Health Threat, Treatment Level Disputed : Escondido, Coast Cities Feud Over Sewage

ESCONDIDO —  There’s a feud brewing in these parts.

A little less than a year ago, the City Council voted unanimously to apply for a federal permit to reduce treatment standards at Escondido’s state-of-the-art sewage processing plant, which pumps 11 million gallons of waste water into the ocean off Cardiff each day.

The decision came at the urging of city staff, who billed the move as a sensible, sure-fire way to save $200,000 annually and $20 million in construction costs that would otherwise be necessary to finance future plant expansion.

There was, council members recall, little debate and no opposition.

“It seemed like a reasonable thing to do,” Councilman Jerry Harmon said. “There was no question it was safe. No one mentioned anything about health risks.”

Now, that seemingly benign decision has placed this inland city in the path of a gathering storm. A ballooning coalition of coastal residents has made Escondido the bull’s-eye in its aggressive campaign to fight any relaxation of treatment standards for sewage pumped into the sea.

Their opposition--and Escondido’s apparent intransigence--has set the stage for what some participants predict might become an ugly, inland-versus-coast feud that could breed bad blood among the North County neighbors for years to come.

Already, some disgruntled Cardiff residents have produced a bumper sticker reflecting the tensions. It reads, “Escondido: We Don’t Want Your ----”

“We’re counting on Escondido to do the neighborly thing, to respect our wishes, be responsible and maintain their standards,” said Richard MacManus, founder of People for a Clean Ocean. “If they don’t, we can play hardball. But personally I don’t want to see this issue upset the family of communities in North County.”

Escondido Councilman Ernie Cowan sees the storm looming, but he’s not about to run for cover. In Cowan’s view, he and his colleagues who favor diluting treatment standards are unfairly “being painted as bad guys by a few upset people.”

“Personally, I don’t wish to yield to a lot of emotional arguments, and that’s all we’ve heard so far,” Cowan said.

Mayor Jim Rady agrees.

“We spent $50,000 on oceanographers, scientists and other experts and they all told us dropping the level is safe,” Rady said. “On the other hand, we’ve got lay people protesting this but not providing any documentation. I’ve got to go with our $50,000 worth of expert data.”

Not all Escondido residents, however, are comfortable with that posture. Councilman Harmon, for one, is downright disturbed by new information on health risks from disease-causing viruses present in less-treated sewage, information that has surfaced since he joined in the council’s decision to reduce standards at the plant.

Harmon has asked the state Regional Water Quality Control Board--which has approved Escondido’s request to drop treatment standards--to reopen public hearings on the matter so his “numerous unanswered questions” can be aired. The board will consider the councilman’s request July 28.

“I am no longer convinced that the minimal savings we would experience . . . by sacrificing treatment quality is worth the impacts on the ocean environment and public health,” Harmon said. “The question is, would I want to go swim in that ocean. I’m not at all sure I would.”

Another voice of skepticism ringing out in Escondido is that of Kris Murphy, who owns a soft ice cream business and was an unsuccessful candidate for council in the recent election.

Last week, Murphy asked the council to hold public hearings on the treatment downgrading so related health issues could be discussed. He was refused because, the mayor said, a hearing “would merely create confusion by giving people with preconceived ideas a platform.”

Murphy believes the council’s “true motivation” in dropping standards is to increase plant capacity in order to more easily accommodate growth, a charge that Cowan and Rady dismiss. Expanding facilities at the lower level of sewage treatment would be much less costly, saving an estimated $20 million.

Murphy, who may ultimately pilot a petition drive to place the issue of reducing treatment standards before Escondido voters, also accuses council members of an “inland mentality” that makes them nonchalant about the impacts their actions may have on beachgoers and seaside residents.

“Quite frankly, I think the council majority just doesn’t give a damn about the coastal communities,” Murphy said. “They’re not elected by coastal residents and they don’t live near the beach. Why should they care if it’s contaminated by sewage?”

(Periodically during the past five months, county health authorities have posted signs quarantining a stretch of Cardiff State Beach because of sewage contamination. Two surfers who contracted infections after swimming at the beach before it was closed have filed administrative claims totaling $11 million against the county, the state and Escondido, claiming the agencies were negligent.)

MacManus and his Clean Ocean allies hope the weight of public opinion--and the prospect of alienating neighbors to the west--will prompt Escondido to throw in the towel and stick with existing treatment standards.

Although the state and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have granted Escondido permission to cut standards, appeals have stalled the actual issuance of the waivers, which are available to ocean dischargers under an amendment to the federal Clean Water Act.

Moreover, the recent disclosure that a laboratory supervisor at Escondido’s plant altered key testing data provided to regulators has brought the facility under scrutiny and saddled the city with what critics describe as a credibility problem. City officials, meanwhile, insist there was no wrongdoing at the lab.

“Escondido is sort of like Marcos was in the Philippines--under siege,” said William Mueller, an attorney for the Clean Ocean group. “The public’s against them, all the other agencies have bailed out, and they’ve just dug in their feet. At some point they’ll realize it’s more trouble than it’s worth.”

If, however, Escondido officials stand fast, Clean Ocean forces have what they consider an ace in the hole--an opinion from the San Diego County counsel that may give coastal residents the right to force their inland neighbor to retain the higher level of treatment.

The opinion by Deputy County Counsel William Smith cites the state’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and finds that even if state and federal regulators allow Escondido to reduce treatment, a local government can impose stricter standards for sewage discharged into ocean waters within its jurisdiction.

Under a contractual agreement with the county, Escondido’s sewage is discharged 1.5 miles off of Cardiff through an ocean outfall pipe. In October, the newly incorporated cities of Encinitas and Solana Beach will assume control of the pipe, the ocean waters three miles out and the San Elijo sewage treatment plant.

“At that point, common sense--and this legal opinion--seems to tell me that the new cities could force Escondido to adhere to the stricter standards if they want to use our pipe,” MacManus said. “The law is designed to give local officials some control over what ends up off their beaches.”

However, the county counsel’s opinion notes that such a standard “must be uniformly applied,” meaning that if Escondido was forced to maintain the higher treatment level, the same would be required for sewage discharged by the coastal cities.

Currently, 3.1 million gallons of sewage generated daily in Cardiff and Solana Beach receive only advanced primary treatment--mostly a settling process--before being discharged offshore. County officials had obtained a federal waiver--similar to Escondido’s--allowing them to remain at that level rather than increasing effluent quality to secondary treatment, a sophisticated process using microorganisms to digest waste.

But last week, at the urging of the Clean Ocean group and newly elected officials in the two cities, the Board of Supervisors dropped their bid for a waiver. Now, Solana Beach and Encinitas must upgrade their plant to secondary treatment by July, 1988, a task that could cost $6 million.

“With the new cities pledging to go to secondary and this legal opinion staring them in the face, I’d say Escondido doesn’t really have a leg to stand on,” said Gerald Steel, a newly elected councilman in Encinitas. “Rather than pursue some confrontational course, I’d suggest they voluntarily give in now and come out looking like great environmentalists.”

Cowan and Escondido Councilwoman Doris Thurman declined to comment on the county counsel opinion or on whether the city might fight it in court. But neither official seemed ready to concede.

“I’m a nurse and my son surfs in that water, so I’m not going to do anything I don’t think is safe,” Thurman said. “But these (Clean Ocean) people are not using the scientific approach. They’re approaching it from an emotional standpoint, without evidence.”

Thurman said the correct approach is to go to advanced primary treatment, monitor the effects on the ocean by testing for 6 months and then decide whether the reduced standards are truly safe.

Cowan agreed: “The question is, do you have confidence in the technological process to safely monitor the effects? We do, and if and when the process says it’s not safe, I’ll be the first to say let’s go back to secondary.”

Rady takes a somewhat different position, saying that if the coastal communities upgraded their plant and began discharging at the secondary level, he’d push for Escondido to do so as well.

“If they upgraded, it would be fair for them to ask us to as well,” Rady said. “But at this point their request is absolutely hypocritical. And, frankly, I don’t think they’re going to find the $6 million they need to do it.”

The mayor advanced another argument for reducing sewage treatment. He said he often fishes south of Pt. Loma and frequently notices sewage from Tijuana in the water.

“If, in fact, our ocean is contaminated by Tijuana sewage, then why should we spend extra money to further purify our effluent, if indeed the (Clean Ocean) people are right about the health risks?” Rady said.

As Kris Murphy sees it, pressing forward with the effort to reduce treatment standards in Escondido is a dangerous effort doomed to sour relations between inland and coastal North County.

“Aside from all the health risks, saving $200,000 a year simply is not worth being perceived as bad neighbors,” Murphy said. “We have to live together, and bad feelings can linger for a long time. Maybe someday the coast will turn on us, remembering how irresponsible we acted about this.”

Councilman Harmon said that going forward without a full examination of the health issues is a precipitous action. He worries about the civil liability his self-insured city could face--indeed, already does face--due to sewage-related illnesses, noting that the impact of quarantined beaches on the tourist trade could hurt Escondido as well.

“We are really part of a region, and if the region gets a black eye in terms of tourism, then we may not have people visiting the Wild Animal Park or staying in our hotels,” Harmon said.

Moreover, the councilman said, Escondido already has the technology for secondary treatment in place at one of the most modern plants in the country. To drop standards would “in essence be throwing all of that away.”

Earlier this year, Oceanside and Fallbrook dropped similar campaigns for federal waivers from secondary treatment requirements. Officials cited pressure from the Clean Ocean troops--as well as new information on health concerns--as reasons for abandoning the effort.