Sea Pines Sewer Bill Mystery!

I was at the LOCAC meeting, 7:00 p.m., July 22, 2021 when Julie Tacker brought up Sea Pines Golf Resort's lost sewer bill being discussed at Tuesdays Board of Supes meeting! Thank you for the tip Julie! The bill, $238,958.59, was somehow lost and they were never charged! Ouch! I'm glad that they will get a payment plan, but that is a lot of golf games, beer, and hamburgers that will need to be sold! I will help them out with hamburgers, but I prefer Martinis! I haven't played golf since high school. However, if they put in a miniature golf course......!

Here are the intriguing documents!

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/134043

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/134047

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/agendaitem/details/13481

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/134045

NEW! July 1-RWQCB Notice On Termination Of Water Reclamation Requirements - Sea Pines!

I got this email notification from the Regional Water Quality Control Board on July 1 at 4:40 p.m. and it gave me the link below. Look at the top, tentative order:

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_decisions/tentative_orders/

You can go to the first link (to the Notice of Public Hearing) and read about the opportunity to make a public comment here:

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_decisions/tentative_orders/2021/R3_2021_0049notice.pdf

"DRAFT ORDER NO. R3-2021-0049 FOR TERMINATION OF ORDER NO. 93-82, WATER RECLAMATION REQUIREMNTS FOR BSR, A GENRAL PARTNERSHIP, SEA PINES GOLF COURSE, SAN LUIS OBISPO COUNTY (PRIMARY USER OF RECYCLED WATER)"

This is all sort of hilarious, not just because of the typo, but because,

"Order No. 93-82 is no longer needed because the Monarch Grove Reclamation Facility is no longer in existence and does not produce recycled water." 

August 27, 2019 the County had a valve turning ceremony to give Sea Pines water recycled from the sewer plant. Oh well, better late than never I guess! I wrote about it here: http://losewersaga.blogspot.com/2019/08/valve-turning-ceremony-today.html

Here is the draft order:

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_decisions/tentative_orders/2021/R3_2021_0049order.pdf

And here is the draft staff report - by far the most interesting part of this!

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_decisions/tentative_orders/2021/R3_2021_0049staffreport.pdf

In that report, we have a discrepancy as to when the recycled water was delivered:

"On June 10, 2019, the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility began delivery of the recycled water to the Sea Pines Golf Course for irrigation."

Hmmmmmm.

PZ Sewer Connection Update!

Hot off the pixel press today! 

Page 17 of 335 of the Basin Management Committee's packet!

https://www.slocounty.ca.gov/Departments/Public-Works/Forms-Documents/Committees-Programs/Los-Osos-Basin-Management-Committee-(BMC)/Agendas/2021-Agendas/2021-06-16-LOBMC-Agenda-Packet.pdf

"Enforcement: A list of properties that were not connected were transferred to County Code Enforcement and Notice of Violations were issued last year in Feb. 2019. That list was about 70 properties. As of 5/12/2021, the sewer service area has a 99.4% connection status with a total of 36 properties not yet connected. Of those, one is not required to connect because there is no structure (demolished), 18 have expired building permits, and the rest have an open Code Enforcement case.  The County has assigned staff in code enforcement to Los Osos. Expired permits did not receive a Code Enforcement case because those properties have their own noticing process through the Building Department which, if not corrected, could result in a Notice of Violation."

Gross Out!

I was cleaning out my email In Box and came across a sewer news magazine I subscribe to. Well, this ad was just about the last thing anyone would want to see before they go to bed. Hope you read it well in between meals! Or use it as a diet aid, actually!

https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2021/06/enhanced-bioremediation-with-micro-solve_sc_01uqj?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=EGSW%20Image&utm_campaign=TPO210609

(Sorry.)

The Paris Sewer Museum!

 Yes, there really is such a thing, as well there should be!

https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2015/09/this_sewer_museum_stinks_but_its_worth_the_visit?ref=popular_bottom

Here are some videos!

https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video;_ylt=Awr9GjDiy6hgz8YAkfpXNyoA;_ylu=Y29sbwNncTEEcG9zAzMEdnRpZAMEc2VjA3Nj?p=paris+sewer+museum&fr=yset_chr_syc_oracle#id=6&vid=3b16b0d12be7051ab2b221e5e11a253d&action=view

Brussels has one too, although it looks to be more sanitized and not a smelly as the one in Paris looking at the reviews.

https://sewermuseum.brussels/en/accueil-english/the-museum/

Enjoy!

Sewage To Snow!

What a GREAT idea! Wouldn't it be fun if we could turn our sewage into snow? Have a three minute snowboard run flying down the Broderson before it all melted? One can dream!

https://snowbrains.com/yellowstone-club-sewage-into-snow/

Wipes Company Comes Clean!

Yes, it has been a while since I have posted - sorry about that! I think I am in too many groups tasked with too many jobs. Optional tasks, such as this fun, sewer blog, are pushed off to that mythical future that rarely arrives. I am supposed to be doing something else now, but am playing hooky from that, this article was TOO good to not pass on!

So have a look. Wipes (well, some anyway, Kimberly-Clark Corporation's Cottonelle brand), the bane of many a wastewater plant, must now meet flushability standards of the International Water Services Flushability Group!

Sidenote: trying not to laugh here, there is a FLUSHABILITY group? Let me join! It sounds like great fun!

https://www.tpomag.com/online_exclusives/2021/05/water-sector-applauds-settlement-in-wipes-litigation?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Read%20on...&utm_campaign=TPO210510

Ban On Human Fertilizer Extended!

I sure don't know how I missed this one, but the Estero Bay News caught it! 

Neil Farrell, someone who was very generous with his time, information, and photos for my book on Los Osos—and that is an excellent writer and that I can't thank enough— wrote a fascinating article on the topic! 

Have a look: https://esterobaynews.com/ban-extended-on-human-wastes-as-fertilizer/

(I LOVE the Estero Bay News!)

Panels Passed on Consent and Wombat Poop!

Just a quick update to an earlier post (January 4) on the floating solar panels for our Water Reclamation Facility, which I always prefer calling our WWTF (Wastewater Treatment Facility) - it just sounds more apropos for a sewer blog (and there are two "o"s and two "p"s in that word I just noticed - well, never mind)!

Anyway, the solar panels passed for our plant without a hitch on the Consent Calendar of the Board of Supervisors last Tuesday, January 26! It was not pulled and all Supes voted YES!!

Now, on to the wombats. I subscribe to an online science magazine and this article popped up yesterday. Did you know that the squarer the poop, the healthier the wombat? Well, take a look those of you interested in such things! It is not something we will encounter here, but I wonder if there are any square coprolites unearthed anywhere -  I'll bet no one has looked.

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/how-do-wombats-poop-cubes-scientists-get-bottom-mystery?utm_campaign=news_weekly_2021-01-29&et_rid=100260842&et_cid=3648523

Bug Of The Month

 Too fun!!

https://www.tpomag.com/tags/bug-of-the-month

Wastewater aficionados, do not miss this, these guys are cute!

Water Board's WDR For Bayview Heights And Martin Tract-Termination!

Coming right up on the Regional Water Quality Board's agenda for their Friday, January 29 meeting! Here is a link to that agenda:

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2021/01_jan_28/index.html

Waste Discharge Requirements

10. Consideration of Order No. R3-2021-0007, Termination of Order 00-12, General Waste Discharge Requirements for Residential On-Site Wastewater Systems Within the Bayview Heights and Martin Tract Areas of Los Osos, San Luis Obispo County. 
[James Bishop, 805/542-4628, James.Bishop@waterboards.ca.gov, Harvey Packard, 805/542-4639, Harvey.Packard@waterboards.ca.gov]

Here is a link to the order:

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2021/01_jan_28/item10_att1.pdf

Here is a link to the staff report:

https://www.waterboards.ca.gov/centralcoast/board_info/agendas/2021/01_jan_28/item10_stfrpt.pdf

Sounds like the cost of flushing is now just around the bend for the non Prohibition Zone residents on septic tanks.

Floaters! No, Not Those from 2000!

FINALLY! Something new to post about OUR sewer!!! Floating solar panels are on the agenda for Tuesday's Board of Supes meeting!! (And not the floaters in a letter ascribed to Roger Briggs of the Water Board so many, many years ago as a comment on the perils of a ponding system for wastewater treatment....)

Here is the agenda:

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/129235

It is item 31 on the Consent Agenda - Public Works Items:

"Submittal of a resolution to approve power purchase agreement, site lease agreement and consent and non-disturbance agreement with Floating Solar Solutions SLO County I, LLC; approve an application for partial release, subordination or consent with the United States Department of Agriculture for the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility in Los Osos; request to waive the Contract for Services Policy; and find the project exempt from Section 21000 et seq. of the California Public Resources Code (CEQA). District 2"

It is on the Consent Agenda which goes quickly if no one pulls the item (fingers, toes crossed that this does not happen).

Here are all the links to the documents, the map is particularly lovely: 

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/128315

A quote from the link above:

"The floating solar installation will provide three major benefits to the LOWRF and the wastewater ratepayers: reducing energy costs by offsetting consumption, improving recycled water quality, and reducing water loss from evaporation." 

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/agendaitem/details/12735

https://agenda.slocounty.ca.gov/iip/sanluisobispo/file/getfile/128308 

This was originally discussed in 2017. It is a real bonus to have this better solar version happen since we could not get the regular kind way back when the plant was being designed. We can flush and think "energy" as panels float serenely on the pond. And they will save over four acre feet of water per year which won't evaporate!