YC’s treated water gets OK

Four years of battles with state water quality regulators over a wastewater treatment plant have finally ended for Yuba City - ending an impasse that threatened to halt development.

The Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board granted a new discharge permit last week that increases the Yuba City plant’s discharge capacity from 7 million to 10.5 million gallons per day, according to a city press release.

But there’s more at stake than sewage - the increased capacity will allow Yuba City growth to continue. Without the capacity, the city faced a possible building moratorium once the plant reached its 7 million gallons per day limit - several years from now at current growth rates.

The board action also saves the city more than $50 million that city officials said would be required for a reverse osmosis treatment plant. The costs would have been passed on to city wastewater customers, including Sunsweet Growers, a move that city officials feared would prompt one of the city’s major employers to move to a cheaper place to do business.

City officials could not be reached for comment Monday.

The city argued that the Central Valley board should have considered dilution of the treated wastewater with the Feather River water when it determined water quality standards. But the board had first proposed measuring the wastewater quality where it comes out of the pipe rather than the city’s proposed “mixing zone” farther from the outlet.

Treated wastewater will continue to be discharged to the Feather River near Shanghai Bend or to existing disposal ponds.

One group that may not be happy with the increase is the California Sportfishing Protection Alliance, which objected to the dilution credits and mixing zone because of fish that congregate at Shanghai Bend at the falls just below the discharge point. The alliance could not be reached for comment Monday.

Appeal-Democrat reporter John Dickey can be reached at 749-4711. You may e-mail him at jdickey@appealdemocrat.com.