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Major corporation says no to badly needed reclaimed water

So far, any resemblance between the taste of Miller beer and sewer water has been completely coincidental. But Miller has spent two and half years trying to make sure that doesn't change. Or to be more specific, trying to make sure their customers don't think that's changed.

In Los Angeles County, next to Miller Brewing Co.'s Irwindale plant, the San Gabriel Valley Municipal Water District was planning to dump treated sewer water into the existing ground water. Miller temporarily halted the project, filing a lawsuit that claimed the project would irreversibly pollute their water supply. This raises the question, is recycled sewer water safe to drink, and if it is, should a major corporation have the right to prevent its use to protect their public image?

A water shortage of 1.2 to 1.8 million gallons is expected by the year 2020, according to the California Department of Water Resources, and the thirstier California gets, the more valuable that water swirling down the toilet is going to look.

There's a natural aversion to the idea of drinking anything that was at one time human waste, but Earle C. Hartling, water recycling coordinator for Los Angeles County, assures "no human waste will be put anywhere near the ground water supply." The treated water is technically called "reclaimed water." Its colorless, odorless, "and actually tastes very much like regular tap water," Hartling adds.

The water is put back into circulation through a process called "artificial ground water recharge." The treated water is either injected directly into aquifers below ground, or, as in the case of the San Gabriel Valley project, spread across the ground and allowed to seep down to the aquifers through the soil, which should further purify the water.

Environmental groups aren't in total agreement. Citizens for Clean Water, led by physician Forrest Tennant, helped fight the San Gabriel Valley project, but the Sierra Club says as long as state and county regulations are met, recycling water is "highly desirable."

"Sixty percent of aluminum cans are recycled," says David Czamanske, water committee chair for the Sierra Club's Los Angeles chapter. "But in the case of water, less than five percent is reused, and the rest is dumped from the treatment plant into the ocean."

Ground water recharge isn't a new concept. It's been done in Los Angeles County since 1962 with no adverse health effects, according to an EPA study. It became controversial again when Miller Brewing Co. filed suit to stop the San Gabriel Valley project.

In early February 1996, after two-and-a-half years and $400,000 in legal fees for the Water District, a compromise was reached. The pipeline pumping the waste water into the valley will be smaller and two miles shorter-away from Miller's Irwindale plant.

"We're very positive about it," says Miller spokesman Victor Franco. "We think it's a deal that everyone's going to be able to live with."

"Basically, I don't feel too good about it," Czamanske says. "(Miller) acted like a bully on a school yard playground."

Now, instead of recycling 16,000 acre-feet of water each year, only 10,000 acre-feet will be recycled, according to Bob Berlien, water district general manager.

"Through their intimidation and bottomless amounts of money, they forced the scale back," Czamanske says. He suggests that Miller's lawsuit was more about protecting their public image than protecting the health of the community.

"Public image," Franco says, "depends on the perceiver." Being seen as a big corporation that's pushing people around, he says, can also be damaging. He points out that Miller was joined in its lawsuit by a coalition of worried local businesses. "We came up with a compromise that meets the needs of the businesses and the public at large."

The new, scale-down project should begin in about a year-and-a-half, according to Berlien, and a similar project is planned for San Diego. It just won't be happening in Miller's back yard.

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