Environmental Impact Reports for Reservoirs

The city’s approach to the open reservoir water quality improvement program has changed radically since the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power presented its original plan in 1990.

To accommodate the new direction and goals shared by the city and community organizations, the Los Angeles City Council on June 23 suspended an earlier ruling requiring the DWP to evaluate water quality issues systemwide in one encompassing Program Environmental Impact Report (EIR) before addressing the open reservoirs in site-specific EIRs.

The June 25 article incorrectly interpreted the ruling to mean that the DWP would not provide EIRs for filtration or enclosure projects. This is not the case. The DWP will prepare individual EIRs for the filtration plant projects. This process is what we want, what the community has called for and what the law requires.

Today, the DWP and the involved community groups, mainly represented under the umbrella of the Coalition to Preserve Open Reservoirs, agree that separate, site-specific environmental documentation is preferable to a Program EIR. This will allow the DWP to proceed in the most sensitive and efficient manner to address water quality problems and appropriate solutions.

The DWP looks forward to full public participation in the process. All environmental documents will be prepared in accordance with the California Environmental Quality Act. We depend on public involvement to continue the tremendous progress made from two years of mediation with community representatives.

BRUCE W. KUEBLER

Engineer in Charge

Water Quality Division

Department of Water and Power

Editor’s note: The headline stating that the DWP will no longer have to conduct environmental reports for water improvement projects at its open reservoirs was incorrect. Under state law, the agency could dispense with an environmental report for a project only if it is determined there would be no significant environmental effects. However, as stated in the article, the agency has pledged to conduct environmental reports for all projects. Also, due to an editing error, past lobbying on behalf of a program environmental report was incorrectly attributed to the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy. The lobbying was by the Coalition to Preserve Open Reservoirs.