Sewage Panel Considers Seeking Exemption on Upgrading System

For the first time, a San Diego task force Tuesday considered a proposal that the city defy federal law by refusing to upgrade its sewage-treatment system to so-called “secondary” standards.

But the Metropolitan Sewage Task Force delayed a vote on that recommendation until Sept. 12, despite the apparent sentiment among a majority of its members that the costly treatment upgrade required by the law is unnecessary to protect the ocean off the city’s coast.

Any recommendation from the task force would merely be an advisory one because only the council can adopt a plan for improving the city’s sewage-treatment system. City planners have proposed a project estimated to cost $2.6 billion to $2.86 billion if the city adheres to the dictates of the U.S. Clean Water Act.

Nevertheless, the task force’s discussion is significant because it represents the first formal recognition of claims by Scripps Institution of Oceanography scientists that a full treatment upgrading is unnecessary and would cost the city $700 million to $1 billion more than it truly needs to spend.

Based on that advice, City Council members Bruce Henderson and Bob Filner have been pressing for an alternative to the secondary-sewage upgrading that might include lobbying Congress for an exemption.

The Environmental Protection Agency has sued the city to force it to comply with the “secondary” standard, under which 85% to 90% of solids are removed from effluent. The city’s current “advanced primary” system removes about 75% of solids.

Settlement negotiations are continuing, but the city and the federal government are scheduled to square off in court Dec. 5. A major issue is how quickly the city would be required to upgrade the treatment system.

EPA administrators and scientists last week told the task force that the 190 million gallons of sewage discharged into the sea daily from the city’s Point Loma treatment plant cause changes in the environment there and that the city has no choice but to upgrade its treatment system.

Task force Vice Chairman John Leach proposed keeping the plant at advanced primary standards until at least 2010. After that, the city would reconsider upgrading the plant to secondary standards. Under Leach’s plan, another 120 million gallons a day of sewage would be cleansed for reuse in irrigation.