What you need to know about the Paradise Sewer Project

On July 24, the Town of Paradise held a special meeting to talk about our community's wastewater system options. This week, on August 14th, Town Council will decide how to move forward.

Here's the Town's official statement:

"In January 2025, the Town began looking at building a local system to collect, treat, and safely release wastewater—with help and ideas from the community. The plan is being designed to match today’s building costs and available funding. This way, we can start with a smaller project soon and grow it over time to serve more of Paradise in the future. A revised project description is expected to be adopted in summer 2025."

What's happening

The Town of Paradise has been talking about a wastewater solution in Paradise since the town was incorporated in 1979. We are closer than ever to implementing something tangible. When the concept of piping our wastewater down to a treatment facility in was deemed too costly to pursue, an Ad Hoc Committee was formed to investigate alternatives.

After months of research, the findings of this Committee were presented to the public at a special Town Council meeting last month. As discussed at that meeting, the Committee favors a hybrid Septic Tank Effluent Pumping (STEP)/Gravity system that uses STEP connections in low-lying areas but relies primarily on gravity to keep the system flowing.

From the July 24th Presentation (p36)

There will be a vote by the Town Council at the August 14th Special Meeting to accept or reject the recommendation made by the Ad Hoc Committee. In the meantime, Town Officials have been meeting with members of the community to address concerns, including the Paradise Citizens' Alliance advocacy for a purely STEP system, which would avoid digging up downtown roads (again) to install sewer pipes.

What you need to know

Whatever option the Town goes with, we're going to have to live with it. That's why we're doing our best to understand the options and their potential impact. There are two important resources that everyone should be aware of.

The first is the Town's dedicated project website: paradisesewer.com. Specifically, if you navigate to "Project Updates," you'll find monthly project updates from February through July 2025 as well as the meeting recording, slide deck and council agenda summary for the special meeting held on July 24th.

The second resource, a whitepaper titled "Wastewater Solutions Initiative," was developed by the Paradise Citizens' Alliance with strong leadership from community member Cliff Jacobson (Read it here). The whitepaper presents a thorough analysis of the various options for collecting, treating and dispersing wastewater and their potential impacts in Paradise.

How to get involved

It's not too late to voice your opinion on this important issue. Take some time to learn about the options. Then, if you have any questions or concerns, contact Kieran Jellema at

kjellema@townofparadise.com.

We also encourage everyone to be present and participate at the Special Town Council meeting this Thursday, when the Council will vote on the Ad Hoc Committee's recommendations.

Special Town Council: Paradise Sewer Project

When: Thursday, Aug. 14, 2025 | 6-8 p.m.

Where: Paradise Performing Arts Center, 777 Nunneley Road

Hope to see you there!

For the most up-to-date information from the Town of Paradise, head to paradisesewer.com.

(Note that information on the makeitparadise.org/paradise-sewer/ site is no longer accurate.)