$7.5-Million Award : S.D. Gets U.S. Grant for Sewage Plant

San Diego officials announced Friday that the city has been awarded a $7.5-million grant to help plan a new, advanced sewage treatment plant.

Sandra Salazar, a spokeswoman for the State Water Resources Control Board, said the $7.5 million will come from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, with the state and the city providing matching funds of $1.25 million each, bringing the total to $10 million.

Paul Downey, the mayor’s press secretary, conceded that the amount is modest compared to the $1.5 billion ultimately needed to finance construction of the plant, but stressed that the money would help San Diego take the critical first step toward building the facility.

Grant Called Welcome

“Given that over the last 10 years the city of San Diego has gotten $26 million total in sewage money, this kind of grant is very unusual and very welcome,” Downey said. “Finally, we may start to get our fair share of these funds.”

The grant was approved Thursday by the State Water Resources Control Board, which distributes funds under the federal Clean Water Act for construction of sewage treatment plants and related projects.

Before the grant money is dispensed, the EPA must approve the award. But Lauren Fondahl, an environmental engineer for the federal agency in San Francisco, said that step is all but routine given the state board’s endorsement of the grant.

“It’s all but a technicality at this point,” Fondahl said. She estimated the money would become available by the end of September.

The $10 million is technically an amendment to a $21-million grant first awarded the city in 1974, when it was first grappling with a new federal law--the Clean Water Act--requiring municipalities to increase the level of treatment for sewage dumped into the nation’s waterways.

The legislation required cities to upgrade from primary treatment--mostly a settling process that removes solids--to secondary treatment, a more refined process involving the use of microorganisms to consume waste.

San Diego and other coastal cities fought the federal requirements, viewing them as excessive, and sought waivers from the tougher standards under a loophole in the act. That strategy put off the construction of secondary treatment facilities here for more than a decade, but last year, the EPA informed the city that its request for a waiver from the law had been denied.

Now the city faces a $1.5-billion bill for construction of a new treatment plant. Meanwhile, the EPA’s grant program to help cities shoulder the burden of upgrading facilities is being phased out, and sewer rate increases likely will be necessary to help cover construction costs. Residential rates were hiked 30% in July--to $10.40 a month.

To Fund Planning

The $10-million grant will be used to fund an extensive planning process during the next three years, according to Bruce Klein, grants administrator for the city’s Water Utilities Department. Among other things, the money will pay for an environmental review of the proposed treatment plant and an analysis of alternatives to secondary treatment, like water reclamation and reuse.

“This is the first major step down the road toward converting to secondary (treatment),” Downey said.

Downey credited lobbying by the mayor and City Council members Mike Gotch and Abbe Wolfsheimer--who traveled to Sacramento recently to meet with the chairman of the state water board--for San Diego’s receipt of the grant money. The mayor also has had discussions with EPA Regional Administrator Judith Ayres, Downey said.

“They went to Sacramento and made our pitch before the board on why we need the money,” Downey said. “At the time, the board indicated they were convinced by our arguments. Now we’ve been formally notified of it.”

Officials with the EPA and the state, however, said it was not unusual for the city’s grant to be amended and additional funds to be allocated. Indeed, they said, it is all but routine for municipalities to obtain additional monies as their sewage treatment planning has progressed.

“It happens all the time,” the EPA’s Fondahl said. “The only thing unusual about San Diego is that they’re so far behind in their facilities planning. This is the only major California municipality that still has open planning work going on.”