Tell officials to choose the best possible upgrade for the outdated Morro Bay sewage plant

For more than 20 years the Morro Bay/Cayucos sewage treatment plant has received a waiver from having to meet basic national standards for clean water, dumping only minimally treated sewage containing bacteria and other contaminants into the Pacific ocean. The plant's discharge point is just half a mile offshore, near popular beaches and the Morro Bay National Estuary, in the heart of the newly created Marine Protected Areas.

Plant officials are now deciding whether to upgrade the facility to "secondary" or "tertiary" treatment levels. The plant's own documents show that a tertiary upgrade would result in cleaner water by removing more pathogens, bacteria and solid waste from the water. And only tertiary treatment creates a tremendous opportunity to re-use the high quality wastewater effluent for irrigation and other non-potable uses, freeing up scarce drinking water for residents and eliminating the need to discharge wastewater into the ocean during much of the year.

Upgrading the plant to tertiary treatment would cost only $1 more per household per month than secondary treatment, so a tertiary treatment upgrade is the most environmentally and economically responsible move to make.