Nipomo Unveils New Wastewater Treatment Facility
It was a day of celebration in Nipomo as community members, local elected officials and employees from the Nipomo Community Services District gathered on Wednesday to celebrate the official grand opening of the District’s new Southland Wastewater Treatment and Reclamation Facility. A ribbon cutting ceremony was held to commemorate a day that had been eight years in the making.
“It’s almost unheard of, a non-controversial public works project, on budget, on schedule,” said Michael LeBrun, General Manager of the Nipomo Community Services District (NCSD).
LeBrun said the $13 million dollar project was self-financed by the three thousand households the facility serves. Increased sewer fees and the sale of $6 million in bonds financed the project that began construction two years ago.
“It’s an investment that will serve the community literally for generations to come,” said LeBrun. “We’ve built the facility here that’s built to a 50-year service standard.”
Eight years ago, it was a different story in Nipomo. In 2006, the unincorporated community was facing a serious situation with the Regional Water QualityControl Board
“The effluent discharge was not meeting the state regulatory standards and the district received a notice of violation for exceedance of those standards,” said LeBrun.
A year later in 2007, the NCSD adopted a sewer rate increase to support the construction of a new and improved wastewater facility. Several years later, construction finally began on the project in July 2012.
Now complete, Peter Sevcik, Director of Engineering & Operations with the NCSD says the new facility is a vast improvement over its predecessor.
“We’re doing a much higher level of treatment, smaller footprint, much more efficient,” said Sevcik. “We used to be able to barely meet our limits of 60 parts per million BOD, 60 parts per million TSS, and right now we’re around five.”
The facility is also helping to replenish the groundwater basin in the Nipomo area. Treated water is piped to nearby percolation ponds, where it eventually seeps down into the water table.
Sevcik says the facility treats about 125 million gallons of water annually. It’s water that goes right back into the ground.
“We’re doing nitrogen removal, we’re cleaning out all the bacteria out of the water so that the water is cleaner to begin with going back into the ground, which makes our groundwater basin a renewable resource,” said Sevcik.
The $13 million dollar facility represents the biggest financial project in the 49-year history of the NCSD. However, it will soon be eclipsed by the $17 million waterline to Santa Maria, which remains under construction. That project began in October 2013 and is expected to be completed by mid-2015.
