TWENTYNINE PALMS CITY AND MARINE BASE PLANNING JOINT SEWER PROJECT

For a while now, officials in Twentynine Palms have been talking about how to get rid of the city’s septic tanks in favor of a citywide wastewater treatment system. Now they may have hit on a solution. Reporter David Haldane has the details…
Sewers ought to be shared.
At least that’s the thinking in Twentynine Palms where the city council this week will consider a resolution supporting a wastewater treatment facility to be used jointly by the city and adjacent military base.
The resolution comes at an opportune time; while the city operates entirely on septic tanks, the Marine Corps Air-Ground Combat Center is on a 50-year-old centralized sewer system in need of upgrade and repair. So why not replace it with one to be shared?
That’s the gist of the proposed resolution, reportedly supported by the Colorado River Basin Regional Water Quality Control Board as well as Congressman Paul Cook. The cost of such a venture is unclear; while the base has requested $16 million in federal funding to complete it, the city has engaged Cook and others to work out the details.
Approval of the pending resolution, they say, will get the ball rolling.