EPA Gives Nod to Less-Tough Waste Water Treatment

A controversial plan to cut the required treatment of as much as 20 million gallons of waste water dumped into the ocean off Cardiff each day has won the approval of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, officials said Friday.

The City of Escondido will be allowed to reduce the level of sewage treatment required at its Hale Avenue plant and San Diego County will not have to upgrade treatment at its San Elijo plant, officials at the regional EPA office in San Francisco said.

Both plants discharge waste water into the San Elijo ocean outfall, a pipe that extends about a mile out into the Pacific Ocean off San Elijo Lagoon. The waste water has been found to contain 34 so-called priority pollutants ranging from pesticides like DDT, chlordane and dieldrin to heavy metals like arsenic, chromium and cadmium.

The city and county had asked for waivers from relatively stringent federal clean-water requirements in hopes of saving money and accommodating new development. State and federal environmental officials concluded that even with the waivers, the pollution would remain within California’s less-strict guidelines.

But a broadly based group of environmentalists, property owners, surfers, kelp-company officials and beach-community leaders have fought the waivers, saying they would constitute environmental backsliding. They are currently appealing earlier approval of the waivers by state officials, and intend to appeal the EPA’s decision as well.

“The dirty dogs!” said William Mueller, the Carlsbad attorney representing the waivers’ opponents, when he learned Friday of EPA’s decision. “I’m really upset that they went ahead and approved it because they were present at the last two meetings and they see the amount of sentiment against it and they know we have a lot of evidence to present.”

Mueller, who represents a group called People for a Clean Ocean, which counts 3,000 members who came together to oppose the waivers, said he is in the process of asking the state for a stay of the permits and intends to appeal the EPA’s decision.

For that reason, EPA officials said Friday that the city and county probably won’t be able to act on the new permits for at least six months. The permits are scheduled to take effect May 3. But opponents have 30 days to request a new hearing on the plan, and the state can suspend action on the permits until appeals of its decision are heard.

Furthermore, state and federal officials have asked the county and Escondido to complete six months of “base-line” water quality monitoring before downgrading treatment. The aim is to get a clear measure of water quality before and after the permit.

“We’re quite a ways off,” said Christopher Wohlers, an environmental scientist with the EPA. “If we assume no appeals are filed, we wouldn’t be looking at downgrading until October. And that’s unrealistic because there have already been appeals filed.”

Under the federal Clean Water Act, all sewage discharges were to receive at least secondary treatment, in which microorganisms break down the waste. California standards only call for primary treatment, in which sewage simply settles and is screened to remove larger particles.

At the urging of dischargers in Southern California, Congress amended the act. The amendments allow ocean dischargers to receive waivers if they can show they would not violate state standards or damage public health or marine life.

The amendments have prompted more than 30 applications from the California coast alone, EPA officials have said. In Orange County, public opposition led to the withdrawal of two applications. In San Diego County, waiver applications are also pending for the city of San Diego and the cities of Oceanside and Fallbrook.

In the case of San Elijo, Wohlers said EPA officials considered seven criteria including the effect of the proposed sewage-treatment levels on marine biology and recreation along the coast. He said they concluded the effects would not be “adverse” and would not cause major damage to species.

“I wish I could give you a real cut-and-dried, quantitative approach, but there isn’t one,” Wohlers said, when asked how the impact and damage is measured. But he noted that the sewage authorities must meet criteria defining such things as permissible levels of fecal coliform.

He also said that the new permits require stricter water-quality monitoring than in the past. There will be more frequent testing, more stations, longer samples and more criteria. The results will be used at the end of a 5-year period to determine whether to renew the permits.

The permits, which are issued jointly by state and federal authorities, were initially approved by the San Diego region of the state Water Quality Control Board last October and amended last month. The EPA approved the permits March 31 but did not announce the decision until Friday.

Mueller said his clients will ask the EPA for an evidentiary hearing, arguing that they had insufficient advance notice of past public hearings. He said his clients believe the waivers are based on “erroneous assumptions,” including data that does not apply to the Cardiff reef area.