By: Libi Uremovic | Original Article at patch.com
Beaumont’s August 4, 2015 Council Agenda contained Item 4.e: Award Contact for a Salt Disposal Feasibility Study. This is to comply with State Water Quality Control Board Order R8-2015-0026 that went into effect on August 1st. The Item was tabled and the discussion went to theories of a ‘Regional Approach’.
Councilman White has been speaking with Yucaipa Valley Water District and the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District about a ‘Regional Approach’ regarding sewage and recycled water. A ‘Regional Approach’ means that Beaumont shuts down their Sewer Plant and use Yucaipa’s actual ‘state of the art’ Wastewater Treatment Plant.
Background: The City of Beaumont’s sewer plant was built is 1929. The City was required to upgrade the Plant to a ‘Wastewater Treatment Facility’ that produced Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water in 1995.
Urban Logic took over Beaumont’s Sewer Plant in 1993 and brought Deepak Moorjani straight from India to be the ‘City Engineer’. The City has collected bond debt, mitigation fees, and additional taxes to build a recycled water facility, but all the money was embezzled and the facility was never built. In 2007 the City forged their General Plan stating that they had Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water. Up until last year Council repeatedly stated to the Public that the City had a ‘state of the art’ recycled water facility.
Last year the Water Quality Control Board gave permission for the Beaumont-Cherry Valley Water District to acquire Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water from the Yucaipa Valley Water District because the City could not produce Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water.
This provided an option to the BCVWD, but did not alleviate the City of Beaumont from their requirement to produce Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water. The City’s last deadline to produce Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water was December 30, 2014. The City’s next deadline is December 30, 2015.
On July 24, 2015 Mayor Brenda Knight stated that she was a ‘Wastewater Treatment Specialist’ and assured the Regional Water Quality Control Board that the City would comply with the Order which required the City to produce Title 22 Compliant Recycled Water and build a brine disposal within five (5) years.
Now Council is talking about a ‘Regional Approach’.
There is no ‘regional approach’. This is a term that Kapanicas invented to justify relying on neighboring fire stations instead of the City building its own fire stations. There is no large regional fire station to accommodate the Region.
Beaumont and Yucaipa did not join together to build a recycled water facility. Yucaipa citizens built a recycled water facility for their community and Beaumont citizens allowed their corrupt Staff and Council steal all the money instead of building the facility. Beaumont would not be ‘joining’ Yucaipa, they would merely be a customer.
The Yucaipa Wastewater Treatment Plant is 10 – 12 miles from the City of Beaumont. An Engineer will say that it can be done. They can build two pipelines from Yucaipa to Beaumont; one to carry the sewage to Yucaipa and another to carry the recycled water to Beaumont.
An Accountant will remind you that it’s human feces, not oil.
Yucaipa is not ‘joining’ with Beaumont. Yucaipa has a ‘state of the art’ wastewater treatment facility that can process Beaumont’s sewage, but Beaumont will have to pay all the expenses. Beaumont citizens will have to pay to build and maintain the pipelines and lift stations to transport the raw sewage across the hillside.
Beaumont’s sewer plant currently loses money and soon the City will no longer be able to use other funds to supplement the sewer fund, which means that prices will have to increase just to pay for the current service. Regulatory wise; there’s a big difference in transporting Title 22 compliant water and human waste.
Would it be cheaper to transport sewage to Yucaipa than it would be to make Beaumont’s sewer plant Title 22 Compliant? No one knows.
There hasn’t been an honest assessment of Beaumont’s sewer plant in over 20 years. It’s premature to look at other options until the condition of Beaumont’s sewer plant is known, but the condition of the sewer plant will never be known until Council removes Urban Logic.
Another factor to consider is that Beaumont can not be trusted. Yucaipa would have to increase their sewer capacity to accommodate Beaumont. Beaumont has repeatedly lied and cheated their neighbors and other government agencies. One reason the BCVWD has not been able to bring down recycled water from Yucaipa is that Yucaipa’s Water Board is leery of anything involving Beaumont.
Regardless of whether Beaumont chooses to upgrade their own sewer plant or shut down Beaumont’s sewer plant and use Yucaipa one thing is very clear; sewer fees in Beaumont are soon going to be very expensive.