Carpinteria wastewater district outlines $61 million advanced purification project, says operations will be local
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Summary
The Carpinteria Wastewater District told the council it will lease site space and operate a new advanced water-purification plant funded partly by a $61,000,000 construction award; staff said the project is in design and construction could take about three years.
Carpinteria’s wastewater district presented an overview of its service area, aging infrastructure and a multi‑agency advanced purification project now entering the design phase. The district said it will lease part of its site to the new facility, operate the plant and provide staffing for day‑to‑day operations.
District staff told the council the treatment plant, originally built in 1951 with a 2.5 million gallons‑per‑day design capacity, currently treats roughly half that volume and serves about 4,500 residential customers and some commercial accounts. Staff described 42 miles of gravity sewer — including segments dating to the 1930s — and eight pump stations, two of which also date to the 1930s.
On technical details, presenters described a multi‑step purification train: preliminary filtration, ultrafiltration (pressure membranes), reverse osmosis and a final ultraviolet/advanced oxidation step. Staff said roughly 15% of the district’s flow will bypass the RO membrane step and continue to the ocean, and that the combined RO + UV/oxidation train is expected to remove the large majority of pharmaceuticals and other organic compounds; staff cited a 99.9% removal benchmark for many pharmaceutical constituents while noting trace compounds sometimes require the UV/oxidation stage to break them down.
Funding and schedule: the district said it has secured $61,000,000 toward construction and expects the contractor (named in staff remarks) to begin work in spring, with construction lasting approximately three years. Staff emphasized the need for multiple state permits and a long commissioning process to ensure durability and compliance.
Councilmembers asked about monitoring and public outreach; staff pointed to an established sampling protocol and said a district public‑relations team will publish project updates and technical materials on the district’s website.
The council received the presentation and voted to receive and file the staff report, taking no formal action beyond tracking the project’s permitting and public‑information milestones.
