SOUTH COUNTY : Industrial Waste Survey to Be Taken

A survey that water officials hope will pinpoint the source and nature of industrial wastes being discharged into the sewer system will be sent to 15,000 South County businesses over the next week.

A consortium of eight water and sanitation districts in South County is trying to learn the source of potentially harmful chemicals that cannot be treated by sewer plants.

“We can deal with most of the normal household chemicals that are dumped into the system,” said Lisa Hogan, program manager for the Aliso Water Management Agency. “But with the commercial chemicals, the sewer plants can treat some of them, but not all of them.”

Businesses will be asked to list what chemicals, metals or other pollutants that they discharge into the sewer. Hogan expects that a few firms will be required to apply for an industrial waste permit, but most companies will not be affected by the results of the survey.

“We want to establish who is discharging what into the sewer on industrial sites,” Hogan said.

South County’s water and sanitation districts were required to send the surveys by a recent amendment to the federal Clean Water Act, Hogan said.

She said firms that fail to return the surveys will be contacted by telephone or visited by district personnel.

Agencies participating in the study are the Dana Point Sanitary District, Capistrano Beach Sanitary District, South Coast Water District, Santa Margarita Water District, El Toro Water District, Moulton Niguel Water District, and the cities of Laguna Beach and San Clemente.