LAKEPORT – This week the Board of Supervisors will receive a status report on efforts to update the south county's sewer system.

The meeting will begin at 9 a.m. in the board chambers at the Lake County Courthouse, 255 N. Forbes St. The meeting will be broadcast live on TV Channel 8.

Special Districts Administrator Mark Dellinger will take the matter to the board. The item is timed for 9:30 a.m.

Lake County Special Districts (LACOSAN) provides the sewer system for the city of Clearlake and part of Lower Lake, Dellinger told Lake County News. “That's our largest wastewater collection system,” he said.

The Highlands Harbor area – specifically Meadowbrook – has been an area of continuing wastewater spills in recent years.

Looking over a map of the city, Dellinger explained that Highlands Harbor, which is next to the creek, is in the lowest part of the collection system.

In heavy rains, when the soil becomes saturated, the wastewater that comes in from higher parts of the system outcompetes the gravity flows in Highlands Harbor and spills result, Dellinger explained.

The city's avenues and landfill all compete for limited capacity in that area of the pipeline, where spills have continued to occur, said Dellinger. That's despite the county spending a few million dollars for system upgrades over the past decade, including adding a new graving line, taking out a bypass, updating four pump stations and undertaking a sophisticated cleaning of the system.

“The improvements are not of the magnitude that you can see significant results of those improvements,” Dellinger said.

Dellinger said he plans to roll out a preliminary option for fixing the system at the Tuesday board meeting.

The county has spent eight months developing an interim master plan to address the system's needed improvements in the Highlands Harbor area, said Dellinger.

An earlier interim plan, completed in September 2008, had four alternatives, which did address Highlands Harbor but didn't do much to fix the system's hydraulics or accommodate longterm growth, Dellinger explained.

The fifth and leading proposal, which has been in development over the last few months, includes building a four-mile, 12-inch diameter pipe along Highway 53 from the city's pump station four – which is located by a bridge on the highway – down to the treatment plant on Pond Road, which Dellinger said has plenty of capacity.

He estimated that alternative also would provide 3,000 single-family home hookup equivalents plus commercial and airport development.

“I don't like to have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to to have to respond to spills if we can come up with a solution,” said Dellinger.

He's been working with Clearlake City Administrator Dale Neiman since last fall on a solution.

“We all agree that's the kind of solution that should be implemented here,” said Dellinger.

At its June 11 meeting, the Clearlake City Council agreed to give Neiman go ahead with negotiating a cooperative agreement with LACOSAN to improve the system.

Neiman explained to the council that the county currently is under an abatement from the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board due to an effluent spill from a manhole, and if the problems aren't solved the state could impose a development moratorium and additional fines. LACOSAN already has been fined $60,000 for that recent spill.

He suggested to the council that they commit $2.5 million from cash reserves to assist in the $5 million “global” solution that includes the four-mile pipeline Dellinger described. The plan also calls for the city redevelopment agency to take the lead on the improvement project.

At the Clearlake City Council meeting, Council member Joyce Overton said it's the county's job to put aside money for fixing the system. “I would like to know where that money is,” she said.

She added, “I don't mind helping, that's one thing, it's our community,” but she said she didn't think the city should put in half of the money. “They knew it was eventually going to happen.”

Neiman said a master plan should have been done on the system a long time ago. He said the landfill is contributing to the system and it should pay its fair share. If repairs aren't made there will be a development moratorium, which will impact the city and the redevelopment agency. “We're going to be impacted more than anybody else,” Neiman said.

Responding to Overton's comments, Councilman Curt Giambruno said it wasn't the time to be throwing “darts” at the county, and that Neiman was on the right track.

Supervisor Jeff Smith told the council that night that he believed the sewer system was inadequate when it was installed 20 years ago, and that it's a ratepayer-funded district. In order to build reserves, the county would have had to raise its charges, which it was reluctant to do because of low-income customers. But not raising the rates gradually over the years has hurt the system in the long run.

He suggested that in order to put aside sufficient reserves to fix the system they would have to double fees for ratepayers. Smith said that the county has about $2 million in reserves for that part of the district, but the Board of Supervisors needs to decide whether or not to use the funds.

“We're looking at trying to do what can be done to solve the entire problem hopefully so any development, housing or anything else is not going to be a question,” Smith said.

“Point fingers all you want,” Smith added. “We gotta fix the problem. That's all there is to it.”

County Administrative Officer Kelly Cox said there are a lot of improvements – from sewer to roads – that both the county and city need to do, but “there's not enough money to do everything,” which frustrates everybody.

The part of Clearlake's sewer system that's in question would provide collection to the city's airport property, officials said. The city has been engaged in longterm negotiations with a potential developer to bring commercial development to that area.

Both the county and city have need to develop that area, and since the city is proposing to develop the airport property, Cox suggested it's appropriate for them to contribute to the solution.

County Deputy Administrative Office Jeff Rein said a county rate study suggests raising rates and putting aside money for the fixes. He said the county has a pot of redevelopment money that can be put toward the project.

Dellinger said upgrading the system will cost more money that the county has.

However, if the county and Clearlake Redevelopment Agency can partner, “I think we're all going to be better served,” he said.

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