Surfrider and San Diego sewage dumping
LongRoad
Posts: 421
Is Ed still involved/supporting Surfrider? Wonder if he knows about this...
http://www.facebook.com/oceandefender
http://www.facebook.com/oceandefender
Last year, we took a tour of the wastewater treatment plant at Point Loma in San Diego, where they dump between two and three hundred million gallons of sewage into the sea each day. Because San Diego is the last wastewater plant in the state that still uses a 301h waiver, the sewage does not meet even the minimum treatment requirements of the Clean Water Act of 35 years ago.
During the tour, we were taken deep underground where these monstrous machines did their work like giant diesel beasts of burden. The one thing I found most interesting about these powerful machines is that 0% of the power was used to treat the sewage to secondary levels of treatment, while 100% of the machinery's incredible power was used to pump. The entire process is focused only on pumping gigantic quantities of dirty sewage into the sea. How much sewage?
Every single day, the wastewater treatment plant at Point Loma dumps enough sewage into the ocean to fill up yankee stadium about three times- all with San Diego Surfrider's approval.
Surfrider San Diego was paid two million dollars to 'study recycling'. In order to receive that money they had to agree not to oppose the latest 5 year extension of the waiver
But it is important to watch San Diego because of 16,034 wastewater plants in the entire USA, nobody is using a waiver who dumps anywhere near as much sewage as the Point Loma plant. That waiver has to go, and we the surfers, beachgoers and ocean loving public are not being unreasonable to expect organizations like Surfrider, CoastKeeper and Sierra Club to stand up against them. Unfortunately, all three of these organizations in San Diego went as far as to attend meetings of the Regional Water Board and Coastal Commission and spoke in favor of granting San Diego another 5 year extension of the 301h waiver.
Here are the videos on youtube of them doing it:
Here is Marco Gonzales for Surfrider and CoastKeeper:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eLSE-vblCt0
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Godfather.
http://www.kpbs.org/news/2009/oct/07/sa ... oma-plant/
The 301h waiver was to expire in 2010. The vote came in October of 2009.
Does anyone remember the financial climate in 2009? We were still feeling the effects of the financial/housing meltdown of 2007/2008. Having the 300,000something residents of San Diego take on a 1.5 billion dollar increase to pay for the secondary treatment was probably not going to go over very well... ask GodFather... he lives in San Diego.
The other choice would be to shutdown the operation and overload the other treatment plants. The result of that action would risk a shutdown of the sewage treatment and force raw, untreated sewage overflow to discharge closer to the shore.
...
Yeah... S.D. Water District needs to do something to remedy the problem... which will mean higher taxes to cover the upgrade costs before this waiver expires in 2015. And I'm sure the S.D. Surfriders Chapter will continue to pressure the district to make the upgrades.
Surfriders, CoastKeepers and Sierra Club do not stand on the side of pollution. But, they understand the complexities of local, regional and federal governments and the consequences of letting the waiver expire. Yes, the waiver is not the best solution... but, it is much better than no waiver and raw (untreated) sewage being dumped into the ocean.
Hail, Hail!!!
I think most San Diegians would approve the tax hike for this, but another thing that was a real headake back then was the millions of gallons of raw sewage from Mexico flooding into san diego beaches about the same time,beaches were being closed all the time back then,I can't remember if or how they fixed that problem.
Godfather.
From what I understand... part of the NAFTA treaty addressed this issue. Now, Mexico's systems are paired with San Diego's South Bay WRP outlet systems that send the two tiered treated water 5 miles off the shore.
That was one of the problems before NAFTA... U.S. companies (in California) were moving their operations across the border so they would not have to deal with EPA and State regulations regarding pollution. Business, such as chrome, nickel and cadmium plating companies, moved their operations to Mexico where they used to be able to just dump it in the rivers. NAFTA addressed that to shut down that practice.
So, what did those companies do? Moverd to India and China.
...
Now, back to the Water Treatment system... here is the council meeting minutes from the Fall of 2007... back before the market crash... when our President was telling us there was not a recession looming... when banks were handing out home mortgage loans to anyone that could sign their name... and $200,000.00 homes were selling for $732,000.00...
http://www.metrojpa.org/agenda/110107%20a.pdf
...
And YES... the Surfriders and Coastkeepers and Sierra Club were pushing for this to get done. Because shutting down the system because there was no waiver... imagine your home with out a sewage system. Even if you never flushed your toilets... the crap from your neighbor's places would back up into yours.
That treatment plant has to keep operating... needs the sencondary treatment, yes... but, it cannot be shut down because the risks in doing so are just too great.
Hail, Hail!!!