In its continuing efforts to reuse Los Osos’ triple-treated wastewater from its sewer treatment plant, the County has awarded a contract to hook up one of the town’s elementary schools to the recycled water system.
County Supervisors approved a construction contract with Hartzell General Engineering, Inc., of Cayucos for $333,000 with a contingency of 10% added in bringing the County’s budget for the work up to $366,000.
Hartzell was one of two bidders for the job, which will run a pipe down to Monarch Grove Elementary School’s playing fields and hook into the school’s irrigation system. Then the school can stop using drinking water to irrigate the fields, which are also used by local youth sports programs.
Also bidding the job was RCH Construction, which submitted a bid that was so low, the County threw it out as “non-responsive.” RCH had bid just $107,000. Hartzell’s bid actually came in 8% higher than the County’s engineer’s estimate but was acceptable to the review panel.
The request for bids included so-called “Additive Bid Item #1” which added over $76,000 to Hartzell’s overall bid, so the County decided not to have that work done now.
“The Additive Bid Item #1,” reads the staff report from County Engineering, “includes items not required to meet the requirements of Title 22, such as replacing the existing irrigation boxes and irrigation heads with new and providing a water truck for temporary irrigation of the field during construction. The total construction amount of the base bid is close to the engineer’s estimate therefore, the additive bid items were not included.”
The Monarch Grove job will be in addition to another project that will bring reclaimed irrigation water to Los Osos Middle School and is in keeping with the permit conditions the Coastal Commission placed on the County’s community sewer project.
“Since 2016,” the report said, “the Los Osos Water Recycling Facility has produced disinfected, tertiary-treated, non-potable recycled water for disposal and reuse within the Los Osos Groundwater Basin, as a condition of the California Coastal Commission’s Coastal Development Permit… and consistent with the Los Osos Basin Recycled Water Management Plan approved by the Coastal Commission.”
The County got the money for this project thanks to the coronavirus pandemic response. “In 2021,” the report said, “the County secured funding for this project through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA). On Feb. 27, 2024, the Board [of Supervisors] approved a budget adjustment to reallocate additional ARPA funding for Recycled Water Connections for the LOWRF, which this project falls under. When connected, it will increase the resiliency and sustainability of the groundwater basin.”
The County and the San Luis Coastal Unified School District, which owns and operates Monarch Grove, reached an agreement to bring recycled water to Monarch Grove last August.
The project shouldn’t be too difficult, as the County’s recycled water system already delivers effluent to the Broderson Avenue leach field, located on the hillside above Broderson Avenue, and a short distance downhill from Monarch Grove School.
