Council Agrees to Pay $150,000 Fine for Sewage Spills

The Los Angeles City Council agreed Wednesday to pay a $150,000 fine assessed by the Regional Water Quality Control Board after the city dumped more than 95,000 gallons of raw waste into Ballona Creek.

Council members, noting that they were doing so under protest, took the action after an hourlong private session. They gave no public explanation why they opted to pay the fine rather than fight it. Under state law, the council could have appealed the fine to the statewide Water Quality Control Board.

Council President Pat Russell said the council’s reasoning will be explained in a letter to the regional board. The letter, now being drafted by city officials, is expected to be released Friday, Russell said.

‘Deliberated a Long Time’

“We deliberated a long time and we want to express (the city’s position) very carefully,” Russell said.

Acceptance of the latest fine brings to more than $180,000 the total to be paid by the city to the state water board for assorted spills from its leaky sewer system.

In August, the city paid $30,050 for two summertime spills from the Bureau of Sanitation’s Jackson Avenue overflow facility in Culver City. The Jackson Avenue facility serves basically as a safety valve for the sewer system. When raw waste flowing to the Hyperion waste treatment plant in Playa del Rey backs up, it overflows into the Jackson Avenue structure.

The spills for which the city agreed to pay the $150,000 fine also occurred at the Jackson Avenue facility.

On Aug. 2, 150 gallons of wastes being held there seeped into adjoining Ballona Creek. That was followed by a similar 15-gallon spill on Sept. 6. And on Sept. 21 more than 95,000 gallons of raw waste surged from the plant into the creek bed, resulting in the latest fine.

‘Bite the Bullet’

In a hearing last month before the regional water board, city officials argued unsuccessfully that the fine should be set aside because the spill was unavoidable. Since the latest spill, the city has stationed work crews at the Jackson Avenue plant and installed improved equipment to monitor and prevent future spills.

But members of the water board, angered at the repeated dumping into Ballona Creek, insisted on assessing the fine. “They are going to have to bite the bullet,” board member Paul D. Flowers said of city officials.

Board members also sent another sign of their distress at the city’s antiquated sewer system when they ordered staff members to draw up a list of all penalties the board could mete out.

Board Chairman James H. Grossman hinted then that the board, as an extreme measure, might consider a moratorium on construction in Los Angeles until the sewer situation improves.

City officials have estimated the price tag for repairs to the entire system, including the Hyperion treatment plant, at a hefty $1 billion. Mayor Tom Bradley’s Administration is considering actions ranging from more than doubling the $5.40 residential sewer fee to floating revenue bonds to finance the improvements.

And in an action that could have a bearing on the future use of the sewer system, Councilman Marvin Braude suggested Wednesday that the city require the installation of low-flow shower heads and water-saving toilets in all residential and commercial property sold in the city. Braude, sending the motion to the council’s Building and Safety Committee, noted that such equipment would save water and lessen the flow entering the sewer system.

City officials face another hearing before the regional water board Monday, when the board is scheduled to consider Los Angeles’ request that the city be allowed to continue dumping partially treated sewage into Santa Monica Bay.