Two years ago, when Discovery Bay General Manager Virgil Koehne made his pitch to the CSD board to create wetlands as a way to remove contaminants from the town’s wastewater, the community was facing up to $300,000 in fines (the majority for copper contaminants) from the California Regional Quality Control Board (CRQCB).

Today, the fines have been settled (the CRQCB board admitted that the town was overcharged based on flawed data, but will not be reimbursed), the new permits have been granted and best of all, Discovery Bay has achieved something that at least one expert considers unique: created a wetlands project that naturally removes pollutants from the wastewater.

“I am surprised, but pleasantly surprised, at the results of the (wetlands) project,” said Koehne. “When you go into something like this you never know how it’s going to turn out, although we certainly had high hopes.”

In a presentation to the CSD board during its regular Dec. 16 meeting, UC Berkeley Professor Emeritus Alex Horne, who has been working with Koehne on the wetlands program, offered an assessment of its success and presented the board with options for its continuation.

“Our initial goal was to get you (the town) below the standard (determined by the regional water board) and say goodbye to fines,” said Horne. “And we did that with the wetlands. … Now the question is: should you spend more (money) on continuing the project?

The wetlands lie on a two-acre parcel located near Sewer Plant No. 1 in the southwest corner of Discovery Bay. Previously a dry sludge pond unused since the 1980s, the developed wetlands have transformed the property into an oasis of cattails and bulrushes; an independent eco-system home to frogs, snails and an assortment of wildlife.

The goal of the project was to determine if pollutants such as copper, aluminum, nitrates and eventually pharmaceutical products could be biologically removed from the wastewater as it flows through the facility. The idea was to see if the contaminants could be sucked out of the water by the roots of the plants and then be either physically removed or allowed to decay naturally.

Armed with those objectives, Koehne contacted the civil and environmental engineering department at UC Berkeley and offered up a living classroom to its students and faculty in exchange for some expertise and advice.

The cost of the test project was just under $200,000 and was paid for with town funds. But the underlying question was whether or not the pilot program could successfully remove the state-mandated level of copper and nitrates. However, faced with a conservatively estimated $10 million price tag on traditional methods such as reverse osmosis, the test project – agreed the CSD board – seemed worth a try.

The gamble paid off. “You’re good to go on the nitrates and copper, and we think we can make it work for aluminum,” said Horne. “The final one is pharmaceuticals, and you also have another problem, which is salt. I believe both of these can be successful as well.”

And a financial case can certainly be made for continuing the eco-friendly project. For approximately $123,000 (spread out over two years) combined with possible – and probable – state and federal grants, the town could conceivably continue the wetlands project at a fairly low cost.

“Two years ago, when we started this, we were facing fines,” said District Engineer Gregory Harris. “We said we would try to fight (the fines) it technically, and in the meantime look to find an ecological answer. We’ve done both; both solutions worked and we’re not paying fines anymore. We’ve built the wetlands; now the question is: how proactive do we want to be?”

“I’m proud of this project,” said Horne. “It’s not magic; it’s just science, but you are the first ones to have a proper wetlands – the only ones in the world, and it looks like we’ve been successful. Should you continue with the wetlands? You certainly don’t have to, but I make a case that I think you should.”

No action was taken by the board on the wetlands project, but it will be placed on a future CSD agenda as an item for discussion.