North County Sewage Under Firm Control

While San Diego grapples with a budget-busting sewage crisis, most cities in rapidly growing North County find themselves in a much more enviable position--poised to handle their sewage treatment responsibilities into the 21st Century.

Unlike their sprawling southern neighbor, which must pay a whopping $1.5 billion for a new secondary treatment plant, most municipalities in the county’s northern reaches already have facilities in place to comply with laws mandating stringent sewage treatment.

Moreover, while San Diegans may see a quadrupling of their monthly sewer bills in the coming years as the city struggles to finance a secondary treatment plant, most North County taxpayers felt nary a pinch when their cities were upgrading facilities to meet the new federal requirements.

More Foresight

Such good fortune was not simply a fluke. Instead, the northern communities responded with more foresight to changing federal rules governing sewage treatment, some regulators say.

When Congress in 1972 toughened standards for the cleanliness of sewage funneled into the nation’s waterways, officials in North County began laying plans to comply with the new law. That meant building new sewage plants. And that meant money.

Most of the cities promptly went calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which monitors the performance of sewage systems. And most obtained grants to build the new plants demanded by the stricter standards.

Today, in Carlsbad and Oceanside and as far inland as Escondido, state-of-the art sewage treatment plants sit as symbols of North County’s relative success in adapting to the stricter demands created by the controversial federal legislation.

“They did the necessary long-term planning, got in line for money when there was a ton of it in the pot, and got their plants built,” said David Jones, chief of the EPA’s California branch. “They followed the regulations and now they’re in relatively good shape.”

“I think the cities up here were very much on the ball in terms of responding to the law and taking advantage of some good free money when it was available,” said attorney Richard MacManus, founder of a Cardiff group that backs advanced sewage treatment. “On the other hand, San Diego’s approach of sticking their head in the sand backfired and they’re in a mess.”

Sewage Battles

But not all has been quiet on the northern front. Over the last year, the area has been a virtual battleground as environmentalists have duked it out with cities seeking to abandon the high-quality treatment standards they worked so hard to attain.

That opportunity first came a decade ago, when Congress amended the Clean Water Act to allow oceanfront cities to apply for an exemption from the tighter requirements. The legislative retreat was spurred largely by the City of San Diego, which insisted that higher quality treatment was unnecessary for sewage flowing into the sea.

Most North County cities were at or well on their way to secondary treatment--the more advanced process that uses microorganisms to gobble up waste. Nonetheless, almost every agency sought an exemption from the federal standards when that option became available. Among them was the City of Oceanside.

“We were ahead in the game in that both our treatment plants were doing secondary by 1975,” said Jim Turner, Oceanside’s director of water utilities. “But secondary is a very high-energy consumer, so we saw the waiver as a good way to save on our operating costs.”

Plant capacity was another issue. Secondary treatment requires more space than advanced primary, which is mostly a settling process that removes fewer suspended solids. Cutting standards enabled cities to instantly accommodate new growth and avoid costly plant expansions.

Oceanside officials, for example, figured they could save $20 million in capital costs and about $400,000 annually in operating expenses by backsliding to advanced primary treatment.

One by one, the cities and sewer agencies around North County sent waiver applications off to the EPA.

Changing Viewpoint

At first, there was scarcely a whisper of protest. Back then, sewage was not one of the sexier subjects floating about the public arena.

Mysterious terms like “secondary” and “advanced primary” were bandied about, but many North County residents say they were in the dark about just what the prospect of lower treatment standards meant.

“I don’t think the whole story was ever presented publicly, and so neither the public nor the elected officials--myself included--asked the tough questions early on,” said Escondido Councilman Jerry Harmon, who initially supported that city’s fight for a waiver.

“This was billed as a way to save energy during a very energy-scarce time. It sounded like a good thing to do.”

But gradually that viewpoint changed. Two years ago, for example, coastal residents were alarmed by reports that fish were contaminated in Santa Monica Bay, polluted by decades of sewage dumping by Los Angeles. Locals began to worry that the same thing could happen here.

“I think the real big impetus came from the fact that the people in the community feel our main asset is our coastline,” said Encinitas Mayor Marjorie Gaines. “If the public perception is that our water is polluted by sewage . . . it will downgrade the pleasure people have in living here and hurt the economy as well.”

Meanwhile, new studies raised concerns about the presence of disease-causing viruses in sewage that receives less stringent treatment.

Getting Into the Fight

Out of this fray sprung People for a Clean Ocean, a Cardiff group formed by attorney Richard MacManus. Drawing on the surfers and environmentalists who populate the north coast, the organization built a hefty following that ultimately spelled doom for the cities’ efforts to win waivers.

The first to fall was Oceanside, which in April, 1986, scrapped its fight for an exemption after spending $100,000 on studies and consultants’ fees. Besieged by a feisty band of opponents at a public hearing on the issue, Oceanside officials threw in the towel because “the people spoke . . . and the responsible thing to do was to listen,” then-Councilman John MacDonald said at the time.

Soon after, Fallbrook--which discharges its 1.5-million-gallon daily sewage load through Oceanside’s outfall pipe--withdrew its application.

Then, the Clean Ocean troops stormed the Cardiff Sanitation District, which serves Cardiff, Olivenhain and Solana Beach and was managed by the county until the incorporation of Encinitas in June, 1986. The district was operating an advanced primary treatment plant and sought a waiver to avoid upgrading to secondary.

Directors of the sanitation district were sympathetic to the environmental arguments. They promptly tossed in the towel, even though it will mean construction of a new secondary treatment plant that will cost $5 million to $14 million, guaranteeing a rate increase for residents.

Next to fall was Escondido.

The inland city, which each day treats 13.5 million gallons of sewage from Escondido and Rancho Bernardo and discharges it through Cardiff’s ocean outfall, had received a tentative waiver. But in October, the City Council voted unanimously to scuttle the plan. Members said a savings of $300,000 in annual operating costs was not worth the health risks or the possibility that refusing to give in would alienate their North County neighbors.

“There was considerable political pressure brought--and rightfully so--by the coastal communities to require Escondido to act more responsibly in order to protect the economy and environment on the coast,” Harmon said.

One Last Domino

Today, one last domino remains: The Encina Water Pollution Control Facility in Carlsbad.

The secondary treatment plant, which discharges 17 million gallons of sewage offshore each day, was completed in 1983 and serves Carlsbad, San Marcos, Vista and some unincorporated areas. About $40 million of the facility’s $56 million price tag was covered with federal grant money.

In 1984, Encina became one of the first plants nationwide to receive a waiver from secondary treatment. It promptly downgraded to the advanced primary level, where it has operated ever since.

For a spell, the move didn’t attract much attention. But now all eyes are on Encina, as its member agencies wrestle with the question of whether to abandon the waiver and return to secondary treatment. So far, four of six agencies have voted for the higher standards and one, San Marcos, is opposed.

“I don’t think we’re harming the ocean environment,” said Rick Graff, who runs the Encina plant, “but the politics of it have become very, very hot. If we have to switch back, the facilities are already in place.”

Through it all, North County has not been immune to problems with its sewage system. There have been sewage spills along the beach in Oceanside and, just last month, into Batiquitos Lagoon.

A year ago, Escondido was investigated and later reprimanded by state regulators after revelations that a laboratory supervisor at the municipal treatment plant had altered testing data. The changes, which were made on 90 separate occasions, made it appear that sewage leaving the plant was of higher quality than it may have been.

But despite such indiscretions, the bottom line for North County residents is that their cities acted early to ensure facilities would be in place to meet the stricter sewage treatment requirements created 15 years ago.

Perhaps more importantly, such efforts meant North County taxpayers largely avoided the burden of complying with the laws--a burden that will become painfully evident to San Diegans in the years ahead.

“We were committed to going to secondary from the start, and if we got the waiver, fine, if not, that was fine too,” said Rod Wood, Escondido’s assistant city manager.

“We wanted to be prepared, be on the safe side. Because after all, those waivers can be revoked, and we wanted a plant that could be switched back to secondary . . . It looks now like it was the right decision.”