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Home My WebLink About2007/02/06 Item 6 CITY COUNCIL AGENDA STATEMENT Meeting Date: 2/6/2007 Item IJ ITEM TITLE: RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA'S REPRESENTATIVE ON THE METRO COMMISSION TO VOTE IN SUPPORT OF OPTIONS THAT WILL ENABLE THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO TO BEST ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF SECONDARY WASTEWATER TREATMENT. CITY ENGINEER -d2 ~ INTERIM CITY MANAGER JI SUBMITTED BY: REVIEWED BY: 4/5THS VOTE: YES NO X BACKGROUND On December 12, 2006, by Resolution 2006-374, the City Council authorized the City's representative on the Metro Commission to vote in support of the strategy for concurrent filing of a waiver application and initiation of negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency for a consent decree to comply with the requirements of the Act. Subsequently, during the two Metro Commission meetings held on December 14, 2006 and January II, 2007, this issue was considered and the Participating Agencies voted unanimously to recommend to the City of San Diego that the process to obtain another waiver enabling continued operation of the Point Lorna Wastewater Treatment Plant as an Advanced Primary Treatment Facility be initiated. However, the Commission members were unable to reach consensus on whether the City of San Diego should also initiate negotiations with the EP A on a Consent Decree. Since the Council had initially approved a resolution supporting specifically these two combined actions, staff wanted the Council to be updated on the latest developments. Given the fluidity and complexity of this situation, staff recommends that Council approve a resolution authorizing the City's representative to vote in support of options that will enable the City of San Diego to best address the issue of secondary wastewater treatment. ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW The Environmental Review Coordinator has reviewed the proposed activity for compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) and has determined that the activity is not a "Project" as defined under Section 15378 of the State CEQA Guidelines because the agreement does not authorize any activity that will result in a physical change to the environment; therefore, 6-1 Page 2, Item &, Meeting Date 2/6/2007 pursuant to Section 15060(c)(3) of the State CEQA Guidelines the activity is not subject to CEQA. Thus, no environmental review is necessary. RECOMMENDATION That City Council approve the Resolution authorizing the City of Chula Vista's representative on the Metro Commission to vote in support of options that will enable the City of San Diego to best address the issue of secondary wastewater treatment. BOARDS/COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION Not applicable. DISCUSSION On December 14, 2006 the Metro Wastewater Commission/JPA considered the issue of the environmental permitting for the Point Lorna Wastewater Treatment Plant (PLWWTP). The Commission took input from members of the environmental community and other stakeholders and unanimously supported the recommendation that the City of San Diego initiate the process to obtain a new waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency (EP A) that will enable them to continue to operate the PL WWTP as an advanced primary treatment facility. However, the Commission was unable to reach consensus on whether to recommend that the City of San Diego also take the following additional actions: 1. Continue the enhanced ocean monitoring program as recommended by Scripps Institution of Oceanography; 2. Continue with the technical studies being conducted to optImIze Biological Aerated Filtration (BAF) technology and other emerging technologies which may reduce the cost associated with converting the PLWWTP to a secondary treatment facility; 3. Consider the use of the state and federal environmental review processes under CEQA (EIR) and NEP A (EIS) to determine whether environmental impacts to expand the PL WWTP would exceed harm caused by continuing to operate PL WWTP as an advanced primary treatment facility, and using those findings to drive future decisions regarding the permitting of the plant and 4. Initiation of negotiations with the EP A on a consent decree, which will clearly state milestones and a timeline to implement secondary treatment at the PLWWTP. Subsequently, at the January 11,2007, meeting, the Metro Commission/JPA considered this issue again and was still unable to reach consensus. Consequently, the vote on this issue was re- scheduled for the February 8, 2007 meeting. In the interim, the Commission agreed to draft and send a letter to the City of San Diego encouraging initiation of the waiver application. The letter will also outline other recommendations as will be determined at the February Metro Commission meeting. The issues still being discussed are outlined below: 6-2 Page 3, Item L.> Meeting Date 2/6/2007 1. Enhanced Ocean Monitoring Program: As a result of an agreement between the City of San Diego and the Bay Council concerning the last waiver renewal, Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) was asked to conduct a review of the PLWWTP ocean monitoring program. The review resulted in recommendations for enhancements to the program. Although not a. condition of the agreement, the City of San Diego, in consultation with the Metro Commission/JP A, has been voluntarily implementing the recommendations presented in the study. Whereas the City has already implemented many of the recommendations, in addition to the required regulatory monitoring requirements, the following additional ocean monitoring and related activities from the SIO study may also be voluntarily implemented during the next five year waiver period: . Deep ocean site characterization activities, phase II; . Sediment budget and transport studies; . Wastewater plume transport and dispersion studies; . Rapid micro-biological development study participation; . Completion of Endocrine Disrupting Compound assessment; . Final integration of Point Lorna Ocean Outfall and South Bay Ocean Outfall ocean monitoring programs into a regional program to insure linkage oflittoral cells and to account for regional input sources; and · Bio-markerlbio-indicator and sensitive fingerprinting technique assessment evaluation. Continuation of this enhanced program provides useful data that continues to support the observation that Point Lorna's advanced primary treatment discharge does not adversely impact the ocean. 2. Optimization of BAF and Other Emerging Technologies: Also a condition of the agreement with the Bay Council, Biological Aerated Filtration (BAF) was initially pilot tested at PLWWTP. The goal was to investigate the viability of this technology and its operational intricacies, and to ascertain if the PLWWTP effluent treated with BAF technology could meet the EP A requirements for secondary treatment. The pilot test was a success in achieving these goals. However, the test did not address optimizing the BAF technology regarding implementation and operation costs at PLWWTP, and it did not consider other emerging and innovative technologies. Prudent facilities planning would address these issues of optimizing new and innovative treatment technologies with the processes in place at PLWWTP in the event secondary treatment becomes necessary. Current estimates for the capital cost of implementation of this technology vary between $700 million to $1 billion. If the City of San Diego is allowed additional time to optimize the implementation of this technology, there is a possibility that the cost of implementation may be reduced to approximately $500 million. 3. Environmental Impact Analvsis: Environmental impacts related to acquiring additional land adjacent to the PLWWTP, constructing new treatment technologies, such as BAF, and the associated on-going impacts are not known at this time. Conducting both federal and state environmental analysis on possible impacts will provide a comparison of the environmental impacts among possible expansion alternatives with current operations, and also include the 6-3 Page 4, Item (p Meeting Date 2/6/2007 estimated costs of the possible alternatives. Completing these studies will allow the public an opportunity to review and comment on the alternatives and provide additional information when determining which alternative(s) to pursue regarding the operation of the PLWWTP. Hence the reason for considering the use of the ErR or EIS process in quantifying the impacts associated with either continuing to operate the plant under the current waiver or pursuing an upgrade. 4. EP A Consent Decree Negotiations: There are some participants who feel that the conversion of the PL WWTP to a secondary treatment facility is becoming almost inevitable. Those participants feel that the Metro Commission/JP A, in consultation with the City of San Diego, should begin working on establishing the criteria to be included in a possible consent decree with the EP A. In anticipation of a consent decree, the Metro Commission/JP A may want to identifY specific trigger points including, but not limited to: . A timeline to study, test, select and implement an acceptable technology; . Cost and economic criteria and/or limits; and . Interim activities to enhance ocean quality. CONCLUSION This issue is scheduled to be discussed by the Participating Agencies at the next regular Metro Commission/JPA meeting scheduled for February 8, 2007. At that meeting all the representatives of the various participating agencies are scheduled to vote on a wide range of issues related to secondary treatment. The outcome of that vote will determine the contents of the letter that will be sent from the Metro Commission to the City of San Diego. Staff is recommending that the Council authorize the City's representative to vote in support of options that will enable the City of San Diego to best address the issue of secondary wastewater treatment. DECISION MAKER CONFLICTS: Staff has reviewed the decision contemplated by this action and has determined that it is not site specific and consequently the 500 foot rule found in California Code of Regulations section l8704.2(a)(I) is not applicable to this decision. FISCAL IMPACT: None directly related to this action. Prepared by: Anthony Chukwudolue, Sr. Civil Engineer, Engineering Department J: IEngineerlAGEND A \CAS2007\02-13-07\ V ote- MetroCommission.lp. doc 6-4 RESOLUTION NO. RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA AUTHORIZING THE CITY OF CHULA VISTA'S REPRESENTATIVE ON THE METRO COMMISSION TO VOTE IN SUPPORT OF OPTIONS THAT WILL ENABLE THE CITY OF SAN DIEGO TO BEST ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF SECONDARY WASTEWATER TREATMENT. WHEREAS, City of Chula Vista's sewage is transported to the City of San Diego's [San Diego] Metropolitan Wastewater System, which serves the majority of jurisdictions in the San Diego regIOn, and ultimately ends up at the Point Lorna Wastewater Treatment Plant; and WHEREAS, at the Treatment Plant, the wastewater is treated to an "advanced primary treatment" level before it is discharged into the ocean; and WHEREAS, because there is general agreement that the advanced primary treated water is not negatively impacting the ocean and marine environment, San Diego has received a waiver from the Environmental Protection Agency [EPA] to the requirement to provide secondary treatment of wastewater as mandated by the Clean Water Act [CWA]; and WHEREAS, San Diego may have to transition to secondary treatment in the future; and WHEREAS, San Diego was considering concurrently initiating an application to renew the waiver and beginning negotiations with the EPA for an agreement, or consent decree, to comply with the requirements of CW A; and WHEREAS, the Metro Commission was created in 1997 as part of an agreement with San Diego to give participating agencies, including the City ofChula Vista, a means of providing input on discussions related to the operation and maintenance of the Metropolitan Wastewater System; and WHEREAS, on December 12, 2006, pursuant to Resolution No. 2006-374, the Council authorized Chula Vista's representative on the Metro Commission to vote in support of the strategy for concurrent initiation of an application to renew the waiver and to begin negotiations with EPA for an agreement, or consent decree, to comply with the requirements of CW A; and WHEREAS, at meetings of the Metro Commission on December 14, 2006 and January 11, 2007, the members of the Commission voted unanimously to encourage San Diego to initiate the process to renew the waiver but were unable to reach a consensus on other issues regarding the secondari treatment of wastewater; and 6-5 WHEREAS, staff seeks City Council's authorization for Chula Vista's representative on the Metro Commission to vote in support of options that will enable the City of San Diego to best address the issue of secondary wastewater treatment. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City ofChula Vista that it authorizes the City of Chula Vista's representative on the Metro Commission to vote in support of options that will enable the City of San Diego to best address the issue of secondary wastewater treatment. Presented by Approved as to form by Scott Tulloch Director of Engineering ~~ Ann Moore City Attorney ',1~" ' " '~/l/V. , H:\ENGINEER\RESOS\Resosl007\02-06-07\Pllinl Lom::l Treatment Plant Metro Commission vote- ec,doc 6-6