City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Meeting Date: 06/08/2015 Item Number: C-5
CITY COUNCIL AGENDA ITEM: Authorization of the Submittal of Enhanced
Watershed Management Program Plans for the Ballona Creek and Marina Del Rey
Harbor Watersheds to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.
Contact Person/Dept.: Kaden Young/PW-
EPO; Damian Skinner/PW-EPO
Phone Number: (310) 253-6445; (310)253-
6421
Fiscal Impact: Yes [x] No [] General Fund: Yes [x] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [] Attachments: []
Commission Action Required: Yes [] No [x] Date: _______________
(E-Mail) Agenda and Meetings – City Council (06/03/15)
Department Approval:
Charles D. Herbertson (05/27/15)
City Attorney Approval:
Carol Schwab (by H. Baker) (06/01/15)
Chief Financial Officer Approval:
Jeff Muir (06/02/15)
City Manager Approval:
John M. Nachbar (06/03/15)
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff recommends the City Council authorize the submittal of the Enhanced
Watershed Management Program (EWMP) Plans for the Ballona Creek and Marina
del Rey Harbor Watersheds to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control
Board (RWQCB).
BACKGROUND:
On November 8, 2012, the RWQCB adopted a new National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) Permit under the Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) for
discharges from municipal separate storm sewer systems (MS4) within Los Angeles
County. This permit is commonly referred to as the MS4 Permit.
This latest MS4 Permit incorporates water quality based effluent limits via adopted
Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) provisions. TMDL is a regulatory term in the
CWA describing the maximum amount of a pollutant that a body of water can
receive while still meeting water quality standards required to support assigned
water body beneficial uses. Beneficial uses are assigned to water bodies by the
RWQCB and include uses such as swimming, boating, fishing, marine habitat, and
others. TMDLs have been issued to Ballona Creek, Ballona Creek Estuary, and
Marina del Rey Harbor addressing trash, metals, toxics, and bacteria.
City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
DISCUSSION:
The RWQCB, in developing this permit, acknowledged the need to allow
municipalities to develop comprehensive management plans for the purpose of
complying with the TMDLs. For this reason, the permit established criteria for the
development of Watershed Management Programs (WMPs) or Enhanced
Watershed Management Programs (EWMPs) and allows agencies several
alternatives to achieve compliance. All alternatives require that the MS4 Permit-
mandated water quality objectives be met through implementation of pollutant
control measures. The WMP alternative required completion of the WMP plan by
June 28, 2014. The EWMP alternative allows an extra year to fully analyze the
watershed and prepare the EWMP Plan. The EWMP Plan is due to the RWQCB by
June 28, 2015.
The EWMP requires the development of a plan by June 28, 2015 to meet water
quality standards through implementation of best management practices (BMPs)
that maximize storm water retention, infiltration, and reuse. This option could have
been pursued individually or collectively with other agencies in a watershed. The
EWMP is similar to the WMP with the addition of larger regional projects that would
capture, infiltrate, and/or reuse storm flows from an 85
th
percentile storm event or
roughly 1.1 inch of rain. This is the option preferred by the RWQCB. As an incentive
for agencies to pursue EWMPs and acknowledging the additional planning involved,
the MS4 Permit gives agencies additional time to complete EWMPs. As additional
incentive, the permit provides that areas draining to regional retention projects would
be declared compliant, as long as the EWMP plan and required monitoring are
implemented accordingly.
Pursuant to City Council authorization provided on 11/12/2013, Culver City and all
other watershed agencies including Los Angeles County, and the Cities of Los
Angeles, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Inglewood, and Santa Monica, have elected
to pursue the EWMP alternative to achieve compliance within both the Ballona
Creek and Marina del Rey Harbor watersheds. In June 2013, both watershed
groups submitted notices of intent to prepare EWMPs by the June 2015 deadline.
Culver City staff and other watershed agencies deem the EWMP compliance
alternative to be the most effective approach to utilize opportunities to retain runoff
and to address the unique challenges of the watersheds. An additional requirement
when pursuing an EWMP or WMP is the preparation of a Coordinated Integrated
Monitoring Plan (CIMP), which is a plan to monitor water quality in a coordinated
interagency manner.
EWMP/CIMP Development
The watershed groups selected consultants to prepare the EWMPs/CIMPs. Black &
Veatch and the Weston Group were selected for Ballona Creek and Marina del Rey
Harbor, respectively. The City of Los Angeles is the lead agency in the Ballona City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Creek EWMP/CIMP effort and the County of Los Angeles is lead in the Marina del
Rey Harbor Watershed. These lead agencies are performing all administrative and
project management tasks related to the consultant contracts. Other agencies in the
group, including Culver City, are providing support and are closely involved in
EWMP development. Consultant costs are being shared among watershed agencies
based on area percentage. For Culver City, it is 4% for Ballona Creek and 3% for
Marina del Rey Harbor. City Council approved cost sharing memoranda of
understanding for EWMP/CIMP development for both watersheds on November 12,
2013.
The EWMP development effort has been underway since July 2013. The consultants
and the watershed agencies have been working together since that time to compile
information needed to complete the plan. Numerous meetings with the consultant
team have been conducted to give status, share information, and to answer
questions.
EWMP Methodology
The EWMP recommends control measures throughout the watershed and within the
multitude of subwatersheds within each city’s jurisdiction. The location and types of
measures will depend on the pollutant removal needs and soil characteristics in
each subwatershed. Industrial areas will have different pollutant loadings than
residential areas; and, areas with clay soils and poor percolation characteristics
cannot depend heavily on infiltration and would need to depend more on filtration or
reuse. The consultants have taken all the information available and have placed
measures at strategic locations to provide a suite of control measures.
The permit requires that a Reasonable Assurance Analysis (RAA) be performed
using computer modeling software prescribed in the MS4 permit. The RAA models
the suite of control measures identified in the EWMP as a quantitative demonstration
that the control measures will be effective in removing enough pollutants to meet
water quality objectives. The RAA computer model is also the primary tool used to
select and site control measures.
The EWMPs depend on three basic strategies: Low Impact Development (LID),
Green Streets, and Regional Infiltration BMPs. LID consists of projects that treat
storm water on site by utilizing such BMPs as rain gardens and cisterns. Green
Streets will upgrade streets to capture and infiltrate storm water and urban runoff.
Regional Infiltration BMPs capture, infiltrate, and/or reuse storm flows from an 85
th
percentile storm event or roughly 1.1 inch of rain and are depended upon the most,
requiring large amounts of land. Parks and other City-owned properties are prime
candidates as there would be no land acquisition costs. These properties will be
used first. However, the need for infiltration is so great that the plan assumes that
there will still be a substantial need to acquire the rights to use private properties as
well for infiltration. The need for private land could be substantially reduced if it is
possible to develop joint cooperative projects that would allow use of Culver City City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
Unified School District (CCUSD) property. Private parcels generally would be the
least attractive and last alternative due to the significant land acquisition expense.
However, some unique opportunities for public/private cooperative projects may
arise.
At any site, there are a number of engineering considerations that come into play
such as the amount of drainage that can be diverted to the site, the type of soil and
its ability to infiltrate water, and depth to ground water.
Currently, two potential infiltration sites are being evaluated: the median on Culver
Boulevard between Elenda Street and Sepulveda Boulevard and the Costco parking
lot. Costco is planning an expansion in the parking lot adjacent to their main building.
Staff is working with Costco to possibly develop a public/private partnership to
infiltrate water from Costco’s site as well as the remaining Marina del Rey Harbor
drainage area located within Culver City and a small section of Los Angeles into the
ground on and/or near the Costco site if conditions are suitable and an agreement
with Costco can be reached.
Adaptive Management Process
The MS4 Permit allows EWMPs to be implemented and improved over time through
an iterative process referred to in the MS4 Permit as the Adaptive Management
Process (AMP). The AMP enables agencies to monitor the effectiveness of EWMPs
and make adjustments or additions to the plans as needed to improve water quality
to comply with TMDLs. Agencies will be deemed compliant as long as they are
implementing an approved EWMP and make adjustments to the plans on a biennial
basis as needed to meet water quality standards.
Environmental Determination
The EWMP is a planning document and any implementing projects and actions
under the plan would proceed only after RWQCB approval is granted. Therefore,
authorizing submittal of the EWMP to RWQCB is not a “project” for purposes of the
California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) because it is not an approval of the
plan. (CEQA Guidelines Section 15378). Upon approval by RWQCB, the City may
undertake implementing actions which will be reviewed pursuant to CEQA as
appropriate.
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
If the City implements the EWMPs completely as modeled by the RAA, the final total
costs are estimated to be $159 million in capital cost (including required land
acquisition costs) and an additional $4 million per year for operations and
maintenance. City staff has not yet identified all funding source options (other than
use of the General Fund, which is not in a position to absorb these costs) for the City of Culver City, California
Agenda Item Report
implementation phase of the EWMPs. Staff will continue to pursue grant funding
(including the application for the 2015 Competitive Grant Program under the Santa
Monica Bay Category from the Los Angeles County Regional Park and Open Space
District, which is also being considered by the City Council this evening) and explore
other funding alternatives. However, even if successful, grant funding will most likely
only cover a small fraction of the overall cost of compliance. Other possible funding
options will be explored further and presented to the City Council for discussion at a
future meeting.
As mentioned previously, the EWMPs will be reviewed every 2 years and depending
on the results from the monitoring, some projects that were included initially in the
plans may be removed or modified. Also, cooperative agreements with CCUSD or
with private entities such as Costco can result in significant cost savings. Other
things that can affect the final cost and outcome are changes in law or regulations
and would depend on State or Federal legislation. Some examples are a copper
brake pad ban (Metals TMDL) and pesticide bans (Toxics TMDL). In addition,
studies will be conducted on specific pollutants in the receiving water to better
understand how it affects the beneficial uses. This could result in changes to TMDL
limits and therefore could affect the cost.
MOTION:
That the City Council:
Authorize the submittal of the Enhanced Watershed Management Program Plans
for the Ballona Creek and Marina del Rey Harbor Watersheds to the Los Angeles
Regional Water Quality Control Board.