Sewer plant may again seek delay

San Diego Union Tribune

By Mike Lee

December 15, 2006

In a move with huge budget implications for the region, San Diego is taking its first steps toward seeking another five-year exemption from national water pollution standards for its Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant.

However, a spokesman for Mayor Jerry Sanders said yesterday that his boss hasn't ruled out a more immediate option: upgrading the facility at a cost of up to $1 billion.

It will likely take months of political tug-of-war to determine which approach wins.

Financing the upgrade could boost sewer rates countywide by more than 28 percent, according to an analysis by the Metro Wastewater Joint Powers Authority, an advisory panel of 15 agencies that share the use and cost of the Point Loma plant.

The increase would be in addition to recently proposed sewer and water rate increases that would raise the average San Diego homeowner's bill by about 35 percent between now and 2011.

Delegates for the Joint Powers Authority voted unanimously yesterday to support San Diego's decision to start work on its waiver application, which will take months to prepare.

They could not agree on whether the city should start negotiating with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency about a schedule for improving the Point Loma plant's sewage-treatment standard.

Coastal cities such as Del Mar and Imperial Beach support moving toward a more stringment treatment process in hopes of getting a long grace period for compliance. But San Diego County is pushing hard to get a third consecutive exemption for the facility.

“In the absence of scientific data indicating that environmental harm is resulting from the current plant operations . . . subjecting ratepayers throughout the region to significant fee increases . . . is clearly not in the region's best interest,” Bill Horn, chairman of the County Board of Supervisors, wrote in a recent letter to Sanders.

The Point Loma plant treats about 175 million gallons of sewage a day at the advanced primary level, which removes some 85 percent of suspended solids from wastewater. Secondary treatment would boost that level to 90 percent or higher.

The plant discharges the wastewater into the Pacific Ocean, about 4 ½ miles offshore. Its current waiver expires in June 2008.

All but two of the nation's major treatment plants – those in San Diego and Honolulu – have switched to secondary treatment.

Some environmentalists say they can stop San Diego from obtaining another pollution waiver. “If at this time next year we don't have an agreement (to go to secondary treatment), it's well understood that we will sue,” said Marco Gonzalez, an attorney for Surfrider and Coastkeeper.

Those two environmental groups have pressed the city for years to upgrade its sewage system. They said that even though ocean testing doesn't show damage from the facility's current discharges, San Diego should not wait for proven harm until it decides to meet federal standards.

Federal water regulators have said they are open to receiving another waiver application, though few officials in the county expect an indefinite reprieve.

A deal with the EPA could give San Diego a decade-long construction schedule. That might afford it and other local agencies enough time to raise money and find less costly methods for upgrading the Point Loma plant. An additional upside of not sparring with the EPA is the possibility of getting federal loans or grants.

Sanders spokesman Fred Sainz said yesterday that one reason the mayor has not made up his mind is because of new leadership for San Diego's wastewater department. Scott Tulloch, the director credited with turning around the once trouble-prone agency, has left for a job with Chula Vista.

San Diego announced yesterday that Timothy Bertch, a former Navy engineer and official for Lockheed Martin San Diego, will take over later this month.

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