New Study Ordered as Sewer Proposal Impasse Continues

He started out optimistically, full of pep and promise.

But by 2:45 a.m. Wednesday, near the end of the City Council’s fruitless nine-hour workshop on the city’s ongoing sewer upgrade impasse, professional facilitator Mike Perrault could no longer contain his frustration.

“I think I’m running out of patience here, to be honest with you,” Perrault told the council. “The fundamental thing here is that you have no trust for each other.

“My take, quite frankly, is that you are never going to agree,” he added. “I see people sticking stakes in the ground, not talking about solutions.”

Once again, the City Council was unable to agree on a plan to upgrade the aging Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant, something they have been arguing about since the summer of 1995.

The same two issues--whether a $75-million upgrade plan being proposed by city officials is too expensive, and whether existing residents should have to pay for part of it--remain the sticking points.

Council members did vote for yet another engineering study to determine how much sewer capacity Thousand Oaks needs to accommodate the growth forecasted in its General Plan, which calls for about 135,000 residents at build-out. The city’s current population is about 110,000.

Public Works Director Don Nelson is recommending an expansion from about 10 million to 14 million gallons per day, and several paid consultants have already said that figure appears sensible. But Councilwomen Elois Zeanah and Linda Parks refuse to accept Nelson’s recommendation, siding with another paid consultant who suggested the city may not need as much sewage treatment capacity.

The forthcoming engineering study, which will take about two months to complete at an undetermined cost, will be more of an analysis by three new consultants. Each will review the city’s already voluminous data on sewage flows to determine if the recommendation of Nelson and the majority of previous city consultants made sense.

During the lengthy debate on the capacity study, Lazar sought a pledge from her council peers that they would accept the new recommendations--whatever they might be--and finally agree to make a decision.

But Parks wavered, and Zeanah outright refused to support the pledge, saying she wanted to reserve her right to disagree later in case the study seemed flawed.

The State Water Resources Control Board has warned Thousand Oaks that it could be forced to repay up to $12.5 million in water quality grants if the city does not soon approve a plan to repair its sewer plant. Ronald Blair of the Water Resources Control Board wrote a letter to the council last week demanding a timetable for the upgrade by May 1. Blair previously demanded a timetable by the end of 1996, but council members were unable to break their stalemate.