Congress Asked to Take Role in Cleanup of Bay

The scene was easy-going Los Angeles--the beach, the Santa Monica Pier, the bay in the sunny Sunday background.

But the script was tough politics. Westside political leaders, at a press conference on the pier, proposed that Congress step in to make sure Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley’s Administration meets federal deadlines in modernizing and repairing an outmoded city sewage disposal system that is polluting Santa Monica Bay.

Bradley aides reacted sharply against the proposal, saying congressional intervention is unnecessary.

$625,000 Fine

Last October, the city agreed in a settlement to pay a $625,000 fine levied by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for dumping sewage into the bay. Los Angeles also agreed to meet new deadlines for repairing and upgrading the city’s big sewage disposal plant on the bay, the outmoded and trouble-plagued Hyperion plant. Federal Judge Harry Pregerson, in charge of the case, has wide authority to penalize the city for missing the deadlines.

Rep. Mel Levine (D-Calif.), whose district includes the beach, expressed his concern that the city would not meet the deadlines. “The pollution in the bay is so significant that it deserves federal, as well as state and local, attention,” he said. Levine was joined on the pier by Los Angeles City Council members Zev Yaroslavsky, who is planning to run against Bradley in 1989, and Ruth Galanter, who represents the beachfront community of Venice.

Levine, who cited recent spills into the bay as evidence of the city’s inability to deal with sewage, said he will introduce legislation requiring the city to reduce the number of sewer-connection permits it issues if it fails to meet EPA deadlines. Such action would limit development in the city because sewer connection permits are required for new building projects.

Bradley’s chief of staff, Deputy Mayor Mike Gage, replied that the city “is on time and under budget” on repairs to the sewer system and that Levine’s bill is not needed. The city agreed to stop dumping sludge into the bay by the end of 1988 and to have a system in place to treat all of the waste water destined for the bay by 1998.

Gage noted Judge Pregerson has “full authority to levy whatever sanctions he chose” if the city fails to repair the system and “they could be far tougher” than those advocated by Levine.

The press conference came just two days before Bradley is scheduled to announce the start-up of a major part of the sewage disposal system renovation--the Hyperion Energy Recovery System, which will incinerate treated sewage solids known as sludge.

The mayor’s press conference Tuesday is intended to showcase progress the Administration has made in meeting the EPA order and to counter criticism that he has been unable to deal with the sewage problem.

Yaroslavsky has become a strong critic of Bradley’s Board of Public Works, which is in charge of the sewage system, and has attacked the mayor on other environment-related issues. Galanter got elected to the council in June by portraying Bradley’s choice, Councilwoman Pat Russell, as being pro-growth and espousing policies that hurt the environment. Levine has long criticized the Bradley Administration’s handling of bay pollution. And he is part of the Westside political organization headed by Reps. Howard Berman and Henry Waxman that has been increasingly hostile to Bradley and is likely to back Yaroslavsky against the mayor in 1989.

Yaroslavsky long has had doubts about how well the proposed sludge burning system will work, and said Sunday that he has “a fear these deadlines will not be met.”

Gage recalled that Yaroslavsky, in the 1970s, had opposed EPA attempts to force Los Angeles to improve its sewage system. “He apparently is changing his position,” Gage said.

Yaroslavsky conceded that he had opposed the EPA’s efforts a decade ago to force the city to stop dumping sludge into the bay. He said that he was following the advice of consultants to the city at the time.