Altered Data on Sewage Is Called an Honest Error

A laboratory supervisor at the city’s sewage treatment plant made “an error in judgment” when he altered key testing data provided to state and federal regulators earlier this year, officials here have concluded.

City Manager Vernon Hazen confirmed Thursday that lab supervisor Myung J. Kim had changed results of the test, which measures the quality of treated waste water leaving the plant, but asserted that “if an error in judgment was made, it was an honest error.”

“After reviewing the files, I’m convinced that there was no clandestine activity going on, no attempt at a cover-up,” Hazen said. “Why Dr. Kim chose to change the numbers, I do not know, because he is on vacation for a month. But I’ve seen no evidence of deception.”

Hazen added that Escondido’s treatment plant, which discharges 11 million gallons of sewage into the ocean off Cardiff each day, “is now running textbook perfect” and has never “posed a threat to the public health or to marine life.”

Meanwhile, officials with the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, which monitors the performance of sewage treatment plants along with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, are reviewing plant records back to January, 1985, in order to assess whether Kim violated applicable laws.

David Barker, a senior engineer with the regional board, said it appears that the lab supervisor violated the federal Clean Water Act of 1972, which established stringent treatment requirements for sewage dischargers, by failing to fully and accurately report the test data.

“Once we determine exactly what went on up there, we will decide whether or not to proceed with enforcement actions against the plant,” Barker said. “A major factor in this will be Dr. Kim’s motivation. . . . So far, I haven’t seen any attempt by the city to hide anything.”

Barker said the board’s evaluation of the plant’s files will take a week.

According to documents given to The Times, Kim in January began adjusting results of the so-called BOD test, which measures the level of oxygen consumed by microorganisms used in the process of digesting waste materials in the sewage.

The BOD screening is a key indicator of the purity of treated waste water. Sewage plants also measure the level of suspended solids in effluent and test for numerous other pollutants, including metals like arsenic, chromium and cadmium. Results of the tests are included on monthly reports sent to the Water Quality Control Board and the EPA.

Under Escondido’s operating permit, the plant must maintain certain treatment standards set by the two agencies. If limits on BOD and other pollutants are exceeded, the facility can be assessed fines or other penalties.

In January, for reasons still unknown, the BOD level at the plant began to soar, topping the limit set by the EPA and the regional board. In an interview last week, Kim said his “mind was boggled” by the jump in BOD levels and that he “tried everything” in an effort to determine what caused the increase.

Nothing, however, yielded a clue to the mystery, which has continued to stump city engineers.

“We’d had erratic readings before, but nothing like this,” said Hazen, who only learned of the problem Monday. “Everyone was puzzled by those readings because nothing else jived with them, everything else was copacetic.”

So, using data from other lab tests that usually correlate with the BOD, Kim assumed that many of the high figures were in error. He then computed alternate numbers and entered those on the monthly report forwarded to the state and federal regulators. That practice continued until mid-March, when the recordings suddenly dropped to a normal level.

Kim said in the interview that he was “piling up data on the BOD problem” and intended to inform the regional board about it at a future date. His supervisor, Assistant Utilities Supt. Glen Peterson, said the board was not informed immediately because “we didn’t think they’d be interested.”

According to Barker, plant officials waited too long. While it may be true that the high BOD recordings were in error, operators are required by law to report whatever number is recorded and alert regulatory officials when something is amiss at the plant.

Moreover, Barker said, if plant officials assumed the high readings were in error, “then that means all of their BOD data may be suspect. So why were the low numbers left intact?”

On Wednesday, the city’s utility engineer, George Lohnes, presented a staff report on the situation to the City Council. The two-page report concluded that there was “an error in judgment made in not reporting the exact data to the regional board.”

It goes on to state, however, that “Dr. Kim is an experienced chemist with a doctorate from Rutgers University” and that, as such, he deserves to be judged by people of similar professional caliber.

Hazen said he did not know whether such a person is employed by the regional board.

“I just don’t want someone who’s an administrative person like myself to come out and say, ‘Oh, that’s terrible and he’s a terrible person,’ ” Hazen said. “For me with a degree in business management to look into a chemist’s head and figure out what he’s doing would be absurd. For an engineer (from the regional board) . . . it would be next to absurd.”

The city’s report went on to assert that Kim was not pressured by other city officials to alter the test data. But Scott Rhoads, the lab technician who provided the documents to The Times, disputed that claim.

The plant operators “were really irritated when the BOD numbers were coming out so high and they were blaming the lab,” said Rhoads, who quit his job earlier this week. “Kim was pressured to fix the test because nobody wanted to be responsible for those high numbers.”

Kim admitted in the interview that “the (plant operators) downstairs were very upset . . . and I was upset” by the high numbers. He said, however, that the decision to change the figures was based on “my own good judgment.”

Escondido officials plan to ask the regional board to withhold any action against the city until Kim returns from vacation at the end of the month. But Barker said that, if violations are uncovered, a hearing before board members will be convened as soon as the investigation is complete.

Disclosure of the altered test data has angered a coastal group called People for a Clean Ocean, which is fighting Escondido’s efforts to obtain a permit to reduce its treatment standards. Group leader Richard MacManus said he questioned whether the plant deserves the permit since the disclosure that “they have been monkeying with the figures.”