Study the sewer, PID pipes then decide what’s next

When the Camp Fire roared through Butte County in 2018, destroying 90 percent of the structures within its path and burning more than 153,000 acres, the Paradise Irrigation District lost all of its customer base.

The Town of Paradise and Paradise Unified School District each got backfill funding from the state for three years to stay afloat.

Additionally, the town got $250 million in damages from PG&E.

The PID, which has yet to receive any settlement funding from PG&E, received its backfill funding contingent upon a plan to create new revenue to make up for the lost customer base.

At a minimum, the PID needed to show the state it was working towards a solution to the problem. One solution that was proposed was an intertie from Paradise to Chico.

It is an idea that the PID wanted to study, along with Butte County. In 2019, in order to get the study started, the county needed a 4/5ths vote from the Butte County Board of Supervisors because it was a budget adjustment. It was an adjustment that at first supervisor Debra Lucero supported, but changed her mind after saying the Board of Supervisors was not given vital documents prior to the initial vote. That vote, along with Tami Ritter’s “no” vote, sank the study.

Since then a Sacramento State University study has begun on the issue and is a mandated requirement to ensure that PID can obtain funding for its drinking water system improvements from the California State Legislature.

It’s important to note that nothing is going to be built, whether it be a sewer or a PID pipe, unless the studies prove that they can work.

From there the local entities, the town of Paradise, PID, City of Chico and LAFCO have to agree — and much of that depends on public support.

Not only has PID been working towards a pipe to Chico but so has the town of Paradise. The Paradise sewer pipe would be connected to Chico’s wastewater plant west of Chico.

The other option that was in front of the town council was building a wastewater plant within the town limits. But the Chico option has always been favored by town and city staff because it is a cheaper option.

The sewer pipe has the support of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, which is in fact leading a board made up of councilors from both cities — and that meets for the first time this coming week.

Studying the pipes to Chico is worth doing and in fact, Chico appears to agree.

The town of Paradise has been struggling to develop a viable business community, particularly those surrounding restaurants, for decades — long before the Camp Fire. Its rebuild might well rest on both a sewer and PID pipe.

But it’s only by studying both options that can we learn if they are beneficial financially or environmentally for the county as a whole. And in the end it is the science that comes out of the environmental impact reports and Sacramento State University study that should guide our next moves.