District vote on waiver set for July

-- Paul Clinton

The Orange County Sanitation District’s board has set the date it will

decide how it will treat sewage between now and 2020.

The board put it on the July 17 agenda.

By the time a vote was taken during a marathon Wednesday night

meeting, only 17 members remained. Mayor Tod Ridgeway opposed the delay,

saying the matter should be decided sooner rather than later.

However, Costa Mesa Sanitary District member Jim Ferryman, who also

holds a seat, supported the move. The vote was 13 to 4.

During the meeting, board members discussed four possible options for

treating the 240 million gallons of sewage the district releases into the

sea each day from an outfall pipe.

District members will consider reducing treatment -- an option that

has been discarded -- continuing status quo, stepping up the treatment or

using the alternative micro-filtration technique.

Either of the two latter measures are expected to result in a rate

hike of either $32 or $36 per year.