Hollister
– Community members will get a chance to weigh in on wastewater
issues at a public workshop Tuesday night.
Hollister – Community members will get a chance to weigh in on wastewater issues at a public workshop Tuesday night. According to its organizer, the workshop will feature a progress report on the Hollister Urban Area Water and Wastewater Master Plan and will allow attendees to discuss seven alternative projects that came out of a preliminary screening process.
The proposed alternatives include: transferring and importing more water to the county, exchanging agricultural water with recycled water, capturing local creek flows, demineralizing urban wells, bringing groundwater to the urban area from a high groundwater area, exchanging groundwater from a high groundwater area for more imported water or some combination.
“It’s most likely going to be, frankly, some combination,” said Harry Blohm, who serves as the plan’s governance committee project manager. “They’re all viable possibilities, but some won’t stand alone.”
As an example, Blohm noted that there’s “simply not enough flow” to make capturing creek flows a practical solution on its own. He suggested that the plan will likely incorporate two or three solutions.
The master plan is a collaboration between San Benito County, the City of Hollister and the San Benito County Water District. The aim of the plan is to provide long-term guidance for water and wastewater improvements as the region grows. The plan will cost tens of thousands of dollars for the county, and more than $250,000 for both the city and the water district.
This will be the third public workshop to discuss the plan. The first meeting, Blohm said, had 30 or 40 attendees, and the second had about 70. He added that it wasn’t too difficult to control the discussion among such a large group.
“This is not a forum for arguing; it’s a forum for asking questions and commenting,” Blohm said. “It’s not one side of the room arguing with the other side of the room.”
Supervisor Anthony Botelho, who has expressed reservations about the plan in the past, said not enough attention is being paid to the improvement of water quality.
He added, “I’m hoping that the county, the city of Hollister and the water district start implementing some of these programs, rather than studying it to death. I’m starting to lose my patience with what’s going in concerns about water.”
Blohm declined to respond to Botelho’s reservations, except to say that the supervisor is welcome to attend the workshop.
The workshop will begin at 6pm on the second floor of the Veterans’ Memorial Building.
Anthony Ha covers local government for the Free Lance. Reach him at 831-637-5566 ext. 330 or ah*@fr***********.com.
