Two neighboring communities in the Santa Ynez Valley are looking into possibly aligning their wastewater lines, while some locals worry the project would lure unrelated developers to stream in with it.
In early January, the city of Solvang received a request from the Los Olivos Community Services District (LOCSD) to consider exploring the potential impacts of allowing Los Olivos to connect with Solvang’s wastewater treatment plant, rather than construct its own.
Solvang’s city staff sought feedback about the proposal—to research the feasibility of Los Olivos placing a new wastewater line along Alamo Pintado Road to link with Solvang’s existing infrastructure—from the City Council during its Jan. 22 meeting.
City Manager Randy Murphy said “there may be some level of public concern,” as an alignment “may be perceived as encouraging development in that area.”
“However, that can be mitigated by limiting the amount of wastewater they would be allowed to produce,” Murphy said.
Dennis Beebe, a former board member of the Santa Ynez River Water Conservation District, was the sole speaker during public comment and criticized the alignment proposal as inconsistent with the Santa Ynez Valley Community Plan.
“It explicitly barred any consideration of putting a sewage line between Los Olivos and Solvang because of the threat of development,” Beebe said before referencing Field of Dreams. “The worry is that you’ll have a developmental strip between Los Olivos and Solvang. As soon as you build it, the worry is they will come.”
Beebe also described Murphy’s comment on mitigating the amount of Los Olivos’ wastewater produced as “kind of cavalier.”
Before the City Council’s deliberations, Guy Savage, general manager of the LOCSD, clarified that the board is still “exploring our own wastewater treatment plant,” and isn’t asking Solvang to commit to anything yet.
Savage added that if the alignment project moved forward someday, the LOCSD would fund it.
“We’d be getting loans, doing whatever we’d need to do to be able to connect,” Savage said. “Let me be really clear, this is not a commitment on your part.”
According to Solvang’s staff report, initial discussions between staff and Carollo Engineers, a water engineering consulting form, determined that Solvang’s wastewater treatment plant has “plenty of capacity for LOCSD’s effluent.”
The report also states that additional research is needed to determine if the alignment between Los Olivos and Solvang would “create any complications to compliance” with Solvang’s current waste discharge protocols.
In its letter to the city of Solvang, the LOCSD requested that Solvang staff analyze its proposal as a potential “win-win,” while suggesting that Solvang “could receive additional revenues to help offset costs for wastewater treatment and related infrastructure without increasing its plant size.”
With a 5-0 vote, the Solvang City Council unanimously agreed to direct staff to investigate the potential alignment.
“I have no problem exploring anything, as long as it doesn’t cost anything, or much,” Councilmember Robert Clarke said, while supporting the directive for staff to find out whether an alignment would “ultimately benefit the city of Solvang and the residents of Solvang.”
This article appears in Jan 25 – Feb 4, 2024.