Why it was built?

The facility was built as an “Emergency Water Supply” (EWS) under an emergency permit issued by San Luis Obispo County in response to the severe drought between 2012 and 2014. 

The stated purpose was to provide additional potable water to existing Cambria homes and businesses during times of drought, according to the 2014 Prop 218 protest process that authorized rate increases to fund the project.

What does CCSD water cost?

Based on 2020/2021 budget numbers CCSD extracts, treats and delivers about 530 acre-feet of water per year at a cost of approximately $4,900 per acre-foot.

Add in the current annual expenses for the WRF, which doesn’t presently produce any water, and that number rises to about $7,500 per acre-foot.

Then add the costs to actually operate the WRF, including reverse osmosis and pumping costs, staff time and brine waste disposal, and those costs will increase substantially.

What remains unknown is the real cost per acre foot for water produced by the WRF. CCSD appears unable or unwilling to provide that information.

All sides do, however, appear to agree that the water from the facility will be significantly more expensive that our existing well water. 

Another significant cost of acquiring a WRF permit  is a required mitigation  effort called the Buildout Reduction Plan (BRP). Here are the highlights:

1. BRP is perhaps the biggest obstacle in permitting the WRF

2. Allows 884 additional residential connections

3. Mandates purchase or retirement of 1377 undeveloped parcels

4. Cost to Cambria ratepayers: $34,000,000+, plus fees

Click here for more information about the Buildout Reduction Plan.

The EWS was rebranded by CCSD as the “Sustainable Water Facility” (SWF, again renamed the Water Reclamation Facility) with no public input within days of receiving the state grant intending to support the emergency project. The WRF is the same facility with two important differences:

1. According the WRF project description included in CCSD’s permit application with SLO County, the WRF is intended to support the development of at least 650 new houses - those parcels on the long-established but problematic “water wait list”- as well as additional affordable housing and commercial development. 

2. And, due to significant flaws in the evaporation pond design, the WRF will also require expensive

tanker truck transport of the WRF’s waste product - a mix of brine and chemicals left over from the treatment process, from Cambria to a licensed waste disposal facility in another community. 

Do we need it?

The existing EWS facility was intended to provide drought protection for existing Cambria residents and, with additional storage, could provide additional water for fire protection while minimizing costs and impacts, like trucks filled with Reverse Osmosis (RO) wastewater rumbling through our town. 

The revised WRF permit application is explicitly intended to support additional growth, including up to 500 more homes along the narrow streets and steep hillsides of Lodge Hill. 

The problem is that the CCSD has never demonstrated that the facility is capable of providing enough water to support additional growth. Approval of a “regular” operating  permit for growth without proof of adequate water supply should be denied.   

The business of growth is not just as simple as providing water from the WRF. We receive no fire-fighting benefit from the plant, and so increasing building before attending to fire-fighting water is reckless. Emergency evacuation problems must be solved and impacts to forest and riparian resources as well as the San Simeon Lagoon must be reduced.