San Diego Needs to Stick to Guns on Sewage Plan

North County’s commitment to complying with the federal Clean Water Act’s secondary sewage-treatment requirement has become evident once again. And the contrast with the increasing ambivalence of elected officials in the city of San Diego is stark.

Last week, the Joint Advisory Committee of the Encina Water Pollution Control Facility voted unanimously to reject the idea of returning to a lower standard of treatment at the Carlsbad plant as a temporary way to reduce odors. Instead, the committee voted to withstand the smell while building covers for open settling basins, a measure engineers say will virtually eliminate the odor problem.

Carlsbad City Councilman Eric Larson underscored the board’s decision by saying that reducing the level of treatment was “not even a viable alternative.”

Meanwhile in San Diego, the city’s 2-year-old commitment to convert to secondary treatment is increasingly under attack by council members. With a major sewer-rate increase looming, Councilman Bob Filner recently joined Bruce Henderson’s longstanding campaign to renew attempts for an exemption from federal standards.

With the city facing lawsuits by the state and the Environmental Protection Agency, their quest is a quixotic one. EPA Administrator William Reilly made that fairly clear last week when he rebuffed efforts to arrange a meeting between him and scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography who believe that secondary treatment is unnecessary for ocean water quality.

And, although the council should proceed cautiously with rate increases while a rate-structure study is being done and negotiations with the federal government continue, a retreat from the commitment to secondary treatment--which the council forcefully reiterated last fall--would be a serious mistake.

On Friday, the city’s engineering consultants announced their recommendation for a combination of water reclamation and secondary sewage treatment that would bring the city into compliance with the Clean Water Act and reduce reliance on imported water. The plan is the result of months of study and is a major step forward. Henderson and Filner’s actions threaten to slow the progress.

This is not the first time North County has shown up the city on the secondary sewage treatment issue. In general, North County agencies have been quicker to move to secondary treatment and were more successful in getting federal funding. Although a few years ago several agencies made applications for waivers from the secondary treatment requirement, most abandoned their plans. Ironically, Encina was the most resistant. After switching to secondary treatment, Encina downgraded treatment in 1984, and only resumed secondary treatment last fall.

But this week’s action seems to indicate that Encina is ready to stick by its decision.

We hope San Diego will do the same.