Bacteria pollution limits will help make scenes such as this at Surfrider Beach in Malibu a thing of the past. Photo: Heal the Bay.

In a move that threatens to unravel a 7-year process to clean up Southern California beaches, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) decided to postpone indefinitely a vote to adopt enforceable clean water standards at area beaches that would have taken effect July 15, 2006.

Originally scheduled for the Board's July 13th hearing, and removed from the agenda just two days prior, the motion would require local cities and L.A. County to comply with new beach water quality standards every day during the summer months.

The new standards, called TMDLs (Total Maximum Daily Loads), require beach waters and discharges from storm drains to be free from unhealthy levels of fecal bacteria. They would apply to all Santa Monica Bay beaches from Palos Verdes to the Ventura County line during dry weather between April and October, when tens of millions of residents and visitors use the beach. The deadline for the bacteria TMDL compliance by cities and other polluters is July 15, 2006.

The Board’s decision would have incorporated the bacteria TMDL into the L.A. County stormwater permit, thus making any exceedance of the limits an express violation of the federal Clean Water Act punishable by fines or other enforcement action.

Apparently, the Water Board’s fear of litigation from local government over a minor technicality was more important than their duty to protect the public health of millions of beachgoers, swimmers and surfers. Heal the Bay’s Annual Beach Report Card found that the five most polluted beaches in California were all in L.A. County, and that 37% of the county’s beaches monitored last summer were frequently unsafe for swimming.

Background

Bacteria Pollution Limit Established Protections for Health
In 2003, Heal the Bay and others fought for—and won—strong bacteria pollution limits for water at our local beaches. Called the Santa Monica Bay Beaches Dry-Weather Bacteria Total Maximum Daily Load (“Bacteria TMDL”), the limits were designed to protect beachgoers health by reducing harmful bacteria in our local beach water. Note: this particular pollution limit is for bacteria during dry-weather only; there is another, separate pollution limit for bacteria levels during rainy (wet) weather.

Cities and other dischargers were given three years—until July 15, 2006—to meet the limits and be in compliance with the Bacteria TMDL making all of Santa Monica Bay beaches safe for beachgoers in the dry season.

However, even after three years of lead time to the Bacteria TMDL’s July 15th compliance deadline, many of Santa Monica Bay’s beaches still have elevated bacteria levels that make people sick! In order to be enforceable, the bacteria pollution limits need to be incorporated into the L.A. County Storm Water permit by the RWQCB.

Why the Bacteria TMDL Needs to Be in the Storm Water Permit
Under federal law, storm water permits are the primary mechanism for enforcement of pollution limits for waters draining to the ocean, rivers and lakes. It is imperative that bacteria limits are enforceable by making them part of the L.A. Storm Water permit. In fact, state and federal law requires the Bacteria TMDL be incorporated into a storm water permit.

Moreover, integration of the Bacteria TMDL into the permit makes sense because California’s state health laws make high levels of bacteria at public beaches unlawful. Thus, appropriately, RWQCB staff has proposed incorporation of the bacteria pollution limit in the permit.

Unfortunately, many local governments, industry and other dischargers are strongly in opposition. These same dischargers have sued in court to stop similar trash pollution limits, and have lost, but they are trying the same delay tactics with bacteria.