Three Items concerning the City’s wastewater are listed on the November 18, 2014 Beaumont City Council Agenda:
By: Libi Uremovic| Original Article at Patch.com
Three Items concerning the City’s wastewater are listed on the November 18, 2014 Beaumont City Council Agenda:
Item 6.a.7 – Recycled Water Agreement with Morongo
Item 6.a.15 – Report of Waste Discharge Submittal to Regional Board
Item 6.a.16 – Sewer Bond Payoff
The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board gave the City of Beaumont a deadline of December 31, 2014 to: “Implement non-potable water supply system to serve water for irrigation purposes and direct non-potable reuse.”
The City’s ‘solution’ to meet the Board’s deadline is to make an Agreement to sell recycled water to the Morongo Tribe to irrigate golf course. The problem with this solution is that the City does not have recycled water to sell.
The City of Beaumont does not produce Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water and has never produced Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water.
The Agreement acknowledges that the City’s wastewater does not qualify as recycled water and includes the Tribe paying the City $50,000 to become Title 22 Complaint. The Agreement also includes the Tribe paying to install purple pipes in anticipation of the City’s recycled water.
The Agreement also includes the Morongo Tribe transferring their Overlying Water Rights to the City of Beaumont and gives the City the right to sell to the water rights to a third party.
For the promise of Recycled Water tomorrow the Morongo Tribe will to pay $50,000, pay to install the pipes, and give up their underlying water rights today.
Does that sound like a equitable deal?
The City provided no names, signatures, or documents from the Morongo Tribe, which lowers the likelihood that this Agreement is legitimate.
The 2001 Wastewater Bond was revoked because Beaumont City Staff and Council stole all the money instead of building the wastewater plant. $50,000,000 has been collected from Property Owners and Developers without any results. $50,000 from the Tribe will not make the City’s sewer plant Title 22 Complaint.
There is no doubt that the City of Beaumont will sell the Morongo Tribe sewer water that is not Title 22 Compliant if they have the chance. Aside from the fact that irrigating with sewer water will ruin the golf courses; the Morongo Tribe is legally required to use wastewater that is Title 22 Compliant.
The Regional Board has also given the City of Beaumont a January 30, 2015 deadline to submit a plan to construct a Desalter and Brine Disposal Facility by 2020. The City did not connect to the Inline Empire Brine Line because the City has nothing to connect a brine line to.
The City claims to need $70 Million to build the facilities, but because they have already collected and stolen $50 Million the City can not acquire the money thru Bond Debt, Developers Mitigation Fees, or Property Owners’ Taxes.
The City needs to admit to the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board that they no longer have the financial ability to comply with any of Board’s Requirements.
Attachment To Resolution No. R8-2014-0005
Page 42 of 62
4. City of Beaumont, Wastewater and/or Groundwater Desalter(s) and Brine Disposal Facilities
Deadline: January 30, 2015
Submit detailed plan and schedule for construction of desalter(s) and brine disposal facilities. Facilities are to operational as soon as possible but no later than 5 years from date of Executive Officer approval of plan/schedule or as provided by the Executive Officer (see text below).
5. City of Beaumont Non-potable water supply
Deadline: December 31, 2015
Implement non-potable water supply system to serve water for irrigation purposes and direct non-potable reuse.
The non- potable supply used in the San Timoteo Groundwater Management Zone shall comply with a 10-year running average TDS concentration of 400 mg/L or less, and in addition, for any non-irrigation reuse that has the potential to affect groundwater quality, the nitrate-nitrogen shall be less than or equal to the 5 mg/L nitrate-nitrogen “maximum benefit” objective (taking the nitrogen loss coefficient into consideration).