The Morning Report
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Mayor Jerry Sanders today signed an agreement with San Diego Coastkeeper and the Surfrider Foundation that calls for the city to spend $2 million over two years studying opportunities to recycle sewage.
The agreement, which the City Council approved Tuesday by a 6-1 vote (Councilman Carl DeMaio voted no), gives the city a boost in its pursuit of a waiver of federal pollution standards at the Point Loma sewage treatment plant. The facility, which sits on the western bluffs near Cabrillo National Monument, discharges 175 million gallons of sewage daily into the Pacific Ocean. It fails to remove the amount of waste required by the Clean Water Act.
The agreement commits the city to spending as much as $2 million to develop strategies for reusing sewage, decreasing the amount that gets dumped in the ocean. The agreement gives the city a united front in its pursuit of a waiver from state and federal regulators. The waiver needs formal approval from the State Water Resources Control Board and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.