San Diego Closer To Another Sewage Waiver

By Ed Joyce / Reporter, KPBS Public Broadcasting

Published December 4, 2008 at 12:00 PM PST

This story was published more than 16 years ago.

The City of San Diego is a step closer to getting a third five-year exemption from the federal Clean Water Act for the Point Loma Sewage Treatment Plant. The waiver is subject to a public hearing next

The City of San Diego is a step closer to getting a third five-year exemption from the federal Clean Water Act for the Point Loma Sewage Treatment Plant. The waiver is subject to a public hearing next month. KPBS Environmental Reporter Ed Joyce has more.

The tentative EPA ruling means the city can continue treating sewage at the "advanced primary" level before discharging the waste about 4-1/2 miles offshore.

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The EPA says city records show the sewage is not harming the marine environment.

The Point Loma plant is the nation's largest sewage facility that doesn't meet the federally mandated "secondary" treatment level which removes more pollutants.

San Diego Coastkeeper's Bruce Reznik says if the wavier is granted, he hopes the city takes steps to improve the plant.

Reznik: And look at ways that we can minimize or even eliminate discharges to the ocean and actually start to beneficially reuse wastewater that again would otherwise be dumped out into our ocean and impact that environment.

Reznik says environmental groups haven't decided whether to challenge the waiver if it's approved as expected next month.

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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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