News

By Sam Richards

Staff writer

Thursday, July 4 (11:00 a.m.): The local wastewater treatment agency is looking for help from Rossmoor residents by appealing to their basic knowledge of science, and to their pocketbooks.

About 35 Rossmoor residents braved triple-digit outside temperatures on July 2 to attend a presentation in the Fireside Room by representatives of the Central Contra Costa Sanitary District – Central San for short – who said the agency wants to at least delay a long-term plan by the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to require significant reductions of “nutrients,” primarily nitrogen, in treated wastewater.

A ”revised tentative order” by the water quality control board would require 37 municipal wastewater treatment plants to collectively reduce nitrogen discharges into San Francisco Bay by 40% from 2022 levels within 10 years.

Too much nitrogen, which turns into ammonia in the water, in treated wastewater returned to San Francisco Bay, San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait can limit the amount of dissolved oxygen in the water, which can be harmful for fish. Excess nitrogen can also increase the risk of harmful algae blooms and associated toxins.

A toxic algae bloom in the Bay during the summer of 2022, which killed thousands of fish, was a trigger for this plan, Melody LaBella, Central San’s resource recovery program manager, told the July 2 audience.

LaBella said her employer’s chunk of a projected $11 billion cost to wastewater agencies Bay Area-wide for technology to reduce nutrient discharges would be about $665 million – nearly $5,500 per district household over 30 years. Even with spreading those costs out over time with bond funding, Rossmoor residents could see their wastewater bills increase by 28%, or nearly $200 per year, she added.

While LaBella said high levels of nutrients in the water can indeed be bad for the environment, tests show that concentrations of nitrogen and other nutrients in Bay waters are much higher in the South Bay than in San Pablo Bay and the Carquinez Strait, into which Central San regularly releases treated wastewater east of Martinez.

“We want the science to lead these regulations,” LaBella told the July 2 audience. “No matter how you slice it and dice it, we just don’t see the scientific justification for this.”

Central San, with its main treatment facility in Pacheco, has processed Rossmoor’s wastewater since 1994.

The San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board’s revised tentative order for reducing nutrient discharges into the Bay is on the board’s July 10 agenda for discussion and public testimony. The meeting is set to start at 9 a.m. in the Elihu M. Harris Building at 1515 Clay St. in Oakland. Central San encouraged Rossmoor residents to attend that July 10 hearing and said a shuttle bus to take interested Rossmoorians to the Oakland hearing will leave Gateway at about 8:15 a.m. next Wednesday, July 10. Rossmoor residents are also encouraged to attend today’s water quality control board hearing via Zoom; to register for that, go to centralsan.org/speak and select “Item 6.”  The water quality control board’s clerk will then email the link and passcode needed to participate. Signup is needed by noon Tuesday, July 9.

Central San also encourages Rossmoor residents to sign an online petition (centralsan.org/petition) to support extending the public comment period by 90 days, hold public listening sessions to help ensure the public is aware of this nutrient reduction plan; to “follow the science” to help ensure the most affected areas (South Bay) will help drive the solutions; to develop a detailed financial analysis to determine impacts to Bay Area residents; and to allow sufficient time to develop solutions, including creation of more recycled water.

In a staff report, the water quality control board recognizes the significant costs in complying with the revised tentative order but says “the costs of not imposing these requirements would also be significant,” pointing to the many negative effects of harmful algal blooms, including to tourism, commercial and subsistence fishing, and endangered species.

“The investment in nutrient removal technology is necessary and will benefit the entire Bay Area community,” it says.

Responding to Central San’s argument that the problem is primarily based in the South Bay, water quality control board staff maintain that the North Bay is nevertheless “vulnerable to large algal blooms” and pointed to one such bloom in San Pablo Bay last year that resulted in fish kills.

In terms of the 10-year window to comply, staff say that is the maximum time the board can allow in the revised tentative order and that the board will “explore and consider other regulatory mechanisms to grant more time when the permit is reissued.” The board also will explore ways to allow more time to implement projects that provide multiple benefits and use innovative technologies.

The water quality control board staff report can be seen at https://tinyurl.com/3ev3buf4

Staggering the 37 agencies’ work timelines will also be crucial, LaBella said, as they will be competing for many of the same contractors and other resources to get the needed work done.

Creating that recycled water, LaBella said, has been a Central San goal for many years. The agency is still looking for prospective large-scale users of that water – area refineries sooner, perhaps proposed modern waterfront industrial development on Contra Costa County’s shoreline later – to sign up, to make sure there will be enough users to justify the significant financial investment toward equipment to provide ever-cleaner water that she said would hopefully reduce overall nutrient releases into the Bay.

“We’re looking at all options,” LaBella said.