Santa
Monica Among Top Violators Cited by Regional Water Officials
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By Jorge Casuso
March 5 -- Regional water officials Tuesday threatened
to fine Santa Monica, along with 19 other Southern California cities
and Los Angeles County, $10,000 a day for repeatedly polluting Santa
Monica Bay with contaminated runoff.
Despite major efforts to clean up its beaches, the City was one of the top
violators, with violations identified at ten shoreline monitoring sites along
its beaches during summer dry-weather compliance periods in 2006 and 2007.
In 795 instances, “the bacteria water quality objectives set to protect
water contact recreation were exceeded,” according to a letter sent to
City Manager Lamont Ewell by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control
Board.
The violations issued by the board are meant to enforce a decades-long effort
to clean up the polluted bay, which has routinely failed to meet clean-water
standards.
“While the County and the cities within Santa Monica Bay Watershed have
taken actions to reduce urban runoff to beaches, monitoring data reveal that
urban runoff with excessive levels of bacteria continues to flow into the ocean
at many locations along Santa Monica Bay beaches and within Marina del Rey Harbor,”
water quality officials said.
“This threatens the health of the millions of people that swim in Santa
Monica Bay,” officials said.
Environmentalists hailed the move, calling it a first.
"The scale of this is unprecedented," said Mark Gold, president of
Heal the Bay. "It's the first time anyone's ever done this in the country
-- to actually pursue enforcement for the protection of beach water quality."
In response to the letter, the City must inform the board of the cause of the
violations, the sources of the bacteria and how the City plans to clean up the
problem. City officials said they would meet the April 21 deadline to respond.
“We feel confident we can address any Santa Monica specific problems,”
said Kate Vernez, a senior analyst for the City Manager. “We take this
very seriously, as other cities will. It is a regional problem.”
The City’s top water official didn’t expect such harsh measures
against Santa Monica, which has built a water treatment facility it plans to
expand and whose voters approved a parcel tax in 2006 that pumps $2.3 million
a year to help clean up the bay.
“In a sense it was surprising because the City of Santa Monica is so
pro-active and staying ahead of these water quality issues,” said Gil
Barboa, Santa Monica’s water resource manager.
“This is a regional issue,” Barboa said. “This is a wakeup
call for all the cities in the region.”
Despite the City’s efforts, its location and the presence of the Santa
Monica pier make it more vulnerable than other targeted cities, half of which
are not on the coast, such as Beverly Hills and Culver City. Other top polluters
included Los Angeles County and Malibu, the board said.
“Part of it is being at the end of the pipe, and part of it is the pier,”
said Barboa.
Contributing to Santa Monica’s poor performance is a decaying drain that
carries runoff from the thriving Downtown business district to the beach around
the pier.
A leaky decaying storm drain line that doesn’t reach the surf have long
contributed to high levels of bacterial pollution that made the water around
the pier unsafe for swimming, according to City officials. The polluted water
ponds underneath the pier.
More than a year ago, the City began implementing recommendations from Heal
the Bay that include pumping the polluted water out of the pond and filling
the pond with clean sand. The City also hired a contractor to thoroughly inspect
the storm drain infrastructure, the runoff diversions and the Santa Monica Reuse
Facility (SMRF), which cleans the storm water.
Proposition V, which was narrowly approved by voters in November 2006, will
pay for the much needed upgrades to the storm drain line under the pier, City
officials said.
While the area around the pier remains polluted, other city beaches are reaping
the rewards of new diversion systems that divert the flow of storm water into
the sewer system instead of the ocean.
Tuesday’s letter warned that targeted cities that ignore the requirements
face an additional $10,000 if any requirement in the order is violated.
The board could also ask the state attorney general to seek civil
liabilities in court of up to $25,000 each day a violation occurs.
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