Cambria Water Realities
EWS/WRF does NOT add more water to the amount Cambria is allowed to pump from the aquifer. The dry-season extraction limit is 370 acre-feet, regardless of drought conditions.
Cambria shares its two creek aquifers with local ranchers, particularly the Warren Ranch well, which is next to the WRF supply well and percolation pond. The Warren Ranch has water rights from a previous settlement.
Six years after completion, the EWS/WRF water facility does not have a regular operating permit. In a drought emergency, the EWS likely would be operated under an emergency permit.
The CCSD is suing the designers of the evaporation pond for its failure to operate as designed. The evaporation pond provided a cost-efficient way to dispose of the RO waste water.
CCSD’s consultant and Interim General Manager recommended initially permitting the EWS for existing customers rather than for supplying additional new customers.
Eight percent of the EWS/WRF input water becomes between 20,000 and 50,000 gallons of RO waste water per day (depending on how much the facility runs) that must be transported to a licensed off-site disposal facility.
It is estimated that when running, EWS/WRF waste water will fill between four and ten diesel tanker trucks daily. Each truck must then travel 106 miles round trip to unload for ocean disposal and return to Cambria.
Cambria ratepayers had no say in the very significant decision to change the operating permit application to allow the addition of new residential and commercial connections and these same rate payers will now be on the hook for the financial and environmental consequences of increased dependence on expensive purified water.
