In response to the California Coastal Commission’s (CCC) surprising vote last week to deny the city a secondary-treatment waiver for the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant, Rep. Bob Filner is vowing to put pressure on Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to overturn the decision. Filner responded to the Coastal Commission’s 8-1 vote with a letter dated Aug. 17, four days after the waiver was denied. “The Coastal Commission has again overstepped its authority in a blatant attempt to make a political statement rather than accept the scientific findings of the agencies responsible for water-quality conditions,” Filner wrote to Schwarzenegger. On Aug. 13, the commissioners unexpectedly voted to deny the city’s request for a waiver that would allow the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant to continue operating below the minimum federal environmental standards for pollution. The facility is the main treatment plant for the entire San Diego region and serves 2.2 million residents. Coastal Commission members apparently took exception to granting the third request for an exemption on a projected $1.5 billion secondary-treatment upgrade — the previous two waivers being granted in 1995 and 2002. Coastal Commission officials said San Diego is now the lone California city that has not agreed to implement the stepped-up treatment level for wastewater discharged into the ocean. “The conclusion that the commissioners reached was that the continued disposal of primary-treated sewage into the marine environment is reducing biodiversity and biological productivity, which by definition makes it inconsistent with the state’s coastal management program,” CCC legislative director Sarah Christie said. Perhaps what was most surprising about the CCC’s decision was that it was contrary to a July 21 recommendation by its own staff to reissue the waiver. Those recommendations made last week’s hearing to approve or deny the waiver appear nothing more than a formality. “The commission has acted independently,” Christie said. “They’re always within their right to take an action independent of a staff recommendation. And if the city disagrees with that action, they have an appeal route through the secretary of commerce.” The denial of the waiver was also surprising because environmental groups San Diego Coastkeeper and Surfrider San Diego said they would not oppose the waiver. When the waiver was last put up for approval in 2002, both groups challenged the waiver and filed lawsuits against the city. “This go-round, we actually decided not to oppose the waiver,” San Diego Coastkeeper executive director Bruce Reznik said. “We worked cooperatively with the city, and we reached an agreement with them to undertake an approximately two-year comprehensive assessment of its sewage system to identify opportunities to maximize water reclamation.” Surfrider San Diego declined to oppose the waiver also on the condition that the city continues to study the reusing of the wastewater. “We told the city that we wouldn’t oppose the waiver, but that was based on their committing to study reusing wastewater toward the goal of zero or greatly reduced discharge,” Surfrider spokesman Ken David said. Reznik said the major reason San Diego Coastkeeper did not oppose the waiver is because secondary treatment doesn’t address what he called the fairly dire water situation in San Diego. “We shouldn’t be focusing on secondary, we should be focusing beyond secondary, which is [to] minimize or even potentially eliminate all ocean discharge of sewage and reclaim as much or all of the water that is currently going out into the ocean to augment our local reservoirs and local drinking water supplies,” Reznik said. Christie said that as a result of the CCC denying the city’s request for a waiver, there will be another hearing in which the commission will need to provide revised findings to support its decision. While the CCC’s next meeting is scheduled for Sept. 9 in Eureka, no timetable has been set for the second hearing. The Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant has been open since 1963 and is located at 1902 Gatchell Road. According to the city, the facility treats about 175 million gallons of wastewater per day. The outfall pipe extends 4.5 miles into the ocean.