Settlement to Set Water Pollution Limits Approved
A federal judge has approved a settlement in which the Environmental Protection Agency agrees to set pollution limits to make waterways and beaches safer in Los Angeles and Ventura counties.
U.S. District Judge Saundra Brown Armstrong signed the agreement that ended a lawsuit filed by the environmental groups Heal the Bay and Santa Monica Baykeeper against the EPA.
The settlement, reached in January, was considered a watershed in the struggle to clean up Santa Monica Bay and several other highly polluted waterways. The lawsuit charged that the EPA failed to ensure that waterways were safe by the 1979 deadline set by the Clean Water Act.
The settlement attempts to make beaches and waterways, including Santa Monica Bay and the Los Angeles River, safe for aquatic life and recreational use. About 130 rivers, lakes and other bodies of water throughout the two counties contain excessive amounts of pollutants.
According to the agreement, standards called “total maximum daily loads” will define how much of each pollutant--from lead to feces to trash--a water segment can withstand daily.
With the agreement approved, state water quality officials will now set the limits, said David W. Smith, a pollution coordinator for the agency. The limits are to be set over 13 years.
Approval of the settlement was held up when a coalition of county and city sanitation districts challenged its implementation.
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