EPA Calls for $200-Million Sewage Plant : Secondary Treatment Sought for County Waste Dumped Offshore

The federal Environmental Protection Agency wants Los Angeles County to build a $200-million secondary sewage treatment plant to make sure that marine life off the Palos Verdes Peninsula is not further damaged by the flood of waste water discharged every day.

The EPA issued a ruling last month tentatively turning down a county request to stick with first-stage treatment, which removes solids but does not fully treat the sewage that the county dumps into the ocean.

The EPA based its decision on the amount of sediment discharged by the county system--estimated at 41,000 tons a year--which studies have shown has inhibited normal marine life near the end of the sewer pipe about 1 1/2 miles off the coast of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

Hailed by environmentalists, the decision has been criticized by sewer system officials, who say that burning the sludge produced by secondary treatment would add air pollution equivalent to 3,500 cars and that the smell will be like a “burning outhouse.”

Most severely affected would be residents of Carson, where, on land next to the county sewage treatment plant, the secondary treatment plant would be built.

But construction of the plant would also hit homeowner pocketbooks among the 3.8 million people in the 70 cities and 30 unincorporated areas served by the integrated sewer system known as the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. (Sewage of the City of Los Angeles is treated separately, and secondary treatment has also been ordered over the next 11 years).

Construction costs would be about $100 for each family, possibly spread over some years, in the area served by the county sewer system, plus an additional $5 to $7 a year for operating costs, according to sewage system estimates. Sewage bills now run about $21 a year.

Although the tentative ruling by the EPA--empowered to demand treatment standards under the Clean Water Act--was announced four weeks ago, cities and agencies have only recently been getting around to taking official positions:

Long Beach, one of the cities affected, went on record last week supporting construction of the plant. A similar resolution of support goes before the Torrance City Council tonight.

The sewer system board will meet Wednesday to consider its options.

The system’s staff has recommended that the board fight the EPA decision and resubmit the application for a waiver of the full treatment requirements, arguing, in addition to the effect on air pollution, that the waste water dumped in the ocean is clean enough. The sewage system now treats 60% of the 360 million gallons it pumps daily .

Furthermore, Joseph Haworth, information officer for the sewage system, disputes the EPA and says that the sediments now flushed into the ocean actually help the marine environment because they provide an ever-thickening blanket over DDT-contaminated sludge that harks back to the 1950s and ‘60s but remains troublesome.

On the other hand, Haworth said, resisting the EPA’s decision could mean that the sewer system would miss out on construction grants funded by the Clean Water Act. The state, which dispenses the federal funds, is considering an option to change the grant program into a low-interest loan program, he said.

The EPA’s decision came seven years after the county sewer system, along with many others in California, asked to be excused from provisions of the Clean Water Act that require full secondary treatment for any ocean dumping.

In primary treatment, sewage sits in huge vats where, depending on whether special chemicals are added, between 75% and 90% of the solid waste settles to the bottom, where it is removed. The Los Angeles County sewage system buries the sludge.

Secondary treatment, which involves aerating the treated waste, removes all but 1% of the solids. Haworth said it would be impossible to bury all of the additional sludge and much of it would be incinerated after undergoing a “baking” process to remove water.

California sewer officials led the fight to amend the Clean Water Act to permit waivers for ocean dumping, which passed Congress in 1977.

More recently, according to Dori Henning, co-chairperson of the Sierra Club’s clean coastal waters task force, California environmentalists have led the fight against waiver applications that date from the late 1970s and early 1980s.

Within the last year or so, according to the Sierra Club, the EPA has denied waiver applications from Los Angeles, Central Contra Costa, Pinole, Rodeo, Pismo Beach, Marina, Vallejo, West County Agency, East Bay Municipal Utility District, Terminal Island and Las Gallinas.

Also, a number of cities and agencies withdrew applications for waivers, including San Diego, Eureka, Sausalito-Marin City, Monterey, Fort Bragg, Serra, Aliso, Santa Barbara, Oceanside, Avalon, San Elijo, Millbrae, Burlingame, South San Francisco-San Bruno, South Marin County, Escondido and Oxnard.

Waivers are in effect for the Orange County Sanitation District, Goleta and Morro Bay. The EPA has tentatively approved a waiver for a San Francisco sewage system.