City Approves Deal Requiring Sewage System Upgrading

The city of San Diego formally agreed Monday to improve treatment of the 190-million gallons of sewage it pours into the ocean each day, adopting a legal settlement that requires completion of a multibillion-dollar upgrade of its sewage system by Dec. 31, 2003.

The 7-2 closed-session vote, with Councilmen Bruce Henderson and Bob Filner dissenting, could end nearly 13 years of legal wrangling over sewage treatment if the settlement is signed by officials for the three government agencies that sued the city in July, 1988, over violations of the federal Clean Water Act--a prospect that appears likely. A federal judge then would have to approve the deal.

Attorneys for the city, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Regional Water Quality Control Board had reached a tentative agreement on the key issues of the complex case last month, but Monday marked the first time that any of the participants had agreed to approve the deal.

If adopted, the settlement would set a national precedent. The EPA has not allowed any other city a construction deadline that stretches into the next century. Boston, which went to trial on the issue, has until 1999.

Mayor Maureen O’Connor hailed the proposed settlement as “the most significant thing since I’ve been elected mayor,” and city attorneys predicted that the three other government agencies would go along with the package.

“I feel great,” O’Connor said. “Since I’ve been mayor, the major problem has been the sewer issue, and it’s going to be resolved.”

Still confronting the mayor and council, however, is the daunting task of attempting to win federal help to pay for the new treatment system, estimated to cost $2.6 billion to $2.8 billion in 1990 dollars. Federal grants for such projects no longer are available, leaving new federal legislation as the city’s only hope for assistance.

If that fails, the 1.7 million customers of the Metropolitan Sewerage System will foot the bill. Planners have said that the average resident’s sewer bill could rise from the current $17.12 monthly to as much as $30, but Deputy City Manager Roger Frauenfelder said Monday that the estimates have changed. He refused, however, to discuss the new figures until a report is completed, probably by April 1.

The city must also negotiate the payment of fines for 1,814 sewage spills from 1983 to 1988, an issue that would be settled in a separate trial if agreement cannot be reached. However, the penalty phase of the legal battle would not affect a settlement on the construction timetable, which also includes better control of wastes produced by industry and prevention of spills.

The settlement also leaves Filner and Henderson at least a few years to attempt to lobby for alterations in the federal Clean Water Act, the legislation that required all cities to upgrade their treatment systems to so-called “secondary” levels by July 1, 1988.

The two council critics, backed by scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, claim that the sewage now discharged from the city’s Point Loma treatment plant after treatment to “advanced primary” levels, is not harming the ocean. Secondary treatment removes about 15% more solids than advanced primary treatment.

“I think we should have gone to trial,” Henderson said. “I think we would have done very well at trial.”

At a time when Congress and governments are looking for ways to tighten environmental restrictions, Henderson estimated the chances of changing the Clean Water Act at about 5%. The legal settlement will increase the difficulty of that effort, he said.

“What we have now is a situation where I go to Congress, and they say, ‘You said it was OK, you settled with the EPA,’ ” Henderson said.

The city must also negotiate the demands of the local Sierra Club chapter, which has earned formal status as an intervenor in the case and has threatened to hold up any settlement that does not contain meaningful water conservation provisions. Chief Deputy City Atty. Ted Bromfield said Monday that the Sierra Club was scheduled to consider an offer from the city Monday night, but Sierra Club officials could not be reached for comment.

Upgrading the Point Loma plant would be the last step of what is being called the largest public works project in city history. Planners are also proposing to construct six water reclamation plants around the region and build a second treatment plant and outfall in the South Bay. The water reclamation plants would produce 135 million gallons daily of reusable water.