A clean majority on board

Paul Clinton

NEWPORT-MESA -- The Orange County Sanitation District ended three

decades of playing by its own water-quality rules Wednesday by

dropping a bid to renew a controversial federal waiver and agreeing

to increase treatment of its sewage.

Between the passage of the Clean Water Act of 1972 and Wednesday,

the district’s formal policy for treating its waste water didn’t jibe

with federal law. By holding a so-called 301h waiver, district

officials could release 243 million gallons of waste water treated to

less than full federal levels.

But on Wednesday, the district’s board voted, on a thin 13-12

majority, to move to what is known as “full secondary” treatment.

Under this higher-level of treatment, the district will employ more

rigorous methods that will reduce the bacteria levels in the waste.

“The decision [on Wednesday] was to make a concerted effort to

meet the standard,” said Newport Beach Councilman Gary Adams, who

cast his city’s vote on the board. “In a sense, there’s going to have

to be a de facto waiver because we can’t get to full-secondary

overnight.”

Engineers and managers who handle the county’s sewage waste have

said they plan, over the next three months, to step up operations to

increase the level of treatment at their Fountain Valley plant.

About 65% of the sewage can be given full treatment, as opposed to

the 50% at current levels. General Manager Blake Anderson has

estimated it would take until 2011 for the district to treat 100% of

its waste to the higher level.

A cleaner way

In the meantime, Anderson and other agency staffers say they need

to work out an interim deal with the Environmental Protection Agency

to avoid onerous fines once their current waiver runs out in June.

Without the waiver, the district could be open to fines of at

least $3,000-per-day, Anderson said.

The district needs to secure some form of interim waiver until the

full treatment can be implemented, he said.

“There isn’t an administrative model for this,” Anderson said. “We

have to negotiate a compliance schedule with the EPA and the state of

California between now and June.”

In anticipation of Wednesday’s decision, Anderson said he

initiated meetings with the EPA on July 12. Another round is set for

today.

The district has held its federal waiver, which has been granted

by the EPA since the mid-1980s. The federal environmental regulator

has renewed the waiver twice.

Environmentalists began rallying the public against the waiver

shortly after a wave of beach closures turned Huntington Beach into a

ghost town during the summer of 1999. The closures were caused by

high bacteria levels in the surf zone.

Jack Skinner, a longtime Newport Beach environmentalist, and

members of the Ocean Outfall Group, led the charge to “stop the

waiver.” Newport Beach resident Jan Vandersloot led the outfall

group, which adopted an anti-waiver mission statement, on a tour

across Orange County to city council meetings.

The group headed from Buena Park to Orange and from Los Alamitos

to Irvine preaching their anti-waiver message.

More to be done

Vandersloot said he was gratified by Wednesday’s decision, but

other environmentalists said the district’s feet still need to be

kept to the fire.

“It’s a great vote, but unfortunately the fox is still in the hen

house,” said Bob Caustin, who founded Defend the Bay, an activist

group.

Wednesday’s approval of the new treatment method was made possible

when a handful of inland cities voted for the move. Many of those

cities had resisted the move because it will cost about $423 million

between now and 2020. The costs are expected to be passed along as a

$16-per-year increase to ratepayers.

“It may not be a good benefit for the cost,” Garden Grove

Councilman Mark Leyes said, hinting that the waiver would be renewed.

“Five years from now, we’ll have another vote.”

On Wednesday, the board turned a hazier future into a clearer

present -- one that is still fraught with difficulties, as sanitation

officials must now develop a plan to move to the full treatment.

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment and politics. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail at paul.clinton@latimes.com.