San Diego Coastkeeper attorney Marco Gonzalez told members of the City Council’s Natural Resources and Culture Committee on Nov. 2 that the environmental groups he represents would support an application for a waiver to forgo a possible upgrade to secondary treatment processes at the Point Loma Wastewater Plant ” if the city implements a water-recycling plan to recapture some of that water.
The wastewater secondary treatment process would further clean the estimated 175 gallons of wastewater emptied into the Pacific Ocean about 4.5 miles off the Peninsula coast each day, according to experts.
Gonzalez said he believes the city cannot prove it meets the requirements of the Federal Clean Water Act, and believes the groups he represents would win a court battle if they were to challenge the city over the waiver.
Gonzalez’ plea to council members comes about a month after Mayor Jerry Sanders announced he would move forward with the waiver application based on information evaluated by a scientific review committee comprising environmental scientists from University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University, commissioned earlier this year.
“Who do we negotiate with?” Gonzalez asked committee members. “Because it’s clear that the mayor doesn’t want to talk with us.”
Gonzalez said the city should implement a water recycling program and charge ratepayers for the capital projects needed to upgrade the wastewater plant to secondary treatment at a later date. City officials have said implementing indirect potable reuse would cost about $4.5 billion.
In March 2006, the city released the final draft of the Water Reuse Study outlining strategies to recapture wastewater for indirect potable reuse in San Diego.
The draft can be found on the city’s website by visiting www.sandiego.gov/water/waterreusestudy/.
The City Council has already taken steps to implement indirect potable reuse, District 6 Councilwoman Donna Frye said during the meeting.
On Oct. 29, the council voted 5-2 to approve the Recycled Water Master Plan Update.
But while Gonzalez says that upgrading the wastewater plant to secondary treatment processes goes hand-in-hand with a water-recycling plan, city officials have maintained the two issues are separate, based on economic and legal grounds.
“What people are trying to do is mix apples and oranges,” said Bill Harris, a representative with Sanders’ office. “Those are two wholly distinct activities and need to be treated as such.”
In recent press conferences about the issue, Sanders said he based his decision to pursue the waiver based primarily on the findings of the scientific review panel he commissioned over the summer. Commission members were tasked with reviewing data collected from water and soil samples from around the plant’s outfall.
Sanders has also said that upgrading to a secondary treatment process would cost a total of about $1.5 billion dollars to sewer and water ratepayers and also cited that as a reason to pursue the waiver.
According to the findings, the panel found no significant threat to the ocean environment.
The city has until December to apply for the waiver if it wants to remain in compliance with the federal Clean Water Act, Harris said. He said the mayor plans to present the case to the council in the near future.
“[Sanders] will be working with the council members individually … with the best interests of the city’s environmental and fiscal health in mind,” Harris said.
He said Sanders’ decision is the most prudent course of action, given the scientific information provided by the review panel.
As the debate goes on over how to resolve San Diego’s water and wastewater issues, the city continues to replace old sewer pipes at the rate of about 40 miles of pipe a year, said Tim Bertch, director of the Metropolitan Wastewater Department.
In February, the City Council approved a series of water-rate increases stemming from the litigation brought against the city in 2001 by San Diego Coastkeeper, the San Diego Surfrider Foundation and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency that forced the city to commit about $1 billion to fix its sewer system.
Bertch said the city plans to spend about $650 million over the next six years to replace old and damaged sewer pipes as a result of the suit.
Since the city began replacing the pipes and pump stations, there has been an 83 percent reduction in sewage spills, which had been occurring at a rate of about one per day between 2000 and 2001, according to city officials.
Bruce Reznik, San Diego Coastkeeper executive director, said the finalization of the seven-year litigation has brought a degree of closure to the issue.
“It really is a milestone,” he said. “It may not seem like that because it’s been going on. But to me, this is one of the success stories of the city.”
For information on the city’s water and wastewater system, visit www.sandiego.gov/water.