By Michael J. Tittinger
Daily Press Staff Writer

LOS ANGELES — The time to come clean for cities that make use of the Santa Monica Bay has receded for the foreseeable future, after the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board decided on Wednesday not to adopt enforceable clean water standards that could have gone into effect this weekend.

With Saturday’s deadline for cities to adhere to cleaner surface water standards looming large, the board canceled a hearing scheduled for today in Simi Valley to take action and require that cities comply with new limits in Santa Monica Bay.

More than three years ago, the board approved stricter dry-weather standards for regional beaches, with discharges of unhealthy levels of bacteria in urban stormwater becoming an express violation of the federal Clean Water Act.

The board’s decision on Wednesday to postpone a vote indefinitely for requiring compliance struck environmental groups like a head-high breaker.

“This refusal to act puts back on the shelf standards that would have protected millions of Los Angeles beach-goers, this summer, from exposure to bacteria and viruses that can make them sick,” said David Beckman, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council (NDRC). “If the board does not promptly adopt these new protections, we intend to force it to do so.”

In 1999, Heal the Bay, Santa Monica Baykeeper and the NDRC successfully sued the national Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), obligating the EPA and Regional Water Board to set new, lower limits for pollutants degrading Southern California waters.

The new requirements would render all beaches along the Santa Monica Bay safe for swimming 100 percent of the time, year-round.

The plaintiffs alluded to the first section of the Clean Water Act, adopted by Congress in 1972, which required waters be “fishable and swimmable” by 1985.

The annual Beach Report Card issued by Heal the Bay earlier this year found that the five most polluted beaches in the state were all located within Los Angeles County. In addition, approximately 37 percent of the beaches monitored during the summer in LA County were deemed unsafe for swimming, receiving a C, D or F grade for the dry-weather period of April 1, 2005 to Oct. 31, 2005.

When and if the new water quality limits go into effect, cities with failing-grade beaches will be subject to fines and other enforcement actions as a result of their violating the Clean Water Act.

“Fear ruled the day. The water board’s fear of litigation from local government is clearly more important than their duty to protect the public health of millions of beachgoers, swimmers and surfers,” said Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, of the postponed meeting.

Inquiries made to the Regional Water Quality Control Board seeking comment went unreturned as of press time.

On the local level, the support for cleaner waters runs deep in Santa Monica.

A polling of 400 residents throughout the city in January indicated that most property owners would support the local government increasing their annual stormwater fees from $36 to $100. That’s for a single-family parcel — multi-family and commercial properties could be more or less, depending upon acreage and usage. The fees would be adjusted for inflation.

For a majority of the respondents, increasing their fees was a better option than a $95 million bond, which also was offered as an alternative.

City Hall hired the Santa Monica-based opinion research firm of Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates for $25,000 after officials began weighing their options in determining how to pay for the city’s first-ever watershed protection plan — a 15- to 20-year road map on how to prevent bacterial, chemical and solid waste from entering Santa Monica Bay through its stormwater system.

The watershed plan has been in works for years, the result of the Regional Water Quality Board’s new standards for pollution control.

The new, stricter requirements could cost the city tens of millions of dollars in capital improvements, as well as ongoing maintenance costs. Officials were preparing to put the bond proposal before voters on the November ballot, but now it appears they feel they can carry out the plan by doubling the stormwater fee, which currently generates $1.25 million a year.

Following the increase, officials estimate the fees would generate more than $3 million a year — $40 million over the next 10 years.