Storm Drains Wash Toxic Debris Into Ocean : Pollution: Authorities seek help from the public to cut down on garbage in the county’s storm sewer system.

Recent rainstorms, the first significant rainfall in months, have renewed concerns among environmentalists and government officials about the flow of contaminated water from storm drains in the South Bay.

The first major winter storms typically scrub streets, parking lots and rooftops of toxins and other pollutants that have accumulated during the dry summer and fall months across Los Angeles County. The soupy mixture of motor oil, grease, animal waste, pesticides, fertilizers, plastic foam cups and rainwater flushes into the Santa Monica and San Pedro bays through a vast underground storm-drain network extending from Claremont to Palos Verdes Estates.

Although last week’s three-day storm dropped just an inch of rain on the South Bay, the soaking was enough to demonstrate the danger of what some environmentalists have dubbed “poison runoff.” For instance, members of Heal the Bay, one group concerned about Santa Monica Bay pollution, said they found several birds tangled in debris from storm drains that dump onto beaches from Malibu to Redondo Beach.

“It is not the local government that is causing all of this pollution,” said Mark Gold, staff scientist for the group. “It is you and me. It is the people who dispose of their waste irresponsibly in the street. . . . Nine out of 10 people don’t understand that everything on the street from used motor oil, animal waste (and) trash goes directly from the street into the ocean without any treatment whatsoever.”

A study of toxic heavy metals flushed into Santa Monica Bay in 1989 estimated that eight inches of rain washed 150,000 pounds of lead, 500,000 pounds of zinc and 11,000 pounds of cadmium into the bay. The Natural Resources Defense Council, which conducted the study, said the levels were far greater than those discharged by local sewage treatment plants during the same year.

The study also found that 4.5 million pounds of oil and grease, primarily from automobiles, drained into the bay in 1989.

“This whole problem has become tremendously worse in the Los Angeles area over the last three or four decades because the amount of poison runoff is directly proportional to the amount of people,” said James Thornton, Los Angeles director for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “More people means more paved surfaces and more cars.”

Los Angeles County and 16 cities--including the South Bay cities of El Segundo, Hermosa Beach, Inglewood, Los Angeles, Manhattan Beach, Rancho Palos Verdes, Redondo Beach, Rolling Hills Estates, Rolling Hills and Torrance--received a storm-water discharge permit from the state last summer that requires the local governments to begin cleaning up the polluted storm water over the next five years.

The permit could force cities to improve street cleaning methods, develop ways to filter runoff from parking lots and provide public education programs about how to prevent toxins from entering drains. Although storm water pollution is most noticeable at the beach, environmental and regulatory officials say it should be everyone’s concern since storm drains funnel waste from throughout the region.

Here are ways officials say residents can help eliminate storm water pollution:

* Throw garden clippings and litter in trash cans, not the gutter.

* Sweep sidewalks and gutters, do not hose them down.

* Recycle used motor oil, paint, and other household hazardous products, or dispose of them at toxic disposal sites. Do not dump them in the street or in storm drains.

* Clean up after pets.

* Cut down on the use of pesticides and fertilizers around the home.

* Report clogged storm-drain catch basins in Los Angeles County ((818) 458-3537) or in the city of Los Angeles ((213) 485-5884).

* Report illegal dumping into storm drains in Los Angeles County ((818) 458-3537) or in the city of Los Angeles ((213) 485-5661). Heal the Bay has also established a toll-free hot line for this purpose ((800) HEAL-BAY).

County health officials, meanwhile, recommend that swimmers use common sense when swimming or bathing near storm-drain outlets because of contaminants in the water. Swimmers are advised to:

* Not swim for at least 48 hours after a rain.

* Avoid contact with storm water where it forms pools or streams across the beach.

* Wash off thoroughly after direct contact with storm water.

* Swim on the opposite side of the drain from the prevailing current.

Environmentalists and regulatory officials say the new-found effort to ebb the flow of polluted storm water into Santa Monica Bay represents the most significant assault on pollution in the bay since the protracted struggle with the city of Los Angeles over sewage discharges from the Hyperion treatment plant.

But this time, the officials say, government cannot solve the problem alone.

“We are going to have to be enlisting citizens as the cops on this,” said Felicia Marcus of the Los Angeles Board of Public Works. “There is no other way.”