City OKs Legal Fees to Fight New Water Rules

The Los Angeles City Council moved Tuesday to step up its fight against what it considers unfair clean water rules for the Los Angeles River.

The city moved to go to court to block enforcement of new water discharge standards set by the state’s Water Resources Control Board for the Donald C. Tillman Water Reclamation Plant in Van Nuys and the Los Angeles/Glendale Water Reclamation Plant in the East Valley.

The new rules require water discharged by the plants into the Los Angeles River to be of higher quality than drinking water, even though no one uses the river for that purpose, said Judith Wilson, director of the city’s Sanitation Bureau.

The council approved up to $300,000 in legal fees to fight the rules. The fines could amount to $6,000 per day.

Wilson estimated it would cost $120 million per year to provide the type of treatment necessary to meet the new standards, saying that is slightly more than the city’s entire current waste treatment budget.

“What we would be doing is treating to standards way beyond drinking water, for water that is going to go down to the ocean for fish,” Assistant City Atty. Chris Westhoff said. “It’s not logical.”

The controversial standards are contained in permits proposed last year by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. The permits set tougher standards for levels of nitrite, copper, cyanide and DDT at the Tillman plant and for those chemicals as well as residual chlorine and detergents at the Los Angeles/Glendale plant, said Gary Schultz, a water quality engineer for the regional board.

The city has appealed the permits to the state Water Resources Control Board.

“We are still working on it,” said Fred Zinchiak, a spokesman for the state board. Even if the board does not act on the request to delay the permits by the new year, the city would still be subject to the fines, a city consultant has warned. Fines could first be levied in March.

To avoid fines, Westhoff said the city will go to court in the next two weeks to ask a judge to take jurisdiction and issue the stay itself.

“By doing this we can potentially save a lot of money for the city,” Councilwoman Laura Chick said.

Wilson said the state standards are unreasonable. Copper is in the water because it comes from household water pipes.

“We can’t source control it. There is no way I can remove people’s copper pipes,” Wilson said.