Altered Water Tests in Escondido Could Lead to Major Fines

The Regional Water Quality Control Board Tuesday directed its staff to issue a complaint against the City of Escondido, where a lab supervisor at the municipal sewage treatment plant altered key testing data provided to state and federal regulators.

David Barker, a senior engineer with the board, said the directive could lead to fines as high as $90,000 in connection with the actions of Myung J. Kim, who adjusted test results, making it appear that the potency of sewage leaving the plant was lower than it may have been.

Barker said results of a lengthy investigation and a review of mounds of documents by the board showed that “Dr. Kim was definitely manipulating the numbers in an improper way” and reporting results “that were incorrect” and in violation of the city’s operating permit.

Under the California Water Code, the city could be fined $1,000 a day for each day the plant was in violation of its permit, Barker said. The board’s investigation uncovered 90 separate instances of “data manipulation,” he said, some dating as far back as October, 1985.

The board’s staff plans to issue the complaint next week. If the city disputes the allegations, a public hearing on the matter will be held in October. The amount and actual issuance of the fine would then require additional board approval.

Escondido officials, who have conceded that Kim violated terms of the city’s permit in reporting incorrect numbers, said they intend to protest the imposition of any major penalty, such as a $90,000 fine.

“We agree there has been a violation,” George Lohnes, the city’s utilities engineer, said after the meeting. “But we don’t look on this as a criminal act of someone sneaking into a lab at night and changing data. This was at most an error in judgment.”

Lohnes said he would be surprised if the board viewed each violation as a separate action meriting a $1,000 penalty.

In June a former lab employee gave The Times copies of monitoring reports depicting the altered test data. According to the documents, Kim was adjusting results of the so-called BOD test, which measures the level of oxygen consumed by microorganisms used to digest waste material in sewage.

The BOD screening is a major indicator of the purity of the 11 million gallons of treated waste water that the plant discharges into the ocean off Cardiff each day. Results of the tests are included on monthly reports forwarded to the regional board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which jointly monitor treatment plants.

Under Escondido’s operating permit, the plant must meet certain standards set by the two agencies. If limits on BOD and other pollutants are exceeded, the facility can face reprimands or fines.

In January, Escondido’s BOD level began to soar, inexplicably. After trying unsuccessfully to find the cause, Kim ultimately assumed the numbers were in error. He then used data from other, related tests to extrapolate new figures for the BOD level. He recorded the new numbers on the monitoring reports.

Barker said such practices are unorthodox and prohibited under Escondido’s operating permit: “They are required to report the numbers, even if they believe they might be in error. We need to know what is going on at these plants.”

Kim’s actions have also reportedly triggered investigations by the FBI and the EPA, whose agent in charge, David Wilma, visited the Escondido plant and interviewed Kim and other officials last week. Wilma said altering test data could violate the federal Clean Water Act of 1972 as well as federal criminal statues regulating false statements.

The act permits fines of up to $10,000 per day for each day of violation and up to 6 months of imprisonment.

Since the disclosure of the altered test data, Escondido officials have retained an outside laboratory to do a “quality assurance” check of the treatment plant’s testing procedures and reporting techniques. Lohnes said the review by Montgomery Laboratories of Pasadena is complete and its report is due next month.

Kim twice has tendered his resignation. It has been refused.