Completion of Sayulita’s Wastewater Treatment Plant Upgrade & Emissor Pipe Project

Text from Sayulita Life's El Sayulero.  Photos, video by others.

On Thursday, April 11th, 2019, the emissor pipe was successfully installed to the newly upgraded wastewater treatment plant in Sayulita. The Gobernador Antonio Echevarria Garcia,the Presidente Municipal de Bahia de Banderas, Jaime Cuevas, and the director of the CEA (Nayarit’s potable water authority), Martha Patricia Urenda Delgado were at the treatment plant yesterday, on April 16th, to tour and inaugurate the newly upgraded and fully functioning plant and emissor. Sayulita is now the only beach town in the area that does not dump grey water directly onto the beach. Many people turned out today to tour the plant and grounds, and it was great to see everyone involved in the process. There was also a noticeable lack of odor at the plant, which was a pleasant experience. The government of Nayarit also tested the water quality and the latest test results showed between 10 and 20 NMP / 100 ml enterococci, which is well below the 200 NMP / 100 ml limit set by the government for safe swimming.

 The treatment plant was previously only able to process 20-30 liters per second when both sides of the plant were in optimum running condition, which could not always keep up with the demand due to tourism growth, but it now has now been upgraded to process up to 80 liters per second, which is a huge improvement, and can handle the busiest tourist times, such as Semana Santa and Christmas / New Year’s Eve holidays. With the emissor pipe in place and functioning, there is no treated water entering the river or emptying onto the beach. The fully treated water is instead emitted through a pipe that is anchored to the sea bed and emits the treated water 2.3 km into the deep ocean. With good maintenance, this newly upgraded plant will serve Sayulita for the next 25 years as the population continues to grow. The government is now overseeing the management of the plant, so there will be regular inspections and upkeep.

This massive infrastructure upgrade could not have happened without the actions of Grupo Pro Sayulita, who took the initiative to get studies in place, engineering plans, apply for permits, and also the many donors who helped the project get underway. The new sewer line beneath Manuel Navarette, beneath the river bed,  and the new storage tank at the plant were all funded by Grupo Pro Sayulita as well as private donations. The newly elected Mexican State and Federal government then took over the project and have been working diligently for months to bring about the completion of the project, which they funded in excess of 41 million pesos.

This is the best news Sayulita has received in a very long time; thanks to everyone who stood by this necessary project and donated their time and money to bring about positive change for the health of everyone in Sayulita. There is still more to do, so please consider becoming a member of Grupo Pro Sayulita, or you can always pick a cause and donate directly to that fund. You can donate to Grupo Pro Sayulita here.

More Tear Downs - Sayulita Centro Will Never Look The Same

Virtually overnight a large part of Centro has vanished!   This week demolition crews took down two what many consider historical buildings in the heart of town.  The Casa de Cultura and the Sayulita Ejido Building are no more.  The demolition size is enormous considering the small size of downtown stretching from Calle Revolucion all the way back to Manuel Navarrete.  If you are not familiar with street names then picture the buildings across from the Sayulita Cafe totally gone all the way back to the Kiosko.

Standing in front of Mary's looking toward ocean.  This was the Ejido building.

Standing in front of la Morada

Of course the speculations are already flying about what is going to be built in this prime location, how big will it be, it's effects on downtown, the overall design, who the money is behind such a project and who is benefiting behind the scenes. The latest rumors are that the ejido was looking for a new source of income for it's members and sold off some of it's most valued land holdings.  Talks are that a large "boutique" type hotel with parking and commercial will occupy the space..

Standing in from of Hotel Kapuri.  Looking at former Casa de Cultura location

Standing in front of Hotel Kapuri looking back at the remnants of the Ejido Building.

Former location of the Casa de Cultura

There is no doubt that the face of Sayulita is changing at lightning speed but this hit the heart of many of the residents who had memories made here.  Even our kids had a presentation at the Casa de Cultura when they were in Kindergarten our first year here and now it is a pile of rubble.  It is sad to see and many locals have voiced their disappointment in the ejido's decision to make a drastic change to the heart of Sayulita. 

Standing on the corner by Su Casa Restaurant

The debate is already heating up about employment opportunities that may be available to the local population vs the destruction of part of the history of Sayulita and it's effect on infrastructure. Things like this happen overnight and rarely does the general public know about it before the heavy equipment shows up. I had not even been downtown in a week and actually had to go look for myself this morning to believe what the town Facebook page was saying. Don't blink. You may miss something in this town the way things happen these days.

Sewer Treatment Plant Improvements Update Part 2 - March 2019

Just a quick update on the emissor pipe installation for the upgraded sewer treatment plant.  The work has begun connecting the pipes and attaching the concrete weights to keep the pipe from coming to the surface.  Interesting to watch.  Photos by Capas Sayulita and Ed Dorsett.

WAAAAAAAAY Overdue Improvements For Calle Libertad Begin!

The week before we headed north to Park City we were asked to attend a meeting concerning road improvements to our new street, Calle Libertad.  Calle Libertad is a cut through street from the main road through town to the main road around town.  It isn't an exaggeration to say that half the town either walks or drives up or down Calle Libertad daily.

Why does the street need improvements?  Well, during the rainy season the street becomes a muddy mess.  With the water run off from the rain,  erosion gets so bad that the street becomes barely passable when a deep ditch is carved down the street each summer.  The mud and whatever material the road is constructed with that week of the summer flows down the street to the intersection and then becomes a source of slurpy muddiness for months and then dust for months after.

Mud is only the beginning of the problems.

I left that meeting with the impression that the improvements plan was still in development and that any progress may actually be a while off just yet.  The rainy season had just about begun and is not a time to begin a project.  Well, when my phone rang during a hike in Park City I realized I was wrong about the scheduling of improvements.  The call was from our contractor and our car needed to be moved off the street immediately or risk having it towed as a new sewer line was being inspected and installed.  A first step to begin the regrading and resurfacing of the street!  This, I found out, meant that we received our sewer line hook up without continued permit hassle since they made sure every house on the street and project in progress was hooked up properly to avoid busting up a new road when our permit was issued. No more sharing with the church next door.  We got our own "poop pipe"!

We arrived from the airport and found the street blocked off at the top and bottom, large trucks at work and no cars parked anywhere.  So strange since there are always cars and trucks using Calle Libertad to get to where they need to go.  It was quiet other than the dump trucks and other machines leveling and compacting the street from adding road base.

A day or so after our arrival we saw a gathering of neighbors speaking with some of the road crew.  We could see guys were hastily putting away tables, chairs, plants and any other items that may be located on the front porch or stoops of the homes up the street.  Apparently they were being torn down to make way for part of the improvements to the street.  Our only guess is that over time these personal spaces encroached into the street right of way and were being removed.  These places were extensions of the local neighbor's homes.  A place where they sat and socialized, where they began and ended the day and escaped the hotter interiors of their concrete block homes.

Sidewalks being removed next to Alchemista.

  There was a look of some concern but not a lot of emotion about it.  Almost as if the neighbors knew they had grown too far out of their own properties and finally someone took notice.  Or, they figured the improvements were going to be better than what they had currently and did not complain much.

The front steps of our neighbor's house.

The twist happened when they started demolishing the church's front sidewalk.  We built our property wall on the same line as the front of the church and our neighbor on the other side.  All three properties line up but I suppose the church sidewalk was in the right of way and they made quick work of taking that out as well.

Early morning demolition of the church steps next door.

I do not even know the final plan for the street as of yet.  I have heard sidewalks similar to the ones that have been installed along other roads and around town.  Terra cotta stamped concrete.  Possibly changed to a "one-way" street and even no parking.  The designers made a big mistake with no parking on the street, Calle Pelicanos, that was "improved" last year.  They provided sidewalks, changed the street to a single direction and eliminated parking altogether.  Well, this pueblo developed around walking and every residence does not have off street parking like a driveway.  Many houses just do not have them. So people need to park their cars on someone else's street, in front of someone else's house or just park where ever they can like on the brand new sidewalks provided.  Our street is no different.  Most of the houses do not have parking so being able to park on the street is necessary.

This is what can happen when parking is not considered when improving the street.

Today, they even started taking out trees that have been part of the street as long as anyone can remember.  This one actually had a root system that likes to grow and cause problems for sidewalks, streets, plumbing and foundations.  A crew arrived with chainsaws in the late morning and by afternoon the tree was no more and the houses across the street were bathed in mid-day summer sunlight for the first time in decades I would guess.

A few more months of this but at the end we will have a brand new house and a brand new street all at the same time.  It will, unfortunately, delay some final work on the house but we will get there and Calle Libertad will look as good as it ever has.  The question will be "Will Calle Libertad "work" as well as it ever has?".

Walking In Sayulita - The Benefits Of More Sidewalks

Now that the kids are older and we live closer to the center of town we walk pretty much everywhere. With Sayulita growing like crazy the traffic in town has become much ridiculous with it's narrow streets and limited parking.  This small former fishing village turned international destination was just not designed for lots of vehicle traffic.  Pedestrians are pushed out into the street since the minimal sidewalk space is occupied by venders, restaurant tables or other folks trying to get away from the street traffic. On our end of town the sidewalk pretty much ends just outside of the center of town and we(and everyone else) always ends up walking in the street around parked cars and bumper to bumper traffic.

An effort has begun to limit parking down town and enforcement is becoming the norm more often than not.  This will free up some space for traffic to flow smoother and give pedestrians some needed walking room.  As more services and lodging becomes available father from the town center more and more people will be walking to and from "Centro" and the need for safe sidewalks will increase.

My question is what is the benefit of sidewalks for a downtown environment other than "safety"?  Why would a town design and invest in sidewalks where there are none?  We were walking home from the Plaza area last night and there were people strolling all over the south end of town on the main drag.  As soon as the walkability or sidewalks ended the vibe totally changed.  The open stores, restaurants still lined the street but the energy quickly changed and we saw many people become disinterested and turn around to return to the center of town.  So, it appears there is something to this and the pressure for the south end to accommodate visitors is only increasing.  More sidewalks anyone?

 I found this article discussing this very topic.  Click on the link below.

New sidewalks going in along the new entrance to town in 2017

Click Here For Sidewalk article.

A New Casa 2017 - Bio-Cell Construction

Early on in the construction design process we knew we had to make an effort to reduce the impact our new home would have on the town's infrastructure.  The lot is essentially north facing so the idea of solar to help offset our electrical use was not something we considered.  Off street parking to help traffic flow?  Yes, we have that covered.  Recycle?  Of course.  Water/sewer?  High efficiency toilets etc are a no brainer but what else can we do?  Perhaps we can help there.

A facebook page dedicated to Ecological sustainability solutions for Sayulita had been started about the time we began construction.  It had been discussing how even in a downtown setting there are things we can do to help wastewater contributions.  As ridiculous as it sounds, our new house will have 2 kitchens, 2 laundry rooms with utility sinks, a bar and 4 bathrooms. Granted the amount of water we will use and waste water we will generate won't be much more than we do currently, the potential contributions and usage are much higher with a full house and occasional renters/family/ friends in the apartment.  So, we decided to look up the folks who seemed to be in charge of designing a grey and black treatment system for our property.  What could we do on the lot in the space we had that would help reduce the impact we would have on an already overloaded water/sewer infrastructure.

Design by Budd Adams

Essentially, the house's plumbing needed to separate "grey water" from "black water".  Liquid waste water which comes from sinks and showers from solid waste which comes from toilets.  The solid waste, "black water", would be distributed into what is called a Bio-Digester.  This is essentially a large plastic tank(see the small round circle in white on plan above) that would be buried in the driveway.  In the bio-digester, solid waste would be broken down anaerobically as micro-organisms naturally took care of the decomposition of solids.  It would have to be emptied once in a while but it would prevent "black water" waste from most of the house from having to be treated by the facility in town.

The liquid waste, "grey water", would be filtered and sent to a garden in the front yard.  The light blue area of the diagram above shows the location.  Once filtered the grey water would slowly be treated by micro organisms, used by select garden plants and then recirculated again within the garden by a pump.

To pull this off we had to essentially plan three separate plumbing systems.  1.  The totally separate apartment system which will be tied into the the town's main sewer.  Why separate?  Honestly, we really wouldn't have any control over what occupants sent down the drain.  The concern was that some products occupants used may be damaging to the system rendering the treatment process less effective.  Something we could control in our living space upstairs  2. A system separating of all the main house(our house) toilets to distribute to the "black water" bio digester in the driveway.  3.  A system separating of all the "main house" showers, sinks and drains to distribute to a filter and then to the garden for treatment.

Design by Budd Adams

This all going on in the front yard of the small 330 square meter lot with a house on it.  Here is a photo of the front yard showing some of the formed up walls for the system.  The green section is the concrete slab to the right.  The blue section begins at what looks like a open box in the photo and the area by the plastic sheeting will actually be one more garden area that will act as a overflow should we see a big rain or something goes wrong with the system for some reason.  Excess water should infect be pumped up to the green section of the diagram to filter through the system again.  We are told the system does not smell and we are counting on that.  Our old neighbor used to water his garden with "grey water" from his house by hose and it did stink. If it does smell the system's designer has a few tricks to help with that but the system is mostly underground.  A similar system to this was actually supposed to go into a small hotel kitchen here in Sayulita to take care of grey water .  If it would work in the tight location with people eating and lodging then we hope we won't have a problem either.

The front yard Bio Cell taking shape.  The large wall to the right is just a separation wall from the neighbors's property.

So the question remains about what happens with the apartment waste water since we cannot hook into the main sewer system just yet.  Since the apartment has a single discharge line and does not mix with the Bio-cell, the only option is to collect it and have the collection container pumped out every few weeks as needed.  The collection container will be stored in a bodega(the smaller of the two green sections on the map) and hidden then removed when it is time to hook the apartment into the town system.

 Well, that is our solution for now anyway.

Sewer Work Finally Begins!

It's no secret that Sayulita is and has been experiencing some severe growing pains.  The promotion of our small town by the Riviera Nayarit Tourism Agency, Sayulita's designation as a Pueblo Magico and the recent overall rise in popularity of the this area of Mexico has caused many issues.  Good solutions for traffic, parking, trash collection, construction regulation, utilities, local taxation etc have all been slow in coming.  Water and sewage treatment are at the top of the list.

With the increased number of visitors(the biggest increased % in Mexico), lodging construction and a boom in new home construction, Sayulita's outdated and functionally limited sewage treatment system was way over due for an upgrade.  What may have worked 10+ years ago or more could no longer handle the volume.  Add years of local corruption where money that should have been committed to maintaining and upgrading the system just disappears and the town has a big problem to correct.

One particular area of town has been the problem.  It is the lowest point in town and is the convergence of several sewer lines before there is a crossing of the river to the sewer plant.  A few things needed correcting and I am being very general not to go on at length.

The pipe in this area needed to be replaced.  Essentially it was not big enough to handle the increased flow of all of the lines coming into it.  As a result, during high flow times, the line would literally overflow and there would be raw sewage bubbling up from the manhole covers in the streets.  This "black water" would follow the the slope of the road and end up draining into the river where it would empty out into the ocean/beach nearby.  This line is being resized and appropriately sloped to help prevent future overflows.

Another problem was that the pipe that crossed the river was often damaged due to the river bed being used as a road during dryer months of the year.  Cars and trucks would literally just crush the existing pipe that was insufficiently buried sending black water out into the river until repaired.  A new pipe at a proper depth with protection from vehicles will be installed.

Lastly, the sewer plant needed to be repaired and upgraded so that capacity could be met sufficiently.  This is just the beginning.  The next phase is to send a "emissor pipe" that will transport treated effluent from the plant out to sea several miles where the natural process in the ocean can also help the treatment process.

This project was funded by public donations and memberships through Pro Sayulita and will go a long way to help Sayulita's image when it comes to it's biggest asset, it's water front.  It has been so discouraging to see tourists and locals alike tip toe through ankle high water bubbling up from manhole covers each year covering the streets in this area, draining down to the river and then to the ocean.  In recent years people have blamed this situation on getting sick in Sayulita.  Where I do think this is part of it and is easy to point at as the cause, I think there are other factors in play for people getting sick in town each busy season.  Anyway, this is certainly a HUGE step in the right direction and will go a long way to keeping the town a more enjoyable place to visit and safer for everyone.