[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY -1/21/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

January 21, 2009

 

4. Water Quality –

 

Pollution watchdogs won't challenge waiver for sewage processing facility

The Union Tribune – 1/20/09

By Mike Lee

 

In a controversial change of direction, two leading pollution-watchdog groups are pledging not to challenge San Diego's bid to finalize its third federal waiver for the region's largest sewage processing facility.

 

On Tuesday, leaders for San Diego Coastkeeper and the local chapter of the Surfrider Foundation said they are forging an agreement with Mayor Jerry Sanders that makes more sense than suing to enforce the Clean Water Act, which the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant violates.

 

In exchange for not spending about $1.5 billion to upgrade the facility so it treats wastewater more thoroughly, San Diego would pay for an independent review of how it can boost the use of recycled water and thus minimize wastewater discharge to the Pacific Ocean.

 

The pact will be discussed publicly Wednesday, when state and federal regulators hold a hearing in San Diego to discuss the five-year waiver. Sanders plans to sign the agreement after presenting it to the City Council next week.

 

“It helps us in terms of forestalling litigation,” he said.

 

The mayor also said the study could ultimately benefit water users.

 

“It gives us an opportunity to look at how we are going to produce a supply of wastewater that's treated for business and other activities,” Sanders said.

 

For at least seven years, Surfrider and Coastkeeper leaders have criticized pollution controls at the Point Loma plant. They also have threatened litigation to block a third waiver.

 

In December, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency gave preliminary approval for San Diego's waiver request. That decision renewed environmentalists' efforts to negotiate water-use issues with Sanders instead of going to court.

 

Eventually, Coastkeeper and Surfrider essentially agreed with one of the mayor's main arguments: Spending more than $1 billion on relatively minor improvements for the Point Loma facility “may not be the best use of funds,” said Bruce Reznik, executive director of San Diego Coastkeeper.

 

Reznik would rather see major investments made to expand San Diego's water recycling system, which turns wastewater into irrigation water. Each day, the Point Loma plant discharges about 175 million gallons generated by 2.2 million residents from Del Mar to Chula Vista.

 

The agreement doesn't compel the city to act on ideas that come from the outside analysis, which would likely take about two years to complete and cost the city no more than $2 million.

 

“It is definitely a leap of faith,” Reznik said.

 

The policy shift is a “huge, huge deal” for Coastkeeper and Surfrider, and it has generated criticism from inside the environmental ranks, said Marco Gonzalez, a lawyer representing the two groups in talks with San Diego officials.

 

“Some are heralding it as genius. Others are heralding it as a sellout,” Gonzalez said.

 

One critic is Joey Racano of the Ocean Outfall Group, which works statewide to limit water pollution from treatment plants. He plans to oppose the waiver at Wednesday's hearing.

 

“If the environmental groups choose to go along with breaches in the Clean Water Act, then who is left to defend the ocean?” Racano said.

 

If finalized, the waiver would allow the Point Loma plant to remain as the nation's largest sewage facility without at least a plan to meet the federally mandated “secondary” treatment level for removal of solids and other pollutants.

 

San Diego received its first waiver for the Point Loma plant in 1995 after a drawn-out process that started in 1979, then obtained its second exemption in 2002. In December, federal regulators said voluminous data on water quality around the facility's ocean discharge pipe don't suggest damage to the marine environment from its “advanced primary” treatment system.

 

EPA leaders have repeatedly said San Diego should not expect to keep receiving exemptions. They want the city to increase water recycling.#

 

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/jan/20/n56852191445-bn20water/?zIndex=40289

 

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