Agencies ‘average’ in handling sewage

Alex Coolman

A Surfrider Foundation report has handed out mediocre grades to the

agencies that handle sewage for the Newport-Mesa area.

The environmental group’s report, released Tuesday, is a comparison of

all the agencies in Orange County that handle sewage. The study notes how

well they managed to transport the stuff between January 1996 and July

2000, and how often they spilled it.

Such spills, which can create elevated levels of bacteria in ocean

water, are one of the more visible causes of beach closures and the

posting of warnings about contamination hazards.

On Surfrider’s ranking scale, which is set up like a school report

card, the city of Newport Beach earned only a “C” grade for its sewage

handling. The Costa Mesa Sanitary District, meanwhile, earned a “C-” for

the reliability of its service.

The grades are not as bad as those given to some county

municipalities. Laguna Beach and Trabuco Canyon both flunked, as did

Garden Grove, San Juan Capistrano and Placentia.

But the marks are also a significant notch down from the scores earned

by straight-A cities and water districts, such as the city of Cypress and

the Rossmoor/Los Alamitos Sewer District.

Spokespersons for Newport Beach and the Costa Mesa Sanitary District

could not be reached for comment Tuesday or had yet to review Surfrider’s

report.

The Orange County Sanitation District, which serves 24 municipalities

-- including parts of Newport Beach and Costa Mesa -- and more than two

million people in the county, earned a “B” grade from Surfrider.

Lisa Lawson, a spokeswoman for the Orange County Sanitation District,

said she welcomed the group’s ratings, but pointed out that some

important factors had not been taken into consideration by the study

methods.

“We’re a large facility and we report every single spill, whether it’s

five gallons or higher,” Lawson said. “The amount of sewage that is

transported to our facility versus how much is spilled equates to us

being a highly efficient organization.”

Other, smaller agencies might come out looking cleaner on Surfrider’s

grade chart because there are not uniform standards for reporting spills,

she said.

Joyce Wegner-Gwidt, a spokesperson for the Irvine Ranch Water

District, which earned a “B,” raised another concern about the study.

“Any [spill] that we had was beyond our control,” she said. “Nothing

was really caused by a failure in our maintenance or our equipment.”

Discussion of such issues is fine with Don Schulz, a member of the

Huntington Beach chapter of Surfrider and a coordinator of the study.

“I hope this stirs up a lot of controversy, and I look forward to it

because that’s how you get things done,” he said.