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Home My WebLink About1991-05-14; City Council; 11157; SAN MARCOS INCINERATOR WATER AND SEWER ISSUES* # ; u c 2 U cd a, k U alu Mk (do 3a a,al mk ac cu cd -d 3 $4 at4 u -4 mu wo ov h0 uc, $4 t4d 9-4 k e3 au 4a.J *ri k cd 35 $? a, (d 5; 0 a)u ucd (dk Mal -4 d u .ri mu alc ZH *ri ffl 0 oc) +Jk (d wx w @E ucd Wco aal a,c uu c) alb &lo -d Cc( a h ?iu .d *d 00 Gcd ?& o(d vu 4 rn \ d 4 \ Ln .. z 0 4 =! 0 z 3 0 0 E CI@ OF CARLSBAD - AGENIO) BILL s< DEPT. I SAN MARCOS INCINERATOR CITY A' CITY M AB# //,/ST TITLE: MTG. 5-JY-91 DEPT.~~ WATER AND SEWER ISSUES RECOMMENDED ACTION: Direct staff to investigate the availability of water and I treatment capacity for the San Marcos incinerator and ret\ Council with a report. Representatives from the City of Encinitas have raised COI about the possible adverse affect of the San Marcos incineral the Encina treatment facility and its reclaimed Water pro( They also are concerned about the ability of the Vallecitos' District to provide water. It appears the four major COI regarding water availability and sewage treatment are: 1) the creates a new demand for both potable and reclaimed water; : source of water and the infrastructure needed to deliver the must be identified; 3) the impact of the plant on the collection system; 4) will additional pre-treatment by Enci required and will it impact their ability to generate recl water. It is recommended that staff be directed to investigate this n including contacts with the responsible water and sewer agf and report back to the Council for action as the Counci consider appropriate. EXHIBIT Memo to May and Council from City Attorney dated March 13, 1 ITEM EXPLANATION .a e 0 March 13, 1991 TO : Mayor and Council FROM : City Attorney SAN MAE?COS INCINERATOR - WATER AND SEWER ISSUES I Trash to energy plants take a lot of water both potable for th steam generators and reclaimed for the cooling towers. They als discharge a lot of high TDS waste water and need substantia amounts of sewage treatment capacity. I don't think NCRRA has mad any arrangement for either water or sewage treatment capacity ar they may not be available. I suggest these problems be raised j water circles and at Encina as soon as possible. Attached is a memorandum dated March 5, 1991 on the waste watc issue. It appears the discharge of cooling water by NCRRA wi: significantly interfere with the reclaimed water program at Encini The County EIR does not deal with this problem and no arrangemeni have been made for disposal of the brine. If reclaimed water can be used that means a large new demand on the potable supply. Dwight Worden, on behalf of the interested cities, has directed letter to the County raising these issues as a defect in the E1 A copy is attached. It would help our effort to oppose t responsible water and sewer agencies. Please let me know if y have any questions. * I incinerator if they could be raised by policy makers with t VINCENT F. BIONDO, JR. City Attorney rmh \a attachment c: City Manager City Engineer General Manager CMWD (with attachment) \ .I 0 e MEMORANDUM i TO ! Dwight FROM : Felicia RE: Encinitas-Wastewater Issue DATE : March 5, 1991 Pursuant to your repest, I spoke to Mr. Graff at Encina regarding the wastewater issue. If you recall, this was in response to a letter from Vince. I found out the following: 1. The NCRRA trash plant is going to use reclaimed water from the Vallecitos Water District in it's cooling towers. In 1987 the Encina Facility did not see any problem with accepting the discharge from the cooling 2. Since 1987 a lot has changed and there now is a problem with accepting the discharge from the cooling towers. Given that Encina is now moving forward with reclamation of the Facility water, they want their influent to be as low in total dissolved solids (TDS) as possible. There is more of a chance of selling their effluent if the TDS level is low'. Encha wants to keep their TDS below 1000 mg/l and it is currently at 956 mg/1. The NCRRA project will bring the TDS level, (according to Vallecitos calculations, I think) to 1026 mg/l. This is unacceptable by Encina. In fact, Encina is planning to use what little margin they have left for their composting facility. 3. The bottom line is that the trash plant will have to treat their coolant water before disch.arge, unless they can get permission to discharge it to surface waters. This is because the Encina pretreatment ordinance limits TDS levels. If in fact NCRRA chooses to treat their coolant water, there is no place to dispose of the brine. They may have to get the a separate permit to discharge the brine in the ocean. As an alternative, NCRRA could use potable water for their coolant. 4. Since Mr. Graff sent out his letter, the Revised Basic Agreement has beenapproved. Surprisingly, neither Vallecitos nor NCRRA have called Mr. Graff about this letter. Other than that, nothing has changed. Should we write to the County and ask them to review th towers - issue in their EIR? Is there any additional work on this? 0 LAW OFFICES e ** AREA CODE 6 19 TELEP ON 755-6604 ' A 755-5198 v D. DWIGHT WORDEN A PROFESSIONAL CORPORATION D DWIGHT WORDEN TRACY R RICHMOND 740 LOMAS SANTA FE DRIVE W SCOlT WILLIAMS JAMES H ELLIS 111 CRYSTAL CRAWFORD SUITE 102 TERRY M GlBBS SOLANA BEACH, CALIFORNIA 92075 March 12, 1991 W liam A. Worrell, Deputy Director San Diego County Department of Public Works coun Operations Center 5555 \ verland Avenue San Diego, California 92123 Re; NCRRA wastewater Discharcle Issue Dear Mr. WOrrell: It has recently come to the attention of the cities 0: Encinitas, Carlsbad, Oceanside, and Escondido that there may be i significant water discharge issue related to the NCRRA project Importantly, this issue does not appear to have been addressed a' any point in the environmental review process. We have jusi learned of this issue, and call it to your attention, with thc request that the EIR be reopened to review the matter. As we understand it, NCRRA is proposing to use reclaimed wate for its cooling towers, received from the Vallecitos Wate District. We further understand that the wastewater is proposec to be disposed of through the Encina treatment plant. Apparently Encina has recently changed its requirements and will not accep. water with a TDS-level yreater than 1000 mg/l. We are furthe advised that acceptance of the water from NCRRA will cause thi: level to be exceeded. It appears that this will require NCRRA to treat its coolan. water before discharge, which will require extensive on-sit! equipment, or they must get permission to discharge to surfacl waters. If NCRRA chooses to treat its coolant, we are informel that there may be no place to dispose of the brine. A separat discharge permit may be required to discharge the brine to th ocean. The only alternativs we are aware of would be use o potable water for cooling purposes. Obviously, in a time o drought, this seems an unlikely and unwarranted proposition. A e a t William A. Worrell March 12, 1991 Page 2 We do not pretend to know the full implications of this issue at this point, but it does appear to be a significant enough issue that we believe it should be addressed by the County with a chance for public review and comment. We appreciate your consideration of our input. Sincerely , LAW OFFICES OF D. DWIGHT WORDEN ADmrroration D. DWIGHT WORDEN Special Counsel, City of Encinitas cc: v4 incent Biondo, Carlsbad City Attorbey Jeffrey Epp, Escondido City Attorney Deborah Corbett, Assistant Oceanside city Attorneyd Warren Shafer, Encinitas City Manager Mike Hogan DDW: rsu CITEND. 113 I -