County to Study Halt of Dumping Into Bay
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Los Angeles County supervisors ordered a study Tuesday on whether the county should drop its decade-long fight to continue dumping partly treated sewage into Santa Monica Bay off the Palos Verdes Peninsula.
The action was hailed by the environmental group Heal the Bay, which said it could lead the County Sanitation Districts to withdraw a request for a waiver from federal requirements to provide full secondary treatment at its Carson sewage treatment plant.
“Symbolically, this means a heck of a lot,” said Mark Gold, staff scientist of Heal the Bay.
James F. Stahl, assistant chief engineer of the Sanitation District, predicted that the study would support the agency’s assertion that intensifying treatment would cause environmental damage. The agency contends that solids from its ocean outfalls help cap a layer of bay sediment that was contaminated years ago from the dumping of chemicals, including DDT.
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