Public access to open space may be affected by the adoption of water bacteria standards as the beginning of new regulations by the state water control board.
By Tracy Marcynzsyn/Special to The Malibu Times
Adding to the myriad of control over local land and water use, new bacteria standards recently adopted by the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB) may force cities to close trails in Los Angeles County, including areas in Malibu and the Santa Monica Mountains in order to comply with water quality standards.
The SWRCB recently approved an amendment to the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Plan (Basin Plan) adding total coliform, fecal coliform and a fecal-to-total coliform ratio to enterococci (disease-causing bacteria) as a standard for measuring bacteria in bodies of water that are designated for water contact recreation.
The new standards require cities to enact measures to eliminate these bacteria from all water bodies accessible to human contact. This could mean trail closures near areas with affected bodies of water, or the installation of water treatment facilities, estimated by the SWRCB to cost $1.5 billion.
The adoption of the water bacteria standards is the beginning of several regulations by the SWRCB that will affect public access to open space.
Mike Lewis of Lewis and Company, a government relations consultant, said some people feel humans should be kept out of natural areas in order to achieve purity.
“A very small, but vocal group of environmentalists also believe that public land should be pristine and that public access should be limited,” said Lewis, naming organizations such as the National Resources Defense Council, which seeks to limit human access to the wilderness in the name of protecting natural resources.
Keeping recreational use
The Recreation and Equestrian Coalition (REC) is one group that wants to maintain recreational use of the Santa Monica Mountains.
Heal The Bay’s James Alamillo, beach report card manager, said there is no plan to prohibit equestrian activity in the area, but that studies were being conducted regarding the total maximum daily load (tmdl) of bacteria that can be handled by Malibu Creek. Heal the Bay is one of the organizations behind the new standards.
“There is no specific language that closes equestrian trails,” Alamillo said. “But they [horses] may be prohibited if it is deemed there is a problem.”
According to Alamillo, officials are developing a tmdl estimate for Malibu Creek.
“It determines the amount of pollution that the creek can bear without losing its beneficial use,” Alamillo said.
REC proponents worry that if horses are found to add to the bacteria levels, they may be banned from the areas near waterways.
“There is no proven record that horses are great polluters,” said Ruth Gerson, president of the REC.
“The biggest polluters in the Santa Monica Mountains are the septic systems, we all know that,” she said.
Cities in Catch-22
Inappropriate designations of water bodies and disagreements regarding the source of the bacteria levels present in the water may leave cities in a “catch-22,” according to Lewis.
“If they [the cities] don’t take some overt action to be in compliance with the rules, they risk being sued by environmental groups for noncompliance,” Lewis said.
“But the one thing they can do, closing trails, isn’t really going to produce a result of improving the water quality,” Lewis said.
“The bacteria issue is particularly troublesome because they don’t know where the bacteria is coming from. The premise is that it is man-made, but the science seems to show that it [the bacteria] is naturally occurring.”
The Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LACDPW) cited a study in which an undeveloped subwatershed in Santa Monica Bay showed natural background bacteria levels often exceed the water quality objectives set forth by the SWRCB.
L.A. County stormwater monitoring reports also indicated that runoff from undeveloped land sometimes exceeds the bacteria objectives by “several orders of magnitude,” according to the LACDPW.
According to the REC, little or no science connects these indicator bacteria to swimming-associated stomach and intestinal illness to those exposed to the bacteria.
The Environmental Protection Agency also recommended that only enterococci be used as an indicator for pathogens in water.
“U.S. EPA’s studies have demonstrated that total and fecal coliforms show no real correlation to swimming-related illnesses,” wrote the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works to the Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Promoted by Heal the Bay, the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project and the Natural Resources Defense Council, the bacteria standards are nothing new, according to Alamillo.
“The four bacteria standards have been on the books since 1999 when Assembly Bill 411 (State Beach Bather’s Water Standards) was adopted,” Alamillo said.
Alamillo said the EPA’s finding sets a minimum standard.
“The EPA study is for baseline monitoring programs only,” he said.
While the REC maintains that adopting the water standards creates a “radically excessive water standard that is increased by as much as 300 percent over existing standards,” Alamillo disagrees.
“It’s hardly radical,” he said. “We’re more than 30 years behind in cleaning up our waterways.”
Rather than ban horses from trails, if horses are found to add to the bacteria levels of waterways, riders may be required to remove any waste produced by their horse.
The REC views these standards as “a major victory for environmental extremists who have been trying to remove horses from the public trail network.”
“It’s obviously political,” Gerson said, who worries that trails will become inaccessible as a result of the ruling.
“They are shutting out people who will ride, and the trail is not being able to be used for a recreational use. Less use means trails will become in disrepair,” said Gerson, who said the nonprofit groups that currently maintain trails do not have the manpower to keep up the trails.