Planning commission OKs water plant expansion

The authorization of a special use permit at Wednesday’s planning commission meeting sets the stage for more potable surface water for Carson City.

With Planning Commissioner Nathaniel Killgore absent, planning commissioners unanimously approved a special use permit to expand the Quill Water Treatment Plant at 2944 Kings Canyon Road. The project includes a 3,200-square-foot building expansion, additional drying ponds, a pad for an equalization tank, a new filtration system and other improvements on part of approximately 414 acres of city-owned property zoned public community. The improvements will enable the plant to treat up to 6 million gallons per day, versus currently treating an estimated 1.5 million gallons a day.

The expansion will help ease groundwater pumping so aquifers can recharge, according to city officials. City Engineer Randall Rice put current estimates for the expansion between $14 million and $16 million, with $2 million of that in federal funding.

“Currently the plant provides an average of 16 percent of all of Carson City’s water supply,” Rice told the Appeal via email. “This will likely grow with the improvements to the plant; however, it will vary based on each year’s precipitation. During wetter years, the plant will allow our aquifers to rest and recharge while we treat surface water from rain events. For an average year this might mean the Quill plant will produce nearly one-third of all of Carson’s water supply or nearly doubling our current output.”

Wednesday, Project Manager Michael Friend discussed surface-water sources treated at the plant.

“Essentially three sources,” he told commissioners. “We have Kings Canyon Creek, Ash Canyon, and then we have the Marlette-Hobart system… It’s our only surface-water treatment plant, so it’s all fresh water. All remaining is groundwater from our wells.”

Several neighbors in the King Canyon area attended the meeting with concerns about light pollution and increased traffic in the area from construction.

“We finally suggest that lighting for the water plant follow the dark-sky initiative guidelines and reduce light pollution by shielding the top and sides of any lights that will remain on all night,” Coventry Drive residents Doug and Julie Maurer wrote to the city planning department.

Though supportive of the project, planning commissioners saw the expansion as an opportunity for the city to mitigate impacts.

“I do think there’s this opportunity for the city to be a good neighbor,” said Commissioner Vern Krahn.

Rice and Friend met with neighbors outside the boardroom before the item was brought back to the commission for the vote.

Rice later told the Appeal ways the city is responding to concerns.

“As with any of our projects, dust control will be monitored as well as a dust permit obtained from NDEP to ensure compliance,” he said by email. “Dust control typically consists of water trucks; in extreme cases, we will deploy a dust palliative. There is no additional lighting being added at this time; however, the city will evaluate the existing lighting to see if any enhancements can be made to achieve a dark-sky outcome.

“Traffic during construction will need to increase due to the equipment and personnel required to perform the work; however, this will be temporary, and the city anticipates after the project is built, the site will see less traffic generated since more automation will allow for fewer visits from city employees than are currently needed with today’s plant.”

Planning Commissioner Charles Borders emphasized the treatment facility is not a sewer plant.

“And the other thing that I think is important for the rest of the public to understand is this is a water treatment plant, not a sewer plant,” he said Wednesday. “We are treating potable water to make it more potable, not taking waste products and purifying them.”

• In other action, planning commissioners voted unanimously to eliminate the approximately 14-acre Brown Street Specific Plan Area. The recommendation for elimination will go to the Board of Supervisors.

The specific plan was adopted in 2005 and aimed to redevelop the area with multifamily housing along Brown Street and North Edmonds Drive. The zoning of the property was changed to multifamily apartment around the same time. The request came from Carson City itself as initiated by staff and the Board of Supervisors during the annual Master Plan review in January.

Community Development Director Hope Sullivan explained specific plans can work within the Master Plan with the right circumstances, giving the example of the Lompa Ranch area.

“In that case, there really was an opportunity to look at it in a comprehensive way, whereas this (Brown Street) is so small, and the ownership so separated, and what’s occurring is so segmented, that it’s hard to look at that comprehensive approach to it like you can when you have a clean slate like Lompa or Schulz Ranch.”

Property owners in the Brown Street Specific Plan Area agreed with commissioners that the plan is unnecessary. Carson City resident Eric Flick described himself as a small investor focusing on multifamily housing. He called the specific plan requirements restrictive.

“I would definitely recommend that you guys remove this,” he said. “It would be helpful to maybe smaller investors that are trying to get into that area.”