State Senate approves bill to treat runoff

Paul Clinton

State senators overwhelmingly endorsed Assemblyman Tom Harmon’s bid to

give the Orange County Sanitation District broader powers to treat urban

runoff.

The Senate passed the legislation, known as Assembly Bill 1892, on a

38-0 vote Monday. It now heads to Gov. Gray Davis’ desk. Davis must sign

it by Sept. 30.

Harmon’s bill would revise the district’s charter, allowing the county

agency to accept polluted runoff -- including animal and human waste,

pesticides and other refuse washed down the county’s storm drains -- at

the Fountain Valley plant.

Runoff contains bacteria and other pollutants that don’t receive any

treatment before entering the ocean.

The sanitation district operates under a federal sewage waiver that

allows treated waste to enter the ocean without meeting the standards of

the Clean Water Act of 1972.

The district releases 243-million gallons of sewage a day from an

outfall pipe on the ocean floor. The district has not yet developed a

plan for treating the runoff.

Critics, led by the Friends of County Ridges, Parks and Wildlife, have

said the bill “holds OCSD to a lower standard without any reason to do

so.”

Harmon, who represents Huntington Beach, introduced the bill on Feb.

6.