ESCONDIDO – A state water board has fined the city $1.8 million for numerous water-quality violations at its Hale Avenue sewage treatment plant.
In a letter dated Dec. 30, the state Regional Water Quality Control Board accused the city of a laundry list of violations at the plant. They range from a 354,000-gallon spill into Escondido Creek that affected the San Elijo Lagoon in Encinitas to 47 occurrences of overflows of wastewater from the plant between January and March of last year.
The board also penalized the city for failing to meet deadlines for completing compliance reports. Under one violation, the city allegedly did not submit status reports on its water-reclamation program for seven years.
The fines include a $1.2 million penalty the board imposed in 2004 for nearly 400 sewage-treatment violations over a period of weeks because of a failure of the treatment process used by the city plant.
The city has maintained that the Iron Factory, a golf club manufacturer, created an illegal connection to a sewer pipe and dumped toxic chemicals into the system in April, which killed bacteria used to treat sewage. The city had argued for a reduction in the fine because the dumping was out of its control.
A federal grand jury indicted James Kronus, the company's owner, charging him with one count of unlawful discharge of pollutants. He has pleaded not guilty.
In July, a state investigator maintained that the city should still be held responsible and pay the $1.2 million fine because it was too slow responding to the illegal dumping.
Pat Thomas, the city's public works director, blamed heavy rains last winter for the sewage spills and overflows that resulted in additional fines last year.
"We've certainly made our best attempt to stay compliant with the board's complaints and permits," Thomas said yesterday.
Asked about the overdue reports, Thomas could not verify when they were submitted. He said he was unsure whether status reports were filed for the recycled-water program the city created a decade ago in response to a state mandate.
Booyeon Lee: (760) 737-7566; booyeon.lee@uniontrib.com
