Sanitary district OKs tougher restaurant rules

Paul Clinton

Restaurants would be held to higher standards and would face fines

of up to $1,000 under tougher rules for the disposal of grease

byproducts under guidelines tentatively approved Monday by the Costa

Mesa Sanitary District.

“We just wanted to get on the bandwagon,” said Arlene Schafer, the

district’s president and a former Costa Mesa mayor. “We feel that we

don’t want to drag our feet.”

The sanitary agency’s five-member board approved the preliminary

six-page version of a new grease-control ordinance at its noontime

meeting Monday.

Newport Beach has had a similar law in place since the mid-1990s.

The district’s move comes with the Orange County Sanitation

District midway through a broad-brush study of methods that could

reduce sewage spills caused by grease blockages in collection lines.

On Sept. 17, a blockage at an El Pollo Loco in the 1900 block of

Harbor Boulevard caused raw sewage to spill into drainage channels

that led to the beach. As a result, the Orange County Health Care

Agency closed sections of beach in West Newport and at Huntington

State Beach.

Costa Mesa’s grease-control ordinance, like the one in Newport

Beach, would require all new restaurants and eateries to install what

are known as “grease interceptors,” devices that catch grease before

it leaves the restaurant’s property.

The district’s new law also opens the door for the district to

levy fines of up to $1,000 or a six-month jail term.

Environmentalists lauded tougher penalties as a way to discourage

lax maintenance of sewage lines. Bob Caustin, who founded the Newport

Beach environmental group Defend the Bay, said agencies should

penalize restaurants who don’t regularly maintain their pipes.

“When you start seeing some of these fines come down, you’ll find

they’ll change their posture toward these businesses,” Caustin said.

“It’s good that they’re paying attention to the problem.”

However, those penalties aren’t expected to be dished out, said

Rob Hamers, the district’s engineer.

“We would just require them to put in an interceptor,” Hamers

said. “Fining people doesn’t do any good.”

The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board also has the

power to levy fines. The water board could also fine the sanitary

district if it failed to install a grease-control law.

The sanitary district, Costa Mesa, Newport Beach and a bevy of

other agencies are also co-funding the county study. The local

agencies have agreed to pay $6,000 of the study’s $300,000 price tag.

Twenty-five agencies have agreed to pitch in to fund the study,

which is being spearheaded by the Orange County Sanitation District.

Formally known as the Fats, Oils and Grease Study, it was begun in

May and is expected to be completed by March.

“The study looks at all the tools and all of the elements of

controlling the discharge of grease,” said district engineering

supervisor Adriana Renescu, the study’s overseer. “The bottom line is

to stop sewer overflows and contamination on the beaches.”

Renescu also expects researchers, in addition to recommending

specific ways for reducing grease blockages, to develop a boilerplate

grease-control ordinance that could be used in all of the county’s

cities.

One section of the study will examine whether a series of

biological additives, which use bacteria to break down grease, can be

used, Newport Beach Assistant City Manager Dave Kiff said.

“Everybody’s at the point where they want to decide whether these

products are snake oil or viable,” Kiff said. “The restaurants are

generally far more supportive of these kinds of alternatives, rather

than a grease interceptor, because of the [lower] cost.”

* PAUL CLINTON covers the environment, business and politics. He

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

paul.clinton@latimes.com.