Submitted by Ann and Ward Wilson
We have been following with interest the proposal of the city of Coronado to build a sewage treatment plant on the golf course. Recent local news articles have highlighted a number of concerns for us with regard to the logic of continuing down a path where we as a city are intentionally and with full knowledge building a facility on a site with numerous known risk factors at a price in the tens of millions of dollars to taxpayers, a price which seems to be increasing at every turn.
We attended the meeting at the golf course on January 8 for residents regarding this project. We left with many unanswered questions. Why is a full environmental impact report not being done but instead, a mitigated negative declaration? Why does there seem to be a foregone conclusion about the location of the sewage plant? Why are alternative sites not being seriously considered? Why have no designs been shown to residents? Is it going to smell or not? We heard at the January 8 public meeting from city staff that anytime you’re dealing with sewage, there will be a smell. Then we are told that the smell will be less than significant. Well, sewage smell that is less than significant is still a sewage smell. Is this acceptable? Why were selected residents brought into discussions about the project as early as 2017, thereby giving those residents an opportunity to influence the direction of the project early on when residents who would be most directly impacted did not receive any notification until November of 2019 and, even then, only as a result of their inquiries about the project? Residents deserve answers to these questions.
Ann and Ward Wilson
