Coastside Buzz

Explore the Coast - Coastside Calendar & Directory - Articles, Podcasts & Video

MENUMENU
  • Home
  • Content
    • Multi-Media
      • The Coastal Butterfly
      • Coastside Disaster Prep
      • Coastside History
      • Coastsider Musicians
      • Phog Foundation
      • Surf Sessions
      • Writers Corner
        • Boys of the 60s
        • Wrong Shirt - A Memoir Series
    • Podcasts
      • Bedtime Stories
      • CoasTalk
      • Eclectic Radio Show
      • Fun On The Coast
      • Gone Fishing
      • HMBHS Cougar Radio
      • Just Call Wick
      • KHMB
    • Own Voice
      • InPerspective
    • Public Agencies
      • Half Moon Bay City Council
      • Cabrillo Unified School District
      • City of HMB Planning Commission
      • Coastside County Water District (CCWD)
      • Coastside Fire Protection District
      • Granada Community Services District (GCSD)
      • MidCoast Community Council (MCC)
      • Montara Water and Sewer District (MWSD)
      • San Mateo County Harbor District
      • Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM)
  • BUZZ Calendar
  • BUZZ Directory
    • View the Directory
    • How it Works - Join Today
  • About
    • Promotion
    • Buzz Productions : Photo-Essays, Podcasts, Audiobooks and Videos
    • Newsletter Archive
    • Founder Bio
  • Contact

 

Loading Events

« All Events

Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) Meetings ~ 2nd & 4th Mondays @ 7:00pm

February 28, 2022 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm

|Recurring Event (See all)

An event every month that begins at 7:00 pm on day Second of the month, repeating indefinitely

An event every month that begins at 7:00 pm on day Fourth of the month, repeating indefinitely

Free
  • « COVID-19 Mouth Swab Testing Every Monday 3:00-6:00pm Sponsored By City of Half Moon Bay
  • Treat Yourself to a Day of Beauty at Filoli Gardens and Historic Museum. Register Online. »

Watch remotely. Comments and questions by email.

Agendas and Zoom Links 

SAM Meeting Videos via Pacific Coast TV

 


Contact Us

Our regular office hours are 7:00 a.m. through 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding holidays.The Authority can be reached 24-hours a day at:
(650) 726-0124

Our Mailing Address is:

Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside
1000 Cabrillo Hwy N.
Half Moon Bay,  CA  94019

Yellow = cancelled SAM meeting due to Holidays

(650) 726-7833 (fax)

Regular Board Meetings are on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month at 7:00pm.

From time to time a meeting date may be changed, cancelled or relocated. Check the posted agenda for any changes to the normal schedule (click on links below).

The Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) provides wastewater treatment services and contract collection maintenance services for a population of approximately 27,000 in the following areas:

  • City of Half Moon Bay
  • El Granada
  • Miramar
  • Montara
  • Moss Beach
  • Princeton by the Sea

 


SAM Directors

Dr. Deborah Penrose

Director, Representing City of Half Moon Bay

Kathryn Slater-Carter

Chair, Representing Montara Water & Sanitary District

Barbara Dye

Vice Chair, Representing Granada Community Services District

Deborah Ruddock

Secretary/Treasurer, Representing City of Half Moon Bay

Ric Lohman

Director, Representing Montara Water and Sanitary District

Jim Blanchard

Director, Representing Granada Community Services District


Trash Wipes and Rags; Do NOT Flush. Cost For Repair?

APRIL 6, 2020 BY MICHELLE LEAVE A COMMENT (EDIT)

VIDEO. Two pump failures in last two weeks.

Wipes and rags, as seen below, are the culprit.

Talk to your neighbors, please.

Repair for one pump can be $50,000.

Replacement is very, very expensive. A new pump can be a million dollars.

Burning out a generator can cost $100,000 to replace

~ Montara Sewer and Water District’s (MSWD) Board Member Kathryn Slater-Carter and MSWD General Manager, Clemens Heldmaier.

 


 

See how the sewer rates are static for years, then there has to be big increases?


Smaller Is Better: The Solution to California’s Ancient Water Pipes by Rinaldo Veseliza

Published on April 3, 2017
Written by: Rinaldo Veseliza
President and Principal Architect at CASE4GOOD Sustainable Environmental Solutions

Smaller Is Better: The Solution to California’s Ancient Water Pipes

Our aging infrastructure is a ticking time-bomb underground. We can begin to help repair it and stave off future trouble by reaping the benefits of smaller, decentralized microgrid systems.

A system at the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission helps recycle water for on-site reuse for irrigation and other needs.Tara Lohan

 

AS A PRACTICING architect and LEED AP (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, Accredited Professional) for more than 40 years, I have scoured the planet for technological solutions to improve sustainability with water, energy and waste treatment. During the course of my projects, I often see the underbelly of the beast where aging underground systems have the potential to erupt at any time, particularly in earthquake-prone areas such as California’s San Francisco Bay and Los Angeles.

Our greatest current and growing problem is restoring and improving infrastructure systems to last another 50 years. We cannot fix all the massive underground problems, but we can instead replace them with smaller, local surface-mounted solutions that will lead us to more flexible, manageable, decentralized and sustainable systems.

It is the equivalent of, in communication technology, switching from giant mainframes to using cellphones. The technology is all available, automated and user-friendly. Microgrid technologies started with NASA space missions where astronauts recycled all their waste into water and created their own power on board. It is now time to apply our inventions and sustainability principles through our communities to a larger spaceship – our planet.

The infrastructure started in primitive little towns across the world, then septic systems were replaced by larger central plants and distribution systems as cities grew. Waste treatment plants were moved away from town centers to where the smell could be dissipated and tolerated. As cities grew, all the infrastructure expanded into a massive network to manage everyone’s needs.

Today, as much of this infrastructure is dated, landlocked or falling apart, we should consider reverse-engineering the concept of distribution so that small communities, large buildings and individual homes can provide their own water, renewable energy/power (and storage) as well as waste-water treatment.

It is difficult to fix hundreds and thousands of miles of underground piping that we cannot see. Most municipalities do not even acknowledge its existence, especially in times of economic difficulties. Deferred maintenance has been a problem in cities worldwide.

Centralized systems were great, big, expensive and “permanent” solutions for growing communities during their earlier development.

Now, as these overgrown, dense cities are overwhelmed with growing populations, we need smaller-scale microgrids, which can remove the mystery of processing stormwater and sewage water into usable/potable water with self-contained prefabricated modular systems and automated quick-response services. Decentralized waste-water processing and recycling microgrids will actually create many more jobs than our current central systems. They will also reduce the potential impact of cyber attacks and massive system outages.

For example, for about $3,000, a traditional home can be outfitted to recycle 80 percent of its waste-water and use it locally, reducing the need for potable water by that same amount. Office complexes can treat and recycle their own waste to 80 percent recycling onsite for irrigation, toilets and cooling systems. City blocks can also recycle their waste-water locally and reprocess it mechanically to re-use onsite, significantly reducing costs for upgrading their failing underground piping.

These smaller-scale solutions can each reduce the need for potable water by 80 percent, which would be a major accomplishment for our society. They exist now and should be utilized in all future buildings as well as retrofitted.

In a city with many hills like San Francisco, where pumping uphill can be costly, the local solution can solve many current problems, including savings in replacement costs, increases in efficiency and greater flexibility with maintenance and operations. The technology has been around for a long time, but municipal politics has prevented any such conversions, often citing potential public health risks as the main reason for not abandoning existing centralized plants.

Yet the aging, leaking underground sewage pipes are causing growing numbers of system spills which have a significant impact on public health. We cannot see all the damage caused until it is too late, after our underground water sources are polluted. Many municipal systems are finally looking into recycling a small percentage of the water they currently process and dump.

Refurbishing our existing communities, buildings, homes and infrastructure is a massive undertaking. However, with newer technologies at lower costs, we can re-design our own facilities but also export the collective knowledge throughout the world. As usual, the Europeans are somewhat ahead of the game because of visionary/mandated governmental initiatives to improve efficiency, particularly with solar photovoltaic, wind, hydroelectric, waste-to-energy plants and biomass power generation. We have made great progress in recent years in re-inventing our building technologies and reviving our leadership in engineering.

Solar power is the best example of technology that is already modular, local and self-supporting, providing our energy needs at source, creating the opportunity for microgrids to replace long-distance power transmission systems and associated inefficiencies. Smaller is better.

Never miss an update. Sign up here for our Water Deeply newsletter to receive weekly updates, special reports and featured insights on one of the most critical issues of our time.

About the Author

Rinaldo Veseliza

ARCHITECT AND DIRECTOR OF SUSTAINABILITY, ALISTO ENGINEERING GROUP

 


Other Links

  • Wastewater and Microgrids for the Coastside? No More Inter-Tie or Outfall!?

  • Video.  SAM Employees Give BIG Thanks to General Manager Beverli Marshall for Her Four Years of Service.
  • Video.  What is ElectroScan & How Can it Help Sewer Authority Mid-Coast (SAM)?
  • PODCAST. Managing sewage is the most important job on the planet ~Freakonomics: In Praise of Maintenance.
  • Video.  SAM Reports Zero Sewer Spills on the Coastside in 2018
  • Video.  SAM Meeting 4/22 ~ Partners with PG&E to Reduce its Carbon Footprint

 


TOUR of the Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside (SAM) Wastewater Plant ~ They Are Hiring; Will Train

Picture of SAM plant

Related

+ Google Calendar+ iCal Export

Details

Date:
February 28, 2022
Time:
7:00 pm - 9:00 pm
Cost:
Free
Event Categories:
Community, Education, Public Agency Meeting
Website:
https://samcleanswater.org/index.asp?SEC=44BFCCC6-8CC5-4E53-AAA0-2FBDEFF01CAB&Type=B_DIR

Organizer

Kishen Prathivadi
Phone:
(650) 726-0124
Email:
kishen@samcleanswater.org

Venue

SAM Admin Building
1000 Cabrillo Hwy N
Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
+ Google Map

Related Events

  • Treat Yourself to a Day of Beauty at Filoli Gardens and Historic Museum. Register Online.

    Sun January 17 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
    |Recurring Event (See all)

    An event every day that begins at 10:00 am, repeating indefinitely

  • Treat Yourself to a Day of Beauty at Filoli Gardens and Historic Museum. Register Online.

    Mon January 18 @ 10:00 am - 5:00 pm
    |Recurring Event (See all)

    An event every day that begins at 10:00 am, repeating indefinitely

  • COVID-19 Mouth Swab Testing Every Monday 3:00-6:00pm Sponsored By City of Half Moon Bay

    Mon January 18 @ 3:00 pm - 6:00 pm
    |Recurring Event (See all)

    An event every week that begins at 3:00 pm on Monday, repeating indefinitely

  • « COVID-19 Mouth Swab Testing Every Monday 3:00-6:00pm Sponsored By City of Half Moon Bay
  • Treat Yourself to a Day of Beauty at Filoli Gardens and Historic Museum. Register Online. »

Follow Us!

CoastsideBuzz Instagram Icon Link Coastsidebuzz Facebook Icon Link

SUBSCRIBE TO WEEKLY BUZZMAIL

Half Moon Bay Coastside Tours Logo thumbnail

Coastside Buzz

About
Contact

Work With Us

Promotion
Buzz Productions

CoastsideBuzz Newsletter

Join Us on Facebook

Join Us on Facebook

Search

© Copyright 2021 · CoastsideBuzz.com · Half Moon Bay, California · All Rights Reserved