State water board to make decision final tomorrow
The fine Hollister faces from the state water board is bigger
than anyone previously has acknowledged, though the city is hoping
the new figure is a mistake.
State water board to make decision final tomorrow
The fine Hollister faces from the state water board is bigger than anyone previously has acknowledged, though the city is hoping the new figure is a mistake.
If the city blows all of its deadlines for sewage plant upgrades, Hollister taxpayers stand to lose $1,776,000 – not $1.2 million – for not complying with the timetable for improvements, according to a Regional Water Quality Control Board staff report.
The development stunned members of the council when they learned about it from a reporter this week.
“You’re kidding me!” Councilman Tony Bruscia said via telephone on Tuesday. “I can’t believe that. If staff hasn’t notified us I would need to look into that further. Obviously, that would be really disturbing.”
The new amount was outlined in a RWQCB report made for the board’s meeting tomorrow, when members will vote on the final fine amount at a meeting in San Luis Obispo.
The total includes the original $1.2 million fine, doubled from a proposed $600,000 after a statement by Bruscia at the September hearing apparently antagonized board members. In addition, according to RWQCB documents, the city faces $576,000 in penalties if it misses any deadlines for any one of three mitigation projects officials vowed to build in an effort to lessen potential punishment: construction of an emergency catch basin for treated waste water to safeguard against floods and spills, properly studying whether or not the city’s treatment and waste-water operations are contaminating the ground and surface water, and following through with water conservation efforts.
“We worded it the way our legal counsel told us to,” said Matt Fabry of the RWQCB.
The water board, which has not looked favorably on Hollister in the past, has the power to allow override the staff recommendation and reduce the $576,000 in increments as each project is completed.
“They can decide if that was their intent,” Fabry said.
On Tuesday night, City Manager George Lewis sent an e-mail informing council members of the new amount, though city staff has been communicating about it since Oct. 10 with the RWQCB. The monetary fine is in addition to a complete building moratorium enacted by the board in September that could last until the new $18.5 million sewage system is complete, possibly in 2005.
The city additionally can reduce the $1.2 million by $600,000 by meeting construction deadlines on the new plant. The city still has to pay $24,000 by Dec. 2 for water board staff costs associated with investigating the spill.
On Oct. 25, city engineer Clint Quilter sent a letter to the water board protesting the proposed fine schedule and asking whether it was a mistake.
“While the city understands that it is important to have deadlines for completing the supplemental environmental projects, having a suspended penalty with them effectively increases its liability from $1.2 million to $1.8 million,” Quilter wrote to staff at the water board. “We are not sure this was the intent of the Regional Board.”
Councilman Brian Conroy was livid when he learned about the new development from a reporter. The council was upset earlier this summer when members learned from the newspaper that the state water board had decided on its proposed fine for May’s 15 million gallon sewage spill and other plant violations. Council members then demanded better communication between staff and the elected board.
Copies of Quilter’s letter were sent to City Manager George Lewis, City Attorney Elaine Cass, and Deputy Public Works Director Lawrence Jackson, Public Works Director Jim Perrine, private attorney Kent Alm, who represented the city at the water board meeting, and William Little.
“I’m not surprised,” said Conroy when he learned of the larger fine. “When we’re not hearing about this stuff it’s very disappointing. I’m disappointed to hear that, very disappointed. I would like to see, as I’ve stated before, more communication. In the past, there has been a problem with staff communicating with council and that’s got to change. I kind of thought we rounded that corner, but apparently we didn’t.”
Quilter referred questions as to why staff failed to inform the council to Lewis, who could not be reached for comment, but Quilter vowed the city would not miss any of its deadlines. Lewis sent members of the council an e-mail around 6:30 p.m. Tuesday outlining what the water board may adopt on Friday.
“This amounts to increasing the fine to $1,776,000 and suspending $1,176,000 depending on our performance in meeting milestones,” Lewis wrote.
The catch basin must be built by next January, and the project is already out to bid, Quilter said. A proposal of how the study must be conducted has to be sent in by Dec. 6, and Quilter said the city is humming right along with all the involved parties in hammering it out. The city is also working closely with the Water Resources Association to have a finished plan for conserving water, such as promoting low-flow toilets, by Dec. 6 as well, he said.
As for $600,000 in fines, there are no surprises in how it will be handled, according to city and water board officials. The city will be forgiven from paying $200,000 installments for each of three deadlines it successfully makes. The first two deadlines fall on Aug. 1, 2003.
On that date, the city must have lowered its average concentration of dissolved solids, such as salt and phosphate in treated water, to 60 milligrams per liter. The city also needs to install a new headworks – a device that controls odor, measures intake and screens out certain objects – at its wastewater treatment plant. The last of that money will be forgiven when a new sewer plant comes online in October of 2005.
Fabry said there is nothing unusual about how the fine schedule has been prepared. Fines are typically forgiven once the work required by the board is finished.
“This is the standard way that we do these enforcement actions,” he said.
Fine schedule:
Aug. 1, 2003, reduce suspended solids in effluent, fine reduces by $200,000.
Aug. 1, 2002, complete new treatment plant headworks to accurately measure flows and reduce odors, fine reduces by $200,000.
Oct. 15, 2005, implement all aspects of long-term wastewater management program, reduce fine by $200,000.
