LAKEPORT – At its meeting this evening, the Lakeport City Council is set to discuss options available to the city in responding to the sewer hookup ban placed on the city last month by the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board.
The Water Quality Control Board notified the city of the ban on Jan. 18.
The board's action arose from a situation last April. In a report to the council for tonight's meeting, acting City Manager Richard Knoll explains that the City of Lakeport Municipal Sewer District (CLMSD) wastewater reservoir was in danger of overflowing last April due to the season's heavy rains.
Knoll's report said CLMSD staff consulted with local and state regulatory agencies and “eventually determined, after taking other appropriate steps, that disinfection and irrigation of the reclaimed water was the only alternative to dispose of this excess treated water.”
The city's main wastewater disposal method is through irrigation, but with the ground already saturated, Knoll's report says, 3.6 to 6 million gallons of chlorinated reclaimed water left the CLMSD site, flowed into a tributary creek of Clear Lake and entered into Clear Lake itself.
That same month, CLMSD staff reported the incident to the Water Quality Control Board, which issued a Notice of Violation (NOV) in August, Knoll's reports says. The city had to provide the board with information about a sewer master plan and a report on the wastewater treatment system water balance, Knoll reported.
Knoll said city staff has discussed the cease and desist order with a number of developers building projects in the city.
In addition, Knoll noted that an annexation project for Parallel Drive has been halted due to the order, because the Local Area Formation Committee's (LAFCO) executive director said LAFCO staff will recommend denial based on the city's lack of sewer capacity.
Knoll reported that city staff is due to meet with the Water Quality Control Board's executive officer on Feb. 13 in Sacramento.
In the meantime, city staff has discussed ways to immediately expand the city's wastewater facilities in order to gain “additional residential units of capacity,” said Knoll. The focus, he said, “was on the use of the CLMSD site as it was intended, i.e. secondary treatment, winter storage and dry weather irrigation disposal.”
Knoll reports the following capacity expansion options to the council:
– A bypass channel around the recapture basin, which will allow spray irrigation during dry periods without recapturing natural runoff. Knoll said the staff believes this option will allow the city to extend its irrigation season by between four and 12 weeks annually. It could be completed by fall of this year at a cost of $310,000, and would expand the sewer system by 340 residential units equivalents (RUEs).
– Installing new irrigation facilities. Knoll said the city’s method of treated wastewater disposal is spray irrigation of pasture lands. City staff propose expanding irrigation to 90 additional acres. The project could be constructed by this fall or the summer of 2008 at a cost of $200,000. It would increase capacity by 170 RUEs.
– Construction of a new storage reservoir or expansion of the existing reservoir to gain more treated wastewater storage capacity. Knoll reported that the current CLMSD treated wastewater storage reservoir – which allows the city to treat and store wastewater during wet weather conditions – has a storage capacity of 600 acre feet.
There are three options for expanding the reservoir, said Knoll, none of which will be completed before 2008 or early 2009.
They include raising the height of the of the dam’s spillway 2 feet, which would cost $145,000 to $170,000 and add 170 RUEs; excavating out the inside of the existing reservoir at a cost of $800,000 to $1 million, adding 85 RUEs; and construction of additional reservoir(s), which would cost $20-$22 million and add 1,450 RUEs.
Knoll's reports suggests that these expansion projects may be funded by sources including redevelopment funds (either in the form of a loan or contribution) and developer contributions.
City staff, Knoll explained, also has considered addressing expansion issues through a ban on new connections from county areas, reversing the Rose Avenue Pump Station, postponing the Parallel Drive annexation project and constructing a dedicated treated wastewater pipe to LACOSAN's north Lakeport plant.
Knoll said the city's contention is that the Water Quality Control Board hasn't accurately quantified the city's wastewater capacity constraint.
Knoll is asking the council/CLMSD board for direction regarding starting engineering work on one or more of the expansion projects outlined in the report.
The council meets today at 6 p.m. at Lakeport City Hall, 225 Park St.
E-mail Elizabeth Larson at
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