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At the March 19 San Juan Bautista City Council Meeting, City Manager Don Reynolds said the city has opted to change the route in which pipelines will be connected to Hollister’s Wastewater Treatment Plant. He also said the project’s cost has risen by 27%.
The information was presented as part of his comprehensive review of the drinking water and wastewater projects which have been the focus of his tenure since he accepted the job in 2019.
Reynolds said there was a change in the pipe routing, which was originally going to run along Mission Vineyard Road and will now be incorporated into the construction on Hwy 156.
He also said the cost of the project has risen to $8.9 million, about 27% higher than the 2021 estimates because of underpricing the cost of the right-of-way.
Reynolds said the first phase of the project, connecting to Hollister’s wastewater system, will cost approximately $5.24 million. The second phase, connecting to the water treatment plant, is estimated to cost $3.65 million.
Acknowledging that the increasing cost of water and sewage, as reflected in recent utility bills, has been a source of frustration for many city residents, he said he wanted to take a moment to remind residents of what was involved in the two projects and how each one was progressing.
Reynolds recounted, as background, that in 2020, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ordered the city to curb pollutants in the water and sewage systems and imposed a fine of more than $800,000. If the city could not find a solution, the EPA said it would step in and solve the problems at the city’s expense.
The city took three immediate steps: formalizing an agreement with the San Benito County Water District to provide drinking water; approving a contract with Hollister to send waste to that city’s Wastewater Treatment Plant; and setting up a trial run of a Microvi biological processing system to help remove nitrates from local well water.
According to Reynolds, blending San Juan’s improved well water with the county’s surface water would have immediate benefits, including better overall resiliency to changes in water quality and a better ability to respond to droughts.
Reynolds said he is now focused on agreements to pay for the necessary pipelines, beginning with the city owning the lines rather than the water district. He said he believes the city is more apt to get grants or loans from federal and state agencies if the city is accountable for the lines.
“The goal is always trying to get as many grants as we can,” he said. “We’re trying now to get the debt down to what the current water rate can afford. That way we wouldn’t have to raise water rates again, and we’d be able to have our cake and eat it, too.
“The district’s work on the pipeline design is fairly simple, and it’s 30% done,” he continued. “But we need to get the pipe into the highway between August and October this year.”
Once the pipeline is completed in early 2025, the next phase will be implementing the Microvi system, which has already been approved by the water board. The final installation of the system will cost approximately $250,000 and will allow the processed Microvi water to be blended with the water from Hollister. This will help minimize the water needed from the district and lower overall costs.
Reynolds said following the completion of the sewer and water projects, which take priority since the city is still being fined for unprocessed pollutants, his final goal is to reach agreements with industrial users such as Taylor Farms, which as a group produce 26,000 gallons of wastewater per day, a significant percentage of the city’s daily 160,000 gallon total.
“We need to help them get their water into compliance and also come to them with a dollar amount,” Reynolds said. “We need to say, ‘You’re 30% of our problem. How much can you pay?’ They don’t have a choice. We have leverage over this.”
Reynolds said he is also planning a trip to Sacramento to meet with Assemblymember Robert Rivas and state Senator Anna Caballero to follow up on applications for support filed on March 12 and 13. The city is seeking a $3 million grant from the Assembly and a $5 million budget request from the Senate.
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