S.D. Sewer Rates May Go Up

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 15, 2006 at 11:05 AM PST

This story was published more than 17 years ago.

San Diego residents could face additional increases in sewer rates to fund the upgrade of the city's Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant does not meet national water pollution standards.

San Diego residents could face additional increases in sewer rates to fund the upgrade of the city's Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. The plant does not meet national water pollution standards. KPBS reporter Ed Joyce has more.

If San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders decides to improve the plant it could cost close to $1 billion. One analysis says that would boost city sewer rates by more than 25 percent. But the city may ask for another five-year exemption from national pollution standards. The city's current waiver expires in 2008. The Point Loma plant discharges wastewater into the Pacific Ocean after primary treatment. Primary treatment removes about 85 percent of the total suspended solids, or TSS, from the discharge – suspended solids can include dead plant material and sewage. The nation's major treatment plants use secondary treatment, which removes 90 percent or more of the TSS from wastewater. Scientists say large amounts of TSS can destroy fish habitat because it absorbs heat from sunlight, which increases water temperatures and decreases oxygen. Ed Joyce, KPBS News.

Ed Joyce

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Ed Joyce was the environment reporter and afternoon news anchor for KPBS-FM. Before joining KPBS, he worked as an editor/columnist with Copley News Service in San Diego. Ed has an extensive background in newspaper, radio, web and TV journalism. After graduating with a B.A. in Communications from the University of Washington in Seattle, Ed began a career in broadcast journalism. His work has included stints in public broadcasting, commercial broadcasting and education -- working as an affiliate professor of communication and reporter at the University of Idaho and Washington State University in Pullman, Wash. During the past 20 years he has worked in radio, TV and print as a news reporter, anchor, writer, editor and producer. Along the way he has won numerous awards for general news reporting, newswriting, feature and issue reporting and breaking news reporting from The Associated Press, The Society of Professional Journalists, San Diego Press Club and other organizations. During the mid-1990s, while working for Oregon Public Broadcasting, he was a frequent contributor to National Public Radio, including a feature report on the memorial service for 14 U.S. Forest Service "hotshots" who died fighting a wildfire in Colorado (the crew was based in a central Oregon town). He’s also filed reports with Marketplace, KQED’s California Report and Climate Watch and with national and regional networks throughout the United States. At KPBS, Ed continues his contributions to National Public Radio and other national and regional news organizations. He has won awards from the Society of Professional Journalists and San Diego Press Club for his environmental reporting at KPBS-FM-TV and for producing and anchoring radio newscasts. In 2007 he was selected a National Press Foundation fellow for Understanding Violent Weather II program. The seminars were held at the National Weather Center in Norman, Okla. In 2008 he spoke at a UC San Diego conference on U.S. National Security as part of the school’s Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation. Ed led a discussion with the 18 foreign government officials and academics about the political debate over climate change. In 2010, Ed was elected to a three-year term on the board of the San Diego Press Club.

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