New law would aid protection of waters

Alicia Robinson

City officials will attempt to solve a slippery problem tonight with

a law designed to keep oils and grease out of the sewer system.

Fats and oils can clog sewer pipes, leading to sewage spills that

spread bacteria and close beaches. The council will consider a law to

combat that problem and to meet a Jan. 1 deadline from the Santa Ana

Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The law would require most restaurants to pay an annual fee for a

grease-disposal permit, and restaurants that don’t already have a

grease interceptor must install one or pay a fee toward sewer

maintenance. Restaurants discharging waste that causes sewer blockage

or spills will be charged for cleanup.

About 150 of the city’s 355 food service establishments have

grease interceptors. The city has been inspecting the interceptors

for about 18 months, Newport Beach assistant city manager Dave Kiff

said.

Though the new law allows the city to charge fees, the amount of

the fees won’t be set until July, when the next year’s budget is

discussed, he said.

“[The law] doesn’t mean much of a change except eventually those

fees will apply, but most restaurants have been living with the

inspections for a year,” Kiff said. “If somebody is really screwing

up, we would have the legal authority to make them install a grease

interceptor.”

An earlier staff report proposed a permit fee of up to $20 and an

annual inspection fee of $100 to $150. A restaurant could be charged

up to $800 to have the city clean its pipes, Kiff said.

Opposition from restaurants may not come tonight, but it is

expected when the council discusses how much fees should be.

Restaurant owners understand why the city needs to regulate

grease, but new fees will be too much of a hardship for an industry

that has been hit by huge increases in workers’ compensation and

utility charges, said Dan Marcheano, who owns the Arches restaurant

and heads the Newport Beach Restaurant Assn.

“Naturally we have a different opinion of the fees and what they

should be,” he said. “You don’t want to take that kind of money out

of the restaurant industry. It’s not there.”

The city has cameras to look in sewer lines and find the source of

blockage, so officials should go after the offenders rather than

charging all the restaurants in the city, he said.

No one likes to pay new fees, Kiff said, but now when pipe

cleanings are needed because of restaurants, everyone in the city is

paying for them.

“This is a way to move the costs back to the restaurants,” he

said.

If the new regulations are approved tonight, they will get a

second reading at the council’s December meeting and become effective

30 days after a second vote of approval.

* ALICIA ROBINSON covers business, politics and the environment.

She may be reached at (714) 966-4626 or by e-mail at

alicia.robinson@latimes.com.