Lea este artículo en español aquí.
Creating a partnership between the San Benito County Water District, the City of San Juan Bautista and other participating agencies, the San Juan Bautista City Council approved the San Benito Urban Area Water Supply and Treatment Agreement during its regular meeting on Oct. 21.
The 30-year agreement represents the second phase of the city’s plan to reach regulatory compliance regarding its longstanding water quality issues by importing treated surface water to blend with and dilute the city’s high-salinity groundwater.
The first phase, constructing a pipeline to send the city’s wastewater to the Hollister Regional Treatment Plant, has been completed. Its final financing was approved at the Aug. 19 City Council meeting.
“This agreement represents a huge step in our [water] project implementation,” said City Manager Ashley Collick. “Beyond regulatory compliance, this project enhances water supply redundancy and drought resilience in the city’s water system.”
Both projects are a response to more than $1 million in fines levied against the city by the Environmental Protection Agency because high levels of salt and other pollutants were being discharged by the San Juan Bautista Sewage Treatment Plant.
Ridgeline Municipal Strategies consultant Dmitry Semenov said it has been determined that San Juan needs to buy approximately 8% of the county water district’s capacity to supply the city’s needs. As part of the agreement, the city will help with reimbursing costs already accrued during the construction of the West Hills Water Treatment Plant in Hollister.
“Once the reimbursement has been done to help pay off the balance,” he said, “the city will be contributing to the capital replacement reserve that Hollister and the Sunnyslope District have already been contributing to.”
Semenov stressed that the costs will not increase the water rates previously approved by the city and that “most of these costs related to this agreement have been captured in the prior rate increases.”
Those rates do not include San Juan’s participation in the county water district’s Accelerated Drought Response Project, which involves recharging aquifers by the injection of excess water during wet months. Semenov said that a rate increase for that project would be necessary, but would likely be no more than an additional $3.33 per month for consumers, on average.
Semenov said that the total costs under the agreement are considerably less than they would be if the city maintained its water infrastructure itself.
The water project involves the construction of a 12-inch transmission pipeline that will connect the city to the West Hills Treatment Plant in Hollister. That project is budgeted at approximately $15 million and is still in the planning stage.
Footage shows accident
In his report to the council toward the end of the meeting, Public Safety Coordinator Roy Morales detailed the use of the town’s Flock Camera system in tracking down the owner of a semi-truck that did substantial damage to fencing at the roundabout at San Juan Highway/First Street and Lavagnino Drive.
A camera at that location, one of six installed in the town, recorded the vehicle as it attempted to drive through the roundabout, ignoring warning signs indicating trucks of that size were not permitted.
According to Morales, the cameras were able to capture the accident, including the driver exiting the vehicle to see the damage, then “shake his head like, ‘What have I done?’”
With the information gathered from the footage and with the cooperation of Taylor Farms and the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department, the city was able to identify the vehicle and driver. Morales said that the city has since been in contact with the company that hired the driver, and it has agreed to pay for the damages.
“Flock was the major winner in this,” Morales said.
We need your help. Support local, nonprofit news! BenitoLink is a nonprofit news website that reports on San Benito County. Our team is committed to this community and providing essential, accurate information to our fellow residents. Producing local news is expensive, and community support keeps the news flowing. Please consider supporting BenitoLink, San Benito County’s public service nonprofit news.