The Real Costs of Water-Quality Waiver

Re “Forthcoming--at Last,” editorial, Oct. 7:

Your skepticism about the Orange County Sanitation District is well placed, but even more serious concerns have arisen about the ocean dumping, the directors’ oversight, and district finances in the course of current scrutiny.

The district knew since 1987 that the outfall sewage plume comes at least as close as half a mile from Newport Beach, and there were no monitoring stations closer. The obvious follow-up is “Why not?”

If the district had been a neutral monitor of itself, this startling fact would call for a follow-up investigation.

The district claimed at an Oct. 3 meeting that the 1987 results were “published in the literature” and the only failure was not adequately educating the public about something it could not understand anyway. Santa Ana’s representative on the board, Pat McGuigan, argued that the issue was “too complicated” for the public, which must not be allowed to vote on the waiver that allows partially treated outfall sewage discharges.

Citizens think it’s not complicated at all. It’s very simple. The district wants the county and water boards to continue allowing the district to monitor itself, and wants to avoid spending its $555 million in cash reserves to fully treat the sewage. One might assume that a sewage district would first think of using the funds to implement full secondary treatment. The district’s unwise profit is at the unannounced risk of public contact with fecal debris.

If there is really no risk, as the district claims, then other districts should tear out their secondary treatment works and move to the Orange County model. If there is a danger, the district must give up the waiver, or county health officials must post notices of informed consent.

Douglas Korthof

Seal Beach

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Thank you for presenting the argument that “The Orange County Sanitation District has been less than candid about some of that partially treated waste water it has pumped off the Orange County coastline.”

Your observations are timely as the district tries to intimidate Orange County businesses with information that their sewage rates could double or triple if the district embraces full secondary treatment.

Organizations like the Ocean Outfall Group and the Surfrider Foundation are educating the public about what really comes out of the sanitation district’s outfall pipe and where the effluent travels.

A little arithmetic solves the problem. The district has inflated the cost of full secondary treatment from $200 million to $435 million in 2020 dollars, over the past year. Using its midsummer estimate of $400 million, and a seven-year implementation plan, the transition cost to full secondary would be $57.1 million per year.

If 2.4 million Orange County residents participate in the $57.1-million additional charge to their sewage rates, they would each pay $23.80 per year, or $0.065 per day. If the sanitation district can capture its secondary treatment costs through residential ratepayer increases, why is it mobilizing powerful businesses to support its 301(h) waiver renewal application?

Our ocean and beach water quality must be maintained regardless of cost. It’s the lifestyle that attracts the best and brightest employees to businesses in Orange County, and business owners benefit from this attraction. So before businesses begin lobbying the district board members and administration to ward off increases, they should ask about options such as a $50-billion federal program that can be used to offset costs, if only the O.C. Sanitation District would make the commitment to full secondary treatment, and apply for the necessary grants.

Greg Jewell

Westminster

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I went bodyboarding at Bolsa Chica in late April and three days later developed a cough that persisted and developed into acute bronchitis. I was treated with antibiotics and steroids by my husband, a pulmonary and critical care physician. Although it will never be proved, my perception is that I got the infection from the ocean.

I had no idea that we discharge our sewage into the ocean. Since then, my family and I have joined with Ocean Outfall Group in its efforts to get rid of the waiver that the Environmental Protection Agency has continually granted to the district to discharge partially treated sewage into the ocean.

The waiver was granted because it is the district’s contention that the thermocline contains or holds the sewage plume. They have just proved it does not. I attended the district workshop in July where the staff displayed examples of ocean water treated to primary and secondary levels. Primary was brown and turbid, like diarrhea without the solids. Secondary was almost clear. It is time we stop defiling our ocean and posing potential heath risks to the public.

Kris Hardeman

Fullerton