Don’t be alarmed by excess water flow in storm drains off
Fairview Road in the next week.
Don’t be alarmed by excess water flow in storm drains off Fairview Road in the next week.
On Thursday the city began testing the newly opening Lessalt Water Treatment Plant, which is a collaboration of the City of Hollister and the Sunnyslope Water District.
The tests – which are necessary for a state Department of Health Services permit to operate the plant – will run for seven days, 24 hours a day, city engineer Steve Wittry said.
Wittry said more water than usual may be seen flowing at the intersection of Fairview and Sunnyslope Roads for about 1,000 feet.
“Essentially it’s a routine process that we need to go through,” Wittry said.
The Lessalt plant, which opens Nov. 20, is designed to improve the quality of water in a city historically plagued by water with a high salt content. Wittry said the plant would lower the total dissolved solids – essentially salts – by one-third.
The project, which began about five years ago, will mostly affect areas to the north of the plant. But Wittry said the exact geographic areas affected are “still up in the air.”
Water improvement goals of the Lessalt plant are associated with guidelines set two years ago by the Regional Water Quality Control Board and the city’s overall goal of improving potable water and wastewater.
The recently adopted Long-term Wastewater Management Plan, which includes a new domestic wastewater treatment plant and wetlands, is scheduled for completion Oct. 15, 2005.
“We want a better quality of water into the house and a better quality of water out of the house,” Wittry said.
He said the Lessalt plant should also improve the taste of the water in local homes.
