EPA Sues to Demand That L.A. Prevent Spills From Sewer Lines

By MARLA CONE

Jan. 9, 2001 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and state officials filed suit Monday against Los Angeles, demanding that the city stop its frequent sewage spills, which are occurring at a rate of almost two per day.

“The high number of spills we’ve seen in the last few years is a serious public health problem,” said Alexis Strauss, director of the EPA’s regional water division.

Los Angeles recently spent $1.6 billion to upgrade its Hyperion sewage treatment plant to meet environmental standards. Although that plant is now considered state-of-the-art, the massive but outdated system of 6,500 miles of sewer pipes leading to it is insufficiently maintained, state and federal officials said.

The EPA did not take any action against Orange County, where health officials last year recorded 376 sewage spills that released at least 4.6 million gallons of waste, according to figures released Monday.

Sewage spills forced at least 38 Orange County beach closures last year, compared to 22 such situations in 1999.

State water authorities have begun to crack down on parties in Orange County responsible for excessive sewage leaks, among them Laguna Beach, the Orange County Sanitation District and the Moulton Niguel Water District. Also, water officials demanded that Huntington Beach search for the source of millions of gallons of sewage that leaked from old and cracked pipes during the 1990s. City officials estimated four years ago that more than 71,000 gallons of sewage was escaping each day but did not begin fixing the problem pipes until 1999.

Six current and former Huntington Beach officials were called this month to testify before the Orange County Grand Jury, which is investigating whether the city had covered up its leaky sewer-pipe problems during the summer of 1999. For two months that summer, four miles of Huntington Beach were closed while officials searched for the source of the pollution.

Los Angeles officials, who have been negotiating with the EPA since November, called the suit unnecessary.

The action is an “inexplicable rush to litigation,” said Judith Wilson, director of the city’s Bureau of Sanitation.

Privately, city officials suggested that the EPA had acted simply to prevent the Bush administration from changing the agency’s bargaining position once it takes office.

Los Angeles officials have recognized for several years that the sewer system needs work and have committed hundreds of millions of dollars to the effort. But EPA officials have sought to require the city to complete the work more quickly and to enact additional regulations on businesses that city officials have said are too costly.

“The litigation is not warranted. In Los Angeles, we’ve made tremendous strides in the past years in terms of our sewer capacity and environmental record,” said Deputy Mayor Ben Austin, adding that the mayor’s office was surprised by the suit because the city has been negotiating in good faith with the EPA for several months.

“We’re spending millions, and even billions of dollars, to expand our system and make it more environmentally friendly,” Austin said. The city has made substantial repairs to the system as part of a current $600-million sewer improvement project and has another $1.4 billion worth of work planned over the next 10 years, he said.

EPA officials and environmental activists said litigation is needed to force the city to do more and to agree to a time frame for the work. Renovating the system is expected to cost more than $1 billion.

An EPA audit revealed that 2,065 spills of raw sewage occurred in the city between January 1995 and Aug. 31, 2000.

Making matters worse, the rate of reported spills is increasing, the study says. In 1999, spills averaged 47 per month, up from a reported 20 per month in 1995 and 1996.

“We were surprised at the numbers,” said Ken Greenberg, an engineer in the EPA’s water division.

The worst bottlenecks causing frequent overflows are in South-Central Los Angeles and the Eagle Rock area, the EPA audit shows. Other bottlenecks are along Eastern Avenue and in the Boyle Heights area, Silver Lake and North Hollywood.

Most of the sewage comes up through manhole covers and flows into city streets, posing a health threat to people who come in contact with it, Greenberg said.

In South-Central Los Angeles, raw sewage frequently spills into the street in front of Manual Arts High School. There is a severe bottleneck in the system in that area because large collector sewers serving much of the city run through there.

About one-third of the city’s spills reached rivers and other surface waters that flow to the ocean, which violates the federal Clean Water Act.

Along with the EPA, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board--a state agency--filed legal papers Monday to join a lawsuit against Los Angeles filed in 1998 by an environmental group, Santa Monica BayKeeper.

“The city has been saying they’ve been working on this issue for at least 10 years,” said Steve Fleischli, executive director of Santa Monica BayKeeper. “The city of L.A. is behind the times on some of these necessary measures.”

The city’s system, which serves 3.7 million residents, is the largest in the country, handling almost half a billion gallons of raw sewage every day. Only a tiny fraction of that spills, but between 1997 and 1999, it amounted to more than 46 million gallons.

The EPA audit blames old sewers with insufficient capacity, as well as inadequate cleaning of grease, roots and debris from the lines.

Overflows on rainy days are responsible for nearly all of the volume spilled; grease blockages, mainly from restaurants and food processing plants, cause the largest number of spills.

The EPA and the state water board recommend that the city adopt an ordinance that requires food establishments to capture grease.

Austin objected to that, saying the proposal would be overly expensive.

The suits also seek an enforceable schedule for increasing the capacity of sewers, improved cleaning of lines to prevent grease and root blockages, and an enhanced odor control program.

Regional water board member Fran Diamond urged the city to take aggressive action to curtail the spills. After the El Nino storms in 1998, the board issued a cease-and-desist order to the city and fined it $850,000.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Sewage Spills

The U.S. EPA and state officials on Monday sued Los Angeles to force it to fix its sewer system, which has spilled raw sewage more than 2,000 times since 1995.

Mlore than 40% of spills occur because grease, mostly from restaurants and food processing plants, builds up in lines. The largest spills, however, occur when the system is overtaxed during rainstorms.

* Cause of spills in Los Angeles system, 1997-99

Grease: 41.2%

Tree roots: 29.3%

Overtaxed lines: 11.1%

Debris: 7.3%

Other: 11.2%

* Sewer spills in Los Angeles

1995: 249

1996: 241

1997: 249

1998: 305

1999: 564