A funder has backed out of a wastewater treatment center that was expected to insulate the five-cities area in San Luis Obispo County from future drought. The project is called Central Coast Blue.
Water that's used for bathing, toilet flushing, or dishwashing is being treated and discharged into the ocean. If finished, the Central Coast Blue Project would capture that water and turn it into drinking water for the local communities.
When the project was first introduced, the cities of Arroyo Grande, Grover Beach and Pismo Beach agreed to foot the bill. But the cost has tripled and last week the Arroyo Grande city council voted to withdraw its financial backing.
Arroyo Grande Mayor Caren Ray Russom said in 2022 the city signed on to pay a quarter of the 50 million dollar price tag.
“The hope was that we were going to get significant grants to help offset that. Then in 2023 that number ballooned to 90 million,” Russom said.
Rossum said the price tag is now at about 150-million dollars. So city staff are looking into other potential ways to invest in the community’s water needs.
“There may be state water that we could ask our voters if we could make a permanent purchase via that. So there's lots of different things that the staff can begin discussions about,” Russom said.
Rossum said that research could take 6 months or longer to figure out. For now, it's not clear how funding for the Central Coast Blue Project will move forward.
The City of Grover Beach is expected to re-examine the project at its next city council meeting Monday.
