Thousand Oaks Officials Again Spar Over Waste-Water Plant Upgrade

The divisive debate on whether to spend $75 million to upgrade the Hill Canyon Wastewater Treatment Plant has plagued the City Council for nearly two years.

And judging from the rancorous, often personal skirmish that occurred Tuesday night, it could be a long time before the sewer fight’s final bell.

Council members voted 4 to 0 to hire three consultants to analyze Thousand Oaks’ existing data on waste-water flows to determine the city’s future sewage needs--one of the key points in the ongoing political standoff. Councilwoman Elois Zeanah was absent.

Before doing so, however, the council broke down into yet another bickering session on the sewer plant improvements. This time the debate focused on whether council members would actually support the recommendations of the latest study or again return to square one.

“If we’re not going to stick to our word, then I’m not going to vote to spend another $25,000 in taxpayers’ money,” Councilman Andy Fox said.

Built in the 1960s, the Hill Canyon treatment plant is outdated and badly in need of repair--all council members agree on that.

But Zeanah and Councilwoman Linda Parks contend that the sewer plant capacity does not have to be expanded from 10 million gallons per day to 14 million gallons, as city officials and several consultants have recommended.

Zeanah and Parks have said a smaller sewer plant expansion--to 12 million gallons per day or even less--would satisfy the city’s future needs under its General Plan, or blueprint for growth. They argue a larger sewer plant would open the floodgates to growth in Thousand Oaks--a point that Mayor Judy Lazar, council members Fox and Mike Markey consider ludicrous.

Zeanah and Parks have also refused to approve the sewer fee increases that city officials insist are necessary to pay for the improvements. The increases require a four-fifths vote.

“I am 100% convinced that 14 million gallons is excessive,” Parks said. “It is just giving a lot of headway to allow for increased density, other than what our General Plan allows.”

Lazar took exception to that remark, saying she was not interested in allowing more growth, but simply accommodating what Thousand Oaks expects.

“It is not my intention or desire to allow for more growth, and I rather resent anyone implying otherwise,” Lazar said. “I’m not trying to increase the General Plan.”

When Parks said Public Works Director Don Nelson had told her in a meeting that Thousand Oaks could do with 12.5 million gallons of daily sewer capacity, Lazar again accused Parks of misrepresenting the truth, saying she too had been present on that occasion and that Nelson said he was misquoted.

Earlier this year, after a fruitless nine-hour debate that left a professional facilitator shaken, council members agreed to hire three consultants to review the city’s waste-water data to determine whether the work done by other consultants made sense.

On Tuesday, the City Council proceeded with that “peer review” plan, hiring consultants George Tchobanoglous, Charles E. Pound and Larry F. Walker to perform the work, expected to cost about $25,000.

Since the sewer stalemate began in 1995, Thousand Oaks has spent several hundred thousand dollars on sewer studies and consultants, including a $125,000 audit by accounting firm Price Waterhouse last year. Innumerable staff hours have also been spent on the issue.

Not wanting to continue that pattern, Councilman Markey made a motion Tuesday requiring all council members to abide by the results of the new study. Otherwise, he said, the study was not worth conducting.

“This is the last consultant I’m going to approve on this issue,” Markey said. “I think this has been consulted to death.”

Council members voted 4 to 0 to accept the study’s results--something they had already agreed to do--after some heated exchanges over who was to blame for the sewer stalemate.

At the marathon debate earlier this year, all council members had agreed to honor the results of this study--with the exception of Zeanah, who said she wanted to reserve her right to object if the study seemed skewed.

“There’s a lot of slings and arrows being thrown tonight,” Parks said.