Letting a little sewage slide

Andrew Edwards

Local environmentalists oppose an Environmental Protection Agency

proposal that would allow sewer operators to not fully treat

wastewater during storms, though activists and government officials

agree the proposal would have little immediate effect on Orange

County.

The agency is still reviewing comments on the proposal, said John

Tinger, an EPA official responsible for permits under the Clean Water

Act. There is no time frame set for a decision.

The agency first proposed the policy in April 2003 in order to

clarify regulations for sewer operators who wanted to know if they

could legally mix sewage, which had not undergone the full treatment

process, during rainstorms, said Ken Greenberg of the EPA’s water

division.

Greenberg said sewer operators were worried that heavy rainfall,

leading to larger volumes of wastewater needing treatment, would be

harmful to secondary treatment facilities.

During secondary treatment, wastewater that has been filtered for

pollutants is treated with microorganisms that eat organic solids in

the water. To safeguard microbes used for treatment, sewer operators

want to be able to divert some water around secondary treatment

facilities and mix that water with treated water before it is

discharged, Greenberg said.

The Orange County Sanitation District treats most water in the

county, but if the policy is approved, the district would not be

immediately affected since secondary treatment will not be fully

implemented by the district until 2012, sanitation district technical

director Robert Ghirelli said.

The district processes about 240 million gallons of water per day,

and more than 500 million gallons during storms, Ghirelli said. The

sanitary district’s board voted to add secondary treatment in 2002,

and the cost of the upgrade is about $450 million.

Without permission to blend, the district would likely have to

double its planned secondary treatment capacity at a much higher

cost, Ghirelli said. He said blending would be safe because the

volume of impurities discharged during blending would still be in

line with the district’s permit.

The Surfrider Foundation is opposed to the proposal, and

foundation members believe blending would increase the amount of

harmful organisms and substances in the water, said Rick Wilson, the

group’s coastal coordination manager.

“I don’t think there’s any question it would result in more beach

closures and postings,” Wilson said.

Wilson said sewer operators should build larger treatment

facilities or storage tanks to hold wastewater collected during

storms. Bob Caustin, founder of Defend the Bay, agreed. He said

approval of the proposal would create a disincentive for sewer

operators to enhance treatment facilities.

“You need to fix the infrastructure, not make it less safe to

drink and recreate in the waters of the United States,” Caustin said.

Caustin said he believes blending would be more problematic in

areas outside of Orange County, especially in regions where

sanitation districts discharge into freshwater bodies. Also, Orange

County rainfall levels would mean blending would probably be

considered only every five years or so after secondary treatment is

fully implemented locally.

A spokesman for the Santa Ana Regional Water Quality Board agreed

that blending would likely be infrequent in Orange County.

Blending would only occur in “really extreme flow conditions,”

water board spokesman Kurt Berchtold said, adding that water board

officials are satisfied that blending would not result in unsafe

discharges into the Pacific.

* ANDREW EDWARDS covers business and the environment. He can be

reached at (714) 966-4624 or by e-mail at andrew.edwards

@latimes.com.