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Greenfield council directs staff to draft moratorium ordinance as wastewater plant nears permitted capacity
Summary
After a detailed briefing on aging infrastructure and regulatory limits, council directed staff to draft a building moratorium ordinance that would bar new projects that increase sewer demand unless they already have issued building permits, and to pursue interim capacity measures while the city seeks funding for a new plant.
Greenfield City officials on July 8 were warned the city’s wastewater treatment plant is operating at its permitted limit and directed staff to draft a building moratorium ordinance targeted at projects that would add sewer demand.
Public Works Director Jamie Tugel told the council the plant’s permitted average daily flow was reduced by the Central Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board from 1.5 million gallons per day to 1.2 million gallons per day after recent violations and observations that the rapid infiltration basins (RIBs) are not providing the required two feet of freeboard. “The spray fields are not a measure to accept higher influent flows from future development,” Tugel said, describing the temporary 16-acre emergency spray fields the city placed online in February 2025 to relieve the RIBs.
Tugel and other staff described recent investments and constraints: headworks, a clarifier and the digester have been rehabilitated; the city installed a portable sludge dewatering press in May 2023; and a fats, oils and grease (FOG) program launched in April 2024 that has performed 48 restaurant inspections and…
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