An infusion of $16 million from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act will enable the rural California city of Live Oak’s wastewater treatment plant to avoid tens of thousands of dollars in fines and meet state wastewater quality standards by 2011.
A 2007 California Water Resources Control Board order mandated upgrading the 1.4-million-gallon-per-day plant to meet standards for disinfection and metals, including aluminum and copper. “We were facing fines of $3,000 a day because our system didn’t meet new standards,” says City Manager Jim Goodwin.