Don't Flush Sutter Creek Down the Drain for Gold Rush
The Gold Rush developers will tell you that Sutter Creek needs a new sewer treatment plant. But we don't. Not now, not for years to come. And the state isn't breathing down our necks to replace our current plant. Statewide, 90 percent of sewer plants perform the same level of treatment as our plant.
Gold Rush does need a new plant, though. That's why they have to build one. It's not for us. It's for them.
Here are the facts Gold Rush is not telling you:
- City Manager Rob Duke has repeatedly said that our sewer plant is good for another 12-15 years with regular maintenance. It ought to be. We just spent $1.5 million to upgrade it.
- Our sewer plant is not like the one in Placerville. They had to build a new plant because they put their treated wastewater in a creek. Our wastewater is used to irrigate land.
- Some of our wastewater is used on agricultural land, and some goes to Ione where it is treated to a higher level and used on Castle Oaks Golf Course. Ione wants that effluent for another 20 years.
- Golf courses need irrigation wastewater treated to the highest level. That's why Gold Rush needs a tertiary plant, but Sutter Creek does not.
- That higher level of treatment is much more expensive. Who will pay for the increased operations and maintenance cost of a new sewer plant? We will. That means higher sewer bills for every Sutter Creek household.