01-08-2002 - National Pollution Elimination Sytem (NPDES) - Participation in the Coalition for Practical Regulation (CPR),e r
City of West Covina
Memorandum
TO: Andrew G. Pasmant, City Manager
and City Council
FROM: Shannon A. Yauchzee
Acting Public Works Director
AGENDA
ITEM NO. ,O ^ /
DATE: January 8, 2002
SUBJECT: NATIONAL POLLUTION ELIMINATION SYSTEM (NPDES)-
PARTICIPATION IN THE COALITION FOR PRACTICAL REGULATION
(CPR)
SUMMARY: The newly adopted NPDES Permit will result in very stringent and costly
requirements to the municipal Permittees. Participating in CPR is necessary to
prevent the regional board from imposing further costly requirements on
municipalities under the next 5-year municipal NPDES Permit.
BACKGROUND:
The City has been a co-permitee to the Los Angeles County Permit since the early 1990's. Since
1999, Municipal NPDES Permit requirements have been unnecessarily stringent and costly to
municipal Permittees. The Coalition for Practical Regulation consists of approximately 30 local
cities that may jointly challenge administrative regulations that the new NPDES Permit will have in
the next five years.
A new Municipal NPDES Permit was adopted by the California Regional Water Quality Board
on December 13, 2001. As proposed by Regional Board staff, the new Permit carries
significantly more costly and stringent requirements than the past Permit. Such requirements
include, most notably:
1. Requiring cities to inspect and enforce state issued Permits without reimbursement.
2. Permit language that easily exposes municipalities to litigation under the Clean Water
Act.
3. The absence of an administrative procedure to resolve differences in Permit language
interpretation.
4. Increased street sweeping and catch basin clean -outs; and
5. Taking away from municipalities' discretion in deciding which 'development projects
should be subject to post -construction runoff mitigation measures.
The Regional Board staff has not been forthcoming in negotiating these concerns with
municipalities. As a result, CPR intends to initiate an administrative and legal challenge if the
regional Board insists on imposing these new stringent and open-ended NPDES requirements on
municipalities.
DISCUSSION:
Unknown Costs and Unrealistic Time Frames
The exposure and loss of local control, as well as concerns over high costs on new regulations,
are significant enough to warrant appeal. The potential financial costs to the City to implement
the new programs are unknown, but are estimated to be in the hundreds of thousands to the
million -dollar range per year, during the next five-year period. This includes a full range of storm
water treatment controls, which will be included in the development of the TMDL's (Total
Maximum Daily Loads) for storm water constituents -such as trash, copper, bacteria, pesticides,
etc.
The Permit will require that the City implement or revise 44 separate programs during the five-
year cycle. The City will be required to implement 34 new programs in the first year of the
Permit alone. These include improved street sweeping, catch basin cleaning, illicit connection
tracking programs, dry -weather storm water diversion reports, placing and servicing trash
receptacles and other costly items..
ZAAGENDA - 2002\NPDES.doc
Andrew G. Pasmant, City Manager
and City Council
Page 2 — January 8, 2002
The State completed an independent consultant study of the costs of the new storm water
programs in 1998. This study concluded that the region would need to invest $53.8 billion in the
new storm water improvements during the next ten years in order to meet the NPDES Permit
requirements. Property taxes would need to be increased by 70%, or sales taxes would have to be
set at 12%, in order to pay for these new requirements. The Permit will also require substantial
investments by developers in the City to install costly pollution control devices of questionable
effectiveness.
Maximum Extent Practical
The Permit has modified the definition of the amount of time, effort and funding a city must put
into storm water programs, known as the maximum extent practical. The elimination of
considerations for costs, environmental benefits and available technology from the NPDES
Permit is a major problem for all of the cities and the County of Los Angeles. It is inconsistent
with existing State and Federal law, including the requirement that new regulations must be
reasonable under Water Code Section 13000. The Permit will result in exceedingly expensive
requirements, with dubious or minimal environmental and human health benefits.
Standard Urban Storm Water Mitigation Plans
The Permit requires that the City adopt new ordinances and policies for development projects, in
areas where project approval is delegated by other State laws to the City. These new
requirements appear to infringe upon the City's land use authority and basic police powers. They
also go beyond the limits established by the State Water Board in the Coalition's SUSMP appeal
of last year.
Illicit Sewer Connection Inspections
The Permit requires that the City complete an inspection of the entire storm, drain system in the
next six months to determine if any illicit connections exist. This requirement drafted after the
City of Los Angeles found that one business had illegally connected their sewer to the storm
drain. Based on years of field experience, very low illicit connections will be found, however the
inspection program will be expensive. Many cities that have completed these inspections are
reporting that no connections have been found.
OPTIONS:
An option is for the City not to join the Coalition and "go it alone" before the Board to challenge
any new requirements of the newly adopted National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
("NPDES") Permit for Los Angeles County. This option is considered less effective. Another
option is to not challenge the Permit.
FISCAL IMPACT:
The cost of joining CPR is $10,000.00. This investment could result in substantial savings
should the coalition cities prevail in reducing the magnitude of the State Water Quality Board
regulations. This amount is currently available from the current NPDES/Sewer Operation
Budget (189-320-2257-6120).
10
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0
Andrew G. Pasmant, City Manager
and City Council
Page 3 — January 8.2002
RECOMMENDATION:
It is recommended that the City Council take the following actions:
1. Adopt RESOLUTION NO.�
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF WEST COVINA,
CALIFORNIA, AUTHORIZING JOINING THE COALITION FOR PRACTICAL
REGULATION AND THE FILING OF A PETITION WITH THE STATE WATER
RESOURCES CONTROL CONTESTING ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE CALIFORNIA
REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD, LOS ANGELES REGION, IN
CONNECTION WITH THE STORM WATER/URBAN RUNOFF PERMIT FOR THE
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE INCORPORATED CITIES THEREIN (NPDES
NO. CAS004001)
2. Authorize the acting Public Works Director to issue a purchase order in the amount of
$10,000.00 from account 189-320-2257-6120 to join the Coalition for Practical Regulations.
•j ,
Naresh wala
Acting City Engineer
ls!:�l �'
Shannon A. Yauchzee
Acting Public Works Director
Attachment: Resolution
Acting Finance Director