$83,000 Fine for Agency’s Sewage Spills

Moulton Niguel Water District was fined $83,000 Wednesday by state officials for sewage spills that have closed beaches for 47 days since the beginning of 1999.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, which has jurisdiction over Clean Water Act enforcement in southern Orange County, voted unanimously for the fine at a meeting in Temecula, board chairman Wayne Baglin said.

The district has had 17 spills since January 1999, eight of which sent a total of 39,000 gallons of untreated human waste into the ocean, Baglin said.

The state’s nine regional water boards have been stepping up enforcement of state and federal water-quality laws in recent months, including fines for sewage spills.

Last month, Laguna Beach agreed to pay a $60,000 fine imposed by the San Diego board for 23 sewer spills, eight of which closed beaches for 29 days in an 18-month period ending in June. The Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Control Board is expected to fine the Orange County Sanitation District by the end of the month for an inland sewage spill that closed the water off Seal Beach.

The fines are not limited to Orange County. The city of San Diego is being fined $3.46 million for a 34-million-gallon spill.

“I did hear staff say [Wednesday] that they are following a very strict liability approach to fines,” Baglin said. “If you spill and close a beach, you will be fined. . . . That is almost a certainty.”