Cambria desal status
Sunday December 2nd, 2007 - 3:32:10 am
Dan Reddell Email
Sunday, Dec 2, 2007
Posted on Sun, Dec. 02, 2007
Cambria seeks rehearing of desalination test wells
Kathe Tanner
A plan to do tests that are needed before Cambria can move ahead with desalination plant planning will be back before the California Coastal Commission on Dec. 13.
The Cambria Community Services District says it must drill test wells in the sand of a San Simeon State Park beach to verify subterranean water supplies and map geological conditions along the shore near the mouth of San Simeon Creek, adjacent to a popular parking-and-picnic area.
In September, commissioners denied permission for the tests, but district General Manager Tammy Rudock asked in a subsequent letter for another
hearing on the project.
The services district decided that desalination is the best option for an added source of drinking water for the coastal town.
Officials declared a water emergency in 2001, stopping new water hookups that had not been approved.
New hookups cannot be approved until a new water source comes online.
Rudock said that some key evidence wasn’t presented at the earlier meeting, that incorrect comments made by commission staff could have misled commissioners and affected their votes, and that the timing of those statements meant district representatives couldn’t correct the opinions.
Among those errors were misstatements made to the commission about the planned location for the desalination plant, she said.
Rudock said the district’s desalination plans “do not include any permanent structure or facility” on the beach or its bluffs.
She said the plant would be built farther inland, out of sight from Highway 1, on district property near the agency’s percolation ponds.
Before commissioners can hold the second hearing, they must go through several administrative steps to review the basis for their original decisions.
Those actions are to be taken at the December meeting.

CAMBRIA HEARING

The California Coastal Commission will take up Cambria’s desalination plant proposal when it meets at 9 a.m. Dec. 13 in Legislative Chamber Room 250, 1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in San Francisco. For details, visit www.cambriacsd.org or www.coastal.ca.gov, or call 831-427-4863.

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