A recent sludge buildup at Guadalupe’s sewage treatment plant put the city in deep water with a regional authority, which prompted a plan for course correction.
During its Sept. 24 meeting, the Guadalupe City Council reviewed two interrelated proposals to dredge the plant’s filtering system ponds and improve the site’s maintenance procedures.
Approved unanimously by the council, the two projects also correct permit violations cited by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board, according to the staff report.
“The existing system has not been maintained like it should be, so it’s worn out quicker than it should have,” City Engineer Jeff van den Eikhof said at the meeting.
Guadalupe uses a Biolac filtering system, which it relies on to comply with the water board’s permit conditions. The sludge excess has forced the city’s wastewater treatment plant “to work around the Biolac system, and that’s kind of put us in a bind with the water board,” van den Eikhof told the City Council.
“We’re not meeting all of our permit requirements because of that,” van den Eikhof said. “Grit built up around this Biolac system, and it’s worn out the bottom of the system, so it has to be repaired. … It’s not hard as rock, but it’s thick, so it’s clogged up the system.”
To deter a buildup of this kind in the future, Councilmember Gilbert Robles asked staff: “Do we know where the lapse in maintenance was at?”
“I do not,” van den Eikhof said.
Guadalupe’s wastewater treatment plant supervisor Dave Miklas later spoke at the meeting and shed some light on the maintenance issue.
“There’s a grit removal system that we’re working on putting back online,” said Miklas, who told the City Council that it was “taken offline” after a Biolac equipment update in 2019.
Miklas said the removal system at that time led to separate clogging issues but never got the repairs it needed.
“They just stopped using it and never started using it again,” Miklas said. “We’re getting that thing fixed. … This should take care of the problem for the future.”
To address the current grit buildup and reboot the city’s filtering system, staff recommended that the City Council approve one contract with MidCal Dredging to handle the sludge removal and another with the Coombs Service Group to reinstall the Biolac system after the dredging.
The two contracts combined amount to about $400,000, which leaves about $1.4 million left for further sewage system repairs in the city’s capital improvements budget, van den Eikhof said.
Before the City Council greenlit both contracts (with a 5-0 vote for each), Councilmember Whitney Furness asked staff if either project would “take anything offline that’s going to affect the citizens?”
“Citizens won’t know anything will be happening,” van den Eikhof replied.
Some laughs erupted in the room after City Administrator Todd Bodem added: “You can still flush your toilet.”
