2010 Fall Seminar - Fred Latham, City of Santa Fe Springs. Ken Farfsing, City of Signal Hill. Desi Alvarez, City of Downey.

1. California Contract Cities Fall Conference
October 30, 2010
Session Moderator – Hon. Randy Bomgaars, Mayor, City of Bellflower
Speakers
Desi Alvarez, Deputy City Manager, City of Downey
Ken Farfsing, City Manager, City of Signal Hill
Fred Latham, City Manager, City of Santa Fe Springs

2.  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

3.  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

4.  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.

6.  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

9.  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

10.  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

11.  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

12.  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

13. Pasadena
SignalHill
Downey
Pomona
Glendale
DryWeather98-05
WetWeather98-05max=805
LosAngeles(Central&Eastern)
DryWeather08-09
WetWeather08-09
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
Copper(μg/L,ppb)
Freshwater CTR (CCC, chronic)= 9.3 (μg/L)
Drinking Water MCL = 1,300 ( μg/L)
Drinking Water 90% concentration LA River at Wardlow

14.  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

15. Auxiliary Pump
Auto Sampler
Locations
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 =

16. Auxiliary Pump
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
4500
5000
5500
6000
6500
3AM
4 Wed Mar 2009
6AM 9AM 12PM 3PM 6PM 9PM 5 Thu 3AM 6AM 9AM
FIGUEROA
Flowlink5
cfs
3/4/2009 2:00:00 AM- 3/5/2009 11:00:00 AM
Figueroa Sample Event (48 SU)

17.  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)

18.  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