San Luis Obispo studies private sewer lateral options as city tracks declining spills

San Luis Obispo staff presented an update to the city’s wastewater collection infrastructure renewal strategy and private sewer lateral programs at a study session where council offered direction but made no formal decisions.

Aaron Floyd, the city’s utilities director, and Chris Lehman, deputy director for wastewater, described the long-range plan and an updated hydraulic model that identifies current capacity-constrained areas. Jeff Pels, a consultant with West Yost, supported the analysis. Chris Lehman summarized the purpose: "This is the long range plan for the collection system," and said the model looks out through buildout to 2035.

Staff highlighted a sharp drop in sewer spills: from a peak of 35 spills in 2021 to one recorded in 2025 so far. That improvement coincided with public and private infrastructure investments, including a Water Resource Recovery Facility (WARF) upgrade and targeted collection-system repairs. The WARF equalization capacity was doubled as part of plant upgrades; staff said WARF-related capital investments tied to this inflow problem total about $5,700,000 and the city averages roughly $1,400,000 a year on collection system work.

The discussion focused on three policy alternatives for managing new wastewater…