Setting Priorities for the Bay : Serious Pollution Control Means Denying Waiver on Sewage

The move by Congress to ban further ocean dumping of sewage sludge reflects the revival of the nation’s environmental conscience--a heartening renewal after nearly a decade of this Administration’s benign neglect.

Yet Los Angeles County’s autonomous sewage authority, which discharges half of the Santa Monica Bay area’s sewage, has notified the Environmental Protection Agency that it would like to continue its practice of providing treatment that is substandard. The Sanitation Districts of Los Angeles County (SDLAC) has applied for a waiver under which it would not have to remove large amounts of otherwise elusive toxins from sewage.

Clearly the request is wrong. But its action has more significance than the sewage-treatment question. We have reached a philosophical crossroads. In the early days, environmental protection was carried out in broad brush strokes. Now we enter the age of refinement when we are asked: How much is enough? How do we weigh one approach against another?

The purpose of sewage treatment is to remove the solids, because to these cling the most harmful ingredients--deadly bacteria and viruses from human waste, and chemical toxins from industrial waste. During primary treatment the solids are allowed to simply settle out. Secondary treatment uses a process to force the more resistant solids to settle. Once removed, the solids are known as sludge.

The Clean Water Act requires that all sewage-treatment plants provide secondary treatment for 100% of their sewage, or “full” secondary treatment. The waiver would allow SDLAC to continue providing only 50% secondary treatment in its main plant.

The sewage authority argues that full secondary treatment will yield an additional 100 dry tons of sludge each day, which it will need to dispose of. Sewage does not vanish if dumped into the ocean. It kills or contaminates the fish that we eat and destroys marine habitat. What SDLAC is overlooking is that sludge is also tough to burn or dump in landfills, because roughly 10% to 25% of sewage comes from industrial sources that chemically contaminate the sludge. This has been a longstanding problem that SDLAC must finally face. To effectively deal with this problem, it must require industry to recycle its refuse, find safe disposal methods or change its processes. This will enable us to safely compost or landfill sludge.

The sewage authority also contends that high levels of solids should be maintained so that they may settle out in the ocean and bury the highly toxic DDT that now contaminates the ocean floor. The DDT is permanently layered within the sediment after thousands of tons were dumped during the 1950s and 1960s. The authority argues that the 45,000 metric tons a year of solids that it now pipes onto the San Pedro Shelf is the precise amount needed to cover or “cap” the DDT, placing it beyond fish and burrowing creatures that feed and live on the ocean floor. If they go to full secondary treatment, this amount would be cut by almost two-thirds.

This argument, though curious at first glance, might actually make sense under other circumstances. But SDLAC has failed to address the critical fact that it is capping the DDT with--and thus exposing marine life to--toxic heavy metals, pesticides, polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons, phenols, oil and grease. Conversely, under full secondary treatment the discharge of all these--including cadmium, mercury, nickel, cyanide and arsenic--will be reduced. For example, oil and grease discharges will be reduced from 17 to 3 tons per day, and the discharge of toxic lead will go from 25 tons per year to 18 tons.

The sewage authority’s argument is also weakened by the fact that the actual amount of solids discharged will not stay at 45,000 metric tons. For example, it is considering halting the discharge of centrate (concentrated solids formed during treatment), which will cut the solids pumped to sea by 25%. On the other hand, growth in the Los Angeles area will likely contribute an additional 10,000 metric tons of solids per year by 1988.

The sewage authority maintains that it can meet all of the EPA’s water-quality requirements without full secondary treatment. Given SDLAC’s daily level of toxic discharges, it makes no difference if it can meet EPA guidelines. The EPA sets minimum standards. If the sewage authority can excel beyond EPA standards, it must do so. The issue is not about meeting standards; it’s about protecting our health and environment.

The EPA recently accepted Santa Monica Bay into its new comprehensive management and cleanup program, the National Estuaries Program. The bay will also be studied as a possible addition to the nation’s park system for the oceans, the National Marine Sanctuaries Program. It would be wholly inconsistent for the federal government to maintain on the one hand that the bay deserves special federal protection while on the other that substandard sewage treatment is permissible.

Despite these rebuttals, SDLAC cannot be dismissed as environmentally fraudulent. Instead, it is challenging us. There’s a lesson to be learned, and this is our first test. What really are our priorities? And do we have the guts to stand behind them? Yes, we have the resolve. To suggest that full sewage treatment is not needed is to suggest that the public will overlook what it cannot see. We will work to reverse America’s environmental decline.

Now the EPA must rise to the challenge. The waiver must be denied. SDLAC must move swiftly to develop full secondary facilities.