Curbs on Dumping Sewage Toughened : Waste: But the order restricting ocean pollution from a county treatment plant displeases environmentalists. They wanted stricter standards imposed.

State water quality officials on Monday imposed strict new limits on the amount of pollution that a county sewage plant can dump into Santa Monica Bay, but disappointed environmentalists by failing to set a deadline for even greater improvements.

The regulations were approved unanimously by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board as part of a five-year permit granted the county to continue operating its Carson sewage treatment plant.

The permit greatly restricts the level of pollutants--including lead, mercury, oil and grease--that can be dumped through sewage outfalls off the Palos Verdes Peninsula. It also places limits on dozens of compounds not previously restricted and increases monitoring of the 380 million gallons of waste water a day that the county dumps into the Santa Monica Bay.

The Carson plant serves unincorporated areas of the county and more than 70 cities, processing about the same amount of sewage as the city of Los Angeles’ Hyperion Treatment Plant near El Segundo. A separate program is already under way at Hyperion to bring the effluent it pumps into the ocean within guidelines of the federal Clean Water Act.

The new permit for the county plant would drop the amount of solids that could be dumped from the 289,000 pounds a day previously allowed to 96,400 pounds a day. Similarly, lead dumping would have to be decreased from 321 pounds a day to 216, and mercury from 3.2 pounds daily to 2.2.

James Stahl, the assistant general manager of the county sanitation system, said officials at the Carson plant “are committed to living within the strict limitations of this permit.” Some $700 million in improvements to the county sewer system over the past two decades have made it possible for the county to meet the permit guidelines, Stahl said.

But environmentalists said at the board’s hearing in downtown Los Angeles that they had hoped the agency would set deadlines for greater improvements at the Carson plant.

The activists said the action is needed to enforce a ruling made 10 months ago by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.

The EPA ruling required the county to provide all its ocean-bound sewage with full secondary treatment, which uses biological processes to remove at least 85% of the solids in waste water. Currently, 60% of the waste water passing through the Carson plant receives such treatment.

County officials have estimated that it would cost $365 million to improve the Carson plant to meet the 85% standard.

Lisa Weil, a spokeswoman for the American Oceans Campaign, urged the water quality officials to set deadlines for the upgrading of the treatment plant.

“Nothing can justify the continued dumping of highly toxic, partially treated sewage on top of already polluted sediments,” Weil said. “The (federal) Clean Water Act should be enforced now.”

County sanitation officials said they should be permitted to continue negotiations with environmentalists--which have been under way for several months--to attempt to resolve the question of when the sewage plant should be renovated.

“It’s not a question of if we are going to full secondary treatment, but when,” Stahl said.

County sanitation officials and representatives of many cities served by the county sewer system have argued that the dumping of sewage is actually protecting Santa Monica Bay from an earlier environmental mistake--the dumping of the pesticide DDT and other toxics through the sewage outfall.

Stahl said that if the county stops dumping the sewage as it has been, tons of the chemicals on the ocean floor could be released, seriously damaging marine life.

The EPA and environmentalists have rejected this argument.

“They are saying they must be allowed to dump additional toxic waste to keep the old waste under control,” said Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica), who testified at the hearing. “That, with all due respect, is absurd.”