Holding pollution at bay.

The greater Los Angeles Metropolitan area, home to over 12 million people, borders one of the most ecologically diverse coastal zones in the world. Encompassing 56 miles of coast line, the Santa Monica Bay is the home to thousands of species of wildlife, including fish, birds, mammals and invertebrates. The bay contains two main wetland areas, Ballona Wetlands and Malibu Lagoon, intermixed with sandy beaches and rocky tidepools. The basin's huge population places a tremendous burden upon its coastal waters.

As the population increases in Los Angeles County, more and more pollutants are poured, dumped and discharged into the bay. Currently, two sewage treatment plants discharge effluent into the bay. Aside from our local storm drains and sewage treatment plants, extensive discharges of cancer-causing chemicals from local sewage treatment plants also threaten the vitality of the bay ecosystem. From the 1940's until the 1970's, vast quantities of DDT and PCB's (both carcinogenic) were dumped into the bay. The continued presence of these highly toxic substances jeopardizes public health and adversely affects local commercial interests.

The two sewage treatment plants discharging directly into the bay are Hyperion Sewage Treatment Plant (City of Los Angeles) and the Carson Sewage Treatment Plant (Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts), located in El Segundo and Carson respectively. Hyperion, which treats all of the sewage from the City of Los Angeles, discharges over 360 million gallons of sewage per day five miles off shore at the approximate geographic center of the bay. The Carson Plant discharges approximately 350 million gallons of sewage daily at an outfall approximately 1-1/4 miles off Palos Verdes Peninsula at White's Point.

Both of these sewage plants treat effluent to varying degrees. Primary treatment is a process which places raw sewage in a holding tank for one to two hours. Chemicals are added to settle the sludge and help other items float to the surface. The floating materials are skimmed and taken to a landfill, while another process removes and further treats the sludge. In secondary treatment, the sewage is moved to tanks where oxygen is added to help break down organic pollutants from the discharge. Bacteria are also added to further digest the sewage. Tertiary treatment involves filtering the treated sewage with carbon, sand or other substances, but ocean dischargers do not use this process.

Although Hyperion has made dramatic progress of late, the plant has a checkered past. After the 1977 Clean Water Act amendments required sewage treatment plants to institute secondary treatment, Hyperion failed to do so. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency filed suit against the City of Los Angeles in 1977 in an effort to force Hyperion to institute secondary treatment. In 1980, the interested parties entered into a consent decree under which the city agreed to cease dumping sludge into the ocean and agreed to build a sludge-to-energy facility at Hyperion by June, 1985. Meanwhile, the city sought a waiver of the secondary treatment standard but later withdrew its waiver application. Following the EPA's denial of the city's waiver application, the terms of the original consent decree were renegotiated and the city incurred fines for its failure to meet Clean Water Act standards. With the supervision of a federal judge, the parties continued to negotiate the terms of another consent decree. The EPA, coupled with local citizen and environmental groups, including Heal The Bay, argued that any fines paid by the City of Los Angeles should go toward restoring the Bay. Interested parties also argued that Hyperion should implement full secondary treatment prior to 1998, the date offered by the city. In 1990, the parties reached a final consent decree under which the city agreed to undertake certain programs, the EPA received the proceeds from fines levied upon the city and the 1998 full secondary treatment deadline remained in effect. Concerned citizens and environmental groups continue to play an integral role with the city, EPA and the court in implementing the provisions of the final agreement.

In the end, the city avoided costly, and likely unsuccessful, litigation over Hyperion's failure to meet secondary treatment standards. The citizens of Los Angeles gained more effective sewage treatment as well. More recently, Hyperion has implemented the sludge-to-energy facility (Hyperion Energy Recovery System) and now is in the final construction phase of a new primary headworks (the portion of Hyperion which initially receives sewage from the city's sewer system).

Although the County Sanitation District's Carson Plant suffers from an equally checkered past, the Carson facility has not scheduled a conversion to full secondary treatment. The County Sanitation Districts filed for a waiver from full sewage treatment concurrently with the City of Los Angeles.

In December, 1990, the EPA rendered a final decision denying the county's request for a waiver of the full secondary treatment standards. In effect, the EPA sought to force the Carson Plant to begin the process of full compliance with secondary treatment standards. Subsequently, the County Sanitation Districts instituted an administrative appeal of the EPA's final decision. Soon after the County Sanitation District's appeal, Natural Resources Defense Council and Heal The Bay filed a notice of intent letter placing interested parties on 60-day notice that they would file suit in federal court to enforce the secondary treatment requirements of the Clean Water Act. On the 59th day, the federal government and the state of California filed suit in federal court seeking compliance with the Clean Water Act's secondary treatment standards. Two weeks later the Natural Resources Defense Council and Heal the Bay intervened in the action previously filed by the federal and state governments.

The government, the NRDC and Heal the Bay argue that the Carson Plant must conform to federal secondary treatment standards applicable since 1977. Attainment of full secondary standards at the earliest possible date is essential because the Carson Plant's discharge, as previously found by the EPA, perpetuates and contributes to pollution of the bay. Full compliance with secondary treatment standards represents a major step toward returning the bay to its most beneficial recreational and commercial uses.

The County Sanitation Districts counter that secondary treatment standards should be waived at the present time because such an action would not further harm the already polluted bay. The County Sanitation Districts point to the historic dumping of DDT and PCB's on the Palos Verdes Shelf as evidence of the "stressed" nature of the bay. The County Sanitation Districts also argue that the Carson Plant's attainment of secondary treatment standards might reduce the emission of sediments on the Palos Verdes Shelf, which the county alleges may then cause the re-exposure of the sedimented DDT and PCB's to the surrounding waters. The administrative appeal and the federal court litigation remain pending.

As the population of the Los Angeles basin grows, Hyperion and the Carson Plant must improve their waste treatment to meet the demands of an increasing customer base and spiraling concerns about pollution in Santa Monica Bay. Hyperion appears to be addressing these concerns, but the controversy surrounding the Carson plant is far from resolved.

Kenneth Ehrlich is an attorney with the law firm of Reznik & Reznik, which specializes in representing businesses and property owners in hazardous waste matters. Ehrlich serves as co-counsel for Heal The Bay and The Natural Resources Defense Council in a pending Clean Water Act administrative appeal concerning the Los

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