3 Cities Face Legal Storm Unless They Clean Their Runoff

A national environmental group has put three South Bay cities on notice: Clean up your storm water, or else.

The Natural Resources Defense Council has notified Hermosa Beach, El Segundo and Rancho Palos Verdes that it will file lawsuits against them if they don’t start complying with storm-water provisions of the federal Clean Water Act. Specifically, the NRDC wants the cities to clean up “urban runoff” from lawns, roadways and other sources that flows untreated through storm drainage systems into Santa Monica Bay.

Also threatened with lawsuits were Beverly Hills, Westlake Village and Culver City, as well as Caltrans and 12 private industrial firms, including six in the South Bay. The cities and firms have 60 days to respond to the complaints in the “notice of intent to sue” letters sent last week by the NRDC.

“We hope this will wake them up,” said Everett DeLano, an NRDC attorney. “It really isn’t that tough for them to comply, if they want to. There’s just not that much they have to do. But we definitely aren’t bluffing. We’re after compliance.”

Officials in El Segundo and Hermosa Beach declined comment on the threatened lawsuits, saying they need more time to study the complaints. Rancho Palos Verdes City Manager Paul Bussey, meanwhile, said his city already is complying with most of the storm runoff regulations.

“There’s no reluctance on the part of the city to comply with the regulations,” Bussey said. “We believe we have complied with most of the them. We’ll meet with (the NRDC), and if they have any suggestions we’d like to hear them.” He added that he was confident the matter will be resolved without a lawsuit being filed against the city.

Caltrans attorney Anthony Ruffolo said his agency has “put a lot of effort” into complying with runoff regulations. He added, “We’re still studying this (notice of intent letter) to see where they’re coming from.”

DeLano pointed out that even in dry weather, about 25 million gallons of untreated runoff flows into Santa Monica Bay every day; in a rainstorm, runoff can swell to 10 billion gallons a day. With that water come pesticides washed off lawns, motor oil from driveways, pet droppings, toxic heavy metals and tons of trash.

Storm drain systems should not be confused with municipal sewer systems, in which waste water is treated before being discharged. Except for material trapped in catch basins, usually everything in a storm drain system eventually makes its way to the ocean without being treated.

If cities would inform their citizens and business people about the dangers of urban runoff--and back up the education with a little enforcement--DeLano said, it could go a long way toward making the runoff, and thus the ocean, cleaner.

“If I flush my radiator into the street, it’s like pouring radiator fluid directly into the ocean,” DeLano said. “People need to know that. The problem is that unless you’re at the beach, it’s out of sight, out of mind.”

DeLano said some of the 19 cities and three other government entities in the Santa Monica Bay watershed have made progress in implementing regulations and programs to control urban runoff pollution, including the cities of Los Angeles and Santa Monica and Los Angeles County. But he said the cities that are being threatened with lawsuits either haven’t made enough progress or in some cases “haven’t even begun to adopt the programs they’re supposed to.”

The NRDC also wants cities to:

* Stencil signs near storm drain openings to discourage people from pouring motor oil or coolant, grass clippings, trash and other pollutants into the storm drain.

* Set up phone lines to receive reports of illegal storm drain dumping.

* Increase street sweeping.

* Create programs to encourage residents and business owners to keep their driveways and sidewalks clean, so when it rains the debris won’t be swept into the storm drains.

* Provide regular cleaning of city catch basins.

* Set up inspection programs for auto shops, gas stations, restaurants and other businesses where debris and pollutants are common.

* Set up municipal disposal centers for used oil and other household hazardous wastes.

* Encourage water conservation.

Industrial firms that are accused by the NRDC of not complying with water runoff regulations include: Airco Gases, Allied Signal Casting, Fiberglass Production & Tooling, Inc., Star Biochemicals, C.P. Hall Co.--all in Torrance--and Allied Signal Inc. of El Segundo.

Heal the Bay, a Santa Monica-based environmental group, is joining with the NRDC in its threatened actions against the private firms, but not against the municipalities.

Don Phillips, plant manager at Allied Signal in El Segundo, which manufactures refrigerant products, said in response to the threatened lawsuit: “To our knowledge we are in compliance with all regulations.” He added, however, that the company is checking the regulations to make certain. Phillips said his company does not have any storm water runoff because “everything stays within the plant.”

Dennis Signorovitch, a spokesman for Allied Signal, said the NRDC erred in saying Allied Signal Casting in Torrance was not in compliance with the clean water regulations. The company, Signorovitch said, is covered by permits issued to its parent company.

Representatives of the other firms either declined comment on the threatened lawsuits or could not be reached for comment.