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Gonzales council adopts updated sewer-use ordinance and approves CIP adjustments amid treatment-plant capacity issues
Summary
The council adopted Ordinance 2025-153 to update Chapter 10.16 (sewer use), establish a pretreatment program and enforcement tools for significant users, and approved an updated sewer CIP that advances funds to address three critical wastewater projects while temporarily lowering reserves.
The Gonzales City Council on Nov. 19 adopted Ordinance No. 2025-153, a comprehensive update to Chapter 10.16 of the Gonzales Municipal Code, and approved an updated sewer Capital Improvement Program (CIP) to address pressing wastewater treatment-plant problems.
City staff said the updated ordinance aligns local requirements with current state regulations and regional board permits, formalizes inspections and a source-control program, and establishes a pretreatment permit program aimed at large industrial users. As City staff explained during the hearing, any facility that consumes more than 25,000 gallons of water per day will be considered a "significant user" under the ordinance and may be required to install a sampling station and enroll in the pretreatment program.
"This updated ordinance will provide staff with the tools to enforce the sewer regulations," the presenting staff member said. Council waived the reading, held a public hearing with no comments, and adopted the ordinance by motion and vote.
Staff and consultant Megan Panofsky of M and S Engineers then presented the revised sewer CIP, identifying three critical wastewater projects: a 21-inch trunk-main rehabilitation (project in design; budgeted at $750,000), the 5th Street manhole rehabilitation (contract awarded to Don Chapin for $125,000) and a wastewater treatment plant rehabilitation effort budgeted at $1,100,000 to cover dechlorination, bioaugmentation, fines removal and infiltration improvements.
Panofsky said the city continues to struggle with the plant and had resumed trucking effluent due to basin percolation and storm-related saturation. "That project is currently in design, and we do have a budget set aside of $750,000 for that effort," she said of the trunk-main rehabilitation. On funding, staff proposed bringing some 2026–27 funds forward into fiscal year 2025–26 to pay for urgent work; that approach would reduce the sewer enterprise fund balance to a projected minimum of $300,000 (below the stated reserve target of $750,000) but would allow immediate repairs and then recoup through rate revenues by 2026.
Council asked whether advancing funds would raise rates; finance staff said the move keeps total planned capital spend within the parameters of the existing rate study but will require a budget amendment to appropriate the funds in the current year. Council approved the CIP update by motion following discussion.
The ordinance and CIP responses include enforcement and monitoring steps for industrial users; staff noted the city will require sampling stations and will be able to enforce pretreatment requirements for high-volume users such as large food processors. No penalties or specific compliance schedules beyond the ordinance text were created at the Nov. 19 meeting; staff said contract awards and individual project approvals would return to council for separate action when appropriate.
Next steps: staff will solicit contracts and return to council with budget amendments and project agreements needed to begin construction on the prioritized items.
