TO:
Honorable Mayor Powell and Members of the City Council
THROUGH:
David N. Carmany, City Manager
FROM:
Jim Arndt, Public Works Director
SUBJECT: Title
Update regarding the Recently Adopted Los Angeles County Municipal Stormwater Permit
RECEIVE AND FILE
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Recommended Action
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends that the City Council receive and file this report.
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FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
Significant, but not yet quantifiable.
BACKGROUND:
On November 8, 2012, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board adopted a new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) Permit under the Federal Clean Water Act for discharges from the municipal separate storm sewer system (MS4) within Los Angeles County. The new permit identifies conditions, requirements and programs that municipalities must comply with to protect regional water resources from adverse impacts associated with pollutants in stormwater and urban runoff; the new requirements have been significantly expanded over the previous permit which had been in effect since 2001. It incorporates water quality based stormwater discharge limits and receiving water limits translated into the permit from previously developed water body/pollutant-specific total maximum daily loads (TMDLs). Accordingly the City must now assess the scope of the new permit and plan for the fiscal and staff resources that will be required to comply.
DISCUSSION:
The new permit represents a paradigm shift in the approach to permitting of municipal stormwater. The new permit is designed to be water quality performance-based such that continuous improvements must be made until water quality standards are met, thus the scope may continue to expand over the term of the permit based on water quality monitoring results. Table 1 compares some of the significant aspects of the new permit with those in the previous 2001 permit to give a sense of the change in scope; however Table 1 is not comprehensive and does not fully summarize all the new provisions in the 500-page permit.
The new permit provides for three general implementation options:
Option 1
Implement the baseline Minimum Control Measures prescribed in the permit and demonstrate compliance with strict numeric limits for water quality standards through monitoring. Minimum Control Measures are considered to be baseline or default requirements.
They are grouped into six categories similar to those in the previous permit including:
1. Public Information and Participation Program
2. Industrial/Commercial Facilities Program
3. Planning and Land Development Program (including Low Impact Development ordinance)
4. Development Construction Program
5. Public Agency Activities Program
6. Illicit Connections and Illicit Discharges Elimination Program
Permittees which elect this option must implement most Minimum Control Measures (MCMs) by June 28, 2013. Option 1 provides no protection from immediate enforcement or 3rd party lawsuits in the event that monitoring shows that discharges from the municipal separate storm sewer system do not meet either the interim or final total maximum daily load targets and receiving water limitations despite the full implementation of the minimum control measures.
Option 2
Develop and Implement a Watershed Management Program (WMP) with compliance based on implementing a program of best management practices designed to achieve water quality standards. The Watershed Management Program option provides flexibility to customize the minimum control measures while utilizing other strategies, control measures and best management practices; however deviation from Minimum Control Measures must be justified. The Watershed Management Program requires a quantitative Reasonable Assurance Analysis for each water body-pollutant combination using a peer-reviewed water quality model in the public domain to demonstrate that the activities and control measures identified in the Watershed Management Program will achieve the applicable water quality standards. The Watershed Management Programs must include a compliance schedule with interim milestones and dates for implementation of the strategies, control measures and best management practices. A Permittee's full compliance with all approved elements of the Watershed Management Program constitutes compliance with interim TMDL targets and receiving water limitations; compliance begins upon notification of intent to develop a Watershed Management Program. Final total maximum daily load targets must still be met in the strict numeric sense unless the Regional Board reopens the Permit.
By June 28, 2013, Permittees must notify Regional Board of intent to develop Watershed Management Program and whether the Permittee will submit a draft Watershed Management Program by December 28, 2013, or with specified early actions, will submit the draft Watershed Management Program by June 28, 2014.
Early actions must include:
1. Begin drafting Low Impact Development (LID) ordinance by February 28, 2013 and complete draft Low Impact Development ordinance meeting requirements of Permit by June 28, 2013.
2. Begin drafting green street strategies for transportation corridors by February 28, 2013, and complete draft policy by June 28, 2013.
3. If collaborating with other Permittees on a Watershed Management Program, then the above two conditions must be met in greater than 50% of the land area covered by the Watershed Management Program.
Option 3
Develop and Implement an Enhanced Watershed Management Program (EWMP) that evaluates opportunities for collaboration on large multi-benefit regional projects which retain through infiltration or capture and reuse the 85th percentile, 24-hour storm event or, where this is not feasible, demonstrates via reasonable assurance analysis that total maximum daily load targets and receiving water limitations will be met. Within drainage areas where the 85th percentile, 24-hour storm event is retained along with all non-stormwater runoff, a Permittee shall be deemed in compliance with final total maximum daily load targets and receiving water limitations.
By June 28, 2013, notify Regional Board of intent to develop Enhanced Watershed Management Program with specified early actions (same as for Watershed Management Program).
If the City is unable to meet the deadlines and milestones in the Watershed Management Program or Enhanced Watershed Management Program, or if the Regional Board rejects the Watershed Management Program, the City may be found retroactively out of compliance with the Minimum Control Measures provisions of the permit unless it has been concurrently implementing the Minimum Control Measures without customization while developing the watershed management program. Finally, the Watershed Management Program and Enhance Watershed Management Program option do not provide protection from enforcement or citizen suits with respect to the Santa Monica Bay Dry Weather Bacteria total maximum daily load sfor which the only assured way to demonstrate compliance is to eliminate all dry weather discharges to Santa Monica Bay via low flow diversions such as have been implemented within the 28th Street storm drain, the Manhattan Beach Pier storm drain and the new Greenbelt Infiltration System project.
Cost and Staff Resource Impacts
All three of the implementation options come with significant increased cost to the City. In making a choice among the three options, the City should be aware that although Option 2 and 3 provide greater protection from Regional Board enforcement and citizen suits under the Clean Water Act, they also come with the added cost of conducting a Reasonable Assurance Analysis to validate the Watershed Management Program or Enhanced Watershed Management Program as well as the time to develop the written programs. All three options come with significant new efforts which will require both additional fiscal resources for consulting contracts, but also additional staff resources to manage and carry out this expanded program.
Within the next 24 months, alone, even before the results of new monitoring data are known the City must:
1. Develop Low Impact Development ordinance by June 28, 2013 for Regional Board review and approval.
2. Prepare green street policy by June 28, 2013.
3. Implement Minimum Control Measures by June 28, 2013.
4. Develop and submit an integrated Monitoring Plan to Regional Board for review and approval by December 28, 2013, or a Coordinated Integrated Monitoring Plan with other permittees by June 28, 2014.
5. Begin monitoring (including non-stormwater discharge tracking) within 30 days of approval under an Integrated Monitoring Plan or within 90 days of approval of a Coordinated Integrated Monitoring Plan.
6. Develop and submit Watershed Management Program by June 28, 2014, evaluate and modify/revise Watershed Management Program every two years after approval.
7. Submit work plan for Enhanced Watershed Management Program development by June 28, 2014, complete draft Enhanced Watershed Management Program by June 28, 2015.
8. Submit a detailed annual report that evaluates monitoring data in comparison with water quality standards (see Table 1).
Potential New Revenue Source: Los Angeles County has proposed a funding fee for adoption which would be assessed on all properties within LA County (detailed information is available at <http://www.lacountycleanwater.org/>):
Key points:
1. Notice of protest hearing mailed to property owners on 11/30/2012.
2. Protest hearing on January 15, 2013.
3. Mailed ballot to property owners during spring of 2013, simple majority passes.
4. Parcel fees are assessed on a sliding scale ranging from $8 per annum for a residential parcel less than 1,000 square feet up to $83 per annum for a residential parcel greater than 15,000 square feet, with an average fee of $54 per parcel.
5. Fee structure is different for industrial and commercial parcels, and is generally higher than for residential parcels of the same size.
6. City would receive directly, $0.40 per dollar of the fee to spend on water quality programs managed directly by the City [County staff have previously estimated that Manhattan Beach's share would be $345,000 per year].
7. $0.50 per dollar is to be directed to watershed area groups to be spent on regional projects such as the enhanced watershed management plans.
8. $0.10 per dollar is returned to the County for administration and oversight.
Attachments:
1. Table 1 - Significant Changes to the NPDES Permit
2. Table 2 - Matrix of Total Maximum Daily Loads
3. LA MS4 NPDES Permit Implementation Options, Decision Points, and Schedule