Panel OKs Guidelines to Clean Up Runoff

Attacking the state’s most insidious water pollution problem, state regulators pushed ahead with a sweeping effort Tuesday to clean up the urban runoff that has tainted California’s coastline for decades.

The State Water Resources Control Board voted unanimously to approve a 61-point battle plan that could rival the ongoing regulatory fight against smog in Southern California.

“Polluted runoff is the major environmental pollution problem we’re facing in this state,” said Mary Nichols, the governor’s secretary of resources. “This is definitely a step forward.”

The ambitious blueprint requires strict monitoring of coastal water quality and calls on state and local government to aggressively clean up sources of polluted runoff, which can range from pesticides to metals flecked off auto brake pads to the mountains of muck produced at dairy farms.

Problems are particularly bad in Los Angeles and Orange County. The densely populated region is plagued by ocean pollution, which has caused health and environmental worries and bedeviled the coastal economy.

Any headway will come at a price, by some estimates as high as $14 billion over the next decade. That staggering bill would be footed by taxpayers as well as affected businesses--most notably the state’s booming building industry--that have to alter their current practices. In addition, money earmarked for the cleanup is included in Proposition 13, an environmental initiative on next March’s ballot.

Among the changes being studied are altered development strategies to create catch basins for runoff, improvements to do a better job of scrubbing drainage from the state’s network of highways and stricter rules for businesses such as restaurants and auto shops.

The statewide plan, mandated by the federal government, would set up a three-tier approach. Voluntary rules would first be developed. If the pollution problem didn’t improve, concrete regulations would be set in place to press the fight. And if all else fails, authorities could take tough enforcement steps against the most notorious sources of pollution, dragging a chronic polluter into court.

Next month, the plan will go to the California Coastal Commission, which is expected to approve it, and then to two federal agencies for final review. If the document isn’t cemented soon, more than $5 million in federal funds to jump-start the effort would be jeopardized, water board officials said.

Chances of the plan moving forward appeared dim just a few weeks ago. The state water board and Coastal Commission have been at odds for years over how to tackle the cleanup effort, with the coastal agency favoring a tougher approach. Last month, a flotilla of environmentalists criticized a draft of the blueprint at a public hearing. But in recent days the various sides came together and hashed out many of their differences in a series of marathon meetings.

“This is a very important program for this state,” said Sara Wan, Coastal Commission chairwoman. “It’s important not only from an environmental standpoint, but also from an economic standpoint.”

A few environmentalists, however, voiced a note of caution Tuesday. Mark Gold, executive director of Heal the Bay, called the plan short on specifics and in need of strengthening before the Coastal Commission meeting next month.

“We still don’t see that the state water board really wants to make it work,” Gold said. Although cities across the nation are plagued by polluted runoff, Southern California remains the biggest battleground. The paved urban sprawl of Los Angeles produces the perfect environment to flush rainwater down storm drains and concrete flood channels to the sea.

Even small rainstorms can pick up oil, grease discarded by restaurants, lawn fertilizers and other pollutants and carry them out to sea. The flow can continue in even the driest summer months, as runoff from irrigation keeps a trickle of tainted water headed to the Santa Monica Bay and other trouble spots.

Runoff from Ballona Creek, the Los Angeles and Santa Ana rivers--the Southland’s main tributaries--is so contaminated that a toxic plume spreads far into the ocean, a threat to sea life and humans. Added to the brew is sediment from construction sites, pesticides from agricultural fields and animal waste from farms and city streets.

The stew can also include trash and other flotsam of civilization sent to sea. When a storm drops an inch of rain on the Los Angeles basin, two tons of garbage typically flow into Ballona Creek.

Elsewhere in the state, even some of the most bucolic spots are hard hit by polluted runoff.

Along the north coast, timber cutting can cause soil erosion that sends a gray curtain of sediment roaring down rivers and fanning out into the ocean. In the Sierra foothills and other spots, more than 20,000 abandoned mines continue to spew heavy metals and toxins into scenic streams.

Last year, tainted runoff shut down 30 different strips of California coastline for at least six weeks. A dozen others were closed for three months or longer.

Although the federal Clean Water Act mandated controls on urban runoff more than a dozen years ago, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has until recently focused most of its attention on water pollution from industries and sewage plants. Now the agency has made polluted runoff a top priority.

California has lagged behind for years, but its new plan is the most ambitious in the nation. Most coastal states only attempt to address polluted runoff generated near the shoreline. California’s plan applies to any watershed that ultimately feeds the sea, in some cases stretching hundreds of miles inland.

Given fiscal limitations, only the worst sources of pollution would be targeted. In addition, the plan puts a priority on protecting the most sensitive coastal areas, such as tide pools, lagoons and wetlands.

The plan also calls for a concerted effort to educate the public and businesses on ways to stop polluted runoff at its source, whether it is not dumping oil in a storm drain or taking steps to avoid summertime over-watering.

“This plan alone is not going to fix our runoff problems,” said Linda Sheehan of the Center for Marine Conservation. “They’re only going to be solved over time.”