The fundamental vulnerability of Cambria could turn out to be our leaders’ determination to control growth. In the long run it may make no difference WHY they are pushing to limit the number of connections (because the Coastal Commission has told Cambria it must mitigate for potentially destructive growth induced by a desal plant. All our eyes have been on desalination and assuring extremely high reliability for our water supply. This focus on desal has kept us from seeing our soft spot clearly. Our Achilles heel may turn out to be something we rarely talk about in polite company: wastewater service.
If I learned anything during last summer’s too close to call rate increase, it’s that water and sewer are separate services provided by the CCSD. Each has their own department and bank account. The most recent rate increase for water and sewer was explicit in keeping the two separate. A protest could be against an increase in water, sewer or both. The first two Prop 218 protests didn’t acknowledge these are two distinct services. Not recognizing there are distinct enterprises is an easy mistake to make, since you get one bill from one district (CCSD) and its kind of all pipes and liquid and mostly taken for granted. Water and wastewater seem inseparable – except for about 100 Cambrians, if a Cambrian has water service, they also have wastewater service.
Here is why this distinction could make all the difference: the wastewater treatment plant isn’t at capacity – not even close, really. While we may not have enough water for additional homes, we can’t really claim we don’t have the capacity or that pipes are not fronting virtually every property in Cambria (with the exception of Liemert). The sewer infrastructure and wastewater treatment plant improvements were paid for with bond and property taxes. In the USA, anyone who pays for a benefit with their taxes must be provided that benefit. There are many lot owners that have paid a share of the funds used for the wastewater treatment. They may be entitled to the benefit.
The problem lays in the fact that CCSD has been using the “we’ve got no water” explanation to deny access and connection to the wastewater system. Since obtaining a will-serve letter is a requirement for requesting a building permit from the County, no one can get a building permit. The second problem is that the CCSD won’t answer the question as to whether or not they will provide sewer service to a property.
One property owner who is not on the CCSD waitlist has spent a lot of time and money trying to get the permits and variances needed to build his home. A recent letter to the Board of Supervisors speaks to the complexity of the issue, but also to the simplicity of it. When sewer service pipelines front a property, that property is required to hook into it (and not have a septic tank or other solution). The planning area standards require water and wastewater service be provided by the CCSD. The letter asks if this standard prevents the use of any other water supply (trucked in, for example.)
Read the full letter from Unclog Cambria here.
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