Hollister council members Monday received a report on ways to treat the city’s industrial wastewater facility, including the once proposed floating island concept.
In February 2015, city officials held a special meeting to hear from Mokelumne Hill-based Floating Islands West, LLC. The company’s wastewater treatment process uses plant-based floating islands that utilize organic bacteria to consume organic materials. The proposal contended the process would cost less while saving energy compared to aerators and more traditional sludge removal.
At the time, Mayor Ignacio Velazquez argued the industrial pond costs about $800,000 annually to operate including energy costs, while the floating islands idea would cost $15,000 annually eliminating sludge built up in the pond.
Instead of the floating islands concept, council members approved spending over $2 million on sludge removal at both the domestic and industrial wastewater treatment plants in April 2015.
At Monday’s meeting, Interim Engineering Manager David Rubcic and others went before the council to report on the once proposed floating islands concept, as well as subsurface aerators that could also treat the city’s wastewater.
Residents in recent years have dealt with a foul summer odor caused by San Benito Foods’ tomato cannery waste backing up the city’s industrial wastewater pond. The industrial pond operation, dormant when not in use, kicks in for 10 to 12 weeks of canning.
Rubcic told council members that the floating islands concept wouldn’t address the city’s sludge or tomato waste issue.
“We did take a look at proposals,” Rubcic said. “What we did is, we landed on an aerator that’s a non-splash aerator that will inject air into the ground.”
The proposed subsurface aerators use a compressor to inject oxygen for better mixing rather than throwing water up into the air.
San Juan Bautista-based Bracewell Engineering Owner Lloyd Bracewell spoke on the matter. He prepared a technical memorandum for the city.
“Two years ago I was asked by San Benito Food members to examine the floating islands concept,” Bracewell told council members. “It was clear fairly early on that this was a technology that was intended for wetlands and not for high-strength waste. There is virtually no installation in the world, that we could find, that actually treats this kind of waste.”
Bracewell explained that the proposed 2,000 square feet of floating island wouldn’t produce enough oxygen for the industrial pond that’s nearly 1 million square feet.
Mayor Velazquez commented after Bracewell finished speaking.
“Here’s the problem: a few years ago we started talking about ways to address this issue and we started looking for new, alternative ways,” Velazquez said, “something to help solve this problem. Now this idea was talked about in a way that wouldn’t accomplish the goals as you’re pointing out. What would accomplish it, according to others, was that if we removed the sludge, this problem would go away and we’d be fine. I remember this conversation because I wasn’t very happy about it. I said, ‘All we’re doing is kicking the ball down the road. It’s not going to solve the problem.’ Lo and behold, the problem came back with a vengeance on us.”
On Jan. 13, the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board issued the City of Hollister a notice of violation related to two 2016 wastewater spills discharged into the San Benito River bed. The first spill happened on or around July 26 and the second occurred Sept. 6. The water board required a submission of information, including a technical report, by Feb. 27. City staff requested an extended deadline to submit the information, which was granted, with the report turned in March 15.
In the technical report, the city disputed the first spill reached the San Benito River bed.
The two wastewater spills happened last summer, but city officials never issued a public notice about the matter. Instead, city staff 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 approved an item relating to the replacement of the valve structure at a Jan. 17 meeting.
Rubcic said funding problems would push the installation of the subsurface aerators to 2018.
Councilman Ray Friend brought up the cost of running aerators out at the treatment plant.
“The ones we have now are hugely ineffective and expensive to run,” Friend said.
Rubcic said there are currently 29 aerators out at the industrial wastewater facility. The new subsurface aerators would cut that number down to 14.
“If we replaced the aerators now, the energy savings would have a payback in 6.4 years according to one calculation,” Rubcic said.
Velazquez said he was still frustrated.
“It seems like we wait until the last minute and now we’re talking about something we can’t do again this year,” Velazquez said. “This is a conversation we had three years ago and we knew about these subsurface aerators that wouldn’t kick up the water or sludge. And yet they’re not in. Now we’re going to miss another year potentially. Hopefully with the rains we don’t have the problem this year, but it absolutely is going to happen again. Last year we received a fine from the air board for the odors on this. San Benito Foods needs to understand there’s going to be a limit to this. If this problem’s not solved, we have to eliminate this problem.”
On Oct. 18, 2016, Hollister received notice of a fine for $1,139 from the Monterey Bay Air Resources District over the unpleasant smell that lasted for weeks in parts of the community. Documents obtained by the Free Lance through a public records request show the city was also issued a fine of $3,206 on Nov. 4, 2014 related to odors from the wastewater treatment plant.
After a representative from Veolia talked the council through some technical information, San Benito Foods Plant Manager Sam Humphrey came to the podium.
“San Benito Foods doesn’t support (the floating islands),” Humphrey said. “We had an independent report done and we just feel it’s not applicable. However, we are 100 percent supportive of the new aerators. We certainly understand the importance of not having odors out at the ponds.”
Councilman Jim Gillio asked how many employees the cannery employs, both full time and seasonal. Humphrey said there are approximately 80 full-time and 500 seasonal employees. He then addressed funding for the subsurface aerators.
“David (Rubcic) mentioned funding of the aerators,” Humphrey said. “San Benito Foods was prepared to fund that. There was a program with PG&E for rebate. We’d planned on doing that, but in the last couple weeks or so there’ve been some changes. At this point I’m not in a position to say what we would do going forward, but we’re definitely interested in getting the new aerators.”
Velazquez repeated his point about how the subsurface aerators could’ve been installed.
“Now we’re talking about we’re not going to do it because of some dollar issue,” Velazquez said. “At the end of the day, your company has to be paying for this and should’ve paid for it at least two years ago so maybe we wouldn’t have this problem.”
He said both he and the public were frustrated.
“I don’t want to keep going through this over and over, and I’m not going to support going through it over and over,” he said. “If this thing happens again, I’m not going to support continuing what we’re doing here.”
