San Diego

A federal judge Tuesday refused to dismiss a major portion of a lawsuit by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency charging the city of San Diego with numerous violations of the nation’s Clean Water Act.

According to Chief Deputy City Atty. Ted Bromfield, U. S. District Judge Rudi Brewster declined to throw out charges that the city violated permits governing sewage discharge from its Point Loma treatment plant by repeatedly allowing inadequately treated waste to flow into the ocean.

The EPA, joined by the state Regional Water Quality Control Board, is seeking fines of $10,000 a day for each violation between July 5, 1983, and Feb. 4, 1987. The federal agency is asking for fines of $25,000 daily for violations after that date.

The prime objective of the suit is to force the city to upgrade its sewage-treatment system to “secondary treatment,” as required by the water act. The city has begun to plan that effort, which will cost between $2.4 billion and $4.2 billion, depending on which system the council chooses.

The city asked Brewster to dismiss the charges during an April 10 court hearing, arguing that the higher level of pollutants in the effluent were authorized by state permits it has repeatedly received since 1979.

Bromfield called the decision “a minor setback,” but said the city will pursue “other avenues of defense.”