Public works director says it will cost much more to implement new stormwater permit rules.
By Tracy Marcynzsyn/Special to The Malibu Times
The City of Malibu has just received a $2.5 million grant to install an ozone-disinfection facility in the Civic Center area to help comply with new rules requiring cities in Los Angeles County to develop and implement a plan that will reduce the number of beach closures from sewage spills and urban runoff every year. The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board recently decided to adopt the new stormwater permit rules as the result of litigation by several environmental groups.
Enforcement of the Los Angeles County Municipal Stormwater Permit rules will also limit the number of beach warnings and advisories posted on area beaches. Officials post beach warnings when the amount of bacteria present in the water exceeds that allowable by the total maximum daily load (tmdl).
While 2001 was the last time beaches in Los Angeles County were closed due to a sewage spill that prompted closure of Will Rogers State Beach, beach advisories are commonplace in Malibu, according to Eric Edwards, environmental health specialist with the Ocean Monitoring Recreational Health Program of the Department of Health Services.
Department of Health officials monitor some 15 sites in the Malibu area from Leo Carrillo Beach to Topanga State Beach on a weekly basis. According to Edwards, tests show pollution levels exceed the tmdl most often at the popular Surfrider Beach and at Malibu Pier.
At Surfrider Beach, second point, and at Malibu Pier, levels of bacteria exceeded the acceptable tmdl 45 times last year during wet weather. Under the new rules, pollution levels will only be allowed to exceed the tmdl for 17 days.
The city of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Sanitation District, along with environmental organizations such as Santa Monica BayKeeper, the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) and Heal the Bay also conduct water quality testing.
NRDC, Heal the Bay and Santa Monica BayKeeper have been involved with litigation over enforcement of the stormwater permit requirements to reduce pollution levels in the ocean. These organizations were instrumental in the water board’s decision to force cities to comply with the requirements to reduce the amount of bacteria in the water to levels that would be observed under “natural conditions,” without man-made pollution.
Cities that don’t comply with the new rules for exceeding the limits will risk a fine of $27,500 per day, per violation, said Steve Fleischli, executive director of BayKeeper, a community-based environmental organization in Santa Monica.
The number of beach closures and exceedances allowed under the Municipal Stormwater Permit rules will vary from region to region, Fleischli said. Within three years, no exceedances of pollution levels will be allowed during the summer, and within six years, the number of exceedances during winter dry weather will be substantially reduced to three days.
During winter wet weather conditions, upward of 14 days will be allowable.
“In Malibu, 14, maybe 15, days are allowed to exceed” pollution levels, Fleischli said.
Rick Morgan, acting public works director for the City of Malibu, said the city is working on a plan to comply with the rules. “For a plan to really be feasible, you need to know where you’re going to get the money,” Morgan said. “It’s going to be a challenge.”
“These are very ambitious goals,” he said. “We have a big task ahead of us.”
“Disinfection is the only way to eliminate the bacteria from the water,” Morgan said. The facility, set for construction in August, will treat the water from the three major drains in the Civic Center area that discharge to Malibu Creek. The ozone disinfection facility is expected to keep bacteria levels within the acceptable tmdl limits during dry weather and “first flush runoff,” but it is only a start in coming up with a plan to comply with the water board’s rules.
“We have a lot more to do,” Morgan said. “We’re just wrestling with it,” adding that the estimated cost for compliance with the coming regulations will exceed the $2.5 million price tag on the ozone disinfection facility.
The city plans on taking the integrated approach to pollution reduction, which gives it 18 years, rather than 10, to achieve the wet weather goals set by the stormwater permit.
David Beckman, senior attorney and director of the Water Quality Project for the NRDC, acknowledges the scope of the project. “It [the pollution] wasn’t created overnight, and it will not be reversed overnight,” he said.
Costs to enact pollution-control methods may not be as high as some think. According to the Clean Water Alliance, spending just $15 per household would allow implementation of simple protections that have proved to reduce and control urban runoff. Installing low-cost screens or filters in catch basins and avoiding hosing pollutants from the pavement into the streets, as well as more street sweeping and increased public education regarding urban runoff and its prevention, are a few simple ways to comply with reducing pollution.
“The problem is caused by literally millions of small actions that cause big problems,” Beckman said.
While most of Los Angeles County’s cities have not yet enacted plans for pollution reduction, Fleischli applauds a few cities like the city of Santa Monica.
Santa Monica officials use reclaimed water to clean and water vegetation.