SSU conservation likely to end RP sewage standoff
Press-Democrat
"We have come up with a number of conservation strategies we put in place that will allow the Green Music Center," said Larry Furukawa-Schlereth, SSU's vice president for finance and administration.
The measures include low-flow toilets and changes in swimming pool operations, saving some 60,000 gallons a day of discharge into the city sewers, said Richard Marker, SSU's senior director of facility operations.
Marker said it should resolve the overcapacity issue between SSU and the city.
Rohnert Park officials have put a moratorium on new campus hookups, which would include the music center concert hall, but said they are willing to work with the university.
"The city has no interest in holding up the opening of the Green Music Center, but we have an interest in resolving this contractual dispute," Councilman Jake Mackenzie said.
SSU contracts with the city for 250,000 gallons a day, and normally stays within that limit, Marker said. However, it once hit 490,000 gallons and several times a month will hit 330,000 to 350,000 gallons.
SSU is actively monitoring its sewage use and considering more conservation measures, including waterless urinals.
The $97.5 million music center is scheduled to open next year. It includes a concert hall, recital hall, classrooms and faculty offices and restaurant.
What may be more of a problem for SSU is getting sewage capacity for future buildings.
SSU plans a 116-unit student housing complex next year for its burgeoning enrollment. It also is planning a new classroom building for business, nursing, economics and education programs, and a new University Center to consolidate the bookstore, student union, cafeteria and commons.
"The first and most important is the expansion of student housing, a complex for 1,200 students," Furukawa-Schlereth told a city committee Tuesday.
SSU is offering to pay what it says developers pay per unit, about $8,500, or about $1 million, for the capacity.
The housing project is expected to be financed by $50 million to $60 million in revenue bonds, which SSU wants to take before the CSU board of trustees May 15. The bonds would be repaid by student rent.
"Time is important for us," Furukawa-Schlereth said. Otherwise, he said, SSU would have to buy homes and apartments for students, which it doesn't really want to do.
The problem, however, is that the city needs to build a larger $20 million pipeline to handle additional sewage capacity in eastern Rohnert Park, including the extra capacity that SSU needs. The existing pipe is at capacity, said Darrin Jenkins, the city director of public works.
Building that pipeline also requires financial commitments from some of the developers of the proposed 1,600-home University District, 2,000-home Sonoma Mountain Village and 1,500 additional homes in the northeast and southeast part of the city, Councilman Tim Smith said.
"We don't want to take a certain amount of money from you and say we'll deliver the sewage capacity to you in 2009 and then not deliver," Smith said. "We want to build it, but we can't pay for it ourselves."
Smith is recommending the city call a meeting of SSU and developers to discuss the pipeline and development plans.
Sonoma State initially had been asking for capacity for 400 homes on 42 acres just outside the city's urban boundary to build affordable housing for faculty. SSU officials said Tuesday they have dropped that controversial plan because construction costs have soared to $500,000 per home.