Waiver Hearing Sought on Sewage Treatment Levels

In a move that drew fire from environmentalists, the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts have requested a public hearing to seek a federal waiver that would exempt its giant sewage plant in Carson from tighter treatment standards.

The request, made to the federal Environmental Protection Agency, comes about a month after the EPA tentatively rejected the sanitation districts’ formal application for the waiver.

The hearing request is sure to rekindle controversy over treatment at the Carson plant, which pumps 365-million gallons of effluent each day into the ocean through outfalls south of the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The facility serves dozens of sanitation districts from Palos Verdes Estates to Pomona.

Sanitation officials have estimated that it would cost ratepayers $350 million to meet federal standards requiring full secondary treatment, a system that makes use of biological processes to remove 85% of solids from waste water.

Although 60% of the effluent from the Carson plant already receives secondary treatment, the rest undergoes less intensive screening.

“The county sanitation districts have been spending an incredible amount of taxpayers’ money to evade and avoid going to full (sewage) treatment,” said Dorothy Green, president of Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group. “We are thoroughly disgusted by the lengths to which they are willing to go to avoid living up to their responsibilities.”

A spokesman for the sanitation districts said his agency’s request was a well-intentioned attempt to get a fair hearing.

“This is not simply a delay tactic,” said spokesman Joe Haworth. “We have a need to put our evidence forward. We believe we’ve got some points to make that we don’t think (the EPA) responded to.”

The sanitation districts argue that their effluent does not pose a threat to marine life. They also say that removing more solids would be dangerous because they help cap a layer of bay sediment contaminated by hundreds of tons of the pesticide DDT discharged in the 1950s and ‘60s.

In its tentative denial Jan. 30 of the districts’ waiver request, EPA regional administrator Daniel McGovern rejected both arguments. However, an EPA official said last week that given the importance of the issue, it is likely that the agency will grant the districts a public hearing.

“My guess is we will probably hold one,” said Janet Hashimoto, oceans and estuaries chief at the agency’s San Francisco regional office.

Hashimoto said a 30-day public notice period has to be held before the hearing, which would be conducted by an EPA official.