By Anne Baker
Plans to develop a sewage-treatment plant shared by Lagunitas School District and the proposed French Ranch subdivision nextdoor were won approval Tuesday from school trustees.
Hailed as both an environmental and cost-cutting solution to septic problems of the subdivision and the school, the proposed facility could be finished by next fall.
Sewage processing ponds, algae beds, and a water-storage pond would cover a three-acre pasture in San Geronimo along Sir Francis Drake Boulevard near Lagunitas School Road.
"It truly represents sustainability," French Ranch developer Bruce Burman told trustees. "It is not a highly mechanized system."
The proposed plant will use a series of algae ponds to cleanse the sewage water and digest sludge, instead of adding chemicals, noted a district feasibility report. With a 25,000-gallon capacity, it would accommodate roughly 600 district staff and students, along with residents of the 32-home subdivision called French Ranch.
Trustees said the district has failing septic systems on each campus, and in 1993 and 1996 received state emergency funds to replace them.
State officials last week approved using the funds for the non-traditional pond system.
County planners said the subdivision faced complications in where to place homes and leachfields, and Burman noted homes with mound systems, which the county often requires, are less marketable than homes using a treatment plant.
Bill Noble of San Geronimo told trustees one advantage of the sewage-plant site is that an acre of land to the west is to be restored as a seasonal wetland. He suggested the area could be used for district educational programs.
"[The wetlands] could be used for red-legged frog restoration," Gray said. "It is now extinct in the Valley and listed as a threatened species."
A proposed 15-foot deep, one-acre pond near the main sewage-treatment ponds would be filled with treated water from the plant clean enough "you can swim in it," Burman told The Light. Water stored in the pond during summer months could be sold to the adjacent golf course, Burman and trustees agreed.
Richard Gray of Forest Knolls told trustees the community would benefit from the plant, in that water would be conserved and wildlife habitat restored.
However, the project still has to pass an environmental review and get building permits, trustees noted.
One of the largest unresolved issues for the proposed plant is the formation of a Community Service Area to own, operate, and assume liability for the facility, trustees added.
Both sides also agree: