Orange County Sanitation District (OCSD) claimed for years it was "good for the Ocean". What the OCSD sewage waiver was really doing Marco Gonzalez, speaking for San Diego Surfrider. among local "enviros" who argued for sewage dumping. Poorly treated sewage includes fecal bacteria, fecal flakes, viable virus, protozoal eggs of the brain worm ("toxoplasmosis"), industrial waste and other sewage solids which are removed by normal secondary treatment. The Waiver allows continued dumping of poorly-treated sewage in evident violation of the Coastal Act. Bruce Resnick, right, of San Diego Coastkeeper also spoke for the waiver, along with San Diego Sierra Club's Ed Kimura, lending cover to the arrogant Mayor Sanders and the sewage dumpers. It's this sort of intransigence, failure to install infrastructure, and arrogance that's led San Diego to be the last "SEWAGE BEACH" in California, the last sewage dumper refusing to treat the sewage at least to secondary treatment standards. Moreover, secondary treatment also requires a stringent program of source control, removing industrial waste from the sewage so that biological treatment can proceed. The cost to local industry, and the fact that they would have to follow rules, might be the big driver behind San Diego's refusal to follow standards in place at all other US cities its size. Thanks to the 4 Coastal Commissioners who voted to uphold the Coastal Act and deny San Diego's dumping of primary sewage. It's not, as the other 8 stated, an issue that "San Diego deserves a waiver". It's a pure and simple ATTACK on the COASTAL ACT. On Aug. 13, 8 members of the Coastal Commission had voted against San Diego Commissioner Kruer to kill the last sewage waiver, pointing out that it obviously was not consistent with the Coastal Act. Staff recommended approval, and submitted a phony "Staff Report" that was essentially irrelevant to Pt. Loma's discharge of San Diego's sewage, a number of distractions, trying to show that the waiver was in accordance with the Clean Water Act; but the standard for this matter, as the EPA representative stated, is the Coastal Act, which has federal status under the Coastal Zone Management Act (CZMA). The Clean Water Act is only peripherally relevant, and not relevant at all to the higher standards required by the Coastal Act. Staff participated in the perversion of the Coastal Act, probably under severe pressure from lame-duck disgraced Gov. Schwarzenegger. The Commission was apparently threatened by Gov. Schwarzenegger, and required to review the ruling only two months after killing the waiver. On Oct. 7 in Oceanside, the Commission, despite no new evidence, reversed itself and humbly submitted to the pressure. The normal wait for resubmittal is six months; it seems odd to review a decision without any new information. What the Governor implied was that the Commission offended a lot of very wealthy people, and the decision might threaten to cut down his slush funds unless the Commission backed down. As with Gov. Davis, Schawarzenegger sent down his heavyweights to intimidate vacillating, weak Commissioners. In this case, Michael Chrisman bore the Governor's message, notably sitting with Mr. Kruer just as Davis had sent down Joe Soto in 2002. Different faces, same special interest. This time, Suja Lowenthal was replaced by a more compliant Commissioner, who seconded Kruer's motion to abandon the Coastal Act. San Diego Mayor Sanders was so sure of himself as to bring two bodyguards; curious if San Diego had to pay for them. Sanders stood up before the Commission and basically stated that he was not willing to give them one iota on the sewage waiver; the most he would agree to is to report back in two years on the "findings" of a report by his tame local "enviros", the Sierra Club, Surfrider and Coastkeeper, who all supported the sewage waiver at this meeting. Ed Kimura committed the Sierra Club to sewage, and Marco Gonzalez and Bruce Resnick spoke for the other "enviro" groups and committed to sewage. One of the Commissioners dared to ask if the Commission could use the "report" to reconsider their decision; Staff had to admit that it was just advisory, with no force of law. Once the waiver is issued, that's it, San Diego is free to dump until the next time it applies for the waiver; the "report" is just a feel-good thing, good for funding local biostitutes and "enviros". The "good" Commissioners pointed out that the Staff Report's rendition of the testing regime was insufficient to meet the Coastal Protection provisions of the Coastal Act, which are the standard to be followed; more particularly, that San Diego has refused monitoring stations suggested by the Coastal Commission, that San Diego admittedly doesn't know where the sewage plume goes, and that the Staff Report itself clearly indicates that the literal words of the Caostal Act were being violated, even citing chapter and verse on the record. Alas, not many Commissioners appear to have read the Coastal Act; only 4 voted to uphold it, and 8 weak or coerced voted for the sewage. Chrissman was seen exiting the back room, with Commissioner Kram, apparently after strategizing on how to cram the waiver through enough reluctant and timid Commissioner to get the result that Schwarzenegger wanted. It is only to be hoped that a lawsuit seeking reversal of this blatant tampering with the regulatory process is filed, in time to reverse it; or else that the EPA takes a mighty hand in the matter, and forces San Diego to follow the Coastal Act, even if the Coastal Commission failed in its duty. This isn't the first time that lawsuits had to be filed to uphold the Coastal Act against the Commission. One Commissioner actually stated privately about Hellman, "Let them get mad at the Court, not at us..."

At the San Francisco meeting of the Ocean Protection Council and the EPA which will soon have to enforce San Diego's recycling of sewage water -- now just dumped onto habitat.

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While San Diego's Mayor Sanders calls for water conservation, higher rates and expensive, risky desalination schemes, Point Loma dumps over 170,000,000 gallons of poorly treated wastewater into the Ocean every day. This immense disposal of potentially valuable water would be a good place to start looking for new water supplies for San Diego. Reclaimed water, if properly treated, could, with conservation, reduce the need for new water supplies and actually lower water bills. Poorly treated sewage dumped into the Ocean means swimmers are playing a dangerous game of Russian Roulette with their health. Elevated levels of live bacteria can't be good for swimmers and fish, while virus and roundworm larvae are not even part of the testing regimen. The only testing is for live indicator coliform bacteria. Dead bacteria, viable virus, live nematode worms, viable brain worm larvae and other parasites are allowed to float to shore along with fecal flakes and more than 83 contaminants that elude current treatment, including caffeine, pharmaceuticals, birth control, estrogen mimicers and other drugs and chemicals. There is no requirement that the sewage district post any warning about swimming in fecal sewage material other than live coliform bacteria.   Raccoon and feral cat roundworms, for example, are transmitted through feces, and, when they hatch inside a mammal body, can tunnel to the brain or eyes, where they encyst. One such disease is the Brain Worms found in Sea Otters exposed to cat feces in poorly treated wastewater. Brain worm larvae lodge in sea crabs and muscles, and, when ingested, begin their life cycle all over again inside a mammalian host. It's so much simpler to just get rid of the waiver, and clean the Beach and Ocean, than to deal with brain parasites in the water we swim in. Everyone knows in their hearts that the waiver must be stopped, and our valuable Beach property rights restored. But it takes courage to do what's right, and it's so much easier to deny the facts and postpone cleaning up the Beach and Ocean.

Orange County Sanitation District had the longest tradition of poor treatment of sewage and the most arrogant attitude about their "waiver" which allowed them to skip some sewage treatment. Few had much hope the situation could be fixed, and many openly sneered or laughed at our chances. Yet a small group of citizens, concerned about Beach and Ocean quality amidst persistent beach closures, and desiring to improve business, surfing, swimming, boating, fishing, tourism and the habitat, created a multi-pronged, fantastic storybook campaign that cleaned the beach and led to improved water qualtiy. Despite a viper's pit of paid biostitutes, bribed politicians, paid-off consultants, tame Regional Water Board, never-ending million dollar "studies", and outrageous special interests, the campaign won thanks to: Daily picketing by Joey Racano and others, City-by-city campaign led by Jan Vandersloot, Larry Porter, and others, that brought 15 of the 25 cities in the District over to the clean side, Irvine Company, Joan Irvine Smith, Steve Bone, and other business leaders, Leadership by Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook and La Habra, Orange, La Palma, Seal Beach, etc., About 5,000 concerned Citizens contacted by the Sierra Club, Surfrider, and Earth Resource Foundation, State intervention led by then-Assemblymembers Ken Maddox and Alan Lowenthal. Now, the Orange Coast is cleaner, the "mysterious" closures due to sewage dumping have stopped, and the battle moves on to San Diego, the last waiver!

Stop the San Diego Sewage Waiver!

	The 1972 Clean Water Act requires that all sewage be treated to at least "secondary" standards -- still pretty dangerous, and still a public health hazard, but not as bad as "primary" sewage. But San Diego led the struggle to avoid fully treating the sewage, and received the first "WAIVER" in 1995 allowing San Diego to dump poorly treated sewage into the Bay. San Diego is the last of the waivers in California, and the last big waiver. Of the other 30 waivers, most are in small communities in places like Alaska. No major metropolitan area takes a chance with its Citizens' health like San Diego is doing. Joey Racano speech AGAINST the sewage waiver, demanding full treatement of the sewage.
	Mr. MacDonald is a retired high-level EPA Enforcement Officer, so he knows what he's talking about. Mr. James O. MacDonald makes a powerful statement for better sewage treatment.
	Introduction by Doug Korthof: Overview of the sewage waiver issue
	One of the Regional Board members wonders,  When is this waiver ever going to end??
Sierra Club - San Diego fails to oppose the waiver!	Ed Kimura says Sierra Club supports allowing the sewage waiver
Surfrider - San Diego fails to oppose the waiver!	Marco Gonzalez says Surfrider supports allowing the sewage waiver
Coastkeeper - San Diego fails to oppose the waiver!	San Diego Coastkeep signs on to support letting the waiver go forward, failing to treat the sewage to secondary levels.
	It's not the Regional Board, but the EPA which is the final judge, and California must meet federal standards. Speaking as a member of the Sierra Club, despite Ed Kimura said the Sierra Club was for the waiver. We need to stop this waiver and bring San Diego into compliance with secondary treatment standard and, even more, recycling of the wastewater. But if the waiver is granted, in 5 years, San Diego will be even more behind the curve, with more population and less options. The business folks who oppose full treatment do so for money; those environmental groups supporting the waiver are under an illusion that those business folks will suddenly decide to change their minds and treat the sewage. Doug Korthof statement AGAINST the waiver, FOR treating the sewage

1. Citizens stopped the Orange County Sewage waiver 2. Goleta waiver eliminated thanks to Citzens and local groups 3. Morro Bay Waiver abandoned 4. San Diego Sewage waiver must be stopped! Ocean Outfall Group calls for: Full treatment of sewage, Stop the waiver!

San Diego sewage apologists say "our level of treatment is good enough", despite evidence of loss of plankton and other sea life, and diversion of attention to the admittedly contributory "urban runoff" and "on-shore sources". When the people find out about the S.D. waiver, they will not like it nor those who hoodwinked them all these years (since 1995, when a certain Long Beach Congressman got them a waiver by a special act of congress). Could sewage be good for San Diego, and bad for everyone else? San Diego sewage backers stated that their "conditions" were much different than Orange County ... much as OCSD had stated that Orange County was "special" and different from everyone else. Validating the ancient proverb, "...when you are caught up in a contradictory position, try to make a distinction...". The plain fact is, public health is the same everywhere, and it's only a matter of time before increasing population force improved sewage treatment methods. There is nothing "special" about San Diego, except it ignores the primary sewage it dumps offshore.

OOG touring Avila Waste Water Treatment plant Citizen awareness of poorly treated sewage, sewage spills, and how sewage treatment plants work is the first step in improving effluent quality and public health.

La Jolla Seals of Casa Beach: Help Seal the Deal!