Costa Mesa sanitary officials oppose waiver

Paul Clinton

Ending months of indecision, Costa Mesa sanitary officials on Monday

endorsed stepped-up treatment of county waste water and an end to a

controversial federal waiver.

The backing put board members of the Costa Mesa Sanitary District in

line with a host of agencies in calling on the Orange County Sanitation

District to ratchet up treatment of the 243 million gallons of partially

treated waste water it releases into the ocean each day.

“The Costa Mesa sanitary board is of the opinion that based on the

information available to date, full secondary treatment is the best

available option,” said board member Arlene Schafer, who also is a former

Costa Mesa mayor. “It allows for better opportunities for recycling

water.”

Schafer and fellow board member Jim Ferryman both said they still

weren’t convinced that the district’s sewage plume is returning to shore

to contaminate the surf zone.

A $5.1-million water-quality survey commissioned by the sanitation

district and completed last summer pointed to several “on shore” sources

-- leaking beach restrooms, runoff channels and possibly the AES power

plant -- as contributing causes to the nagging postings on local beaches.

Ferryman said he agreed with that study’s finding that the plume’s

role in the contamination was inconclusive.

Environmentalists -- led by the Ocean Outfall Group -- and city

leaders in Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa have pointed to

the plume as a probable source of polluted waters.

Ferryman also said he would not support the sanitation district’s bid

to extend a federal waiver that allows the partially treated sewage to

flow into the sea without meeting standards laid out in the Clean Water

Act of 1972.

“It’s not the Ocean Outfall lies [that I believe],” said Ferryman, who

also holds a seat on the Newport-Mesa Unified School District Board of

Trustees. “Based on the scientific evidence, I would have voted to not

apply for the waiver.”

Huntington Beach environmentalist Doug Korthof, a founder of the

outfall group, took exception to Ferryman’s comment.

“Everybody acknowledges that some bacteria [from the plume] comes to

the shore,” Korthof said. “The debate is about what concentrations and is

that dangerous.”

Both Ferryman and Schafer said county sanitary officials should

implement the new treatment now before the cost rises, as the agency has

set a goal to eventually divert 200 million gallons a day to be treated

and used as reclaimed water.

County sanitation officials have joined hands with the Orange County

Water District on the project. District board members have pledged to

divert 70 million gallons to be used as reclaimed water by 2006.

Newport Beach Mayor Tod Ridgeway and Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie

Cook have both said they do not support extending the federal waiver,

which was first granted in the 1980s.

County sanitary board members -- a group that includes Ferryman,

Ridgeway and Cook -- are set to decide July 17 whether to pursue a waiver

extension and a treatment method.

* Paul Clinton is a reporter with Times Community News. He may be

reached at (949) 764-4330 or by e-mail ato7 [email protected]

.