State Panel Seeks Caltrans’ Input on Tollway Drains

On the heels of an inspection that found several possible permit violations, state water regulators are demanding that Caltrans explain why storm drains along the San Joaquin Hills toll road are clogged with sand and prove that untreated runoff is not reaching Laguna Beach’s shoreline.

The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board plans to send a letter to Caltrans this week asking for specific information about where the sediment is coming from and how eight drainage sites in Laguna Beach are being maintained and monitored.

“I don’t know if these things are working properly or not,” John Robertus, the water board’s executive director, said Tuesday. “We basically want them to tell us what they’re doing.”

Amid escalating concerns about toll-road discharges, the board sent two field inspectors to Laguna Beach on Thursday to tour the drains along Laguna Canyon and El Toro roads.

In a memo to the board’s senior engineer, the inspectors said they found multiple violations of discharge permits, including, “but not limited to,” failure to maintain the drains and the threat of discharge that could cause pollution or a nuisance.

The inspectors illustrated their preliminary report with photos, stating in the captions that apparent violations include damage to weirs--the low dams used to divert water from detention ponds--and failure to prepare for the rainy season.

California Department of Transportation spokesman Beth Beeman was out of the office Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

The agency disclosed last week that the eight drainage sites in Laguna Beach failed and had to be replaced in 1997, shortly after the toll road opened and El Nino storms struck, flooding highway beds before vegetation planted as erosion control had a chance to mature.

Caltrans also revealed that it has been investigating whether all 42 drainage sites along the toll road are working properly, assembling a task force of experts from its own staff and hiring an outside consulting firm to help.

Beeman said last week that the road’s entire drainage and filtration system has been properly maintained on a regular basis.

To meet its current permit requirements, Caltrans does not have to measure levels of pollutants in runoff but must fulfill so-called best-management practices, Robertus said.

“They’re supposed to try different management practices to the maximum extent practicable,” he said. “What that means is they’re not required to spend millions of dollars to do something that isn’t practicable.”

The water board has the authority to impose higher maintenance and reporting standards under a tougher permitting process typically used for sewage systems, requiring Caltrans to monitor and report on pollutants. Cleanup and abatement can also be ordered.

“For now, we’re going to hit the ball back over the net and let Caltrans hit it back,” Robertus said.

Once Caltrans gets the board’s letter seeking information, it must respond within a reasonable time frame yet to be set by Robertus.