Economics Is Seeping Into Ocean, Sewage Issue

Beneath Brookhurst Street in Huntington Beach lies a pipe, big enough to drive a car through, which extends south, under Pacific Coast Highway, past the beach barbecue pits, below the surf and along the ocean bottom for about five miles.

There, 200 feet below the surface, it dumps almost all of Orange County’s sewage--about 260 million gallons every day.

The blue water and the almost-pristine coast along Orange County is testimony to the ocean’s tremendous capacity to absorb organic waste.

But in Orange County and throughout the state, there is a hot debate, fueled by economics, the uncertainty of marine scientists and California’s intense environmentalism--about whether such dumping should continue or whether governments should spend billions of dollars for new treatment facilities.

Economics Versus Environment

“The decision is an economic one on one side and an environmental one on the other,” said A.B. (Buck) Catlin, a Fullerton city councilman and vice chairman of the Sanitation Districts of Orange County.

On Wednesday, the directors of the sanitation districts, an organization of nine local districts representing the northern 80% of the county’s population--will consider that issue when it discusses its plans through the year 2020.

The board is expected to vote on whether to continue its current operation, which could increase the demand on the environment as the volume of sewage grows to about 400 million gallons per day by 2020. The other option is to spend $1.4 billion--an average of $25 per household per year--for a treatment facility that would ensure that the impact on the marine environment never gets worse than it is today.

Operating for 18 Years

Orange County’s sewage outfall has been operating for almost 18 years. After extensive monitoring by government and outside scientists, there is no evidence that it has damaged the marine environment.

Scientists have found an unusual community of sea life around the outfall. There is a species of clam, for example, that is not native to the area, and the normally ubiquitous red brittle starfish is absent.

But they won’t say that’s bad.

“All we can say is that it’s different,” said Bruce Thompson, a scientist at the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, an organization that monitors the effect of sewage on marine life. “Whether one is better or not, it’s hard to say.”

For some, however, the uncertainty in the scientific community is enough to cause alarm. They do not want to gamble that the scientists are right and then discover that the ocean was damaged by the dumping.

“It’s how important do you consider the environment,” said Peter Saundry, head of the Sierra Club’s Coastal Waters Task Force. “If having a clean and healthy environment is important, then it’s not very expensive.”

Thompson also warned that even though scientists have not found significant damage caused by sewage, “It’s those subtle, long-term effects that we don’t understand. We should go slowly.”

The debate over how clean is clean began in 1972, when Congress passed the Clean Water Act, setting a standard that all of the country’s waterways and bodies should be fishable and swimmable.

To ensure that quality of water, the act required sewage plants, in effect, to process all of their sewage twice to remove at least 85% of the solids before it is dumped in a public body of water. In the industry, that’s known as primary and secondary treatment.

But coastal cities complained that they were being held to a cleanliness standard intended for lakes or rivers even though the ocean has a far greater capacity to absorb sewage without harm.

So in 1977, Congress amended the Clean Water Act to allow the federal Environmental Protection Agency to grant waivers to coastal communities that could prove they were meeting clean water standards without full secondary treatment of their sewage.

Orange County was granted such a waiver in 1985, and it expires next year. If the Sanitation Districts Board of Directors on Wednesday decides against a new treatment facility, it will have to apply to the EPA for an extension of its waiver for 1990 and every five years thereafter.

Currently, Orange County provides primary treatment to all of its sewage and secondary treatment to half. In that process, the district removes 75% of the solids in the sewage before it is dumped in the ocean as a surprisingly clear liquid, according to a sanitation districts’ report.

Under full secondary treatment, 85% of the solids would be removed, the report says.

Still, the report says that by the year 2020, 18 acres of the ocean bottom would be affected by the county’s sewage outfall without full secondary treatment. Only five acres would be affected with full treatment.

Whatever decision the directors make, most Orange County residents are going to pay far more in sewage fees than ever before.

Even if the directors decide to continue operating under a waiver, the county’s facilities will have to be expanded to accommodate the increased flow of sewage expected by 2020, including the addition of a second outfall.

In all, the districts expect to spend about $7.8 billion to continue its current level of treatment for the next 30 years. If the districts decide to begin full secondary treatment, the cost is expected to increase by $1.4 billion.

For individual households, the cost of maintaining the current treatment process will range from $125 to $325 per year, said Corrine Clawson, spokeswoman for the sanitation districts. Currently, households in the nine districts pay between nothing and $46 per year in sewage bills. The increase would be phased in over 15 years.

To go to full secondary treatment, Clawson said, the fee for individual households would range from $240 to $350 by the year 2005 when the phase-in is complete. The average cost difference for the two options, she said, would be $25 per household.

Another element in the districts’ decision is the environmental effect on land for each of the treatment options. While full secondary treatment will reduce the solids that are dumped into the ocean, it will increase the sludge that the districts must dump in a landfill.

Today, the districts have to dump about 115 tons of sludge per day, which is generated by its current treatment process. By 2020, with the same treatment system, the districts will have to dump about 180 tons per day.

Under a system of full secondary treatment, however, the process would produce 244 tons of sludge every day that would have to be dumped at a landfill.

The question being considered in Orange County is also facing many California coastal cities.

San Diego recently voted to upgrade its facilities for full secondary treatment. Its vote came even though a team of scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla lobbied against the additional treatment, saying the impact on the marine environment was minimal and the large amount of money could be better spent on more serious ocean problems.

Los Angeles also recently decided to upgrade its sewer plants for full secondary treatment. Los Angeles County, however, has applied to the EPA for an extended waiver.

Both Los Angeles County and city have separate outfalls that are far more damaging to the environment than Orange County’s, Thompson said, mainly because they have more industrial waste and their volume is so much greater.

Thompson said Los Angeles County dumped 366 million gallons per day from its outfall off the Palos Verdes Peninsula in 1987. The same year, the city of Los Angeles was dumping 375 million gallons per day through its outfall in Santa Monica Bay, he said.