State Threatens to Withhold Money for Sewage Plant

State water officials have threatened to withhold money to expand Los Angeles’ troubled Hyperion sewage treatment plant because of a dispute over enforcement of a law that requires prompt inspection of the city’s 15,000 underground storage tanks--about 25% of which are believed to be leaking.

State laws requiring the inventory and inspection of underground tanks were passed in 1983, but it was not until April, 1987, that the City Council adopted a tank inspection program and not until April of this year that the council set permit fees of $123 per tank.

Sewer payments, the only financial leverage that water officials have over the city, will be withheld because the city has repeatedly missed deadlines to submit about $840,000 in permit fees from owners of underground tanks, spokesmen said.

In a May 26 letter, the California Water Resources Control Board warned the city that sewage plant construction money--amounting to about $150,000 a month--will be held up after June 15 if the city does not pay at least part of the debt.

City officials discounted the warning letter, saying they intend to forward $216,000 to the state this week and pay the rest within a few months. The state agreed that a payment before June 15 probably would keep sewer payments flowing to the city.

But James L. Easton, executive director of the state water board, said the tardy fees are only a small part of a larger problem--Los Angeles’ go-slow approach to detecting leaks of fuel and industrial solvents from thousands of tanks within the city.

Of the 100 cities and counties charged with running tank-inspection programs, only six rural counties have lagged as far behind as Los Angeles in forcing tank tests and making payments to the state, according to state documents.

“They are way behind where they should be and are unnecessarily endangering a very important ground water resource,” Easton said in an interview. “To ignore a problem that can be very damaging to your water supplies is not very good government.”

City officials said they are keenly aware of the threat posed by underground tanks, which have contaminated dozens of city drinking-water wells in the San Fernando Valley. About 25% of the state’s 170,000 tanks are thought to be leaking, water officials said.

“What we want is what the man up in Sacramento wants,” said Assistant Chief James W. Young, the Fire Department official in charge of the city tanks program, referring to Easton. “We want to protect ground water. And I believe we have acted in a responsible manner.”

Young said the city’s four-year start-up period could not be avoided because a new computer program had to be developed and fire inspectors retrained as environmental officers.

Numerous hearings before city commissions and the City Council also took many months, he said.

The city finally began sending permit applications and tank-testing requirements to owners last month, almost three years after the original legal deadline for completing the permit process. Fees had been paid on about 3,900 tanks by last Friday.

Fire Department inspectors on July 1 will begin to inspect tank locations and insist that pressure tests be done.

Though starting late, Young maintained that extensive preparation will allow Los Angeles to complete tank testing and removal and the installation of permanent monitoring devices by July, 1990, well before some other cities and counties.

Many other local agencies began issuing tank permits and collecting fees in 1984 and 1985, but that does not mean they have followed through to make sure tanks were tested and contamination cleaned up, he said.

Even without a mandatory inspection program, Los Angeles has overseen the voluntary removal of more than 2,000 old tanks, Young said. Of those, 651 were leaking and at least 200 had contaminated ground water, he said.

Roger Johnson, statewide director of the tank program, said he cannot say whether any of the 100 local agencies have completed their tank-testing programs, since the state does not monitor them directly. But a number have said their programs are near completion, Johnson said.

State and local water officials said Los Angeles has moved much slower than Los Angeles County, which is responsible for tank inspections in all but five area cities.