California Contract Cities Fall ConferenceOctober 30, 2010

Session Moderator – Hon. Randy Bomgaars, Mayor, City of BellflowerSpeakers

Desi Alvarez, Deputy City Manager, City of DowneyKen Farfsing, City Manager, City of Signal Hill

Fred Latham, City Manager, City of Santa Fe Springs

Challenges to delivering public services and solving California’s increasingly complex problems are complicated by the economic downturn

Cities face historic budget deficits

Need for innovative solutions/creating partnerships to solve problems & to deliver services

Session will focus on three major success stories

Desi Alvarez – LA River Trash TMDL Ken Farfsing – LA River Metals TMDL Fred Latham – Gateway Cities Homeless and High Speed Rail

Initiatives

Clean Water Act mandates TMDL program (clean up plans)

California fails to complete TMDLs; litigation filed in 1998

EPA Consent Decree mandates new unfunded requirements

96 TMDLs required for adoption in LA/Ventura County by 2015

Trash, metals, bacteria, pesticides, historic sediment pollutants (DDT, Chlordane, etc)

USC Study in 2002 estimates compliance costs for LA County Cities at $43.7 billion (70% of storms) to $284 billion (97% of storms)

Failure to comply is now resulting in Water Board fines and third-party litigation against the cities

Adopted in 2001 – 10% reductions in trash annually through 2014 – ZERO Trash Generation as of 2015

Water Board approves “full capture” vortex device (safe harbor)

Vortex units are cost-prohibitive for cities to install and will not work in all instances

Water Board estimates $1.2 billion investment necessary for LA River watershed cities to fully comply.

Goal – Cost-effective solution & meet Water Board requirements County, Cities of Los Angeles, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, La

Canada Flintridge and Signal Hill design & test alternative devices Water Board permits “equivalent” full capture devices Over 150,000 catch basins need protection in the watershed 12,000 in the Gateway Cities area 16 CCCA Cities Involved – Bell, Bell Gardens, Commerce,

Compton, Cudahy, Downey, Huntington Park, Long Beach, Lynwood, Maywood, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Signal Hill, South Gate and Vernon

Gateway IRWM JPA cities select catch basin screens and inserts

Over $10 million in funding needed for Gateway IRWM JPA cities

ARRA presents funding opportunity in 2009

Gateway IRWM JPA apply for a grant from the State Water Board for funding

Cities mobilize to secure funding --Local Senate and Assembly Member support critical to obtaining grant funding

Phase I installations underway in Long Beach

Will result in full compliance with Trash TMDL

Ongoing maintenance costs/ eventual replacement costs will be responsibility of each City -- Unfunded Mandates Claim

State Board now proposing Zero Trash requirements be adopted statewide

Regulates copper, zinc, lead and other metals

TMDL adopted in 2005

First compliance date – March of 2012

25% reduction in wet weather/ 50% reduction in dry weather metals

Expensive water quality monitoring required

Water Board estimates a capital investment of $2.4 billion to comply

Water Board does not approve of a “safe harbor” for TMDL

Fundamental scientific issues with TMDL

Failure to set proper limits will result in millions of wasted tax dollars

Need for Special Scientific Studies

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Freshwater CTR (CCC, chronic)= 9.3 (μg/L)Drinking Water MCL = 1,300 ( μg/L)

Drinking Water 90% concentration LA River at Wardlow

No Watershed organization in 2005 - “Herding cats” – 40 Cities, LA County and Caltrans (730 square mile watershed)

Series of “all hands” meetings begin in 2005 sponsored by the City of Downey/Signal Hill

City Managers form Steering and Technical Committees Committees review and report back to the city managers on need for

Special Studies (2007) LA County and LA City lead development and group funds the

Coordinated Monitoring Plan (2007) 25 CCCA Cities Involved – Bell, Bell Gardens, Bradbury, Calabasas,

Carson, Commerce, Compton, Cudahy, Downey, Duarte, El Monte, Huntington Park, Irwindale, La Canada Flintridge, Los Angeles, Long Beach, Los Angeles, Lynwood, Maywood, Monterey Park, Paramount, Pico Rivera, Rosemead, Signal Hill, South El Monte, South Gate, Temple City, Vernon and LA County

Auxiliary Pump

Auto SamplerLocations

White Oak Ave. (Station 1)Tujunga Ave. (Station 2)Figueroa St. (Station 7)Del Amo Blvd. (Station 11)Wardlow Rd. (Station 13)

Final CMP Approved in April of 2009

First Year Costs =Second Year Costs =

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3/4/2009 2:00:00 AM - 3/5/2009 11:00:00 AM

Figueroa Sample Event (48 SU)

Decision made to address copper and lead (2008)

City of Los Angeles funds $611,000 in preliminary studies (2009)

Preliminary results are encouraging

Cities/Los Angeles County/ Caltrans decide to move forward and fund full studies (March 2010)

Total cost of the studies - $2.2 million

Three-year study approved in February of 2010 (2011-2014)

Coupled with source control legislation – SB-757 (removes lead weights from wheels) and SB 346 (removed copper from brake pads)

Anticipated to substantially reduce implementation costs for Cities/County and Caltrans

http://www.cahighspeedrail.ca.gov/