City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
RECOMMENDATION:
Staff will present an update on Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs) and their fiscal
implications to future City Budgets and answer questions of the City Council and the
public.
BACKGROUND:
The Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires the California Regional Water Quality
Control Board, Los Angeles Region (Board), to develop water quality standards that
identify beneficial uses and criteria to protect beneficial uses for each water body
found within its region. Beneficial uses include swimming, fishing, drinking water,
navigability, and wildlife habitats and reproduction. The Board carries out its CWA
responsibilities through the state’s Porter-Cologne Water Quality Control Act and
establishes water quality objectives designed to protect beneficial uses contained in
the Water Quality Control Plan (Basin Plan).
Section 303(d) of the CWA requires all States to prepare a list of water bodies that
do not meet water quality standards and establish for each of these water bodies
load and waste load allocations (load refers to pollutants), that is, a total maximum
daily load (TMDL), to ensure attainment of water quality standards, and to
incorporate them into their Water Quality Basin Plans. A TMDL represents an
amount of pollution that can be released by anthropogenic and natural sources of a
watershed into a specific water body without causing a decline in water quality and
beneficial uses. TMDLs are numerical standards to control pollution. For example,
the existing zero trash TMDL states that no trash can enter Ballona Creek. For the
Meeting Date: 05/08/06 Item Number: A-4
AGENDA ITEM: Update on the Federal Clean Water Act’s Total Maximum Daily
Load Requirements and Their Fiscal Implications to Future City Budgets
Contact Person/Dept.: Cathy Chang/PW Phone Number: 310.253.5619
Fiscal Impact: Yes [X] No [] General Fund: Yes [X] No []
Public Hearing: [] Action Item: [X] Attachments: [X]
Public Notification: National Resources Defense League (05/04/06); Heal the Bay
(05/04/06); Clean Water Alliance (05/04/06); Ballona Creek Renaissance (05/04/06);
Master Notification List (05/04/06)
Department Approval:
Charles D. Herbertson (04/27/06)
CAO Approval: Martin R. Cole for Jerry
B. Fulwood (05/04/06)
City Controller Approval:
Marlee Chang (05/04/06)City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
new bacterial TMDLs, specific numbers of days of exceeding the concentration of a
bacterium are allowed.
Culver City TMDLs
Many of the water bodies in Los Angeles County are listed on California’s 1998
Section 303(d) list, including Ballona Creek, Ballona Creek Estuary, and Marina del
Rey Harbor, to which the City of Culver City drains. Ballona Creek and Marina del
Rey Harbor (tidal influence) flow directly into the Santa Monica Bay and therefore
contribute to the Santa Monica Bay beaches closures that are triggered by elevated
bacterial concentrations. Approximately 99% of Culver City drains into Ballona
Creek and a very small remaining portion drains into the Marina del Rey Harbor
through the Oxford Basin. Specifically, the impairments for Ballona Creek are trash
(includes wetlands), metals, and bacteria (includes Sepulveda Channel); and for
Ballona Creek Estuary and Marina del Rey (back basins) are bacteria and toxics.
Therefore, Culver City has a total of seven (7) TMDLs for all of the aforementioned
pollutants causing impairments that have been developed and adopted by the
Regional Board and are effective, with the exception of the bacteria TMDL which will
be considered in June 2006 for adoption.
TMDL Requirements
The TMDLs require ‘responsible jurisdictions and agencies’ (RJAs) to submit an
‘Implementation Plan’ and a ‘Compliance Monitoring Plan’ within a set timeframe
after the effective date of the TMDL. The Implementation Plan’s purpose is to
outline and quantitatively demonstrate (e.g. pollutant load reduction modeling) how
each jurisdiction intends to achieve TMDL compliance. The objective of the
Monitoring Plan is to assess the baseline water quality conditions, measure the
results of the implementation efforts, and demonstrate TMDL compliance. Bacteria
TMDLs provide RJAs an opportunity to obtain a longer compliance deadline when
an integrated water resources management approach, which incorporates
infiltration, capture, treatment, reuse, and recycling, is adequately demonstrated in
the Implementation Plan. For all of the aforementioned TMDLs, except for the
Ballona Creek Trash TMDL, responsible jurisdictions and agencies are planning to
implement or already implementing a watershed-based approach in that unified
Implementation and Monitoring Plans will be submitted on behalf of all RJAs in the
watershed and cost-sharing will be implemented to achieve compliance.
The Associate Engineer/Stormwater Program Manager represents the City at
regular meetings with RJAs to develop the implementation plans and monitoring
plans. Since many TMDLs were adopted in a timeframe of less than 5 years, there
are multiple TMDL meetings for both Ballona Creek and Marina del Rey Harbor that City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
require City’s participation. Attachment 1 summarizes the dates of the final TMDLs
approval by the United States Environmental Protection Agency pertinent to the City.
A Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) or Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) is
required for the cost-sharing by the RJAs for both the development of the necessary
plans (i.e. in order to execute the development of the Implementation Plans and the
Monitoring Plans) as well their implementation. For the Marina del Rey Harbor
Bacteria TMDL, the Implementation Plan and the Monitoring Plan were developed
primarily by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works and City of Los
Angeles respectively, due to these agencies being the largest contributors to the
watershed, with input provided by other RJA’s. Due to time- and the resource-
intensive nature of developing these necessary plans, future plans for other TMDLs
will most likely be developed by consultants under a cost-sharing agreement. Also,
structural treatment solutions that will be proposed in the implementation plans will
require a separate MOA for cost-sharing. Attachment 2 summarizes the status of
the development of the various plans and corresponding implementation efforts.
FISCAL ANALYSIS:
Of the TMDLs, the City currently has budgeted to fully fund only the Ballona Creek
trash TMDL, through a Proposition 50 grant awarded in 2005 (to be completed by
2008), which provided money to place two-tiered screen filters in all 672 catch
basins within the City’s boundary and several other best management practices
(namely structural treatment measures) at city-owned facilities.
Presently, the only TMDL that is in the stage of cost-sharing discussion and MOA
development is the Marina del Rey Bacteria TMDL. This MOA, which will be
presented to the Council when ready for consideration, addresses only part of the
solutions needed to comply with the above TMDL, and the City’s cost-sharing for this
MOA is estimated at $160,000. Considering the fact that close to 99% of the City
drains into Ballona Creek Watershed, an urbanized watershed with multiple TMDLs,
the total cost over the next decade to be incurred by the City in order to comply with
the TMDLs could escalate into tens of millions of dollars. Attachment 3 summarizes
the potential implementation strategies and their associated costs provided by the
Regional Board for the various TMDLs.
A number of cities in Los Angeles County have passed stormwater or equivalent
assessment fees to help fund their stormwater and TMDL program activities,
including the cities of Santa Monica, Los Angeles, Redondo Beach, Beverly Hills,
and Santa Clarita. In 2004, the City of Los Angeles voters passed a clean water
bond, Proposition O to help pay for projects to clean stormwater pollution and
improve water quality because the city's current $24 per house per year stormwater City of Culver City, California
City Council Agenda Item Report
pollution abatement fee wasn't enough to cover the cost of new regulations. The
clean water bond would add about $10 per $100,000 assessed value to property tax
bills.
Apart from establishing a stormwater assessment fee, one way to significantly
alleviate the fiscal burdens from TMDL on the City’s budget is to aggressively seek
and apply for grants to pay for structural treatment solutions. Due to competing
priorities and workload, the City’s Associate Engineer/Stormwater Program Manager
is very limited in time and resources to seek grant opportunities, prepare and submit
grant applications, and manage grant projects. Proposition 12 and Proposition 50
(Chapter 5 and 8) are the grant opportunities currently available. Culver City was
recently awarded a Proposition 50 Chapter 5 grant in the amount of $1.252 million to
help fund its structural storm water treatment measures for the Ballona Creek Trash
TMDL.
ATTACHMENTS:
1. Summary of Dates of Final TMDLs Approval by US EPA (or effective dates) for
Ballona Creek (including Estuary) and Marina del Rey Harbor;
2. Summary of Progress in Developing Implementation and Monitoring Plans and in
Implementation Efforts for Ballona Creek (including Estuary) and Marina del Rey
Harbor.
3. Summary of Potential Implementation Strategies and Their Associated Costs
Provided by the Regional Board for Various TMDLs for Ballona Creek and Marina
del Rey Harbor.
MOTIONS:
That the City Council:
1. Receive and file the report, and
2. Direct staff to work with the City Controller to develop ideas for generating
funding for implementation of TMDLs and return to City Council with
recommendations.
MEETING DATE 05/08/06
AGENDA ITEM Update on the Federal Clean Water Act's Total Maximum Daily
Load Requirements and Their Fiscal Implications to Future City
Budgets •
ATTACHMENTS
Pages |109| Summary of Dates of Final TMDLs Approval by US
EPA (or effective dates) for Ballona Creek (including 1
Estuary) and Manna del Rey Harbor,|109| Summary of Progress in Developing Implementation
and Monitonng Plans and in Implementation Efforts for 2
BalIona Creek (including Estuary) and Manna del Rey
Harbor|109| Summary of Potential Implementation Strategies and
Their Associated Costs Provided by the Regional
3 - 4
Board for Various TMDLs for BaIlona Creek and
Manna del Rey HarborAugust 2002 August 2012 (10-yrs), with mtenm compliance
deadlines
January 2015
(10-yrs for 100% dry weather, 50% wet weather
compliance)
January 2021
(15-yrs for 100% dry weather, 100% wet
weather corn diance
Metals (mcludes
Estuary)
Toxic Pollutants
E. on1
Bactena (includes
Estuary and
S ulveda Channel
January 2006
Pending early
200799
January 2021 (15-yrs) with mtenm compliance
deadli,nes
2017 (10-yrs) or
2020 (13-yrs) with a demonstrated integrated
water resources 1: : ement a. • tach
Attachment
Summary of Dates of Final TMDLs Approval by US EPA (or effective dates) for
Ballona Creek (includina Estuary)
Summary of Dates of Final TMDLs Approval by US EPA (or effective dates) for
Manna del Rev Harbor (Back Basins)
Bactena (Mother's
Beach and Back
Basins
Toxic Pollutants
ack Basins onl
March 2004
Pending June
20067?
March 2014 (10-yrs) or
March 2020 (16-yrs) with a demonstrated
ated water resources I lement •roach
2021? (15-yrs) with mterirn compliance
deadlinesToxic Pollutants
(Estuary only)
Bacteria (includes
Estuary and
S ulveda Channel
Not initiated
(Special Study
needed
Not initiated
(Special Study
needed
Initiated, To be
com leted b 2008
Not initiated
Not initiated
Initiated
Initiated
Not initiated Initiated Not initiated
Attachment 2
Summary of Progress in Developing Implementation and Monitoring Plans and in
Implementation Efforts for Ballona Creek (including Estuau)
Summary of Progress in Developing Implementation and Monitoring Plans and in
Implementation Efforts for Manna del Rey Harbor (Back Basins)
Bactena (Mother's Completed and Completed and Started non-
Beach and Back submitted 2006 submitted 2006 structural measures
Basins
Toxic Pollutants Not initiated Imtiated Not initiated
(Back Basins only) (Special Study
needed
2Non structural flow
source control
Bacteria source
control cisterns
neighborhood
recharge
Sand filters
Dry weather
diversions
North OuffaII
Treatment Facility
ca kne and reuse
$375M4917M
(construction)
$12M—$7M/yr
(maintenance)
$640M—$1,252M
(construction)
$44M-$49M/yr
maintenance
Attachment 3
Summary of Potential Implementation Strategies and Their
Associated Costs Provided by the Regional Board for Various TNIDLs
for BaIlona Creek
Metals (includes
Estuary)
Toxic Pollutanb
(Estuary only)
Bacteria (Includes
Estuary and
Sepulveda Channel)
Grand Total
Vacuum assisted
sweeper sand
filters Infiltration
trenches
Vacuum-assisted
sweeper sand
filters Infiltration
trenches
$245M-4335M
(construction)
-37M/yr
(maintenance)
Included in above
costs
SUMMARY OF CULVER CITY'S COSTS FOR BALLONA CREEK TMDLS
ONE TIME COSTS — $24M—$49M
ANNUAL, ONGOING COSTS-- $11 7M —$1 9M
3Grand Total 7 6M+a
(Construction)
—$0 0M/yr
maintenance
Summary of Potential Implementation Strategies and Their Associated
Costs Provided by the Regional Board for Various TMDLs for Marina del
Rey Harbor
Toxic Pollutants
(Back Basins only)
Bacteria (Mother's
Beach and Back
Basins)
Vacuum-assisted
sweeper sand
filters infiltration
trenches
Diversion &
treatment
Circulation
Structural and non-
structural controls
(difficult to
estimate
$40M+a
(Conikruction)
—$0 07M/yr
(maintenance)
SUMMARY OF CULVER CITY'S COSTS FOR MARINA DEL REV HARBOR TMDLs
ONE TIME cows- $950K-$992K+A
ANNUAL, ONGOING COSTS — $38K1YR