Review of City Hall started

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT BEACH -- City Manager Homer Bludau has ordered an internal

review of City Hall to determine if any officials knew the city was

violating state regulations when it shipped debris to an Irvine landfill

without proper testing.

City officials halted the 12-year-old practice of sending sewer

trailing -- sand, eggshells and raw human waste -- to the Frank R.

Bowerman Landfill this week after local water-quality regulators deemed

it improper.

Since 1989, the trailings have been routinely pumped out of the city’s

20 wet wells after the bulk of the raw sewage is sent to the Orange

County Sanitation District. The state health code requires cities to test

sewage for the presence of heavy metals before sending it to landfills.

“This is the stuff that would settle to the bottom of the wet well,”

Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said. “We’re not going to landfill it

anymore. We’re going to take it to the sanitation district.”

The city has sent about 140 tons of the debris to the landfill, Kiff

said.

The debris is pumped out of the wells using high-power vacuum trucks

and taken to the city’s maintenance yard.

City workers at the General Services Yard, at Newport Boulevard and

15th Street, would then dry out the debris in a concrete dewatering basin

for three to five days. A 20-ton dump trunk then took the debris to the

landfill every two weeks.

The sewage debris is mixed with storm-drain debris -- including paint,

sediment, animal manure and trash -- when it is sent to the landfill.

The screening for metals is required by state health and safety codes

to keep hazardous waste out of landfills where it could seep into the

ground water.

Several protective linings have been installed at the landfill, said

Kurt Berchtold, a spokesman for the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality

Control Board.

Berchtold said he didn’t think Newport Beach officials were

deliberately trying to skirt the rules.

“This particular waste is not of any more serious problem than any

other waste,” Berchtold said. “The disposal of this waste in the landfill

doesn’t create any particular water-quality concerns.”

State lawmakers have questioned that response. Sen. Byron Sher

(D-Stanford) has said he was dissatisfied with it and will further

investigate the issue.

Assemblyman John Campbell, who represents the city, said Sher’s

condemnation was premature.

“I’m not ready to jump to that conclusion,” Campbell said. “I don’t

think I have enough facts, and I don’t think he does either.”

On Wednesday, the city took its first samples of the waste for

testing.

For about a month, the city has been sending its sewage debris to the

sanitation district. That change is expected to result in additional

costs to the city.

Municipal law firm Rutan & Tucker, based in Costa Mesa, has been hired

by the city to perform a separate review of the city’s practices of how

it handled the debris.

The city will also hire an environmental consultant to review other

sewage management practices, Kiff said.

* Paul Clinton covers the environment and John Wayne Airport. He may

be reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7

paul.clinton@latimes.comf7 .