After two years of construction, Morro Bay's Water Reclamation Facility is ahead of schedule.

According to Greg Kwolek, director of Public Works, the expected completion date for the facility was March 23, 2023, but the city already hit that deadline set by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

"We've been taking all the city's wastewater for over a month now, through that new plant so the old wastewater treatment plant is now offline," Kwolek said on Dec. 27.

• Photo Courtesy Of Betty Winholtz
• AHEAD OF SCHEDULE The Morro Bay Water reclamation project is approaching a milestone, ahead of the schedule set by the Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The new facility, located on South Bay Boulevard north of Highway 1, includes two new lift stations as well as 3.5 miles of pipelines and wells that inject purified water into the groundwater aquifer, which can be reused through the city's existing infrastructure.

Despite being ahead of schedule, Kwolek said that there are some aspects of the advanced wastewater treatment that the city is still working on.

"Our residents and our ratepayers can expect to still see some construction over the next couple of years, so that we can build out indirect potable reuse," Kwolek said. "As a result, we expect to have a much more reliable and resilient water supply for the city of Morro Bay."

According to the State Water Resources Control Board's website, indirect potable reuse provides a way to convert recycled water into drinking water through a suitable environmental barrier. The city's website says that the reclamation facility will provide up to 80 percent of the city's future water needs and help establish a drought buffer.

"The new components that are going to be built out will enable the city in dry years to operate our facility in such a way as to produce more water, so that's what residents can expect," Kwolek said.

Throughout the entirety of the project's existence, community members like Betty Winholtz, co-chair of the Citizens for Affordable Living Morro Bay, have watched the facility's progress. Even though the city met the Regional Water Quality Control Board's deadline earlier than expected, Winholtz still believes there are issues that still need to get addressed, per the California Coastal Commission's permit.

"We've noticed that things aren't done on a timely basis in the correct order, and all the requirements in the permit have yet to be fulfilled," Winholtz said.

Those requirements, Winholz added, include the pending demolition of the old sewer plant, an agricultural easement that still hasn't been completed, and rain runoff.

"The runoff from the plant has not been fixed since last year's runoff. There's mud that continues to come off the hills and continues to go down the ditch they built, but all that it's done is funnel the mud right into the Caltrans drain, which goes right into the estuary," Winholtz said. "We continue to be concerned about the impact of this plant on the cleanliness and the impact it will have on the estuary."

According to Kwolek, a majority of 2023 will be spent focusing on improving existing infrastructure.

"We're a small town. This is a pretty big undertaking for a city like ours. And with our proportionate resources and staff resources and revenue sources, I think we've done a lot, and I think it's pretty amazing," Kwolek said. "Looking ahead, it's not going to be so much about the plan, but catching up with maintenance of our existing water and wastewater infrastructure. So we have projects that are in progress to fix, rebuild, build water and sewer infrastructure."