Seeking to avoid fines

Paul Clinton

Orange County Sanitation District leaders have shifted their

attention to the federal level in seeking legal protection from what

could be stiff water-quality penalties as the district implements

full treatment of its waste water.

Following a two-track strategy, the district has deployed its

Washington, D.C. lobbyist to investigate possible federal

legislation, and it has begun talks with the Environmental Protection

Agency on a settlement to an anticipated lawsuit.

Once the sanitation district’s sewage waiver expires in June, the

agency will be in violation of the Clean Water Act of 1972, a

landmark environmental law that established water-quality standards

across the nation.

Since at least the early 1980s, the district has been operating

under a waiver exempting it from those standards. It was one of only

13 such waivers granted by the EPA to sanitation agencies that treat

sewage, then release the waste water into the ocean.

Without the waiver, the agency is vulnerable to fines as high as

$25,000 per day for being out of compliance with the act.

AVOIDING HEFTY FINES

In July, the agency approved stepped-up treatment of its waste

water, on a 13-12 vote. However, agency engineers have said the new

method won’t be in place until 2013. The district has pledged, over

the next decade, to spend about $370 million to upgrade the Fountain

Valley treatment plant.

With fines running $25,000 per day, those 11 years would add up to

$97.9 million.

If talks with the federal environmental watchdog are successful,

all that could be avoided, district officials said. Jim Ferryman, a

board member and trustee with the Newport-Mesa Unified School

District, said EPA officials have indicated that they hope to reach

an amicable, workable solution.

“If you get right down to it, they’re going to work with us,”

Ferryman said. “At the end of the day, we’re going to be fine.”

The agency, under the terms of the Clean Water Act, would be

legally required to file a lawsuit against the district after the

waiver expires. With the suit, agency lawyers also hope to file a

consent order laying out requirements for the district to meet

federal standards, an EPA spokesman said.

“From a purely procedural standpoint, we have to [file a

lawsuit],” spokesman Mark Merchant said. “But that same lawsuit will

also have a settlement in it.”

The peace offering will be in place as long as the district works

diligently to implement the new treatment levels, officials said.

A TRICKY STRATEGY

Right now, the district releases 234-million gallons of moderately

treated waste water into the ocean each day. Ultimately, that waste

water must reach two standards laid out in the Clean Water Act. It

must contain no more than 30-million liters each of suspended solids

and biochemical oxygen demand, or BOD.

Right now, the district’s waste measures 60 milligrams per liter

of solids and 100 milligrams per liter of BOD.

District leaders held a meeting with several members of the EPA’s

water-quality division in Fountain Valley last month. The board met

with Janet Hashimoto, chief of monitoring and assessment at the

agency’s San Francisco office, an EPA attorney and a Department of

Justice lawyer.

That meeting has been criticized by some, including Huntington

Beach Mayor Debbie Cook and Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway, as an

illegal closed session. The Orange County Sanitation District has

defended the meeting.

“The board had to make some strategy decisions,” said Tom

Woodruff, the sanitation district’s attorney. “That needs to be

between myself and my clients.”

Altering federal law would be a trickier strategy, especially the

Clean Water Act, a landmark environmental bill.

The district approached Reps. Chris Cox, Dana Rohrabacher and

Loretta Sanchez about that possibility, but has since shelved the

effort, said Bob Ghirelli, director of technical services for the

district. Cox represents Newport Beach, while Rohrabacher represents

Huntington Beach. Sanchez represents a northern county district.

SOME RELIEF WON

Orange County’s congressional representatives have advised the

district to follow the EPA’s guidance via the talks and potential

courtroom activity, he said. Also, a bill is not expected to get off

the ground so late in the legislative calendar.

“They’re sympathetic and they’re willing to help, but the EPA

wants to keep this [legal process] moving,” Ghirelli said. “We’re not

optimistic because we’re nearing the end of the session.”

On Sept. 29, the sanitation district won relief at the state

level, when Gov. Gray Davis signed Assembly Bill 1969, which grants

the agency immunity from fines levied by the State Water Board as

long as the full treatment is implemented by 2013.

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

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