State Adopts Plan to Keep Trash Out of L.A. River

In a far-reaching decision to clean up beaches and local waterways, state officials unanimously adopted a plan Thursday to stop the flow of trash into the Los Angeles River and its tributaries over 10 years.

As the first significant pollution limit adopted by the Regional Water Quality Control Board ever and the most controversial in the state, the measure will affect a vast swath of the county: more than 500 square miles of urbanized land from Long Beach to the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

“For so many years we had this notion that the Los Angeles River was our toilet flushed in the ocean,” said board Chairman H. David Nahai. “It’s high time for that to stop.”

Nahai told his colleagues during a nine-hour hearing, “Let’s not fight this anymore. Let’s do something that is right. Your kids will be proud of you for it.”

Clean water advocates hailed the zero-tolerance plan as long-overdue compliance with the federal Clean Water Act and a much-needed remedy for the blighted watercourse.

“This is a historic day,” said Alex Helperin, an attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council. “The state has finally said the L.A. River is not the city’s dumping ground.”

The onus to clean up the river largely will fall on cities, the county and Caltrans, which must reduce the amount of litter that pours out of their storm drains by 10% each year. The plan could extend to every parking lot and rain gutter where litter accumulates before it’s washed into the storm system and to the sea.

The board staff said the total cost could range from the low millions to $1.75 billion if agencies installed the most high-technology filters in the storm drains.

At the hearing, some of the 53 cities in the watershed argued that the goal is not achievable and would cost even more. Though the measure does not dictate how local agencies meet the regulations, it offers several choices, ranging from increasing litter law enforcement to installing costly filters.

Judith Wilson, director of Los Angeles’ Bureau of Sanitation, said the city would decide whether to appeal the decision to the full state board or sue to overturn it.

Others said the limit was not based on scientific studies, and some objected to the idea of a fixed, enforceable limit altogether.

“We’d rather see a goal than be dragged into a court for the smallest bit of trash,” said Ken Farfsing, city manager of Signal Hill. “We’d rather be given a list of programs and capital improvements and just do them.”

The regional board and its staff rejected that notion, saying federal law requires defined limits, known as “total maximum daily loads.” And when it comes to trash, zero was the only justifiable standard because litter is illegal and preventable, the board ruled.

“No city has prescribed a level of litter that is acceptable on its streets,” said Executive Officer Dennis Dickerson.

To bolster support for the plan, the board staff showed numerous photos of debris piled in the river and at the shoreline in Long Beach, where it dumps out. Styrofoam cups, motor oil containers and plastic bags are common flotsam in the harbor area.

Officials from Long Beach, the only city to express support for the proposal, said they clean 5,500 tons of trash off their shore every year. They say the litter takes its toll both on the environment and economy, damaging tourism and seafront business.

“It’s a real quality of life issue,” said Rose Collins, clean water program officer for Long Beach. “People come to recreate in the area. When they see this trash, they don’t come back.”

Collins said she was sympathetic to neighboring cities’ concerns but added, “There needs to be an impetus to get people to address this problem vigorously.”

The trash limit is the result of a 2-year-old federal consent decree, which settled a lawsuit brought by three environmental groups against the EPA. For 20 years, the agency had failed to ensure that the nation’s waters were safe and clean, as mandated by the Clean Water Act.

More than 90 other pollution limits are expected to be established for other impaired water bodies in Los Angeles and Ventura counties, regulating everything from feces to heavy metals to bacteria. A trash limit is expected to be set for Ballona Creek in the next few months.

The EPA expressed support for the L.A. River trash limit.

Representatives from the three environmental groups that brought the lawsuit against the EPA--the Santa Monica BayKeeper, Heal the Bay and the Natural Resources Defense Council--said the regional board was overly accommodating to the cities, allowing two years of study and 10 years of phased-in compliance. Moreover, five years into implementing the limit, the board will reassess the plan.

The groups said the trash threatens the health of swimmers and surfers, as well as marine and freshwater ecosystems. Alix Gerosa of Heal the Bay showed slides of seals muzzled by six-pack rings, autopsies of dolphins with plastic bags filling their stomachs and sea gulls nibbling on cigarettes.