City manager Clint Quilter will be in Santa Barbara this morning
to ask the Regional Water Quality Control Board for an extension of
the deadline it gave the city to construct a new sewage treatment
plant.
Hollister – City manager Clint Quilter will be in Santa Barbara this morning to ask the Regional Water Quality Control Board for an extension of the deadline it gave the city to construct a new sewage treatment plant.
The RWQCB hit Hollister with a building moratorium after 15-million gallons of treated sewage spilled into the San Benito River in 2002. At that time, the agency gave Hollister until Oct. 15 of this year to build a new plant.
City officials are confident that the extension will be granted because the city has met other deadlines and has begun working with San Benito County and the county water district to create a long-term wastewater plan for the Hollister. Last month, RWQCB staff recommended that the board grant the extension.
“Of the times I’ve been to the board over the last year-and-a-half or so, they’ve expressed positive comments on the progress we’re making,” Quilter said.
But even though Oct. 15 deadline has passed and staff recommended the deadline be extended, the granting of the extension is not a foregone conclusion. RWQCB Executive Officer Roger Briggs has said that it is not uncommon for the board to rule in opposition to a staff recommendation. If the extension is not granted, Hollister faces $200,000 in fines.
Many in Hollister are eager to see a new treatment plant built so the moratorium, which prohibits new development, is lifted. Quilter has told the City Council that, barring delays during environmental studies of the project, the new plant will be built by December, 2007.
Plans for a treatment plant are 90 percent complete, he said, but the problem has been figuring out how to dispose of treated water.
Finding a solution to the disposal dilemma is one of the tasks being undertaken by the Governance Committee for the Hollister Urban Area Water and Wastewater Plan – a board organized last year that consists of members from Hollister, the county and the county water district.
In August, the Governance Committee accepted a work plan that lays out milestones and deadlines to meet them, which will ultimately result in a long-term wastewater plan and a new sewage treatment plant. Last week committee members authorized the hiring of a firm that will draft the plan, which is slated to be completed by late 2006.
Luke Roney covers local politics and the environment for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 335 or at lr****@fr***********.com
