Stepped up water conservation due to the drought could dry up home building in Manteca but not for the reason one might think.

Manteca’s wastewater treatment plant is nearing capacity due to “increased solid waste loading.” It is not simply 700 or so more housing units and assorted commercial being added annually.

Simply put, people are flushing less water down the toilet via the “if it is yellow it is mellow rule” as well as sending less water down drains from showers, baths, dishwashing and washing clothes.

All of that is critical to stretching the city’s water supplies as we head into a fourth year of drought.

But in terms of the treatment process, it is eating into the designed treatment capacity as there is less water in the system proportionately to solids to process what is sent to the wastewater treatment plant.

The council Tuesday approved spending $508,057 for plans and specifications for seven projects designed to improve the process so the plant can end up functioning near its adjusted design capacity of processing 8.5 million gallons of water per day.

The plant was originally designed for 9.23 million gallons a day as originally built. That capacity has been lessened over the years by state-mandated changes in the wastewater treatment process.

Mayor Ben Cantu pulled the item from the consent agenda to have staff expand on the treatment plant situation.

“I want the community to know that we are near capacity and that we are in a position of having to expand the plant,” Cantu said. “The last time we were in this situation it was in the mid-1980s and we woke up one morning and we were at capacity and we went into a three-year moratorium while the plant was expanded. I would like to avoid that.”

The way the item was on the agenda it was not clear  the improvement projects proposed were critical to accommodating more connections in the near future.

Staff said the daily flow is between 7.3 and 7.5 million gallons a day. The increased percentage of solids being processed due to water conservation measures is pushing the plant’s operational abilities  closer to where it would be capped at 8.5 million gallons a day.

The proposed improvements are deigned to make sure connections can be made up to three to five years from now before maxing out.

Meanwhile, staff is working on a fourth phase expansion project that would allow more sewer connections for years to come.

Staff said the seven projects would “give us a little breathing room” while the design of the fourth phase and construction tales place.

“I just don’t want to wake up one morning and find out we had to turn off the building permit spigot.” Cantu said.

Councilman Charlie Halford noted the silver lining of the wastewater treatment plant situation was the fact “water conservation is working.”

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulleitn.com

.