Saving on Sewage

In the battle of numbers about the possible costs involved with the implementation of San Diego’s secondary sewage treatment system, it’s easy to be dazzled by the smoke and mirrors of official pronouncements.

The county Board of Supervisors recently received a report looking into the actual costs involved in this proposed system. When the financing costs are included, it is clear that the amount is easily double the $2.8 billion figure, or $5 to $6 billion.

If federal requirements are changed to allow new chemical methods to be incorporated, there will be no need to undergo the massive capital costs involved with building a secondary treatment facility using biological oxidation methods.

If the capital costs of adding biological oxidation methods are 35% of the $2.8 billion--hence a savings of nearly $1 billion--and if we add the savings in financing costs, the amount of money saved to the rate payers is at least $1.6 billion.

ELAINE R. BROOKS

La Jolla