New Pumps to Divert Stringfellow Effluent Into County Sewer Line

Despite assurances from water quality experts that treated waste water from the Stringfellow Acid Pits will be safe, the Orange County Sanitation Districts joint board has decided to divert all effluent from the Riverside dump-cleanup project away from local ground water supplies and out to sea.

In the process, much of the other industrial wastes now being dumped into the main Santa Ana River sewage line--waste that experts say could be far more toxic than the treated Stringfellow water--also will be diverted from the underground water supply.

Orange County Supervisor Roger Stanton, a member of the sanitation districts’ board and a vocal opponent of the plan to send the treated water through Orange County, hailed as a partial victory the decision to spend $65,000 on special pumps to make the diversion possible.

But Stanton and members of a citizens action group remained concerned about the effect of dumping the treated Stringfellow waste water into the ocean.

The Stringfellow water, contaminated with toxic heavy metals and organic compounds, would be pumped from the ground beneath the dump in Pyrite Canyon, near Glen Avon. It will first be treated at an on-site plant that is nearing completion, then go into the Santa Ana River sewer line with the industrial wastes.

With the installation of the new pumps, the sanitation district can route the water past a treatment plant in Fountain Valley that feeds the underground water supply. Instead, the water would be treated at a plant in Huntington Beach, then discharged into the ocean five miles off Huntington Beach.

“It’s a victory in that, at least, we’re not going to be faced with having that water get into our drinking water,” Stanton said Thursday. “But, unfortunately, I think this action takes the wind out of the sails of a lot of people opposing the waste-disposal plan for Stringfellow in the first place.”

Dean Albright, president of STOP! STOP! (Stringfellow Opposition Party! Safe Treatment Of Pollution!), said his group is disappointed that the sanitation districts’ board late Tuesday night voted to permit the dumping of treated water from Stringfellow into the ocean.

Environmental Study Criticized

“They’re still shoving this down everybody’s throat,” complained Albright, an electrician with the Long Beach Naval Shipyards and member of the Huntington Beach environmental board.

Like Stanton and other officials in Orange County, Albright’s group is angry that the state and federal governments, because Stringfellow is considered an emergency cleanup, are not required to do a full environmental impact study on the dumping of the treated water.

“What we’re saying is, we want that Environmental Impact Report. We’re going to force that (environmental impact report), even if we have to resort to court action,” Albright said Thursday.

Meanwhile, the $3.5-million Stringfellow waste water treatment plant being built about 100 feet from the dump site is about a month from completion, said Andrew Schlange, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, a tri-county agency overseeing the cleanup.

Schlange said the carbon-filtering portion of the treatment plant is complete, and, after the more complex line-filtration system is finished, there will be a “shakedown period” of several weeks. The process will be tested to be sure waste water is being filtered to acceptable condition before any of it is released, Schlange said.

Cost-Reducing Process

When the plant is operating, Schlange said, it is expected to reduce by two thirdsthe cost of hauling Stringfellow wastes in trucks to the Casmalia Class A hazardous waste dump in Santa Barbara County. Funds for both the plant construction and the continuing cleanup effort are coming from the federal Superfund, and the project is being administered by the state Department of Public Health Services.

“We feel we’ll be ready to start delivering to the (main Santa Ana River sewer line) sometime about the first of May--which is about the same time the sanitation districts need to get their project in place,” Schlange said.

Ray Lewis, former chief engineer of the Orange County Water Districts and consultant on the dump cleanup project, said no treated Stringfellow water will be discharged into the downstream sewer line until the sanitation districts’ pumps are installed and working.

Rerouting of Sewage

The pumps will make it possible for the sanitation plant in Fountain Valley to draw from the so-called Sunflower sewer line--which carries mostly household sewage--instead of the main Santa Ana line. Treated sewage then goes to the Orange County Water District plant, which, in turn, filters and treats the water to a potable standard and releases it into the underground water table.

Without the pumps, the sanitation district could still divert Santa Ana sewer water past the Fountain Valley plant, but it could not then supply the water district plant with the constant water pressure necessary to keep salt water from invading the ground water.

Water experts generally say the need for the diversion is more cosmetic than real, however.

“There was never any health threat posed by this (Stringfellow waste water treatment) program,” said Neil Cline, secretary-manager of the Orange County Water District. “It will be better quality water than the Colorado River water we get.”

Cline said the Stringfellow water will be cleansed of heavy metals and organic compounds to a level of 500 to 550 parts per million of total dissolved solids (TDS). Colorado River water, by comparison, averages about 750 parts per million, he said.

Public Concerns Noted

“I think this action was taken because of the deep concern expressed by a number of people--just to take away any doubt in the minds of the public,” Cline said.

“It’s a classic not-in-my-backyard kind of issue, mischaracterized from the beginning,” said Irvine attorney Susan Trager, a specialist in water issues hired by the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority to ensure that all environmental concerns are addressed and all necessary reports made.

“The project at Stringfellow has been categorized as a hazard when in fact it was a remedy to a far greater threat: contamination of the underground water supply in the Chino Basin,” Trager said.

Disputing the views of STOP! STOP! and public officials like Stanton, Trager said extensive environmental reviews of the project had been undertaken. “We did a real environmental review, not just eyewash for the document,” she said. “And it’s still being undertaken along the way.”

Other Contaminants Cited

Stanton contends, however, that the treatment plant is equipped to test for just a few of the more than 100 toxic materials the federal Environmental Protection Agency found at the Stringfellow site.

“The fact is, nobody really knows what’s going to be coming down that line from day to day,” Stanton charged. “And, as a representative of the people, I’m saying the process stinks in terms of the lack of public input in the first place.”

Whether the diversion plan is meaningful or not, Trager said, the discussion among the 30 or so directors of 10 Orange County sanitation districts has been constructive.

“It is probably the first time there has been an awareness in Orange County of the necessity of managing hazardous waste, and that it is a regional problem, not a local one,” Trager said.