CITY OF SIGNAL HILL
STAFF REPORT
2175 Cherry Avenue • Signal
Hill, California 90755-3799
8/22/2023
AGENDA ITEM
TO: HONORABLE MAYOR
AND MEMBERS OF THE CITY COUNCIL
FROM: CARLO TOMAINO
CITY MANAGER
BY: THOMAS BEKELE
PUBLIC WORKS DIRECTOR
SUBJECT:
AGREEMENT FOR COST SHARING FOR MONITORING WITHIN THE DOMINGUEZ
CHANNEL AND LOS ANGELES AND LONG BEACH HARBORS WATERS TOXIC
POLLUTANTS TOTAL MAXIMUM DAILY LOADS
Summary:
The City is required to report on its Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) which is the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and meet water quality standards. Beginning in 2014, the affected cities and agencies worked together with the Los Angeles Gateway Region Integrated Regional Water Management Joint Powers Authority (GWMA) to develop a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to share the cost of the implementation plan. The City Council will consider entering into an agreement with GWMA for continued administration and cost sharing of the Harbors Waters Toxic Pollutants TMDL compliance monitoring and reporting plan.
Recommendation:
Authorize the City Manager to enter into an agreement between the City and the GWMA for continued administration and cost sharing for the implementation of the coordinated compliance, monitoring, and reporting plan for the Dominguez Channel and Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors Waters Toxic Pollutants TMDL.
Fiscal Impact:
The continued administration of the coordinated compliance monitoring and reporting plan will be a multi-agency effort. Participating agencies are assessed costs based on the cost sharing formulas, as detailed in the cost sharing agreement (Attachment A). The actual cost of monitoring equipment maintenance sample collection and analysis varies from year to year due to the differences in the water, sediment, and fish tissue sampling schedules (or changes in the monitoring plan ordered by the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board). The City’s share of monitoring CITY OF SIGNAL HILL Page 1 of 4 Printed on 8/17/2023
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costs is broken down per fiscal year with each projected annual payment amount as follows:
Table 1.
FY 2023-24 FY 2024-25 FY 2025-26 3-year Total
$509.09 $511.29 $523.29 $1543.67
In addition to the shared monitoring costs listed above, a direct administrative fee will be assessed annually between 3% to 5% of the City’s actual monitoring costs (Attachment B). The administrative fee is assessed by GWMA for its costs associated with hiring consultants, managing the consultant’s contracts, staff time, and legal fees associated with the performance of GWMA’s duties under the agreement. As a member of the GWMA, the city covers GWMA’s indirect administrative fees as part of its annual membership dues. The total annual cost of monitoring under this agreement is included as part of the Fiscal Year 2023-2024 Environmental Programs Budget (Account No. 100-93-5425) as in previous years. The Public Works Department will request funds to cover future costs in subsequent budgets.
Strategic Plan Objective:
Goal No. 4: Maintain and improve the public infrastructure.
Background:
A Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) is a calculation of the maximum amount of a pollutant that a waterbody can receive and still meet water quality standards. In the past, dichloro-diphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and related compounds have been discharged or washed by runoff into the Los Angeles and Long Beach Harbors (Greater Harbor) where these pollutants have created contaminated sediment beds. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and by extension, the Regional Board, was required by a 1999 consent decree to develop a TMDL by March 2012 for toxic pollutants in the Greater Harbor; this is referred to as the Harbor Toxics TMDL.
Beginning in 2006, the Regional Board worked with both the Port of Los Angeles and the Port of Long Beach (Ports) to develop this TMDL. Originally, the TMDL was limited solely to the Greater Harbor area, but based upon research results, the Ports pointed to potential pollutant contributions from upstream sources, and the Regional Board ultimately decided to bring all the tributary cities into this TMDL.
On May 5, 2011, the Regional Board adopted a TMDL for the Dominguez Channel and the Greater Harbor for metals and toxic pollutants, requiring the development and subsequent implementation of a monitoring plan. The TMDL became effective upon approval of the EPA on March 23, 2012.
Subsequently, the TMDL has been incorporated into the Municipal Separate Storm Sewer System (MS4) Permit and is enforceable through the federal Clean Water Act.
Beginning in 2014, the affected cities and agencies worked together with GWMA to develop an MOU to share the cost of the implementation plan. The GWMA acts solely as a fiduciary agent for this agreement.
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Analysis:
TMDL Requirements
The TMDL establishes Load Allocations and Waste Load Allocations (which are effectively numerical discharge limits) for a wide variety of pollutants including metals such as copper, lead, zinc, and other organic compounds, such as DDT, generally referred to as “toxic.” Agencies impacted by this TMDL are divided into three groups based on geographical drainage areas:
1. Cities draining to the Dominguez Channel.
2. Agencies with areas draining directly into the Greater Harbor which includes the Los Cerritos Channel watershed, Palos Verdes Peninsula watershed, and Los Angeles River Estuary; and
3. Agencies draining to the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers.
TMDL monitoring requirements differ for each of the above groups. For agencies with jurisdictional areas tributary to the Dominguez Channel, monitoring is being addressed through the development of a Watershed Coordinated Integrated Monitoring Program (CIMP). Similarly, TMDL requirements for agency areas tributary to the Los Angeles and San Gabriel Rivers are being addressed through the development of a Watershed CIMP. Those agencies identified by the TMDL as draining directly to the Greater Harbor, which includes Signal Hill, are required to develop, and implement a monitoring plan that includes sediment testing, water column testing, and analysis of fish tissues.
Monitoring Program
After approval of the TMDL by the Regional Board, representatives of the affected agencies formed a technical working committee to leverage resources and gain economies of scale. The group, referred to as the Regional Monitoring Coalition, developed and submitted the “Coordinated Compliance Monitoring and Reporting Plan” to the Regional Board. The monitoring plan calls for the annual collection of wet and dry weather water samples at over 20 locations, sediment samples collected every two to three years at those same locations, and fish tissue samples collected biennially from within four waterbodies within the Greater Harbors.
The three-year cost estimate and cost sharing scenario is shown in Exhibit A to the agreement. This agreement is similar to other TMDL and watershed cost sharing agreements in the Los Angeles County area. Participants are assessed a share based on agency jurisdictional area; this includes the water-surface areas of both the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
There are an estimated 30 to 40 industrial sites with individual NPDES permits within the Greater Harbor area and, as their permits are being renewed, these businesses are likely to be subject to the same monitoring requirements. Provisions have been made within the agreement to allow the private NPDES permittees to enter into a separate agreement with the GWMA to receive monitoring data collected as part of this agreement. Those private permittees shall be assessed a charge of at least $12,300 annually should they wish to use the monitoring results to meet individual permit requirements, which would proportionally reduce each city's and agency's ultimate cost. At this time, it is unknown how many or when these industrial permittees will ultimately elect to join, therefore no reduction in cost is shown in Exhibit A to the agreement.
The GWMA agreed to continue to act as the fiduciary agent for the TMDL monitoring project. The CITY OF SIGNAL HILL Page 3 of 4 Printed on 8/17/2023
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The GWMA agreed to continue to act as the fiduciary agent for the TMDL monitoring project. The GWMA has experience with similar projects such as the Lower Los Angeles and Lower San Gabriel River and Los Cerritos Channel Watershed Management Programs.
Key elements of the agreement:
· Obligates agencies to pay an annual fee.
· A city or agency may withdraw from the agreement by providing prior written notice. The withdrawing entity shall be responsible for its monitoring costs and administrative costs through the end of the current fiscal year. If the city or agency provides written notice after February 15, 2024, the entity is responsible for its monitoring costs and administrative costs through the end of the current fiscal year and the following fiscal year. Remaining participating parties would be responsible for sharing in the additional costs for future years. · Requires that a representative from each participating agency be named and authorized to speak on decisions made by the group.
· Establishes the GWMA as the entity to contract with consultants chosen by the watershed group and process payments for consultants.
· Outlines a process for invoicing and payments by participating agencies.
Staff is recommending that City Council authorize the City Manager to execute the cost sharing agreement to allow for the City’s continued compliance with the TMDL monitoring plan imposed by the Regional Board in a reliable and cost-effective manner.
Reviewed:
_________________________
Sharon del Rosario
Attachments:
A. Cost Sharing Agreement
B. Harbor Toxic Monitoring Invoice FY 2023-24
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