Blog note: this opinion piece references a 2016 grand jury report.
After serving on the Montara Water and Sanitary District Board of Directors for the last five years, personal obligations prevented me from running for re-election in November. Although there were many positive experiences while serving, there remains one issue that causes me great concern and that is the state of our sewer system.
Before joining the board, like most of you, I knew very little about it. I assumed that sewers were managed properly and that I didn’t really need to know much more than that. My service on the board forced me to realize I was wrong.
Serving on the board, I learned a lot about the system. I no longer believe that it is properly governed or managed. To be blunt, our sewer system is in a crisis.
Recently the main sewer line broke allowing raw sewage to flow untreated directly into the Pacific Ocean. We were fined more than $500,000 and had to replace a section of the sewer line as an emergency repair. This was totally preventable.
Remember all the green pipe along Highway 1 last year? An engineering report in 2009-10 detailed the deteriorated condition of the pipe that it would replace nearly a decade later.
This wasn’t an isolated event, just the most notable. There was also an emergency electrical repair due to a lack of maintenance that forced the Sewer Authority to rent emergency electrical generators for weeks just to keep the plant running. Sewer pipes in many places should have been replaced long ago. Some of the main pump stations will require major repair or replacement. The sewer plant itself will require major, expensive repairs just to function in compliance with regulatory requirements. Easy and cheap fixes are no longer possible.
If that wasn’t enough, there is also a major lawsuit among the participating member agencies. By all practical measurements it is out of control. Our sewer rates are guaranteed to go right through the roof because of mismanagement, neglect and litigation over who should pay, preventing the maintenance needed to address these problems.
There is one sewer plant for the Coastside and three agencies that control it: the city of Half Moon Bay, Granada Community Services District and Montara Water and Sanitary District. The treatment plant is managed by the Sewer Authority Mid-coastside. SAM is governed by a six-member board. MWSD and GCSD each get two votes and Half Moon Bay gets four votes, which is based on the population in the districts. This management arrangement is a core problem.
Turf battles between agencies, high general manager turnover, major fines, lack of needed ongoing maintenance, totally inadequate reserves, and two lawsuits yet to be settled are the outcomes of this governing structure. You have already received large increases in your sewer bills and they will continue to increase greatly in the years ahead. We can do better.
Although certainly not anticipated at the beginning of my term, I have concluded that the only way that our needs can be met going forward is to abolish the current arrangement, with 15 elected officials and four general managers making decisions, and instead form one district with five elected directors and one hired general manager. This arrangement works well for our fire district and the school district here on the Coastside and it can work well governing and managing the sewer system.
This is also the conclusion of the San Mateo County civil grand jury report in 2016. Their highest recommendation was to develop plans for consolidation. Ideally, this would include both water and sewers, but that might be a stretch given the dysfunction that exists today.
The first step in solving any problem is understanding it. The solution is already apparent to those who have studied it. I have come to the same conclusion as the grand jury — only consolidation can fix this. Unless you are willing to get involved, the entrenched interests will keep the system just the way it is, at your expense.
January 9, 2019
Half Moon Bay Review
By Bill Huber
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