1 From: Sanchez, Diana
Sent: Friday, September 8, 2023 4:29 PM
To: Ducey, Peggy
Cc: Munoz, Cristal
Subject: FW: Public Comment -- 9/11/23 CC Mtg., Item No. 7A BCC: City Council
From: Jacob Patterson <[email protected]>
Sent: Friday, September 08, 2023 2:48 PM
To: City Clerk <[email protected]>
Subject: Public Comment ‐‐ 9/11/23 CC Mtg., Item No. 7A City Council,
I reviewed the CDBG closeout reports and one thing stuck out at me concerning the Mill Site Planning grant. I know some of you think this Blue Economy initiative is more than the pie-in-the-sky wishful thinking many of us consider it to be, but I think the ocean water intake feasibility study results should put some of that to rest.
This report makes the assertion that an ocean water intake is feasible for the Mill Site but it also says that it could cost between 19 and 71 million dollars to get a pipe up to the sewer plant (but nowhere else). Are we going to grow kelp using our biosolids as fertilizer?That certainly doesn't seem financially feasible. Let's not forget it is basically a "pipe to nowhere" like that boondoggle bridge in Alaska.
How can anyone think the City could ever recoup the infrastructure costs of an ocean water supply utility service for Mill Site Development? The usage rates for any ocean water utility would need to cover the cost of operations and recoup the infrastructure investment costs. Do you think a non-profit aquarium complex can support that level of expense? Do you think an aquaculture facility growing abalone or kelp could ever charge enough and sell enough product to cover the rates the utility would need to charge to recoup the infrastructure costs? I don't. This just seems like a waste of time to me--just this particular aspect of the broader Blue Economy concept, a lot of it seems reasonable.
CDBG funding is supposed to help create jobs and economic development for the current low-income members of the community that made us eligible to apply for it in the first place but I don't see how spending money on this feasibility study, let alone what the actual infrastructure would cost, would do much of anything other than get us a pipe to nothing or a report collecting dust in the City archives.
Regards,
--Jacob