The city of San Luis Obispo took extra measures to remain not only in compliance with a settlement agreement concerning its aging sewer system but also in good graces with its residents.
“Nobody likes the program, I get it. It’s an administrative burden for the city,” Deputy Director of Wastewater Chris Lehman said on April 3. “From our side, it’s a lot of work. From the private side, it’s a lot of money. The reason we brought this ordinance to the council last night is we’re trying to be receptive to what we’re hearing from the community.”
On April 2, the SLO City Council unanimously approved an ordinance amendment that updated a slew of municipal codes for solid waste, stormwater, plumbing, and water and sewer.
Lehman led the discussion about the city’s sewer system. He told City Council that the language of the existing sewer lateral offset program resulted from the threat of a lawsuit from water quality protection advocate California River Watch.
Previous New Times reporting found that 13 percent of SLO’s 137 miles of wastewater pipeline dates back to pre-World War II times. Lehman told New Times on April 3 that some of the privately owned decrepit lateral pipes are made of clay and over time, some of them cracked. Such an old sewer system witnessed blockages that eventually caused spills or “sanitary sewer overflow,” according to Lehman, and threatened to be a health hazard for city dwellers.
A series of spills and illegal discharges caught the eye of the California River Watch. In 2015, the group sent SLO a notice of violation detailing its intention to sue under the Clean Water Act. The following year, the two parties agreed to a settlement to improve the city’s sewer system, bypassing litigation. The city repaid California River Watch $38,000 for its legal fees.
“We presented a few options to [City] Council on our plan to reduce spills, to comply with the settlement,” Lehman said. “The primary focus of what we’ve been trying to do is the capacity issue in the sewer system.”
He added that city staff deliberated with the City Council repeatedly until they landed on the sewer lateral offset program in 2019. All the sewer laterals are connected to the city’s sewer main. Under that program, plans to build new development on a constrained sewer capacity area in SLOālike new homes or expanding an existing residence with accessory dwelling unitsāmust also find in-flow reductions.
“You want to add additional flow, you have to fix some of the leaks in the current system so that we don’t have spills,” Lehman said. “What we’re trying to do is clean up all the old pipe that we know is leaking and failing.”
The program received an update at the April 2 meeting. Single-family residences or homes on smaller parcels that are looking to add an ADU or remodel but have sewer laterals in poor condition only need to replace their own laterals.
“You don’t have to find an additional lateral to repair now,” Lehman said. “The idea there is you are going to be adding additional flow but you’re fixing the leaks in your system so the net result should be zero additional flow.”
As an incentive, people who voluntarily fix their faulty sewer laterals also receive $3,000 rebates to help with the cost of construction. The replacement pipes are made with high-density polyethylene that can last up to 100 years, according to Lehman, and aren’t susceptible to cracks and tree roots getting in like clay pipes are. Email lateralrebates@slocity.org or visit slocity.org/laterals to engage in the process.
Fixing sewer laterals is expensive. Depending on the condition and length of lateral, the price of replacing it ranges between $7,000 to $20,000. Community members like homeowners, developers, and realtors raised concerns about the hefty price tag. Lehman said his department had several discussions with them and is poised to approach the City Council with a plan to increase the rebate amounts.
Still, people’s participation in the sewer lateral offset and rebate programs has somewhat advanced the city’s goal of improving the sewer system, Lehman said. In March, the wastewater department completed a new flow study that will help it understand where limitations exist in order to restructure the sewer system. The department hopes to present the finished report to the City Council in October.
“Ultimately, … what we need to feel confident for even larger changes is a lot of data to demonstrate that we do have capacity and the risk has been reduced enough,” Lehman said.
Until then, he added that city staff is focused on educating citizens about the importance of updating the sewer pipeline. He advised owners of homes hooked up to lateral pipes to contact their plumbers and install backwater valves. It’s a safety check between the home and the city system and is a requirement that many people don’t know about, Lehman told New Times.
“You might think about your roof,” he said. “You know, you got to replace your roof every 20 years, but people forget about the underground portions of their home.” Ī
This article appears in Apr 4-14, 2024.