L.A. Bid for Freeze on U.S. Sewage Funds OKd

A Superior Court judge froze an estimated $55.5 million in federal sewage treatment funds in California on Tuesday, pending resolution of Los Angeles’ claims that it is entitled to more money to overhaul the aging Hyperion sewage treatment plant.

Judge Aurelio Munoz granted the city’s request for a temporary restraining order freezing allocations to four municipalities, including San Francisco and Sonoma Valley, whose funding requests have been ranked lower in priority than Los Angeles’, pending a full hearing in his Los Angeles courtroom on Sept. 16.

Los Angeles officials, strapped with a $2-billion bill for completing improvements at the Hyperion facility in Playa del Rey, have challenged a new state policy limiting individual allocations to $25 million and eliminating financing for projects not directly related to sewage treatment.

The policy, adopted last year by the state Water Resources Control Board, which makes recommendations for federal Clean Water Act grant funds in California, was designed to stretch the dwindling funds further among a number of smaller cities competing for the money.

But Los Angeles claims it cannot comply with a federal court consent decree to clean up emissions into Santa Monica Bay without a larger allocation.

In papers filed in federal court last week, city officials said the new policy would short the city about $64 million for the 1987 fiscal year and an additional $98 million this year.

David Biderman, a lawyer representing the city, said the temporary restraining order is designed to make sure the remaining grant funds are not spent in the event that Los Angeles is able to persuade a judge later that the new policy is improper.

The federal Environmental Protection Agency is already reviewing the city’s challenge to the policy and is expected to rule sometime next month.

The temporary restraining order prohibits the Water Resources Control Board from approving plans and specifications or awarding grant funds for any project with a lower ranking than Los Angeles’ Hyperion treatment project for the current fiscal year.

The order also prohibits the board from excluding funding for non-treatment facilities from higher priority grant applications.

Water board officials could not be reached for comment late Tuesday.

But a board spokesman has said that only four municipalities are likely to be affected by any court-imposed freeze.

The largest is a $25-million allocation to the East Bay Municipal Utility District in the San Francisco Bay Area. San Francisco has another $25-million allocation that could also be held up, but board spokesmen said the city’s request was ranked so low that funding would likely have been unavailable to the city in any case.

Grass Valley near Sacramento has a $1-million allocation that could be held up by the order, and the Sonoma Valley Community Services District has a $4.5-million allocation that also is likely to be affected.