Waste Treatment Problem May Cost Avalon $100,000

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has recommended that a $100,000 fine be levied against the city of Avalon for violations of its sewage discharge permit.

The fine, included in a complaint scheduled to be filed against the city next week, was recommended after inspectors found at least 50 violations at Avalon’s waste treatment plant from November, 1988, through March, 1989, said Robert Ghirelli, the board’s executive officer. Board officials said that on some days solid waste levels were as much as 100% above levels set in the permit.

Officials in Avalon, however, said the plant has been in compliance with the permit except on three occasions, two of them involving mechanical breakdowns that were repaired within a day. The plant was also in noncompliance during the last two weeks of December, 1988, when a private firm took over operation of the plant from the city, officials said.

Stunned by Penalty

“We were stunned by the board’s reaction,” said City Manager Chuck Prince. “We’re in compliance and have been in compliance. If you look at the (city’s) discharge records and take out finite instances, the plant’s in compliance and it operates well.”

The city will appeal the fine at a hearing before the board scheduled for May 22, Prince said.

Ghirelli said violations were also discovered at the plant in 1985. The city was given a three-year schedule to upgrade and expand the plant and to bring it into compliance with the permit.

Expansion increased the plant’s capacity from 500,000 gallons a day to about 1.2 million gallons a day, Prince said.

After the expansion was completed in November, the board began monitoring the waste-water discharge using automated devices that were periodically read by board inspectors.

“We have a history here of problems with the city,” Ghirelli said. “If everything had gone well, the city should have been in compliance, but they weren’t. We have the city working to correct the problem but they haven’t really gotten the job done.”

Employee Turnover Cited

City officials say some of the violations occurred because of employee turnover after Operations Consultants Inc., a Gardena-based waste treatment firm, took over operation of the plant in December.

The five city employees who worked at the plant were given the option of continuing the same work for the company or transferring to other city jobs, said Steve McLean, the firm’s general manager. Three chose to leave the plant for other city jobs and had to be replaced, McLean said. The loss of experienced employees contributed to problems regulating sewage discharge, he said.

David Sherman, a spokesman for the company, said it is “extremely unusual for an expanded or new plant to comply with discharge standards within the first month of operations.”

McLean also noted that special conditions exist at the Avalon plant because it uses saltwater to process waste. In saltwater treatment plants, the reaction of bacteria to the biological waste treatment process requires more careful monitoring than in freshwater plants, McLean said.

“The environment is radically different for bacteria in saltwater than it is in freshwater,” McLean said.

Prince said he knew of only three other saltwater waste treatment plants in the country, two in Florida and one in Maine.

The city and the board separately monitor the oxygen level and the amount of solid wastes in sewage at the Avalon plant before it is discharged into the ocean from a pipe that extends 400 feet off the Santa Catalina shore, board officials said.

Discharge Measures

The permit allows for sewage discharge with an average of 20 milligrams of “biochemical oxygen demand” per liter of water per month, said Winnie Deslate, a board senior engineer. Biochemical oxygen demand is a measure of the amount of oxygen needed to break down sewage, officials said.

The permit also allows for 30 milligrams of suspended solid waste per liter of water each month, Deslate said.

In the city’s tests, biochemical oxygen demand levels averaged 17 milligrams and solid waste averaged about 21 milligrams per liter--not counting periods when there were mechanical breakdowns and other problems at the plant, Prince said.

But the board’s measurements showed waste levels ranged from just over permit limits to as much as 100% over the limits on certain days, Deslate said. In February, 1989, for example, biochemical oxygen demand was 22.8 milligrams, just over the limit of 20, but solid waste averaged 59.5 milligrams per liter, nearly twice the 30-milligram limit, she said.

“Sometimes they’re in compliance and sometimes they’re off,” Deslate said. “It’s been going on for four months and we feel something has to be done about it. They’re not really improving.”

Prince said the fine not have been recommended if the city had worked more closely with the board during the plant expansion.

The Avalon city attorney is working with city and company officials to prepare the appeal for the May 22 hearing, said Prince, adding that he is confident the city will persuade the board to reduce the amount of the fine or eliminate it altogether.

“We’re optimistic,” Prince said. “We are in compliance, except we had mechanical failures and (employee) turnovers, and that hurt us.”