Six-Year Sewer Saga Continues in Los Olivos

Los Olivos district residents will vote on whether the town needs a sewer system.

In 2018, the Los Olivos Community Services District was formed. Five board members were elected to address the perceived need to replace aging septic systems.

Many neighbors share concerns over escalating assessment fees and expenditures for professional services and planning, which already total approximately one million taxpayer dollars.

Concerns remain that a sewer system will lead to unchecked sprawl that will overwhelm our bucolic town.

At the same time, the town’s commercial core needs more restrooms. Prioritizing a plan to address the aging systems struggling to serve the downtown businesses has obvious advantages.

The district’s original (2022) proposal raised many concerns and included a sewage treatment plant outside the district, with effluent ponds and 24-hour outdoor lighting to serve 390 parcels.

This large project’s engineering, construction, environmental review, operation and maintenance, and financing costs can be estimated at well over $100,000 per parcel owner.

After repeated concerns that an expensive system was not warranted, the board finally listened, stepped up, and agreed to perform groundwater testing six months ago.

The results from the five new groundwater monitoring wells were presented to the public just last month. The results were not as bad as we were led to believe. Only two of the five wells were slightly elevated. Is a massive, expensive sewer treatment system necessary?

Learn more and bring questions to the LOCSD May 15 meeting, 6 p.m., Los Olivos Grange Hall, 2374 Alamo Pintado Avenue.