Welcome

Jaime Kooser and Dennis Dickerson welcomed everyone to the meeting. Jaime introduced Jack Gregg, recently hired by the Coastal Commission as a water quality supervisor. Jack has been involved with the LTMS effort in the San Francisco Bay area. Jaime and Jack hope to hire a technical staff person soon to replace Lauma Jurkevics; they are finalizing the Environmental Specialist III list and the advertisement for the position should be on the web site shortly, with an April 20^th closing date.

Follow-up to Executive Committee Meeting

Funding issues: The Los Angeles Regional Board submitted a finance letter through the State Water Resources Control Board requesting $2,033,000 to perform technical studies to fill our highest priority data gaps. This finance letter has been approved by State Board and the Department of Finance for inclusion into the budget released to the legislature as a line item (Issue 100, Contaminated Sediments Task Force Management Plan). There is no guarantee that this amount will remain in the final budget signed by the governor, presumably by July 1^st, but it is encouraging to make it this far. Dean Smith reported that CMANC still is lobbying for funds to be added to the Corps of Engineers’ budget; they have received $100,000 for the current fiscal year and are seeking an additional $400,000 for the next fiscal year.

Report to the legislature: A revised version of the report was distributed at the meeting; per comments received from the Executive Committee and others, the report has been shortened by removing some background material and focusing on current accomplishments. The Task Force recommended sending a complete version of the report (including background documents in the appendices) to the governor and legislature, while distributing the short version to the Task Force and other interested parties (appendices would be referenced in the text and posted on the web site). Comments on the revised draft are due by April 17, 2000.

Next meeting: Most Task Force members favored holding the next Executive Committee meeting in mid-July and suggested that we aim for July 18^th, since the Executive Committee could meet in lieu of the regularly scheduled Task Force meeting on that date. The main topic for discussion would be how to spend the $2 million for contract studies, assuming that this funding is approved. The Task Force recommended that each subcommittee anticipate the receipt of these funds and develop more detailed work plans for their particular projects. This would allow us to ask the Executive Committee to approve the expenditures and make it possible to move quickly into the contracting phase if the funds are provided.

Subcommittee Progress Reports

Aquatic Disposal/Dredging Operations – At the last subcommittee meeting, Marc Stearns, Manson Construction, spoke to the group about practical aspects of implementing Best Management Practices for dredging projects. We learned a lot about particular types of dredging gear (e.g., types of buckets used) and use of silt curtains. Marc Stearns recommended improvements in permit conditions and better communication between the regulators and those performing the dredging. We need to clarify what we are trying to protect and develop meaningful standards (e.g., for turbidity); Jack Gregg pointed out that the Port of Oakland was given a permit which included performance criteria for allowable turbidity outside of the silt curtain.

Upland Disposal/Beneficial Re-Use – At the last subcommittee meeting, Paul Krause, Harding-Lawson, presented a summary of the study performed for the Port of Long Beach to identify beneficial re-use projects involving contaminated sediments in other parts of the country and around the world. This study discussed several innovative technologies being tested to treat or re-use contaminated sediments and touched upon technical issues, environmental tradeoffs and cost factors. The final written report should be available soon and will be distributed to interested parties. The Task Force agreed that it would be useful to hear a condensed version of the presentation at the next Task Force meeting (May 16^th). For those interested, there will be a workshop on contaminated sediment re-use at the PIANC meeting on May 2^nd in Oakland ($50 fee for workshop, contact Mary Jane Robertson at 703-428-6286 for more info).

Watershed Management/Source Reduction – The subcommittee met in April in conjunction with the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project’s watershed group to discuss the Army Corps of Engineers’ Ballona Creek feasibility study, prepared by CH2M-Hill. The groups discussed the several alternative sediment control measures presented in the report, and identified those that merited more detailed analysis. A final report on these alternatives should be available later in the year.

Sediment Thresholds – This subcommittee asked David Moore, Marine Ecological Consultants, to serve as a liaison between our group and similar group in the San Francisco Bay area, to avoid duplication of effort (see below for David’s report). The subcommittee will be meeting soon to better define its objectives and determine how to best proceed to develop sediment quality guidelines.

Implementation – The subcommittee will meet as new permit streamlining or funding issues arise.

Advisory Committee Progress Report

Marina del Rey – The dredging project has been completed. Approximately 300,000 cubic meters of contaminated sediments were taken to Pier E for disposal within the Port of Long Beach’s constructed fill, while 230,000 cubic meters of clean material was used for beach replenishment at Redondo Beach. Few complaints were received from the public during the dredging project. Hayley Lovan plans to summarize the water quality monitoring results by the end of June; it appears that 5-8% of the turbidity measurements taken during the project exceeded the proposed standard (maximum of 20% increase over background levels). The Port of Long Beach will be conducting similar turbidity monitoring during the upcoming Terminal Island container facility expansion project. It appears that the pelican barge was not useful during the Marina del Rey dredging.

Slip fill – The Port of Long Beach has received all of the dredged material from the LA River dredging, Marina del Rey, and Port of Long Beach West Basin. The fill project is out of the water and wick drains are being installed to accelerate consolidation of the constructed fill. Coordination between the multiple parties went well and EPA Region IX is using this as a successful example for others.

Terminal Island Expansion – The project is underway; the Port is building the rock dike to contain the fill material. The fill should be out of the water by August or September, and the project should be complete by December. The constructed fill is comprised primarily of clean sand from the Queensway dredging (stored in a borrow site; it appears likely that the Port will be able to incorporate the small amount of dredged material from the City of Long Beach’s dredging of the Catalina Cruises area.

Update on Development of Sediment Quality Guidelines

David Moore, MEC, has been attending meetings of the LTMS group in San Francisco, which has been trying to develop sediment quality guidelines. He also mentioned that a similar effort is being considered in San Diego to develop hot spot cleanup guidelines. The SF LTMS group, which includes Save the Bay, EPA, COE, DFG, RWQCB and the Ports of SF and Oakland, has met several times and is focusing on in-bay disposal issues. They are trying to find ways to reduce testing requirements (e.g., establish sediment concentrations that would trigger need for bioaccumulation testing). They are working on developing screening levels for compounds of concern, such as PCB, DDT, PAHs, mercury. They have had some discussions on potential approaches, but they need funding to move forward. The San Francisco Bay Regional Monitoring Program receives fees from dredgers, but there is no good link between the goals of regional monitoring and dredging issues, so it has been suggested that some of this money, e.g. $200,000 to $250,000, could be redirected to develop an approach for bioaccumulation triggers. In the San Francisco area, their sediments generally do not exceed bioaccumulation thresholds even when they get toxicity/chemistry hits, so they would like to avoid the expense of additional bioaccumulation testing. However, in LA, we often exceed both sets of criteria, so we may need to take a different approach.

Unlike our Task Force, the San Francisco LTMS seems to be focusing on aquatic disposal, rather than upland disposal or beneficial re-use. Even so, we should be able to benefit from their experience. Steven John will coordinate with Kathy Daty, EPA, to exchange information.

Consolidated Slip Cleanup

Under the Bay Protection and Toxic Cleanup Program, the LARWQCB designated Consolidated Slip as a toxic hot spot and should be trying to clean up this site. The Alameda Corridor Transportation project has suggested dredging contaminated sediments as an offset for the discharge of groundwater containing excessive amounts of copper and other metals, and proposed dredging a portion of Consolidated Slip for this purpose. In addition, Equilon (Los Angeles Refining Company) has proposed a supplemental environmental project, in lieu of part of their Administrative Civil Liability, which would involve dredging contaminated sediments from Consolidated Slip. The Los Angeles Regional Board hopes to coordinate these two proposals, and perhaps identify additional funding, to allow complete cleanup of the Consolidated Slip site. Also, Remediation Development Technology Corporation is looking for a site to use to demonstrate the feasibility of remediation technology; Consolidated Slip might be a good source of pilot project material, since it is heavily contaminated with a range of pollutants. However, EPA has indicated that there might be legal constraints impeding any activity in this area, since Consolidated Slip is part of a Superfund site. We will keep the Task Force posted on further developments.

Ralph Appy mentioned that the Port of Los Angeles may be able to cap part of the Cabrillo toxic hot spot as part of its project to extend the shallow water habitat. He will bring this project to the Advisory Group for consideration as more details are developed.

Next Meeting

The next Task Force meeting is scheduled for May 16, 2000, 10 am to noon, at the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro.