Natural Perspectives

We want to express our thanks to the city council for doing the right

thing on Monday, Sept. 17. The council voted unanimously to urge the

Orange County Sanitation District to upgrade its level of sewage

treatment, something everyone in Orange County deserves.

Of the seven yes votes, the one cast by Peter Green was even more

significant than those of his six council colleagues because Green serves

on the board of directors of the sanitation district as the delegate from

Huntington Beach. The sanitation district staunchly defends the current

level of treatment, which is to treat half the sewage with secondary

treatment and half with only primary treatment. So Green’s vote was a

particularly tough one. Our thanks go to Green especially.

Mayor Pam Julien Houchen put forward a well-worded, formal resolution

opposed to continuing with the current, inadequate, treatment process.

This resolution will be delivered to the sanitation district. Ralph Bauer

also proposed language for adoption by the council. Unfortunately, a few

folks in the environmental community misread his proposal as an attempt

to water down the Mayor’s resolution. In fact, if anything, Bauer’s

language was even stronger. He thinks -- and we agree -- that even

secondary treatment may not be sufficient and that the sanitation

district should investigate the possibility of disinfecting sewage

effluent before discharging it.

The council, we’re happy to say, agreed to look at his ideas too.

Public comments from the audience on Monday night saw speaker after

speaker address the issue -- all in favor of upgrading sewer treatment.

Most speakers framed the issue in terms of the infamous waiver. What

they’re referring to is this: most communities are required by the Clean

Water Act to give their sewage full secondary treatment. But here in

Orange County, the sanitation district has a waiver from the federal

Environmental Protection Agency that allows them to get by with giving

secondary treatment to only half our sewage. This waiver results in a lot

more bacteria being dumped into the ocean.

The catchy slogan “Do us a favor -- Get rid of the waiver” expresses

many people’s sentiments. Without the waiver, the Orange County

Sanitation District will have to upgrade the treatment level. This will

greatly reduce the amount of bacteria that is discharged into the ocean

offshore of Huntington Beach, but it certainly won’t eliminate it. To do

that, we’d need to disinfect our sewage before dumping it at sea, as is

done in Santa Monica. That’s certainly something that should be

considered.

Huntington Beach is “Surf City USA.” We live in a beach town with

millions of beach visitors per year and numerous beach-dependent

businesses. Naturally in Huntington Beach water cleanliness is next to

Godliness. Bacteria in the water makes people sick and is definitely not

good for business.

Peter Green is a dedicated environmentalist who wants what’s best for

his city. Yet he has been reluctant to oppose the waiver. How can that

be? He’s a rational, thoughtful scientist. Can’t science resolve this

issue? It comes down to burden of proof.

In an American court of law, it’s the prosecution that bears the

burden of proving its case. In other systems, a defendant has to prove

his own innocence. In regard to sewage discharge, it makes a big

difference who bears the burden of proof. The sanitation district says

that its discharge is not getting to the beach and it doesn’t plan on

changing its ways until opponents prove that there is a problem.

Environmental groups, and now presumably the city of Huntington Beach,

feel that the burden should be on the district. That is, that treatment

should be upgraded unless the district can prove beyond a shadow of a

doubt that there is no problem. Very possibly, neither side will be able

to provide absolute, rock-solid proof. Who should win the debate in that

case? In our opinion, in case of doubt, opt on the side of safety.

Protect the environment.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at o7 [email protected] .