News Scrapbook 1989

San Diego, Cal1:f (San Diego Co) . SA.N DIEGO TRIBU.Q

1 9 1 89

DEC 1 9 1989

Jll'

Ult

P. C. 8 F.st. 1888 .,~;~a~~ talks continue as trial date nears Tribune Staff Writer ')- 1 ) reached by Friday. _ _ of the negotiations. attorney for the city of San Diego is opti- se~:e\ atto~ey=?lved ID the case said a nustic that a settlement will be reached this state was a s breadth away." That week in the U.S. government's lawsuit accusin U . me? was made by Robert Simmons, a plants planned by the city and to make im• provements to the ell:isting Point Loma Waste- water Treatment Plant.

_The m~in poin~ of contention is when the city will begm meeting federal Clean Water Act s~~dards. San ~ego has already admitted it is failing to treat its sewage to the federally man• dated !eve~ Dragna said. '.'The question is not whether you're going to bwld one (secondary sewage-treatment plant) ~r ,what you're go~g to build," Dragna said. Its when you're gomg to build it" Atrial before Brewster is ex~ted to last at least t';\'o weeks, with the judge expected to determme an appropriate deadline for second• ary treatment in San Diego. Technical testimo- ny from engineers and wastewater officials is expected to focus on how long it wi!J take to bwld the two new major sewage-treatment

Court documents indicate that the federal government wants San Diego to have a second- ary treatment system in operation by Decem- ber 1999, while the city has asked for an August 2007 completion date. The San Diego City Council reportedly has offered a compromise: to have the system in place b~ 2004. The possible agreement would not require the city to continue working on the secondary sewage-treatment system if the Clea~ Wat~r Act were changed by Congress to reqm_re a different tourse of action. Please see SEWAGr B-2, Col. 3

zers:J 0 ; 1 San Diego law professor who rep- e _l€11 a Ciab;wlifch has intervened ut Gerald George, senior counsel for the ~S. Departmen~ of ~ustice, dampened hope of thntsl B e awsw I thmk there are some ~ery IS3gree!llents among the parties" the ~ge told_ th e J~dge. "I _don't want to Jea~e sign\;J~~~on we re walkin§ out the door and co~::d he:: _pessim1Stic that a settlement Geo . n an agrE!i;m~n~. seri~~eeJ11ent.

the city of inadequately treating its sewag! but a federal lawyer says he is not holding his Unless the two sides reach a reement th case Is scheduled to go to trial J!n. 9 at 8'a me before_ U.S. District Judge Rudi M. Brewste~. . Durmg a court conference yesterday James Dragna, an attorney for the city, said «;ubstan- ~al progress" has been made in recent negotia• ti_ons. He later said that 80 percent of the disputed_ issues have been resolved. Dragna said he IS "optimistic" that an accord will be breath.

Ne"th reaDc

ID the next several days. ragna nor George released details natt!I" uwmes uepartment argued that the federal sewage discharge s~dard IS needlessly high for San D!ego. But in February 1987, Mayor OConnor persuaded her colleagues 00 the city council to agree to make the move to secondary sewage treat- ment EPA ?ffic1als said San Diego needs to provide secondary treatment be- cause surveys around the sewage outfall pi~ mdicate that some pollu- tant-sensitive brittle starfish have moved away from the area. In May of this year, scientists from lhe Scripps Institution of Oceanogra- phy stepped forward to say that the

er

I

,r \.

/

/

r-----,!

a~d chemist Edward Goldberg ~mner of the 1989 Tyler Prize in en'. v1ronmenta! science, said secondary trea~ment would be of no benefit to marm~ hfe off the tip of Point Loma. Their public stance stirred debate about ~n Diego's plans to build two new maJor sewage-treatment plants to brmg the city into compliance with the Clean Water Act. The sew- age plants are estimated to cost be- tween $2.6 billion and $2.86 billion with l~al sewer users likely to foot the entire bJJl. . As a result of the scientific ques- tions, the National Res arch Council the research arm of the National Aca~em1es of Sciences and Engi- neermg has agreed to study the need for secooda ry sewage treatment in coastal cities that dump their treated sewage mto the ocean. While second-

George said yesterday that anoth- er pomt of negotiation IS prevention of sewage spills. "Spills are obviously a serious problem," George said. The Department of Justice, acting on beh~tf of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, sued San Di go to try to force the city to upgrade Its sewage treatment to federal stand- Und er Congress' Clean Water Act of 1972, almost all mumc1palities in the_nation are required to cleanse their sewage usmg so-called second- ary treatment. The federal law set a July 1, 1988, deadline for complying with the standard. About 190 miilion gallons of sew- ~ge f!om Sao Diego and 15 surround- 1ng cities and sewer districts ls treat• ed at _the Point Loma plant. There, a ch~ical process called advanced prunary treatment - a step below the secondary level _ removes about.75 percent of the solids before pumprng the effluent 2½ miles out to sea, 220 feet deep. Secondary treatment uses bacteria to eat away 85 percent of the solids For years, the staff of San Diego's DEC - --======::::::::::--::-::- JI.II~,, ards. from the waste stream.

ary treatment goes a long way to clean up sewage-laden inland water- ways _sue~ as lakes and rivers, the council_w1ll look at whether it is nec- essary m the ocean, where sewage is more readily diluted. _Some politicians, including San Diego Councilmen Bruce Henderson and Bo~ Filner, are pushing for changes m the Clean Water Act that would mandate certain quality standards for sewage-receiving wa• ters rather than require a specific tech nology - secondary treatment - for sewage. The Clean Water Act comes up for reauthorization m 1992 . Mayor O'Connor was in San Fran: CISCO yesterday to attend a meeting of the League of California Cities bu_t her spokesman, Paul Downey' saJd sh~ holds out hope that a settle. ment will be reached.

rSan Di~go, C4 n Dreg San Die o Co .) /Cir. D. }~yn,on /Cir. S 341,089) ·

San Diego, CA . (San Diego Co.) San Diego Union (Cir . D. 217,089) (Cir. S. 341,840) DEC 1 9 1989 Jllt~ri '• P. c . e r "

.

,840)

1 9 1989

Tribune photo by Russ Gilbert Wood has been strong under lhe boards for lhe Toreros

,

-

b now

C. 8

E"

,au / The time is ripe for US_ to roll By Chris Zi?r?r, Staff Writer The starting lineup finally Is set. The next few opponents do not appear overwhelming. Now wou 1 d seem the perfect time for the University of San Diego basketball team to begin making a move toward excellence. "We match up pretty wel! with these teams coming up," said USD's senior center John Jerome, who will lead the Toreros (3-5) ~gainst Eastern Washington tonight at 7:30 in the USO Sports Center. This will be the second game of an eight-game home stand for the Toreros, who opened it in style Saturday with a 71-45 victory over Stephen F. Aus- tm. After Eastern Washington (2-4), they play Ne- va~a-Reno, West~rn Kentucky and Columbia. _I would certainly hope we could get it going," said Coach Hank Egan. "Those are people we should be able to compete with, for sure.'' ~he last few weeks have been a time of reap- pralS31 for Egan, who entered this season with guarded optimism. "It took us a while to find out who plays wel! together,'' he.said. "We added a lot of new, young kids, and we re to the point now where we feel mor~ comfortable about who's starting and who's commg off the bench. .For the ~mediate future, the Toreros' lineup will look like this: Jerome, the team's leading ~orer and rebounder, at center; sophomore Kel- vm Woods and senior Craig Cottrell at forward· sophomores Gylan Dottin and Wayman Strickland at guard. The problem that lineup poses is size. Only Jerome stands taller than 6-foot-5, and he is listed at a mere 6-8. "We're fairly athletic with fairly decent size ?v~rall, but we don't have a big, strong player ms1de," Egan said. perhaps that is what has been most disap- J>?IDtmg for the Toreros, thus far. Two of their bigger men, 6-9, 235-pound Dondi Bell and 6-8 225- P_OUnd ~hawn Hamilton, have been largely in~ffec- ttv_e this season. Bell, a junior who averaged nine pomts ~nd 5.9 rebounds last season, is averaging four ~mts a~d two rebounds this year. Admitted- ly, he IS p!aymg less, but he also is averaging one personal foul every three minutes. As a result of_Bell's struggles, freshman Brooks Barnhard, considered a redshirt candidate last 'month, is playing more and more. Nolea - Jerome was chosen West Coast Con- fere_nce player of the week after scoring 22 points ag~mst Step~en ~- Austin ... Eastern Washing- tons only victories have come against Central Washington and Portland, but the Eagles have played at home only once in six games. They lost to UC-Santa Barbara, 72-67, Saturday . . . Ronn ~cMah_on, a 5-9 guard, leads Eastern w ashington m scormg, averaging 14.5 points . . . The Eagles are shooting only 37.3 percent from the field . /

• • •

wh re

da35GPAlast

USD's Jerome cited as wee p)a of w k USO to~!¥£ Je named w t rome was es Coast Conference pla er of the week after scorin 22 . y. the Toreros' 71-45 win S: pomts ID against Stephen F A t· turday mght Je · US ID. fromropme, a 6-foot-8 senior transfer . rescott, Ar1'z is . 19 o · ·• averagmg . pomts and 7.1 rebounds. Women'• basketball _ Sopho- more forwa rd Lynda Jo Mt.Carmel alumna, had 18 poi:~s, a 8 slev7eln r~oound; to lead host USO ~n! · win over Cal Stat Freshman c• . e Ful.erton. eris Enger a v· alumna added 14 , • 1sta l) ' ,or the Toreras (7- '. who have won six straigbl Gena Miller had 28 points and 16 bo for the Titans (4 l) . re unds scored in double figu~~ ~v;a:l;yers State picked up its first . iego season b bea . victory of the (2-6) 66-5y3 J tlmgENorthern Arizona ' · u ie vans led th tees (l-6/ with 16. followed by i:~~ g:n Lollis (15), Crysta! Lee (12) Usher (10). Dav1S (11) and Mela~

m r 'Kelvm Wood is a good inside scorer and he's also a good passer, so we give him the ball a lot," said U D coach Hank Egan. "He's not gOl.Dg to do something illy Ith 1t. At the defens1v end of the floor, he has a big body and can really Jay on people to keep them off the hoards." Woods, who closed out the 1988- 89 e on with a career-high 21 po nts gainst Peppcrdme, didn t pick up this season where he left off. ''He's 1ust got to learn to push himself ' 1d Egan "Maybe he got away with 1t n high school when he was bigger and stronger th n other people. Now he's playmg at a position ms1de where all that trength !SD t gomg to do 1t because th peo l are starting to catch up with him that way He's got to play with a lot more Intensity, and he knows ll" Things have improved. Woods has averaged 12.5 points and 4.5 re- bounds the past four games. Dottin can see why 'The last couple of games the people he's been guardmg have been talking to him and giving him a little mess,' said Dott1n. "Kel is a competitor. If anybody talks to him, then he's going to respond.'

OTES - USO center John Jerome was selected West Coast Conference Player of the Week for his performance in Saturday's 71• 45 win over Stephen F. Austin at the USO Sports Center. Jerome, a 6-foot-8 senior, scored 22 points and grabbed four rebounds against the Lumberjacks. He leads the Toreros with 19 points and 7.1 re- bounds a game. • The WCC s eight teams are a combined 19-37 through the first half of the non-conference season. The teams must go 33-15 in their remaining TJOn-conference games to avoid fin1Shing below .500. The WCC's poorest showing this decade was 51-50 during the 1982- 83 season. Back then the teams played 26 games against non-Divi• SJon I competition. The WCC al- lows no more than one non-DiV!- SJon I opponent on the schedule these days. USO begins WCC play Jan. 6 at home against Santa Clara. • Defending wee champion Loy- ola Marymount will be featured twice on ESPN this week. LMU is at Oregon State tonight at 6:30 The Lions play host to Oklahoma Satur- day at 9 p.m. in a game tllat matches the nation's highest-scor- mg teams from last season.

San Diego, Calif . (San Diego Co l SAN DIEGO TRIUNE

DEC 1 9 1989

Jllloi '• ,. c. a

f., 11u /sall/O;ofrevplant h~m to marine life discounted

ther radiation or metals in the cooling-water releases, and the temperature of the dis- charged water was well within specified lim- its. Dr. Rimmon Fay, a biologist and a the third member of the Marine R~ · mittee, supported the stuay1lii"""dings, saying~ the estimates of damage are conservative. He said, for example, that some measuring stations in the offshore area were not in areas where the highest impact from the plant was expected. He said, however, that samples were col- lected in enough areas so that the data repre- sents "good evidence" that would stand in court if lawsuits were filed as a result of actions the board should take against Edison. He said the committee's report presents clear evidence that marine resources at San Onofre and in the Southern California coastal area in general "are being degraded" be- cause of the nuclear plant's operation. Fay also said he believes that installing cooling towers at the nuclear plant are the best way to prevent further environmental damage from the plant.

cal sciences at the University of California at Santa Barbara, was chainnan of the Ma- rine Review Committee. He noted the study showed that 21 to 57 tons of fish annually are being sucked into the power plant's water intakes and killed. He also said there is a decline In the abundance of eight fish species in the offshore area. An estimated 4 billion to 5 billion fish eggs and larvae are killed each year as well, re- sulting in a decline in the abundance of adult fish stocks in the Southern California coastal region, Murdoch said. Also, the stirring up of sediment caused by the daily release of massive amounts of cool- ing water has caused a 16 percent reduction in the amount of natural light reaching the bottom of a~ offshore kelp bed. That has slowed the growth of kelp plants. But Murdoch and others noted that the ef• fects were much fewer than the ecological disaster some had predicted from the power plant expansion completed in 1984, when two new reactors went into commercial opera- tion. For example, no harm was found from ei-

in holding a joint meeting with the coastal commission, perhaps in April, to discuss how to proceed in reviewing the study and decid- ing what action to take. The commission also has to decide whether the environmental damages constitute violations of that agen- cy's permits. At the meeting in Encinitas yesterday, USD's Brennan reiterated a contention he made in October - that there have been substantial environmental impacts from the San Onofre plant that violate federal pollu- tant-discharge permits administered by the water board. "It is your duty to address these ·violations in a manner that will eliminate those viola- tions," Brennan said. Dr. Charles T. Mitcheil, of Costa Mesa, one of several scientists for Edison who chal- lenged the committee's findings, said allega- tions of permit violations were unfounded. He said that the ocean water around the plant continues to support a balanced fish population, and that marine resources in the region are constantly changing. Dr. William Murdoch, professor of biologi-

Officials from Edison, operator of the plant, told the water board yesterday that they don't consider the environmental effects serious enough to warrant enforcement ac- tion. Dr. Byron Mechalas, head of environmen- tal affairs for Edison and the utility's repre- sentative on the study panel, said the fish and kelp losses that were identified "are not real- ly great or significant." He also said that any effects on the environment can be remedied with "simple fixes." Options for eliminating or reducing the harmful effects include building artificial ocean reefs to attract more fish, creating onshore wetland habitats, and switching to !and-based towers for evaporation of the plants' cooling water rather than releasing the water to the ocean. The last is the most expensive option. The question of whether the San Onofre plant is in violation of its effluent-discharge permits was on yesterday's agenda as an in- fonnation item, and no action was taken by the board as a result. The board indicated an interest, however.

By Micha~iiond Tnbune Env,ronment Writer

A Southern-CaHfornia Edison Co official said yesterday that operation of the San Onofre Nuclear Power Plant has not caused significant losses m the marine environment, and that those that have occurred can be remedied. A15-year study of the effects of the plant's operation on marme life was released in Sep- tember. It found large fish losses and harm to kelp beds off San Onofre caused by the intake and dtschar~cooling water. The $46 million study was fiuanced by Edi- on and supervised by a Marine R.e'liew Committee composed of three scientists ap- pointed by the Caiifa.cnia.....Coastal Cororois- _J.Q!!Jhe study was ordered by the commis- sion m 1974. Based on the study, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board was asked in October to find the San Onofre plant in viola- tion of its national pollutant-discharge per- mit. The request was made by Michael Bren- nan of the Environmental Law Clinic of the Umversity of San Diego.