Los Angeles Basin Contaminated Sediments Task Force

Summary of the Implementation Committee Meeting
July 13, 1999

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Attendees:

Michael Lyons, Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
Terri Ely, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers/Regulatory
Lauma Jurkevics, California Coastal Commission
Dennis Eschen, City of Long Beach
Rick Cameron, Port of Long Beach

Funding

Regional Board budget augmentation: We were informed through Commission legislative staff that there was no augmentation to the Regional Board budget for Task Force projects. Karnette and Lowenthal did not request such funding.

Corps’ $400,000 request (C-MANC supported): No information is known about the status of this funding. Engineering News-Record’s April 26th issue discussed the Senate’s approval of the Water Resources Development Act (WRDA) and the May 3rd issue discussed the areas of controversy as the legislation headed to the House floor for a vote. We know that soon after, the house passed a measure authorizing Corps of Engineers’ water projects.

NOAA funding: According to the Coastal States Organization Weekly Fax of June 14th, the Senate Appropriations Committee passed the FY 2000 bill that included NOAA funding. However, the bill did not include funding for most of the Lands Legacy Initiative, which we wanted to utilize. Also only $1 million out of the $6 million requested were granted for nonpoint pollution control.

Other funding: Engineering News-Record’s May 24th issue indicated that a new "user fee" for commercial shippers to fund harbor dredging and maintenance work is being considered. However, business and port interests are opposing this fee. We don’t know if this fee could be used to address contaminated sediment issues relating to harbor dredging projects.

Rick Cameron mentioned that LA County Department of Public Works just received $650,000 to clean up the Los Angeles River. This cleanup would include debris, floatables, chemicals, and trash. Long Beach City is hoping that half the money is spent within their area to address trash. He mentioned that there already is a debris basin (buoy line with net) near 4th Street, south of 6th Street in Long Beach.

Lauma Jurkevics notified the members of potentially involving the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project (SCCWRP) in funding issues. Steven Weisberg has staff familiar with developing proposals to request specific types of funding. He also indicated that if the Task Force chose to create a sediment chemistry database, he would be willing to pay part of the cost for SCCWRP to develop this database.

Strategy Adoption Process Report

Terri Ely and Lauma had provided comments to the June version of the draft Adoption of Long-Term Management Strategy report. A revised July version was passed out to the members for review. The revised draft included a section addressing Port Master Plans (PMPs) and the Local Coastal Program (LCP) being implemented by the local agencies. The members reviewed the report, as well as the timelines presented in Lauma’s 7/9/99 e-mail to Ralph Appy. The committee refined the timelines reflected below and in Lauma’s 7/13/99 e-mail to Ralph and Michael Lyons, who agreed to develop a bar chart to include in the report.

Revised Timeline:

Some of the key questions not resolved included:

Regarding the other local agencies, the Ports and the City would have the CCC certification date for their plans (PMPs, LCPs) coordinated with the CCC adoption date. So it would be recommended that the CCC adopt all (strategy and PMP/LCP amendments) at the same time.

The revised July version, with an agency timeline, will be presented at the July Task Force meeting for adoption.

Streamlining Report

Terri Ely and Mitzy Taggart had provided comments to the 6/8/99 version of the draft streamlining report. A 7/13/99 draft was then handed to the members for discussion. Issues revolved around environmental and public comment concerns.

Next meeting

August 17, 1999 - 10:00 am – noon, Coastal Commission office (Long Beach)


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