EPA’s Reaction Awaited : Panel Urges Delay in Sewage Plant Upgrade

The Metropolitan Sewage Task Force on Tuesday set the stage for a showdown with the federal government by unanimously recommending that the city of San Diego not upgrade the Point Loma sewage treatment plant until 2015.

The task force determined that the city could keep ocean waters off Point Loma safe and clean for the next 25 years without adding expensive secondary treatment technology mandated by the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency.

The task force instead recommended that the City Council begin work on a multibillion-dollar string of waste-water treatment and reclamation plants--but delay adding the new technology at the Point Loma plant for at least 25 years.

Task force chairman E. Harvey Miles said the recommendation was not intended to sidestep regulations that mandate the added treatment. “The question would be when we go to secondary treatment,” Miles said.

It was uncertain Tuesday how the EPA would react to a city plan that delayed the Point Loma treatment plant upgrading for 25 years.

The EPA has seen the task force’s plan and has “asked for refinements,” according to Ted Bromfield, chief deputy city attorney. Bromfield declined to comment on whether the EPA, which has demanded that the city move quickly to bring the Point Loma plant into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act, would go along with the 25-year plan.

Failed to Meet Deadline

City officials, who unsuccessfully lobbied federal officials for a waiver, failed to meet a 1987 EPA deadline for installing secondary treatment equipment at the Point Loma plant. The federal government subsequently sued the city, and Bromfield is now involved in “very sensitive” negotiations that could bring a settlement before the case heads to court Dec. 5.

When the Point Loma plant should be upgraded constitutes “a key part of those negotiations,” Bromfield said.

The task force’s recommendation was significant because it marked the first time an official government body has stated that a plant upgrading, which might cost as much as $1 billion, would not significantly improve the quality of ocean waters off Point Loma. The resolution passed Tuesday noted that the EPA and a group of distinguished local scientists have failed to provide “conclusive proof” that advanced treatment is or isn’t necessary.

City Councilman Bob Filner, who along with Councilman Bruce Henderson has argued that advanced treatment isn’t necessary, on Tuesday applauded the task force recommendation. “I was hoping they’d make that recommendation to us,” Filner said. “It would effectively give us a de facto waiver until we work out some other legislative solution.”

However, Filner acknowledged that the City Council can’t end its long-running legal battle with the EPA simply by embracing the task force recommendation. “It won’t settle (the federal) lawsuit unless EPA accepts it,” Filner said. “And I don’t know if the EPA would accept it.”

The two council members, with support from scientists at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, have argued that advanced treatment won’t produce corresponding benefits for the ocean waters. They hope to gain congressional support for legislation that would exempt the city from the federal sewage standards.

Preparing Motions

Filner said several city councils in the county are preparing motions that support the long-running effort for federal legislation that would exempt some cities from installing the expensive secondary-treatment technology.

However, Bromfield on Tuesday cautioned task force members against passing a resolution endorsing congressional action to loosen secondary-treatment regulations. Such a resolution “has the appearance . . . of backsliding,” Bromfield said.

The task force’s recommendation suggested that the 25-year delay would help to maximize “the present investment and useful life of Point Loma,” lessen the burden upon taxpayers and still protect the ocean.

Miles directed staff members to forward the recommendation to the City Council this morning.