AUDIT FAULTS CITY ON WATER TOXINS

Report says San Diego uses outdated fees and methods to find polluters

A San Diego program that aims to keep toxic sewer water out of the Pacific Ocean suffers from outdated methods and inadequate efforts to identify and inspect the business sites of industrial polluters, a new city audit says.

The 56-page audit says the program, which oversees industrial polluters served by San Diego and 12 other local sewer districts, needs to step up efforts to find polluters and modernize its inspection program.

The program — the Industrial Wastewater Control Program — is also understaffed and not capable of handling the larger workload it should handle without adding more workers, the audit says.

The program’s success at keeping arsenic, benzene and other toxic materials out of the ocean is one reason the city has been granted consecutive federal waivers of a requirement to spend $2 billion upgrading the Point Loma sewer plant.

The audit says failure of the program to effectively reduce industrial pollution could jeopardize those waivers in the future.

A separate audit last summer found that the city has failed to charge industrial polluters enough for the program’s permits, which forces other sewer customers — homeowners and nonindustrial businesses — to pay higher fees. Fees for the permits have not been raised since 1984. City officials say a study has been ordered to help determine new fees.

The 12 other sewer districts the program covers beyond San Diego are Padre Dam, Del Mar, Poway, Spring Valley, National City, Otay, Alpine, Lemon Grove, La Mesa, El Cajon, Winter Gardens and Coronado.

San Diego handles industrial polluter inspections for those sewer districts because their sewage is handled by the city’s Point Loma plant.

posal is in the design phase, we believe it is unnecessary, creates more bureaucracy, delays projects and will ultimately cost the taxpayers more money,” said Dustin Steiner, vice president of government and industry relations for the San Diego chapter of the Associated

General Contractors of America. “The reporting requirements are already largely included in the county’s permitting process.”

Fletcher said the current permitting process doesn’t include disclosure of subcontractor information for most projects, and said the added transparency requirement would involve a quick, online step of uploading subcontractor information.

“Law-abiding contractors are at a competitive disadvantage to those who break the law,” said Doug Hicks, a representative for the Southwest Regional Council of Carpenters, based in Los Angeles. The disclosure requirement, he said, “sends a strong message to contractors who do it right: When you come to San Diego County to build, you’ll

have a fair and level playing field on which you can compete, show your best work.”

The Board of Supervisors called for its staff to convene a working group of labor and industry representatives, each of whom has a stake in the process, and to draft an ordinance for board consideration in six months.