Deadline Set for EPA Decision on Stricter Sewage Standards

Congress has set a Nov. 30 deadline for a federal decision on whether to require more intensive treatment of the sewage being pumped into the ocean off the Palos Verdes Peninsula at a rate of 380 million gallons a day.

At issue is the timing of an Environmental Protection Agency ruling on a waiver request by the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts. The sewage agency wants to be exempted from tighter treatment standards affecting the effluent it sends into the ocean from its giant Carson sewage plant.

The Nov. 30 deadline for the EPA ruling, contained in an appropriations bill signed Monday by President Bush, was enacted at the request of U.S. Rep. Mel Levine (D-Santa Monica).

Levine said the measure will end more than a decade of delays in removing what he said is one of the most serious environmental threats to Los Angeles County’s coastal waters.

Sewage officials said the deadline will hamper the EPA’s ability to weigh their argument that tighter standards are unnecessary, costly and counterproductive. Sanitation districts spokesman Joe Haworth said the measure “reduces our chances for fair consideration.”