City Says Settlement of Sewer Suit Is Near; EPA Lawyer Is Less Optimistic

The city of San Diego is nearing a settlement in its 17-month legal battle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, an agreement that could be concluded by the end of the week, a city attorney said during a federal court hearing Monday.

“The city thinks we are close to being able to settle this case in the next four or five days, or know whether a settlement can occur,” Jim Dragna, a private attorney representing the city, told U.S. District Judge Rudi Brewster during a pretrial hearing on the EPA’s demand that San Diego upgrade its sewage treatment system.

But an attorney for the U.S. Department of Justice, which represents the EPA, was less optimistic, telling Brewster that “very serious disagreements” remain between the two sides.

Gerald George, senior counsel for the Justice Department, said in an interview that the issue of how the city will stem continued spills from its system remains an obstacle.

The EPA and the state sued the city last year for missing a July, 1988, deadline for compliance with the federal Clean Water Act and for spilling untreated sewage into local waterways since 1983.

The agencies are demanding that San Diego upgrade its treatment system from the “advanced primary” level, which removes 75% to 80% of solids from effluent, to “secondary” level, which removes 85% to 90% of the solids.

City planners and consultants have drawn up plans for a $2.6-billion to $2.8-billion treatment system that would be the largest public works project ever undertaken by the city. The EPA is not challenging the design of the system, but in court documents filed last month demanded that the city build it by December, 1999. In corresponding documents, the city contended that it could not complete the mammoth construction project until August, 2007.

Last week, however, city attorneys offered to complete the system sometime during 2004, and to build a large-scale sewage cleanup project in lieu of a fine of as much as $3 million, City Hall sources have said.

If the two sides cannot settle the case, Brewster will set the start-up date after a trial that is scheduled to begin Jan. 9 and could last two to three weeks. Later, a separate trial on penalties for past sewage spills would be held.

Dragna said in an interview that the two sides still are negotiating on a start-up date for the system. George would not comment on the negotiations. Robert Simmons, an attorney for the Sierra Club, which has been granted intervenor status, described the two sides as “a hair’s breadth away” from a settlement.