Waste That Never Really Goes Away : County ends 15-year effort to avoid upgrading water treatment plant for Santa Monica Bay

To many Southern California communities, particularly those along the coast, the approach of the rainy season is cause for trepidation. The rain replenishes local aquifers, to be sure, but in recent years rainstorms have also triggered major water pollution problems in the Santa Monica Bay.

Storm drain runoff from cities throughout the county has carried garbage, fecal material, pesticides, toxic minerals and heavy metals from lawns, roadways and industrial plants into the bay. The volume of sewage has at times overwhelmed existing city and county treatment plants. The contaminated water can kill or poison plant and marine life, including fish consumed by humans, and cause a number of illnesses among swimmers. As the region’s population has grown, so has its ocean pollution problem. Last year, for example, there were more than 600 beach closings in California, a great many of them in the southern part of the state.

This winter, however, there is reason to hope the bay’s condition will begin to improve. Last month, after battling a lawsuit brought by local environmentalists and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the county agreed to build an advanced treatment system, sometimes called secondary treatment, to better clean the material it discharges into the ocean. In secondary treatment, organic material is decomposed, creating a sludge that is deposited in a landfill instead of in the ocean.

When completed, the new system should bring the county into compliance with the federal Clean Water Act. Los Angeles County had long sought an exemption from the act, arguing that the expense of advanced cleansing is prohibitive and also that the discharged waste is already adequately treated to protect marine life. The county’s 15-year effort to obtain a federal waiver was unsuccessful; its agreement last month to finally comply made it one of the last urban areas in the nation to do so.

Pressure from environmental groups on local cities and government agencies may also pay off in better storm drain management practices and cleaner ocean water. The Natural Resources Defense Council has targeted the state transportation agency, Caltrans, and the cities of Beverly Hills, El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Culver City and Westlake Village, asking them to better monitor their storm runoff as required by federal law. Many of these cities say they have done all they can or need to do. But as winter comes, all of them need to re-evaluate their plans.