement of the valve structure at a Jan. 17 meeting.
At a San Benito County Chamber of Commerce luncheon on Wednesday, Avera spoke about the planned topic of economic development and took questions from the audience. He addressed the two wastewater spills on his own after an earlier question about his past mistakes. He referred to the two spills as the “recent event involving San Benito Foods and the slide gate.”
“One of the things I will say is that I probably mishandled or misjudged that to some extent on the severity level,” Avera said. “But at the same time, I’m always going to be factual and I’ll always be truthful about how I felt or what that process was or what happened during that event.”
Avera told the audience that there’s a huge difference between allegations and conviction.
“I don’t know if that got published or how that worked, but there’s a lot of accusations or questions being made in (the notice of violation) as accusations,” he said.
Facts from the technical report will be shared once the document is submitted to the state water board, Avera said.
Additionally, Avera referenced a worker’s mistake made in relation to the wastewater spills.
“The biggest mistake was that over Labor Day Weekend, one of our on-call personnel didn’t check the (inflatable plug) for three days,” he said. “That was human error that should not have happened.”
Avera ended his speech by playing down potential environmental impacts of the spills.
“That was a mistake that was made, but when somebody asks me about whether or not it’s an environmental catastrophe or anything I giggle at that because it’s tomato and water,” he said. “A lot of us buy it at the store everyday. It’s called Campbell’s soup. I said I would eat it; I may if that’s what it takes. Because it truly is just tomato and water.”
