Pollution rises to surface
By JESSICA ROBERTS Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN LA — Los Angeles County officials voted Tuesday to join as plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the United States Environmental Protection Agency in an attempt to force the entity to complete its studies on the effects of pathogens on human health and to develop new water quality criteria for the polluted Santa Monica Bay.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to bring the county government into the lawsuit, filed by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The environmental group filed the suit on Aug. 2 after the EPA failed to meet deadlines outlined in the Beaches Environmental Assessment, Cleanup & Health (BEACH) Act, which is an amendment to the Clean Water Act. The deadline to complete the studies was October 2003, and the deadline for publishing new pathogen criteria was October 2005, according to environmentalists.
The BEACH Act requires the EPA to complete studies to determine the human health risks associated with exposure to pathogens in coastal recreational waters, especially nongastroin-testinal effects, and to release revised water quality criteria for pathogens and their indicators.
The water quality criteria would set limits on the amount of pollutants that can be allowed in a body of water without disrupting its designated use, like swimming or fishing, according to environmentalists.
LA County Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky, who represents the westside of LA, said getting involved in the lawsuit was “part of a strategy to join with the Natural Resources Defense Council to get the EPA to establish rules... to hold us accountable for clean discharge into the bay.”
Water quality criteria will get more attention on Thursday, when the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) is scheduled to vote on whether to make bacteria pollution limits easily enforceable, by placing the requirements in the LA County stormwater permit. In order to be enforceable, the bacteria pollution limits need to be incorporated into the permit-ting process, environmentalists said. Otherwise, many of the Santa Monica Bay beaches will continue to be unhealthful for the 50 million annual visitors to the coast-line, environmentalists said.
More than three years ago, with no opposition, the RWQCB approved the Santa Monica Bay Beaches Dry-Weather Bacteria Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs). Cities and other dischargers of pollutants were given until July 15, 2006 to meet the bacteria pollution limits and be in compliance with the TMDLs, requiring all of Santa Monica Bay beaches to be safe for beachgo-ers 100 percent of the time in the dry season from April through October.
Even with three years lead time since the standards were set, many of Santa Monica Bay’s beaches still have elevated bacteria levels. Twenty-three of the 65 beaches tested in Santa Monica Bay — more than one-third — have violated the Clean Water Act since the July 15 deadline to meet clean water standards at area beaches, environmentalists said.
In July, the RWQCB decided to postpone a vote to make the beach water quality standards more easily enforceable, rescheduling the issue for a Sept. 14 meeting. However, the board has begun sending letters to LA County and various cities violating pollution standards, asking them to identify the pollution source and provide other information within two weeks. Failure to comply could result in a $1,000 per day fine.
The departments of Public Health, Public Works and Beaches and Harbors made a joint report on water quality in Santa Monica Bay at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting, announcing new plans to inform the public about water quality test results, as well as plans to further test the bay’s water.
Jonathan Fielding, director of the LA County Department of Public Health, said more signs will be posted at points of outflow from storm drains, and beaches with consistently low grades in water quality will be posted with signs warning of the health risks associated with swimming in the water.
“The public needs to know what the condition of the water is, where they should swim, where they shouldn’t swim,” Yaroslavsky said.
Tests also will be expanded to include not only locations 50 yards from storm drains as is the current practice, but also at the point of storm drain outflow, Fielding said.
He added that beaches in the northern and western parts of the bay have the worst water quality, although the causes are uncertain. He said it was possible the pollution was coming from septic tanks and domestic and wild animal waste, but that a task force would begin to work to identify types and sources of pollution in the water.
Yaroslavsky said the county was “taking a more aggressive approach than we have in the past” to protect what he called one of the county’s most important environmental and economic resources — Santa Monica Bay.
“We do not want to squander the resource we have here,” he said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on September 13, 2006. Read the original PDF.