Sanitary District will appeal $364,000 fine from state
The Costa Mesa Sanitary District’s board voted Thursday to appeal a $364,130 fine it received from state water-quality authorities following two spills that caused thousands of gallons of raw sewage to seep into Upper Newport Bay.
In a news release Friday, the district called the fine “disproportionate and inconsistent,” and argued it should be significantly lower, to the tune of $205,000 — or about $2.47 per gallon that went into the bay.
In a statement, district President Mike Scheafer said, “The state’s water quality enforcement policy says that water boards shall strive to be fair and consistent in taking enforcement actions, and clearly that was not done in this case. We owe it to our constituents to ensure the state government is treating our community fairly.”
In a hearing in July, prosecutors from the Santa Ana region of the State Water Resources Control Board argued that the district should be fined $503,214 for the spills, which occurred on New Year’s Day and Aug. 31, 2013.
In September, the region’s board ended up recommending the lesser $364,130 fine, with credit given for the sanitary district’s fast response and coordination following each occurrence.
Challenging the fine up to Sacramento will cost between $10,000 and $15,000 in legal fees, district officials said.
State authorities have not issued a final order for the $364,130 fine, but are expected to do so by next month. Once doing so, the sanitary district has 30 days to file its appeal, then the state has 270 days to review and act on the matter.
The New Year’s Day spill released 8,100 gallons of raw sewage into the Back Bay. Officials attributed it to a sewage block on a line near the Fairway Villas apartment complex on Santa Ana Avenue in Newport Beach.
The August 2013 spill sent about 77,000 gallons into the water after a pump station, near Irvine Avenue and Mesa Drive, experienced an electrical failure.
The Costa Mesa Sanitary District has never denied fault in either incident, and officials there point to various improvements made in their system since, including $460,000 spent to ensure the Irvine Avenue pump station doesn’t fail again.
They also said while raw sewage is clearly not beneficial for the Back Bay, no long-term, “acute and chronic” environmental effects from the spills has been recorded or proven.
