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Water board slaps Morro Bay with multiple notices of violation

January 31, 2022

By KAREN VELIE

The City of Morro Bay has received several notices of violations for failing to abide by pollutant discharge requirements at the city’s water reclamation facility construction site.

The city failed to “to implement effective erosion and sediment controls,” and “to implement linear sediment controls,” according to a complaint from the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board. As a result, the water board has slapped Morro Bay with four violations over the past three months.

In late October, regulators inspected the construction site before sending the city a Nov. 8 notices that included two violations. Water board staff informed city officials they were in violation of permit requirements to implement effective soil cover and to implement linear sediment control.

Even though the notice of violation threatened fines of $10,000 or more a day, city staff failed to properly remedy the issues.

Penalties for violating the California Water Code include “administrative civil liability for up to $10,000 per day for each violation” according to the notice of violation. “Alternatively, a court may impose civil liability of up to $25,000 for each day the violation occurs.”

Central Coast Water Board staff performed a follow-up inspection on Dec. 10 at the approximately 17-acre project site located at the intersection of Teresa Road and South Bay Boulevard.

After determining Morro Bay officials had failed to remedy the issues in the previous notice of violation, the water board sent the city a second notice of violation on Dec. 20. The water board listed two violations: “continued failure to implement effective soil cover” and “continued failure to implement appropriate erosion control.”

During their most recent site visit, water board investigators determined the city was at that time abiding by its permit pollutant discharge requirements. Inspectors plan to continue monitoring the site.


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Inter-agency fines are what keep these regulator agencies funded. Fines on individuals would drain them because of the legal expense. The RWQCB definitely chooses their prey based on easy money, in this case everyone, the taxpayer. Sewage is big business and can afford a measly 10,000 dollar fine. Sometimes continued fines are cheaper than the fix.


17

Especially when its not your money paying the fines. Now if the fines came out of the councils salaries things might change.


19

You stole my thunder, I was going to say also that this happens all the time, doesn’t fool anyone, yet nothing is ever done about it. It’ just stealing tax dollars that Morro Bay will replace by “Special Assessments” on the property owners.


10

Thats it! Can the project!! Rebuild right on top of Jeremy Irons house, and sell the homes of all the others on the council to pay for it!


18

As a previous post stated, there were numerous comments on the Draft EIR about concerns with the proximity of sewage pipes and the sewer plant to the estuary and the creek – in terms of spills and damage to the estuary. Many groups were not willing to weigh in on this issue and draft EIR, afraid of the consequences from the local elected officials, County Public Works and County Administration Staff, Water Board and California Coastal Commission. The blatent disregard of rules during construction is a window to what we will be seeing when the sewer plant becomes operational. Remember, jamie irons, christine johnson and noah smuckler are the ones who pushed this sewer plant forward and embraced pumping S _ _ T uphill, saddleing the MB residents which a a new $175M sewer. Good for Cayucos Sanitary District who is up and running, independent of MB. Too bad the above referenced elected officials didn’t have any ability to forward think.


22

I’m guessing the MBCC knew this was coming and attempted to hide it by bringing up a stupid resolution on abortion….these council members have learned well from the elected officials in DC…


27

Morro Bay should of kept working with Cayucos. Cayuco’s sewer plant is up and running. They also kept the budget down. Big mistate by MB.


24

They could have done that. A friend of mine talked to Robert Enns of the Cayucos Sanitary District a while back and asked him if Morro Bay might join in with that effort. Enns said that he thought the CSD would be amenable to that – but of course, Irons didn’t want to take that road. The information was provided to the City Council but they ignored it.


9

The Cayucos general Manager told me that Morro Bay could of been added to their plant for a cost of around $50,000,000.00. But it would of been hard for Morro Bay to make that deal while they were stabbing their partner in the back!!!

Of course the original upgrade to the existing plant was budgeted to cost $35,000,000.00, split between the two communities.


4

Maybe if the Morro Bay city council and Mayor were doing their jobs instead wasting time passing a senseless, sinful, and meaningless resolution, they wouldn’t be in this situation. What goes around comes around. I love it. All of you who defended their recent resolution, what do you think of their complete incompetence in this matter?


I hope they have to pay the stiffest penalty possible. Arrogance and ignorance on their part is going to cost the Morro Bay taxpaying citizens a bundle, but great job on passing a needless resolution. We see where your priorities are. What an embarrassment.


46

This brings up an issue that some of us were discussing recently. If and when fines are levied for things like this, don’t they come out of the project budget – and thus out of taxpayers’ pockets?


I think it’s pretty much like the landslide cleanup cost – which came out of the project budget after a Morro Bay staff member falsely claimed that there was no way to know that a landslide could occur there, so the contractor was blameless.


The project team knew that site was in a landslide zone, and the project team also knew, through a report that had been commissioned by the contractor, just how incredibly unstable that site is. That report was never shared with the public


The results of the massive corruption in this project will be paid for not by those responsible, but by the taxpayers – unless someone finds a way to hold the corrupt individuals accountable.


31

This project is going to destroy the Estuary, and those responsible knew that right from the beginning. In a May 17, 2018 letter to Rob Livick of the City of Morro Bay, MBNEP Executive Director Lexie Bell outlined many flaws in the project EIR, which essentially ignored the Estuary. Here are some of the comments in her letter:


“DEIR does not adequately address the potentially significant downstream impacts from spills or natural disasters to protect the Morro Bay estuary and adjacent wetlands”


“The proposed site introduces a new industrial use into an open space area that is zoned as agricultural. The DEIR does not fully address mitigation for this impact.”


“The DEIR should include one or more alternative site(s) outside the Morro Bay estuary watershed, given the significance of this resource and potential impacts.”


The City of Morro Bay came back with lame, totally-inadequate responses and proceeded on its merry way.


The city isn’t the only entity that failed to address the risks to the Estuary. The water board and the CCC – the corrupt state agencies responsible for protecting the environment, also ignored this major problem although they were certainly aware of it.


The only reason that the water board finally did an inspection was that they learned that residents had taken pictures of the problems at the site and shared them, and that much of the corruption associated with this project has been well documented and sent to state and Federal authorities.


40

Yeah, we really needed that sewer plant down there by the old folks home, in a landslide zone, just gonna keep costing the citizens of MB more money, wait till the new lines have leaks and they need to tear up the streets again. Thank you jaime irons and the rest of the now gone city council for forcing this upon the town.


45

Come on give the council a break, they are busy adopting a resolution supporting reproductive rights, too busy to worry about a little fine at the water reclamation facility construction site. Way to go Dawn Addis.


55

… and way too busy to worry about destroying the Estuary.


20
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