Federal Court hears arguments in Clean Water Act citizen suit alleging non-compliance with municipal stormwater permit
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 19, 2010 at 5:58 amFrom Somach Simmons & Dunn:
“On February 8, 2010, the United States District Court for the Central District of California (Court) heard oral argument in Natural Resources Defense Council, et al. v. County of Los Angeles, et al. (CV08-01467-AHM (PLAx)), a case filed under the citizen suit provisions of the Clean Water Act (CWA). Petitioners, Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica Baykeeper (non-governmental organizations or NGOs) allege that the County of Los Angeles and Los Angeles County Flood Control District (collectively, Permittees) violated and continue to violate their municipal separate storm sewer system permit (MS4 Permit) issued under the CWA’s National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) program. After oral argument, the Court took the parties’ summary judgment motions under submission. The Court will issue an order at some future date.
Issues Raised in the NGOs’ Complaint
The NGOs allege that the Permittees’ discharge of pollutants violates the MS4 Permit and CWA by causing and/or contributing to exceedances of water quality standards and total maximum daily loads (TMDL). The NGOs also allege that the Permittees failed to comply with the MS4 Permit’s reporting requirements. The CWA generally prohibits the discharge of pollutants into most surface waters except as authorized by an NPDES permit. NPDES permits are to ensure the protection of beneficial uses of the receiving waters by providing for the attainment or maintenance of water quality standards and compliance with TMDLs where applicable. TMDLs are adopted for waterbodies (or segments thereof) that do not meet their water quality standards. A TMDL specifies the amount of the impairing pollutant that the water body or segment can receive and still meet the applicable water quality standard(s). … “
Too much pavement, too little oversight: Why stormwater is a leading water pollution problem
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 18, 2010 at 6:17 amFrom AlterNet:
“Little Black Creek has a long history of abuse. The stream in western Michigan runs through an industrialized area, and its sediment has some of the highest levels of cadmium found anywhere in the Great Lakes. Its banks are so eroded and its water so contaminated that it is unable to sustain its native, cold-water trout. And, every time it rains, one of Little Black Creek’s biggest threats rushes in.
Nearly one-third of the land around the creek is buried under urban concrete, asphalt and buildings. Rain water is shunted into storm drains, pushing the contaminated sediment downstream and delivering a fresh load of toxic runoff and snowmelt from city streets to Little Black Creek.
Across the country, stormwater runoff hammers thousands of rivers, streams and lakes. Communities are left to struggle with the consequences of too much pavement and too little oversight.
Now the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is gearing up to tighten federal stormwater rules that have been criticized by environmental groups and deemed ineffective by a national panel of researchers. … “
Continue reading this article from AlterNet by clicking here.
Spouting Off: Los Angeles at a stormwater crossroads
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 13, 2010 at 6:42 amFrom Mark Gold at the Spouting Off blog:
“After 20 years, the City of Los Angeles’ stormwater program is at a crossroads.
The program has come a long way since its beginnings in the early nineties as a result of the Hyperion consent decree and new regulations under the federal Clean Water Act and the first countywide stormwater permit. The City has done a superb job on stormwater education for students, businesses and the public. During the early 1990s, Heal the Bay worked closely with the City on our Gutter Patrol program where volunteers helped stencil tens of thousands of catch basins all over the city. Today, the City runs the program and you can’t find a catch basin in the city without a “No Dumping” stencil.
Los Angeles has led the way on clean beaches by installing about a dozen dry weather runoff diversions. … “
Continue reading this post from the Spouting Off blog by clicking here.
Long Beach installation will help take out the trash out of stormwater
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 10, 2010 at 8:09 amFrom the Long Beach Press Telegram:
“Dark, dreary clouds promised heavy rain Tuesday, but that didn’t dampen the moods of Mayor Bob Foster and Vice Mayor Val Lerch – both sporting smiles as bright as rainbows.
They put another piece of the anti-pollution puzzle in place with a groundbreaking ceremony for the installation of trash-capturing devices at three North Long Beach pump stations, designed to keep the debris off the beaches.
Foster and Lerch led a small gathering of civic officials and city officials at Stormwater Pump Station 11, at 114 Gordon St. The two other pump stations are near the Artesia (91) and Long Beach (710) freeways.
The new project consists of installing a Vortex Separation System unit on a large storm drain leading to the pump station. It works like the spin cycle of a washing machine, according to city spokesman Ed Kamlan. … “
Read more from the Long Beach Press Telegram by clicking here.
Inland water agencies are serious about capturing storm runoff
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 9, 2010 at 6:08 amFrom the Riverside Press-Enterprise:
“Long before Southern California’s water supplies dwindled, storm runoff was something to be disposed of quickly by sending it down concrete channels to the ocean.
But no more, say water officials who are coping with shortages caused by drought, population growth and environmental restrictions on imports. They want to capture every drop, especially during intense storms like those in January that dumped more than 3 inches of rain in many Inland areas.
“Our 20th century thinking was, ‘Storm water bad, flood water even worse.’ We’re now saying that’s water we desperately need,” said Celeste Cantu, general manager of the Santa Ana Watershed Project Authority, which plans and builds facilities to protect the water quality of the drainage basin that starts in the San Bernardino Mountains. … “
Read more from the Press-Enterprise by clicking here.
Storm gave year of water to 8,000 people
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on February 9, 2010 at 6:07 amFrom the OC Register’s Science Dude:
“The Orange County Water District says it captured about 650 million gallons of water from the Pacific storm that hit the region with unexpected force over the weekend. That’s enough water to serve 2,000 families of four for one year. And it adds to a seasonal capture rate that’s significant.
In a good year, OCWD collects enough runoff to service 200,000 of the 2.3 million people it provides water to in northern and central Orange County, says Adam Hutchinson, the agency’s director of recharge operations. … “
More from the Science Dude by clicking here.
Spouting Off blog: Prop. 218 is all wet
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 21, 2010 at 6:21 am
From Mark Gold at the Spouting Off blog:
“Apartments and homes in San Pedro flooded with two feet of water. Cars on Long Beach streets nearly submerged as an urban kayaker paddles by. Residents in La Crescenta living in perpetual fear of losing everything due to debris flows as a consequence of the Station Fire. The end result of this week’s L.A. storms will be millions of dollars in property losses.
And what is anyone doing about it? The news documents the heroic efforts of first responders to minimize impacts, but these efforts provide small-scale solutions. They don’t address the large-scale flood control infrastructure improvements needed to protect property throughout the state. Local government officials are doing what they can, but thanks to Proposition 218 their hands are tied. They can’t do much more unless two-thirds of the voters support a stormwater fee increase.
Two thirds — that’s the super-majority needed to protect life and property. There is something horribly wrong with that calculus. Ask the hundreds of people evacuated near the Station Fire or the victims of flooding in Long Beach or San Pedro. Government is there to protect life and property, except from flooding thanks to the narrow wording of 218. … “
Read more from the Spouting Off blog by clicking here.
In Los Angeles, a hard rain’s gonna fall — and then get wasted
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 21, 2010 at 6:20 amFrom the Legal Planet blog:
“A friend from New York, recently transplanted to Los Angeles, has watched aghast as, again and again, weather reporters have greeted any local rainfall more than 1″ with feverish STORMWATCH headlines. That said, the Southland got hit with quite a storm these last 48 hours.
“Well,” say most Angelenos unaccustomed to precipitation. “At least we could use the rain.” Except that we can’t.
The vast majority of the city’s rainfall picks up all kinds of pollutants from the street, and then gets merrily flushed out to sea. Even the part of it that gets treated goes to the ocean.
And that is truly obscene. … “
Read more from the Legal Planet blog by clicking here.
LA neighborhood solves many problems with a little less pavement
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 9, 2010 at 7:42 am
From the NRDC Switchboard blog:
“This week, the LA Times reported on the welcome plan to create a new park by narrowing Grand Avenue in the South Park neighborhood of Los Angeles. The story does a good job of describing how the project will make the avenue more pedestrian friendly and create much needed green space for residents.
One thing the story does not mention is that the park, and ones like it, can also help reduce water pollution at LA beaches. How? By cutting down on dirty stormwater runoff.
Though the article doesn’t mention it, narrowing streets and creating green space with unneeded roadway follows classic green infrastructure principles.
Green infrastructure–things like urban forestry, street-edge gardens, and pervious pavement–is a proven and cost-effective way to prevent polluted runoff. It can also help with water supply challenges by providing a place to infiltrate rainwater that would otherwise runoff and deliver pollution to rivers and the ocean. … “
Read more from the NRDC Switchboard blog by clicking here.
In El Cerrito, taming runoff
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on January 4, 2010 at 8:00 amFrom the San Francisco Chronicle:
“Although the small East Bay city of El Cerrito keeps a low profile, it’s the home of a quiet revolution in urban landscaping. Following the lead of Portland and Seattle, El Cerrito is managing storm water with low-impact design features like bioswales and rain gardens, in which plants help remove pesticides, petrochemicals and heavy metals from runoff before it enters the soil. The idea, as Brock Dolman of the Occidental Arts & Ecology Center’s Water Institute puts it, is to “slow the water down, spread the water out, and sink the water into the land.”
A recent tour sponsored by the San Francisco Estuary Partnership and the Urban Creeks Council showed off El Cerrito’s new City Hall with its bioswale plantings, creek restoration projects and locations of planned sidewalk rain gardens. In December, we visited several of the stops with Lisa Owens Viani of the estuary partnership and Ann Riley of the Waterways Restoration Institute. … “
Read more from the San Francisco Chronicle by clicking here.
Rethinking runoff as usable water supply: Activists push to capture, store rainfall
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 28, 2009 at 6:50 am
From the Arizona Republic:
“TUCSON – Thickets of native trees shade the street in front of Brad Lancaster’s downtown home, a patch of urban greenery that owes its survival to the strategic management of concrete.
Lancaster and his neighbors worked with the city to cut gaps in the curb to allow storm water to fill earthen basins carved out around the trees. No drinking water is used to support the landscaping, a lush array of mesquite, paloverde, cholla and prickly pear cactus and desert shrubs.
“It used to be the streets flooded around here, and I thought, ‘It’s like a creek,’ ” said Lancaster, an author, lecturer and rainwater-harvesting evangelist. “Then I realized, it is a creek. There’s all the water we needed, and it’s free.”
With the curb cuts, the basins, some reshaping of the lot and the installation of two 1,200-gallon cisterns, Lancaster’s one-eighth-acre property can now harvest as much as 100,000 gallons a year. … “
Read more from the Arizona Republic by clicking here.
Commentary: Turning on to rain, and turning off the tap, 55 gallons at a time
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 17, 2009 at 5:53 amFrom the Los Angeles Times, this commentary by Molly Selvin, a professor at Southwestern Law School:
“Ijoined the city’s rainwater harvesting program in October, when fierce Santa Ana winds made the notion of any rain, not to mention enough to “harvest,” seem fanciful to say the least. But last week’s glorious pelting rains filled my new storage barrel to the brim, along with those of several of my Mar Vista neighbors.
My rain barrel, which looks like a plastic beer keg, sits under our kitchen window, so as my morning coffee dripped last Monday, I watched runoff trickle in. Still in my pajamas, I padded outside to test the spigot at the bottom of the barrel; sure enough, out spurted a jet of water.
The next morning, I filled a watering can and gave my houseplants a drink of rainwater. This is truly the stuff of suburban drama.
My 55-gallon barrel won’t change the world, or even affect our household water consumption all that much, assuming we use the Metropolitan Water District average of 171 gallons a day to shower, wash clothes and dishes, and water our lawns.
But in California, where there’s little doubt we’re in a years-long drought, even small steps make a difference. … “
Read more of this commentary by clicking here.
Water board moves to enforce ban on trash in L.A. River: Cities along the watershed are required by 2016 to keep all trash out of their storm drains
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 10, 2009 at 10:41 pm
From the Los Angeles Times:
“Regional water quality officials on Thursday put some teeth into their long campaign to cleanse the Los Angeles River system of the tons of trash that turn it into a movable landfill after major storms.
Standards previously adopted by the Los Angeles Water Quality Control Board give cities along the watershed until 2016 to keep all trash out of their storm drains.
On Thursday, the board incorporated those limits into storm water permits, putting municipalities that don’t meet the requirements in violation of the federal Clean Water Act. Until now there had been no penalty for noncompliance.
“It’s taken two decades to get to this point,” board vice-chair Madelyn Glickfeld said after the 5-0 vote. “If we hadn’t done this today, it would have been a signal” to cities “to relax, guys.”
During storms, tons of trash and plastic debris wash up in municipal drains that empty into the Los Angeles River and its tributaries. The trash floating at the river’s mouth in Long Beach can be so thick that it is hard to see any water. In the unusually wet winter of 2005, Long Beach hauled more than 12,000 tons of garbage out of the river. … “
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Picture of LA River after storm by the Algalita Marine Research Foundation.
Storm gives O.C. 500 million gallons of water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on December 9, 2009 at 5:58 am
From the O.C. Register’s Science Dude:
“The storm that drenched Orange County on Monday sent runoff streaming down the Santa Ana River, where roughly 467 million gallons of precipitation had been captured by 1 p.m today. behind Prado Dam. The figure was expected to surpass 500 million by tonight. That’s enough to serve about 1,500 households for one year. But it’s literally a relative drop in the bucket.
The Orange County Water District diverts that water into percolation pools near Honda Center in Anaheim, and the water slowly makes its water into the county’s main groundwater table. But OCWD provides all or part of the water consumed by 2.5 million Orange County residents each year — or roughly 160 billion gallons. So Monday’s take represents only a fraction of the water used here annually.
“The storm was a good kick-off to the rainy season,” said Adam Hutchinson, director of recharge operations for OCWD. “We want need is a series of steady storms from now through March … “
Read more from the O.C. Register by clicking here.
LA Board of Public Works puts the lid on LID
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 14, 2009 at 6:07 amFrom Mark Gold at the Spouting Off blog:
“Despite tremendous turnout from the environmental community, the L.A. Board of Public Works today delayed its decision on a staff-proposed Low Impact Development ordinance for at least another month. The Board voted 2-1 to postpone the measure, disregarding strong backing from Sanitation staff and the DWP. (Paula Daniels, the board lead on the LID ordinance, cast the dissenting vote.)
Many Green LA members, businesses, gardeners and landscape architects came out to support the reasonable and much-needed ordinance. But the lobbying efforts of the Building Industry Assn., the same folks that have opposed LID efforts throughout the state, succeeded at the Board level. The fact that the Regional Water Board earlier passed a Ventura County stormwater permit with a strong LID component fell on deaf ears.
The proposed ordinance calls for all significant new construction and redevelopment projects in the city to infiltrate or capture and use 100% of the runoff generated by three-quarter inch storms. In the event developers can’t comply with the requirements on site, they can provide offsite mitigation or pay an in-lieu fee to the city to fund LID projects like green streets and parking-lot retrofits. …”
Read more from the Spouting Off blog by clicking here.
LA Gateway Authority awards contract to install trash capture devices in the storm drains of 16 gateway cities
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 14, 2009 at 6:06 am
From the Long Beach Water Department, this press release:
“PARAMOUNT, CA – Yesterday, at the board meeting of the Los Angeles Gateway Region Integrated Water Management Joint Powers Authority (Gateway IRWM), a contract was awarded for a project to install thousands of trash and debris capture devices in all of the storm drains in the 16 Gateway Cities that are part of the LA River watershed.
The project, known as the Gateway Drain Catch Basin Retrofit Project, will assist Gateway Cities in fully complying with the LA Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) for trash by installing approximately 12,000 full-capture catch basin trash and debris systems within the publicly-held catch basins throughout 16 cities in the Gateway region. The project was made possible by a $10 million grant of stimulus funds under the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA). The Gateway IRWM was awarded the stimulus funds by the State Water Resources Control Board. It is estimated that the project will eliminate more than 800,000 pounds of waste annually from accumulating in storm drains that would otherwise wash out to the LA River and eventually make its way into the ocean.
The 16 Gateway Cities that will receive the storm drain retrofits are: Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce, Compton, Cudahy, Downey, Huntington Park, Long Beach, Lynwood, Maywood, Montebello, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Signal Hill, South Gate and Vernon.
The project went out for bid on November 3rd. Three bids were received, with the winning bid of $5 million being submitted by the Steve Bubalo Construction Company. The project could start as early as the beginning of December. Once work has begun, it may take nine to twelve months before all the storm drains have been retrofitted with their new devices. Because the project is able to be completed at a cost that is only half of the $10 million in total stimulus funds that were received, any remaining funds will be made available on an agreed upon pro-rated basis to Gateway Cities that want to install Automatic Retractable Screens (ARS) in addition to the Connector Pipe Screens (CPS) that will be installed in all of the storm drains.
The Gateway IRWM received an additional bit of good news yesterday when it received a letter from California Department of Water Resources (DWR) Director Lester A. Snow, who informed the organization that it had been approved as an officially recognized state IRWM body. The group’s initial application was denied in September, but a concerted effort by a number of the Gateway region’s state and local elected representatives convinced the DWR to reverse its earlier decision. The Gateway IRWM will now be able to compete on its own for state-funded grants, which will be a huge benefit to the entire Gateway region.
The Biennial Election of Officers for the LA Gateway IRWM also took place during yesterday’s board meeting. The new appointees that will serve for the next two years are:
• Board Chair – Chris Cash, City of Paramount
• Vice Chair – Adriana Figueroa, City of Norwalk
• Secretary/Treasurer – Desi Alvarez, City of Downey
• Lead Agency – City of DowneyThe LA Gateway IRWM is a joint powers authority of the cities of Cerritos, Downey, Lakewood, Long Beach, Norwalk, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Santa Fe Springs, Signal Hill, South Gate, Vernon and Whittier, the Southeast Water Coalition, and the Central Basin Municipal Water District.
California further integrates stormwater into water supply planning
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on November 4, 2009 at 7:41 amFrom Somach, Simmons & Dunn:
“On October 11, 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger signed into law SB 790 (Pavley), which includes the Stormwater Resource Planning Act. The Act addresses stormwater resource planning as a means to reduce surface water pollution and increase the state’s water supplies. SB 790 authorizes the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) to award grants for projects that implement a voluntary stormwater resource plan (SRP) (as defined by the Act) or implement or promote low-impact development to improve water quality or reduce stormwater runoff. As a result of SB 790, stormwater may play a more critical role in the development of solutions to address California’s water supply crisis.
The Stormwater Resource Planning Act has two overarching goals. First, the Act seeks to reduce the degree to which stormwater pollutes surface waters and groundwater. Moreover, the Act seeks to increase local water supplies for beneficial uses (e.g., drinking supply) and the environment (e.g., wetlands creation). According to the legislative findings, the Act responds to the potential effects of global warming, which may change the hydrologic cycle of California by causing less snowfall and more rainfall. …”
Read more about the operating provisions, conclusions and implications from Somach Simmons & Dunn by clicking here.
EPA tests porous pavement to combat contaminated rain runoff
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 30, 2009 at 6:17 am
From Scientific American:
“In an effort to prevent polluted parking lot rain runoff from contaminating surrounding soil and underground water, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it has launched decade-long test of permeable materials to find one that can filter out impurities in rainwater before it flows to its final destination.
Pavement tends to collect grease, oil, antifreeze and other chemicals leaked from the cars that park there. When a heavy rain or snowstorm passes over this area it tends to wash these toxins toward the nearest porous surface. Sometimes this water rushes to a storm drain but other times storm drains are overwhelmed and runoff keeps flowing until it reaches the nearest patch of soil or body of water. …”
Read more from Scientific American by clicking here.
State hopes to use storm water to counter drought
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 26, 2009 at 4:32 pmFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“During an average wet season, the city of Los Angeles sends 100 million gallons of storm water into the Pacific each day. Because it carries various effluents to the ocean, that water had, for many years, been handled as pollution.
But a new California law seeks to expand the role of storm water management to incorporate strategies that will use it as a resource.
The Stormwater Resource Planning Act, SB 790, allows municipalities to tap funds from two of the state’s existing bond funds for projects that reduce or reuse storm water, recharge the groundwater supply, create green spaces and enhance wildlife habitats. The measure takes effect Jan. 1.
“I was proud to carry 790,” said Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), who wrote the bill. “It uses existing funds to create new water supplies out of water that in the past was simply treated and dumped. This bill helps create a significant new source of water for our always water-short state.” …”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Commentary: Ensuring San Bernardino County’s water supply
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 18, 2009 at 7:53 amFrom the San Bernardino Sun, this commentary by San Bernardino County Supervisors Gary Ovitt and Paul Biane:
“At the next meeting of the San Bernardino County Board of Supervisors, we plan to bring a resolution to establish a Storm Water Task Force. The purpose of this task force is as simple as it is important.
We want to ensure that our county’s flood control operations combine the historical flood control model of capturing storm water and moving it away from populated areas with a new model designed to increase local water supplies, improve water quality, and help minimize the need to purchase an increasingly costly commodity – imported water.
Let us explain our plan and our reasons for it.
Historically, flood control had one purpose – to protect residents from floods and runoff by directing storm water to flood control channels and safely sending water downstream to the Santa Ana River and the Pacific Ocean. In 2006, more than 600,000 acre feet of storm water flowed from our county to the ocean. …”
Click here to read more of this commentary.
California passes bill to encourage stormwater reuse
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 15, 2009 at 8:13 amFrom the Los Angeles Times Greenspace:
“During the wet season, the city of L.A. sends 100 million gallons of stormwater into the Pacific each day. That water had, for many years, been handled as pollution, since the water produced in rainstorms picks up various effluents that then flush into the ocean.
But a new California bill seeks to expand the role of stormwater management to incorporate strategies that will use it as a resource. The Stormwater Resource Planning Act, SB 790, allows municipalities to tap funds from two of the state’s existing bond funds and use the money for projects that reduce or reuse stormwater, recharge the groundwater supply, create green spaces and enhance wildlife habitats. SB 790 was signed into law Sunday and takes effect Jan. 1, 2010.
“I was proud to carry 790,” said Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), who wrote the bill. “It uses existing funds to create new water supplies out of water that in the past was simply treated and dumped. This bill helps create a significant new source of water for our always water-short state.” …”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
SB 790 passes – A step forward for California’s water future
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on October 13, 2009 at 8:10 amFrom TreePeople via Reuters:
“SACRAMENTO, Calif., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — Despite threats by Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to kill all of the 704 bills on his desk unless the and legislators reached an agreement, the Governor decided to approve SB 790, also known as the Stormwater Resource Planning Act. SB 790 creates a new framework encouraging California municipalities to address the stormwater issues in a new way. It encourages municipalities to manage stormwater for beneficial uses such as augmenting water supply, preventing floods, mitigating stormwater pollution, creating green space and enhancing wildlife habitat.
“I was proud to carry SB 790, which promotes the use of stormwater, now viewed as a pollution problem, as a source of water for open space, landscaping, and groundwater recharge,” says Senator Fran Pavley (23rd District). “It uses existing funds to create new water supplies out of water that in the past was simply treated and dumped. This bill helps create a significant new source of water for our always water-short state. I want to thank TreePeople for their
visionary work and their dedication in helping this bill get passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor.”SB 790 is a critical bill that moves state policy toward viewing stormwater as a resource rather than just seeing it as an expensive problem to be managed. The old “gray” infrastructure choice of paving over cities and turning rivers into concrete ditches is not the only option to manage stormwater. The passage of SB 790 encourages alternative, innovative solutions.
“The passage of SB 790 is a milestone in improving the sustainability of California’s water resources because it will help local municipalities begin to use stormwater as a local water source,” says Andy Lipkis, TreePeople Founder and President. “This will make us more water resilient in times of drought and climate change and will also reduce the L.A. region’s greenhouse gas contributions. When Southern California harvests rain that falls on our cities, we require less energy to pump water from distant sources.”
With their partners, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, and the City and County of Los Angeles, TreePeople has demonstrated the success of harvesting rainwater at several large and small demonstration sites in Los Angeles. Their latest project, at their headquarters in L.A.’s Coldwater Canyon Park, features a cistern that holds a .25 million gallons of rainwater. This cistern is filled from last year’s rains and supplies landscape irrigation for an entire year.”
TreePeople is an environmental nonprofit that unites the power of trees, people and technology to grow a sustainable future for Los Angeles. Founded in 1973 by teenagers, TreePeople’s mission is to inspire, engage and support people to take personal responsibility for the urban environment, making it safe, healthy, fun and sustainable and to share the results as a model for the world. More information at www.treepeople.org.
Lack of funding dogs storm drains in Manteca: Expense cuts into shrinking general fund
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 29, 2009 at 7:38 amFrom the Manteca Bulletin:
“Manteca residents received a tax cut in 2001. The City Council – under the leadership of former Mayor Carlon Perry – opted to drop the $2.35 a month municipal utility tax on garbage, sewer, and water bills. That ended up reducing general fund revenue by $690,000 for 2002. It cost the general fund at the time $1.4 million in refunds they made to ratepayers.
The tax was repealed after the legality of the utility users’ tax was questioned. It was adopted on Nov. 20, 1989 as a way to fund storm drainage system improvements and maintenance to alleviate street flooding, particularly in the downtown district.
The tax was legal when it was adopted but shifting court opinions determined such taxes needed to be put to the vote of the people when everyone had to pay it and it wasn’t for a specific service such as water or sewer where fees could be adopted by council votes. …”
Read more from the Manteca Bulletin by clicking here.
MWH helps city of San Diego convert storm drain drawings, assets into GIS system
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 23, 2009 at 6:14 amFrom Water Online:
“MWH, the global wet infrastructure sector leader and provider of environmental engineering, construction and strategic consulting services, has converted thousands of storm drain-related drawings into San Diego’s geographic information system (GIS), alleviating a backlog of work and giving city officials a more complete picture of their storm water system.
As part of the project, which is expected to be completed by year-end, the MWH Business Solutions Group also conducted an asset management review to determine other engineering and construction information from the final drawings that should be entered into either the GIS or the city’s asset management database to better administer ongoing storm drain projects. …”
Read more from Water Online by clicking here.
L.A. still has a few free rain collection installations to dole out
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 21, 2009 at 7:43 amFrom the Los Angeles Times:
“Any Los Angeles homeowner with a roof and an interest in rainwater harvesting may want to apply for a free rain barrel installation from the city. The rainwater harvesting pilot program, which kicked off in July, still has 170 openings for installations, each of which includes a free 55-gallon rain barrel and free setup.
Designed to conserve potable water and reduce the amount of polluted rainwater that runs untreated into the ocean, the $1-million pilot plan has enough funds to outfit 600 homes with one rain barrel each. About 40 installations have been completed out of the 430 homeowners who have so far signed up.
Because the pilot plan is funded by the Safe Neighborhood Parks, Clean Water, Clean Air and Coastal Protection Bond Act of 2000 through the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission, which identified the Ballona Creek watershed as a priority area for curbing rainwater runoff, homes in the Westside neighborhoods of Mar Vista, Sawtelle and Jefferson are given priority for the pilot. But all L.A. homeowners are eligible. …”
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Residential car washing: New data – and controversy – in the state of Washington
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on September 2, 2009 at 3:55 pmFrom the Stormwater Journal:
“Society has been slow to recognize the link between individual behaviors and practices, and the detrimental impacts that they may have on our natural aquatic resources. One of these practices, residential car washing, may give rise to surface-water-quality problems that can be felt well beyond the front yards and driveways of the communities where it occurs.
Portrayed as innocuous, residential car washing is a common scene during any weekend, in any cul-de-sac, in any neighborhood, and in any city across America’s vast patchwork quilt—including our town, Federal Way, WA. The conventional wisdom for many washing their cars is this: Once vehicle wash water gets hosed off the pavement and disappears down the drain, it is out of sight and out of mind.
In some instances, car washing is carried out on lawns, in side yards, or on graveled areas. However, in most cases, it is performed on impervious surfaces—that is, driveways or streets—where the wash water drains directly into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4). In an attempt to better understand the nature of these discharges to the MS4 and to quantify their potential impacts, the Water Quality section of the Surface Water Management Division of Public Works in Federal Way embarked on a small study to illustrate the links between car washing, stormwater, local surface waters, and Puget Sound. …”
Read more from the Stormwater Journal by clicking here.
California Agency issues latest draft of statewide Construction Storm Water Permit
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 28, 2009 at 7:56 amFrom Best Best & Krieger:
“The California State Water Resources Control Board has issued the latest draft of its permit regulating storm water discharges and runoff associated with construction projects and land disturbance activities.
If approved, the permit would impose significant new site design and construction management restrictions on any construction activity over one acre in size, and may subject violators to fines in excess of $10,000 per day, per violation.
More than two years in the making, the fifth draft of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (“NPDES”) General Permit for Storm Water Discharges Associated with Construction and Land Disturbance Activities (“General Construction Permit”) was released on Aug. 17. The water board will consider adopting the permit at its Sept. 2 meeting. …”
More from Best Best & Krieger, including a link to read the draft, click here.
Residential car washing; New data – and controversy – from the state of Washington
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on August 12, 2009 at 8:25 amFrom Stormwater:
“Society has been slow to recognize the link between individual behaviors and practices, and the detrimental impacts that they may have on our natural aquatic resources. One of these practices, residential car washing, may give rise to surface-water-quality problems that can be felt well beyond the front yards and driveways of the communities where it occurs.
Portrayed as innocuous, residential car washing is a common scene during any weekend, in any cul-de-sac, in any neighborhood, and in any city across America’s vast patchwork quilt—including our town, Federal Way, WA. The conventional wisdom for many washing their cars is this: Once vehicle wash water gets hosed off the pavement and disappears down the drain, it is out of sight and out of mind.
In some instances, car washing is carried out on lawns, in side yards, or on graveled areas. However, in most cases, it is performed on impervious surfaces—that is, driveways or streets—where the wash water drains directly into the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4). In an attempt to better understand the nature of these discharges to the MS4 and to quantify their potential impacts, the Water Quality section of the Surface Water Management Division of Public Works in Federal Way embarked on a small study to illustrate the links between car washing, stormwater, local surface waters, and Puget Sound. …”
Read more from Stormwater by clicking here.
Car washers seeing more rules on soapy runoff
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 15, 2009 at 7:21 amFrom the Santa Rosa Press Democrat:
It’s one of the great American summer pastimes: Pulling the car onto the driveway on a sun-drenched Saturday afternoon, lathering it up with soap, rinsing it off and watching the sudsy water flow toward the storm drain.
Now, officials in Washington and elsewhere are telling residents to either take that old ride to the car wash, or hold the soap and wash the car over gravel or grass to filter the dirty water. The officials are trying to prevent the runoff, with all of its soap, grim and metals from the car, from reaching rivers and streams and harming the fish and other aquatic life in them.
“The soaps are just as toxic as some of the chemicals we regulate in the industrial (sector). They kill fish,” said Sandy Howard, a Washington Department of Ecology spokeswoman.
The state, however, isn’t banning car washing. Instead, it is requiring cities to adopt ordinances that prohibit anything other than clean stormwater from entering drains as part of a broader stormwater permit it issues. There are no federal regulations dealing specifically with residential car washing and stormwater pollution.
Read more from the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat by clicking here.
New Ventura County storm water permit good for environment, bad for development
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 11, 2009 at 7:51 amFrom the Ventura County Reporter:
There is nothing more vital to the survival of the human race than clean water — whether it is for drinking or for the health of marine life. Environmental groups such as Los Angeles’ Heal the Bay, the Natural Resource Defense Council, the Surfrider Foundation and the Ventura Coastkeeper spend a lot of time, energy and money advocating for ways to keep rivers, wetlands and oceans clean.
And last month, those eco-friendly organizations had a huge victory at the Southern California Water Board meeting when the board approved of a new, very strict municipal discharge (storm water runoff) permit that enhances and/or introduces 70 requirements that every city in Ventura County must comply with — the county’s third updated municipal permit.
Of the new mandates, one in particular has caused a lot of consternation — low impact development (LID). The LID rule requires all new developments to retain 70 percent (for infill projects) to 95 percent (for all other projects) of storm water runoff on site, i.e., low impact development.
According to Vicki Musgrove, the assistant public works director for the City of Ventura, the LID regulation is one of the most stringent and unique development requirements in the country.
This means that for projects coming down the pipeline, developers must engineer ways to capture, store and/or use up to 95 percent of storm water that falls on a site from a three-quarter-inch storm — a typical rainstorm. By storing the water on site, the water that flows into the storm drains, and then into the ocean and rivers, is expected to be much cleaner than it has been in the past.
Read more from the Ventura County Reporter by clicking here.
Keeping a LID on Runoff: Low-impact development mimics nature’s handling of water
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on June 10, 2009 at 12:14 pmFrom the Stormwater Journal:
Nature has its ways of dealing with stormwater. Some percolates into the ground, some pools, and some makes its way to larger bodies of water; often, which route water takes depends upon the state of the soil and the plant life growing within it. A sandy soil allows water to pass through; a clay soil absorbs only so much, then creates a muddy mess. A site containing a water-loving tree, such as a weeping willow, will eagerly drink up as much moisture as it can get, while other plants suffocate from lack of soil oxygen and resign themselves to becoming peat.
Once humans have altered a site, however, all bets are off, especially since most of our construction materials are nonporous. Therefore, a variety of manufactured products and earth-altering tactics are used to compensate for our changing nature’s status quo.
What Is LID?
“Low-impact development [LID] is an approach to stormwater management and site design that uses natural hydrologic processes to preserve or recreate that hydrology at the site level, or to meet goals,” explains Neil Weinstein, executive director of Beltsville, MD’s Low Impact Development Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the advancement of LID technology. “LID mimics how nature handles water. It’s a performance-based approach. Old regulations used prescriptive approaches—such as ‘achieve 80% TSS [total suspended solids] removal’—which are somewhat ambiguous. For example, what’s the incoming load? We’ve previously used generic, one-size-fits-all approaches, rather than looking at the land use and how the BMP [best management practice] responds to it.”
Read more from the Stormwater Journal by clicking here.
Higher fees to clean storm-water runoff are necessary, says Mark Gold of Heal the Bay: The City Council delayed a vote on the increase, but the public has to be educated on the need for pollution abatement
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on May 5, 2009 at 7:42 amFrom the Los Angeles Times, this commentary by Mark Gold, president of Heal the Bay:
Last week, the city of Los Angeles decided to postpone asking voters to pay higher fees to clean storm-water runoff. Given the economy — and the recent failure of Measure B, a solar energy initiative — the decision to not rush the vote was probably wise. But we can’t put off raising fees forever.
Five years ago, Los Angeles voters passed Proposition 0, which allotted $500 million in bond money to improve water quality in the county. When these projects are completed, major sources of pollution will have been eliminated and the L.A. River, Santa Monica Bay and local watersheds will be far cleaner.
But Proposition 0 wasn’t a panacea. It left some serious water-quality problems that need to be addressed. And it put in place systems that will have to be maintained. That can’t be done on the current assessment of $23 a household each year for storm-water pollution cleanup.
L.A. is at a crucial place in its environmental history. The city has long been in violation of federal summer beach bacteria regulations. And we are coming up against regulatory deadlines for cleaning up winter beach bacteria, as well as nutrients and pesticides in Machado and Echo Park lakes and toxic metals in the L.A. River and Ballona Creek.
The good news is that, two weeks ago, the Board of Public Works approved an L.A. water-quality plan that moves us in the right direction — if we come up with a way to pay for it.
Read more of Mark’s commentary by clicking here. You can also read Mark Gold’s blog, Spouting Off, by clicking here.
L.A.’s storm-water fees: Stealth politics to quadruple costs to homeowners for L.A.’s storm-water pollution abatement program is bad policy, says editorial
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 29, 2009 at 2:22 pmFrom the Los Angeles Times, this editorial:
Some neighborhood activists are still fuming over Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s plan to seek a vote of property owners to quadruple storm-water cleanup fees. They claim the move is exactly like his earlier plan, now underway, to ratchet up trash collection fees.
They’re right to fume, but they’re wrong about the comparison. The trash fees, love them or hate them, make sense. They are paid by homeowners to cover the costs of a service to homeowners, and there is no good reason for the rest of the city to continue footing their bill. Homeowners also have at least a modicum of control over their costs: They can get more trash picked up if they pay for more bins. But homeowners have no more direct control than anyone else over polluted street runoff.
The City Council was to act today to schedule an election in which only property owners vote. Sounds fair, right? If they would have to pay the higher fee, they should be the ones to get to vote. But this was to be a stealth election, conducted only by mail, requiring a simple majority and not the two-thirds of all voters that such increases usually require. The rush through council, the untried mail vote, the mayor’s insistence that this was merely “cost recovery,” the lack of public discussion — all gave the move the same sour flavor as last month’s solar power ballot fiasco.
Read more from the Los Angeles Times by clicking here.
Oxnard targets mobile car wash runoff
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2009 at 6:20 amFrom the Stormwater Editor’s blog:
The city of Oxnard, California, has joined a growing number of municipalities that are cracking down on mobile car wash operations. Under rules approved two weeks ago, mobile car washers will soon be required to capture all runoff and recycle it or dispose of it at an approved facility. Failing to do so could cost them up to $10,000 a day in fines.
While some owners of these small businesses, as well as others in the community, are protesting the rules, the city is focusing more on nonpoint-source pollutants—not only, or even primarily, the detergents or cleaning agents used, but also the oil, grease, brake dust, and other chemicals washed off the vehicles.
Commercial car washes have long had to recycle or treat their water, and the city says the new rules simply require mobile operators to do the same. Mats and vacuum systems can be used to collect and transport the wash water. One Oxnard councilman estimates that obtaining the necessary equipment will cost each operator about $1,000 up front.
Read more from the Stormwater Editor’s blog by clicking here.
Stormwater as entertainment: Integrating stormwater management with the urban landscape
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on April 9, 2009 at 5:50 amFrom the Stormwater Journal:
Cities trying to comply with the public education requirement of their National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits know how important the public education and outreach components are, so they print lots of brochures to hand out during tours and local events. Often, they post stormwater information on their Web sites as well.
Portland, OR’s Bureau of Environment Services (BES) also prints brochures and posts helpful information on its Web site, but this municipal agency does more than just give residents the facts about managing stormwater runoff and pollution. Maybe that is because Portland has so much more stormwater to cope with (37 inches of annual rainfall) and on more days of the year.
In any case, the city’s BES does more than the obvious to meet the NPDES requirement for public education and outreach. It gives Portland residents the chance to learn about stormwater by interacting with it in a number of entertaining and interesting ways.
BES director Dean Marriott, commissioner of public utilities Sam Adams, and some of the BES employees have created opportunities for Portland residents to have fun while learning about sustainable best management practices (BMPs) for dealing with stormwater. Other cities could easily emulate Portland and make stormwater the raison d’être for some art, physical fitness, sightseeing, and special events.
Portland connects stormwater to physical fitness well, involving both children and adults. BES staffers designed a tour for bicyclists and then printed a brochure to show them how to cycle around the city for close-up views of some interesting sites related to stormwater. The route follows streets with less traffic, and those streets with heavy traffic are clearly marked.
“Stormwater Cycling” is a two-page leaflet (also downloadable from BES’s Web site). It’s billed as “a pedal-powered tour of some of the innovative ways Portlanders handle stormwater.” Within the leaflet are brief descriptions of the 21 numbered sites on the map page. They read almost like a treasure map: go to ___ and look for ___.
“The bicycle tour is our most popular tour publication, receiving Web hits that consistently put it in the top five interested categories,” says Emily Hauth, project manager for the Sustainable Stormwater Management Program at BES.
Read more from the Stormwater Journal by clicking here.
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