Advocates urge San Diego board to require independent testing as trustees consider IBWC cease-and-desist request

Speakers at the Aug. 20 Imperial Beach City Council meeting urged city officials and the public to weigh in on an Aug. 27 hearing before the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board that could approve a permit amendment to increase treated discharge to the Imperial Beach outfall. Leon Benham, president and executive director of Citizens for Coastal Conservancy, told the council the regional board will “consider a cease and desist order against the IBWC” and that the proposal includes adding 10 million gallons per day to the city’s outfall. Benham asked the council to request “rigorous testing, independent testing,” and to use a high-sensitivity method he described as “the new ddPCR test” to measure changes in solids and pathogen indicators if the proposed discharge increases. Benham outlined the numerical impacts he attributes to the proposal and framed them as hypotheses for monitoring: he said the current processed volume to Imperial Beach is about 40 million gallons per day, that the proposed increase of 10 million gallons would be treated only to primary levels removing roughly 60% of solids, and that, by his calculation, the volume of detectable solids discharged could therefore increase sharply. He asked the council to urge the regional board to require daily ddPCR monitoring at the outfall and at receptor sites to produce a scientific baseline and measure change over time. City staff did not take formal action at the Aug. 20 meeting on this item. Benham and others urged attendees to comment directly to the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board at its Aug. 27 meeting and to request independent baseline testing to detect any change if discharge volumes increase. The council did not adopt a motion on the IBWC matter during the Aug. 20 session; speakers were notified of the Aug. 27 hearing and encouraged to provide written or oral comments to the regional board ahead of that date.