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Morro Bay Water Reclamation Facility Project:  Issues, Concerns, and Solutions

Since 2003, the City of Morro Bay has been attempting to address the problem of its aging  wastewater treatment plant (WWTP).  The facility is 63 years old, deteriorating, and a significant challenge to maintain and keep running.  The plant dumps insufficiently-treated sewage into the ocean, making it an ongoing source of environmental damage.

A project to upgrade the existing plant, the “ WWTP Project” began in 2003.  The current Water Reclamation Facility (WRF) project, which began in 2013, is essentially a rework of the original project, pursuing the same objective through the building of a new plant.

So far, attempts to resolve the City’s WWTP problem have failed.  Despite City officials’ claims to the contrary, the 13-year effort has essentially gotten nowhere.   Serious errors and bad decisions have wasted millions of taxpayer dollars, and the aging plant continues to pollute the environment.  Thus far, the only ones benefiting from more than a decade of project failures are the highly-paid consultants.

Morro Bay residents have suggested a number of possible reasons for the failures, including:

• Unwillingness of City officials to use proven time-and-cost-saving approaches and modern, lower-cost technologies
• Apparent inability to develop and follow sound, professional project plans
• Treating the California Coastal Commission like a hurdle to be gotten over, rather than a collaborative partner
• Expansion and complication of the project by adding in extra work including desalination plant expansion  and moving of the corporate yard.  For example, if the desal plant is to share the ocean outfall with the WRF, it should be included in the WRF Environmental Impact Report (EIR)
• Failure to appropriately address collection system issues  
• The fact that City staff takes project direction from the Mayor and Council, who do not have the experience or expertise to manage a project of this nature and magnitude
• Refusal of City officials to admit that they are in over their heads

Whatever the reasons for failure, the owners of this site, and many other Morro Bay residents, believe that it is time for City officials to:

•  Admit that the project is a failure, and to stop wasting time and money, throwing good money after bad.  
• Take a serious look at a recommendation for a manageable and far-more-cost-effective solution.

The City needs to focus on results, and hold both consultants and City staff to very specific, well-thought-out standards and objectives. The City must monitor progress more closely and more frequently, and take immediate corrective action when it is determined that standards and objectives are not being met.