County Gives In, Agrees to Improve Sewage Treatment

Becoming one of the last urban areas in the nation to step up its cleansing of sewage discharged into the ocean, Los Angeles County has agreed, after 15 years of battling federal law, to build a $400-million advanced treatment system.

The county also agreed to pay $2.7 million in penalties for violating the Clean Water Act, which requires that all sewage released into waterways receive secondary treatment, an advanced cleansing process to protect marine life.

Environmentalists from Heal the Bay and the Natural Resources Defense Council, who have been trying for years to persuade the county to comply, called the agreement a major step in cleaning up ocean waters off Southern California.

“This is the single largest source of pollution into Santa Monica Bay, and the bay is one of the most cherished and most used water resources in the entire country,” said NRDC attorney Mitch Bernard. “The law requires a certain level of cleanliness, and that law has been violated by the county for a long time. So this is a huge victory for the citizens.”

The Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts’ 2 million ratepayers will pick up the tab, with each household paying $200 over 20 years, plus $5 to $10 annually in operating expenses, said Bob Miele, head of technical services at the sanitation agency.

County sanitation officials say they argued so long and vigorously to get an exemption from the federal law, not only to save residents from the expense, but also because they believe the waste water already is sufficiently treated to protect the environment.

“This is $400 million that will come out of the pockets of the public,” Miele said. “If you had that much to spend in this community, would you spend it to take solids out of the ocean so we have a healthier environment for clams and other organisms, or would you spend it on health care or child care or drug prevention?”

The new treatment system, to be built at the county’s sanitation plant in Carson, must be operating by July 1, 2002, or the county must pay another $1 million fine.

The agreement culminates a lawsuit filed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Heal the Bay environmental organization, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the state’s regional water board.

The settlement is not yet final, because the EPA and the water board have not officially signed off on it. But attorneys from both agencies have orally agreed and the sanitation board and two environmental groups signed the settlement earlier this month.

The penalties include $300,000 to the federal government, $200,000 to the state water board, $1.2 million to improve Los Angeles County’s program to collect household hazardous wastes and $1 million for an expanded water reclamation program. The NRDC also gets $200,000 to cover legal fees.

Under the agreement, all 330 million gallons of human and industrial waste that flow daily from the Carson sanitation plant into the ocean about a mile off the Palos Verdes Peninsula must undergo secondary treatment. Currently, 60% of the waste undergoes the treatment, which removes a larger proportion of organic matter, oily contaminants and toxic metals in the waste flushed by households and businesses.

The expanded treatment will eliminate half of the solid wastes, about 35 million pounds per year, that the county sanitation plant currently releases into the ocean, according to sanitation district data.

“Removing that much pollution will be a tremendous boon to marine life,” said Mark Gold, staff scientist for Heal the Bay, based in Santa Monica. “We fully expect the marine community off the Palos Verdes shelf to begin recovery within 10 to 20 years.”

Miele said the sanitation agency hires researchers who study the impact on marine life, “and it has been, and still is, our opinion that our present discharge is absolutely adequate to protect the environment. But it’s no question that public opinion weighed in our decision to go to full secondary treatment.”

Secondary treatment is a biological cleansing process that gobbles up and decomposes organic material and creates a sludge, which is hauled to a landfill instead of pumped into the ocean.

The technique generally makes the ocean cleaner for marine life, but is of little benefit to the health of humans because all sewage discharged from the plant already is disinfected to kill bacteria and viruses. Some bottom-dwelling marine creatures vanish from sites where partially treated waste is discharged, while others become more abundant.

The county has resisted expanding its waste water treatment since 1977, the deadline Congress set for municipalities to comply with the Clean Water Act. Los Angeles County applied for a special waiver in 1979, and the EPA took until 1990 to deny the request. Heal the Bay and the NRDC notified the county two years ago that they intended to sue, and the EPA stepped in to file the suit in January, 1992.

“There’s no question citizens made this happen,” said the NRDC’s Bernard. “The fact that citizens initiated and pursued the process makes it an even bigger victory.”

In recent years, the sanitation agency unsuccessfully argued to the EPA that the sewage flow should be left as is because it adds a protective layer over old ocean sediments heavily contaminated with DDT and PCBs. They say treating the sewage will raise the risk that more of the toxic compounds, which were dumped in the ocean from the 1940s through the 1970s, will seep into the water.

“Our contention is that there is nothing we can do now to correct the sins of the past,” Miele said. “But that’s an argument we lost to the environmental community and the state and federal governments.”

San Diego, the only major urban area to remain out of compliance with the sewage-treatment law, has also been sued by the EPA. The EPA rarely grants waivers; Orange County has been the only major metropolitan area to obtain one and it is seeking a renewal.