Plan Would Reclaim Water, End Sewage Woes

Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Coronado) proposed Monday that San Diego and 14 other local municipalities embark on a comprehensive water reclamation program that, if coupled with a waiver from the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, could spare the city millions of dollars in fines for violating the federal Clean Water Act.

Speaking at a morning press conference, Hunter proposed a plan to scatter small treatment and water reclamation plants throughout the county to reduce the flow of sewage through San Diego’s Point Loma sewage treatment plant, where it is processed and dumped in the ocean. The proposal comes just a few days after the EPA filed a lawsuit against the city of San Diego for its failure to upgrade its sewage treatment by a July 1 deadline.

The result of a yearlong study by a Blue Ribbon Commission on Water Reclamation, Hunter’s proposal is aimed at solving both countywide waste-disposal problems and future water importation troubles while meeting EPA standards. It calls for municipalities to create up to 15 plants that would treat sewage to a degree acceptable for irrigation use.

Reduce Treatment Costs

The plan would reduce sewage treatment costs 33%, from $600 per one million gallons of sewage to $450 per one million gallons of sewage, said Frank Collins, a spokesman for Hunter. The congressman proposes that communities as far north as Del Mar, as far south as Imperial Beach and as far east as Lakeside create facilities that could reclaim up to 50 million gallons of sewage a day.

The Clean Water Act mandates that cities that dump their sewage in the ocean upgrade standards to provide so-called “secondary” treatment, which removes an estimated 90% of solid waste. The aging Point Loma plant, which sends 180 million gallons of treated sewage into the ocean each day, is not equipped to provide the higher degree of treatment, and the city for years anticipated obtaining a waiver from the federal standards.

Last week, the U. S. Department of Justice filed the suit after a breakdown in negotiations between the city and the EPA over who would pay the estimated $1.5 billion required to upgrade city sewage treatment--a chapter in a continuing battle that began in the 1970s.

Plan Taken to Cities, EPA

Hunter has presented his proposal to the EPA and those cities he hopes to enlist in the program, and he said he is optimistic that, in the long run, it will solve several problems at once.

“Point-of-origin reclamation is the best way to wean all these cities from the Point Loma treatment plant and thereby come into compliance with federal law,” Hunter said.

Both the city of San Diego and the EPA have usually supported reclamation. But Virginia Donohue, a spokeswoman for the federal

environmental agency, said she could not comment specifically on Hunter’s proposal.

At the press conference held at the city’s experimental reclamation plant in Mission Valley, Hunter passed out a proposed schedule that would have 30% of county sewage being treated at small reclamation plants as early as 1995. The plan does not specify what type of technology the plants would employ, but Collins said facilities functioning across the county and in Southern California employ several reclamation methods that could serve as models.

Dale Mason, chairman of the board for the San Diego County Water Authority, said the authority is supportive of the concept of water reclamation, noting that the San Diego region imports more than 95% of its water because it lacks a local source.