L.A. Bid to Block Sewage Grants Fails

The City of Los Angeles lost a bid Tuesday to block distribution of $55.5 million in federal sewage treatment funds in a long-running dispute with the state over millions of dollars needed to overhaul the antiquated Hyperion sewage treatment plant.

Judge Harry Pregerson denied the city’s request for a temporary restraining order blocking funding to four other municipalities, pending resolution of Los Angeles’ complaint that it has been shorted $64 million in federal Clean Water Act funds for the last fiscal year.

Pregerson, a federal appeals court judge who has presided over years of litigation stemming from sewage pollution of Santa Monica Bay, acknowledged in a brief order that the state and the federal Environmental Protection Agency may have violated “some legal obligations” in cutting back the city’s expected funding for the project.

But the judge held that the purported violations do not justify imposing an immediate order blocking funding to other cities and counties throughout the state whose sewer projects could have been held up in the dispute.

Deputy City Atty. Noel R. Slipsager said the city will consider pursuing related lawsuits it has filed in both state and federal court.

In a petition filed late Friday, Los Angeles city officials challenged the state Water Resources Control Board’s decision in September, 1987, to place a $25-million cap on sewer fund allocations and to eliminate funding for projects not directly related to sewage treatment.

Los Angeles claims the new policy, which is presently under review by the EPA, would short the city an additional $98 million in the 1988 fiscal year for work at the Hyperion plant in Playa del Rey.

Without the money, city officials said, Los Angeles will be unable to comply with a consent decree reached last year under which the city agreed to undertake $2 billion in renovations at Hyperion to settle government complaints about illegal discharges into Santa Monica Bay.

The state Water Resources Control Board, which allocates money in California for the EPA, announced the new policy in an attempt to give the widest possible distribution to the rapidly dwindling funds, said Paul Winchell, an attorney for the board.

“The board recognized the program was running out of money, so they basically said we want to share this money amongst as many municipalities as we can,” Winchell said.

Los Angeles had sought a court order blocking funding to four municipalities whose projects have been ranked lower in priority than Hyperion, arguing that there will otherwise be no money left to give Los Angeles, even if the city wins its appeal with the EPA.

The municipalities affected would have been Grass Valley near Sacramento, which has a $1-million allocation; the Sonoma Valley Community Services District, $4.5 million; the East Bay Municipal Utility District, $25 million; and San Francisco, $25 million.

Winchell said it is unlikely that San Francisco will get an allocation this year in any case because there is not enough money to fund all of the projects recommended for financing.