SAN DIEGO, August 23 (PRIMEZONE) -- On Wednesday morning, at 9:00 a.m., August 23, Congressman Bob Filner joined San Diego Mayor Susan Golding and a coalition of residents, businesses, and several trade associations at a press conference on the steps of the Federal Courthouse to call on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reach a court stipulated settlement agreement with The City of San Diego to prevent a minimum 150% increase in local sewer rates.
"The EPA is trying to force a $3 billion secondary sewage treatment project on the city, which will do little to improve water quality and reduce the number of beach closures. San Diego residents and businesses will not tolerate a huge sewer rate increase like we are experiencing with electricity rates," said Congressman Filner.
The EPA's order would make The City of San Diego overhaul its Point Loma sewage outfall facility when the city's five-year waiver on discharge levels expires at the end of the year. The city says that the money would be wasted and points to studies conducted by UCSD's Scripps Institute of Oceanography and by the National Research Council that confirm that sewage solids pumped well offshore at Point Loma are not damaging water quality and do not contribute to beach closures.
"The waiver won't harm the marine environment and will save us from doubling and quadrupling the sewer bills to every single household in San Diego," said Mayor Golding, who has been an advocate of the waiver since the early 1990's. Political wrangling over the Point Loma facility goes back several years. The city received an exemption from a secondary treatment requirement when Congressman Bob Filner led the charge to get congress to pass the Ocean Pollution Act (OPRA) in 1994. The act allows The City of San Diego to operate the Point Loma facility at an "advanced primary treatment" standard until the end of 2000.
"The EPA's proposal will heap a staggering 150% sewer rate increase on San Diego businesses and homeowners. We are not going to stand idly by and let the bureaucrats do to us what they did with our electricity rates in San Diego," said Scott Barnett, Executive Director of the San Diego County Taxpayers Association.
The City of San Diego sued the EPA in an effort to extend its waiver and a ruling by U. S. District Judge Rudi M. Brewster was expected in August, however, it now appears that the ruling may not be forthcoming until November. "We are asking Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer for their assistance in getting the EPA to settle this matter in a timely fashion," said Steve Zapoticzny, chair of the Safe and Fair Environmental Treatment (SAFE) Coalition.
The press conference featured supporters and members of the Safe and Fair Environmental Treatment (SAFE) Coalition which included the San Diego Association of Realtors, San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, San Diego County Apartment Association, San Diego Chapter of the California Restaurant Association, BIOCOM, the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation, Industrial Environmental Association, Fourth District Seniors Resource Center, and AFSCME Local 127, among others. -0-