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!