County waste to be cleaned up

By approving new, higher-level treatment standards for its waste,

the Orange County Sanitation District board moved away from a

treatment method that was decidedly out of step with most of the

nation’s other sanitation agencies.

“We’re not doing cutting-edge stuff here,” Councilwoman Connie

Boardman said. “We’re just catching up with the rest of the country.”

After a heady debate at a

July 17 meeting, sanitation district members approved the new,

full-treatment method on a razor-thin 13-12 vote.

The board also decided to drop its pursuit of a controversial

federal waiver allowing it to skirt standards laid out in the Clean

Water Act of 1972.

The move is expected to help address nagging beach postings and

closures in a county struggling with enigmatic bacteria outbreaks off

its shoreline. The issue reached a flashpoint, during the summer of

1999, when Surf City took a crippling hit to its stream of visitors

after a rash of closures. Surf zone contamination has been detected

as close as a half mile from the Huntington Beach shoreline.

A contingent of inland cities represented on the board had

resisted stepping up to the higher treatment because of the cost.

Sanitation district leaders said they would need to spend $423

million between now and 2020 to implement the treatment.

General Manager Blake Anderson, however, has said the district’s

full wastewater discharge -- heading into the ocean off Surf City’s

shoreline 4 1/2 miles out to sea via an outfall pipe on the ocean

floor -- could reach the higher treatment level by 2011.

As a result of the

higher costs, ratepayers will probably have to absorb a

$16-per-year increase in their basic sewer rate. The average

household now pays $87.50 per year.

Representatives of inland cities also questioned the effectiveness

of the new treatment method, known as “full secondary.” A form of

this method was developed in the late 19th Century but has since been

refined.

“This is an 1860s process,” Placentia Councilman Norm Eckenrode

said. “When you really analyze it, it doesn’t do the job.”

Environmentalists who had pushed for the new treatment and an end

to the waiver -- disputed those claims.

Jan Vandersloot, one of the founders of the activist Ocean Outfall

Group, said the sanitation district wasn’t locked in to a specific

type of full treatment, only one that would reduce the bacteria

levels in the wastewater. Leaders of the group gave presentations

before the city councils of many of the county’s cities to help

inform them about the issue in the months leading up to the vote.

With a dozen inland representatives, of the 25 board members,

opposing the new treatment, Wednesday’s vote was a close one.

Anaheim representative Shirley McCracken broke from the ranks to

support full treatment.

“I’m gratified that some of the inland cities voted for [the new

treatment],” Vandersloot said. “They use the beaches as well.”

-- Paul Clinton

Rohrabacher ires congresswoman

Enforcing the time limit for speaking at a committee hearing

proved hazardous for Surf City Congressman Dana Rohrabacher last

week, as a Southern Democrat suggested he was a racist for cutting

off her long-winded speech.

Rohrabacher stopped Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), 10

minutes after she had exceeded her five-minute time limit, at a House

Science Committee hearing.

After Rohrabacher asked

Lee to “be more disciplined

in being able to ask a

specific question,” she took offense.

“I’m the only member that you comment on,” Jackson Lee said. “It

may be that I’m the only African-American woman sitting here.”

Jackson Lee’s remark came after an angry exchange in which

Rohrabacher, the chairman of the committee, slammed his gavel down

and told the congresswoman she was not recognized and needed to stop

talking.

Stunned by the accusation, Rohrabacher responded: “Ms. Jackson

Lee, that type of charge is beneath you. It’s beneath your dignity.”

The exchange came

at a hearing on NASA’s cost-controlling methods and

scientist-retention efforts.

-- Paul Clinton

Mesa project on

Orange County Supervisors Tuesday unanimously upheld a county

Planning Commission decision to allow developer Hearthside Homes to

build on the upper mesa of the Bolsa Chica.

In a 4-0 decision, the board denied appeals filed by the Bolsa

Chica Land Trust following the county Planning Commission’s decision

in May to allow the developer to move forward with plans. Supervisor

Todd Spitzer was absent.

Known as the Brightwater project, the latest plan would build 388

homes on the upper mesa -- an area the California Coastal Commission

has already given Hearthside Homes permission to build on.

The project is in compliance with the Coastal Commission’s ruling

that is, even now, held up in litigation.

Hearthside Homes and landowner Signal Landmark claim in the suit

that the commission took the property by restricting what could be

built to the point where itt is no longer economically feasible.

Hearthside Homes planned to build on 183 acres of the mesa and

was limited to building on 65 acres by the commission in November

2000.

Although a San Diego Superior Court Judge dismissed segments of

the complaint in August, the lawsuit goes on.

Members of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust, a group formed with the

purpose of buying the land from Hearthside Homes, promise to keep the

fight going.

The project will now go to the Costal Commission for approval.

-- Danette Goulet

One block section of PCH to be closed

Pacific Coast Highway between Beach Boulevard and Huntington

Street will be closed to both north and southbound traffic starting

Wednesday so that construction materials being used to build a new

pedestrian bridge can be removed.

The stretch of roadway will be closed to all traffic from 10 p.m.

to 6 a.m. on Wednesday and Thursday, Aug. 1. That same stretch of

road will also be closed on Monday, Aug. 5 through Wednesday, Aug. 7.

--Jose Paul Corona

Harman turns down Bolsa Chica money

Tom Harman didn’t take the bait.

Surf City’s assemblyman made his intentions clear during a feeler

call from Gov. Gray Davis’ office in which Harman said he was told

money could be available for Bolsa Chica if he supported the budget.

But Harman, who has joined his Republican colleagues in pushing

for more spending cuts in Davis’ 2002-03 fiscal-year budget, turned

the deal down.

“He just doesn’t feel a little graft from the governor is worth

it,” said Harman’s legislative director Peter Crandall. “He just

doesn’t want to condemn the people of California to a bad budget just

to get a little goodie for his district.”

Davis’ legislative advisors have been singling out Republicans,

they might be able to sway, to nail down four more votes for a tardy

budget, which is stalled in the Assembly.

A spokesman in Davis’ Los Angeles office said he had not heard

about the call to Harman.

“We don’t have any knowledge of anyone placing that call,”

spokesman Byron Tucker said. “Certainly, the governor has been

pressuring the Republican holdouts to do their job and pass the

budget that was presented to them.”

Davis’ budget would result in a $23.6 billion deficit, the state’s

legislative analyst has said. Budgets for the following years are

expected to top $9 billion, largely due to the state’s energy crisis

from 2001 and a faltering economy.

A Davis advisor called Harman about two weeks ago to ask if he was

amenable to some deal making, but no firm number was given for how

much state money could be cut loose for the wetlands, Crandall said.

Davis’ offer isn’t surprising, but the fact that it was discussed

publicly is unusual, officials said.

--Paul Clinton