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Monday, Aug. 18, 2008

New Cambria plan on water management set to be finalized this week

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A study on the environmental impact of how chronically water-short Cambria plans to use water more efficiently, curb demand and buttress supply may be declared complete Thursday.

The Cambria Community Services District’s Water Master Plan, years in the making, includes saving water through conservation and recycling of treated wastewater, curbing demand on the water system by reducing the number of houses that can be connected, and ensuring supply in dry spells by building a desalination plant.

Cambria has been under a virtual building moratorium since November 2001, when the district board declared a water emergency.

A draft environmental impact report on the plan running hundreds of pages was released in February. A public comment period closed in April.

Those comments and the district’s responses are included in the final document, which district directors are expected to certify at Thursday’s meeting.

There were 29 written comments, according to the final document. Most were from district residents. Comments were also received from the Sierra Club, Greenspace — The Cambria Land Trust, LandWatch San Luis Obispo County and the Otter Project.

The environmental study on the master plan reports how the district got into the position it’s in, what options the district has for alleviating the water shortage, how each of those choices could affect the area and how to minimize the effects.

The document also provides a water overview for the town, such as how Cambria’s water system works, how much water the state allocates to the district, excerpts from various land-use regulations, capacities of the sewer plant and the town’s storage tanks, traffic counts and lists of earthquake faults and sensitive species.

The plan includes using highly treated wastewater instead of drinking water for irrigation of large landscaping areas, encouraging more water conservation, and reducing the number of potential customers through a 22-year “Buildout Reduction Plan.”

Adoption of the environmental review of the plan does not mean it can be immediately put into place. The district would have to get multiple permits for each project in the plan, including a desalination plant. As part of that permitting process, the district would have to prepare other reports detailing the environmental impact of each step.