Los Angeles Basin
Contaminated Sediments Task Force

Summary of Meeting on January 25, 2000

Jaime Kooser welcomed everyone to the meeting and formally announced that Lauma Jurkevics left the Coastal Commission to accept a job with the Non-Point Source Unit at the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento. The Coastal Commission is moving through the process to hire a replacement. Ralph Appy, Port of Los Angeles, introduced Kathryn Curtis and Paul Johansen, who will be assuming some of the Task Force duties formerly performed by Larry Smith (who moved to the Army Corps of Engineers some time ago).

The second annual Executive Committee meeting will be held on Wednesday, February 2, 2000, from 10 am to noon at the Port of Long Beach’s administrative building. Dennis Dickerson (LA Regional Board), Peter Douglas (Calif Coastal Commission), Alexis Strauss (EPA) and Lieutenant Colonel Charles Landry (Army Corps of Engineers) are scheduled to attend. A draft version of the Report to the Governor and the Legislature was handed out at the meeting. We agree to add more detail to the report about the actual data gaps and the funding required. Task Force members are welcome to submit comments on the report at the Executive Committee meeting and we will be looking for comments from the Executive Committee members and approval to send the final report (with appropriate revisions) to the Legislature.

The Task Force agreed upon an agenda for the Executive Committee meeting (distributed to Task Force members by E-mail). The meeting will focus on funding issues (i.e., the need for additional funds to complete studies to fill data gaps), as well as a summary of progress during the past year.

Sediment Thresholds – The subcommittee has agreed upon the need for a database containing sediment monitoring data and would like to move forward with development of sediment quality guidelines for screening contaminated sediments. However, further discussion will be needed to define the specific objectives of the database and the guidelines before we can move on with design and implementation of these elements (and we cannot develop a reliable cost estimate until the objectives are clearly stated). The subcommittee should meet in February/March.

Upland Disposal/Beneficial Reuse – The Port of Long Beach hired a consultant to review upland disposal and beneficial reuse projects around the country (and the world, if appropriate). This report should be available in February/March, at which time the subcommittee will hold its next meeting. We anticipate that this report will help us prioritize the projects needed to fill our other data gaps and guide our funding needs for pilot projects. We hope to produce a draft report evaluating the disposal/reuse alternatives by the middle of the year.

Aquatic/Dredge Operations – Doland Cheung (Army Corps of Engineers) has taken over as chair of this subcommittee for Tony Risko. The last few meetings have focused on discussing standards and best management practices related to dredging operations, particularly turbidity. Mitzy Taggart has contacted a person from the New Jersey Port Authority, who is willing to come out and talk to us about BMPs (probably part of a mini-workshop in March). Dean Smith has arranged for Mark Stearns, Manson Construction, to meet with the subcommittee to talk about real-world dredging conditions and issues. The subcommittee also is trying to develop a model monitoring program for dredging projects.

The Waterways Experiments Station in Vicksburg should be nearing completion on the additional studies underway to evaluate a confined aquatic disposal site within the North Energy Island Borrow Pit.

Watershed/Source Control – The last two meetings have focused on discussing the results of the Ballona Creek Study (performed by CH2M-Hill for the Army Corps of Engineers) and comparing this to stormwater data collected by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works. A Task Force member asked whether we were using EPA’s Basins model – the subcommittee will look into this. Early this year, we plan to meet with the Regional Board’s TMDL (Total Maximum Daily Load) group so that we can integrate our needs with the Regional Board’s schedule.

Implementation – The subcommittee has agreed upon a combined permit application that could be used by the Los Angeles Regional Board, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the California Coastal Commission. We are trying to determine the process required by each agency to convert to the use of this new form. We have discussed how to convert the Interim Advisory Group into a more permanent group (perhaps analogous to a Dredged Material Management Office, but perhaps less formally constituted), but additional meetings will be required to complete this.

The Task Force discussed the funding opportunities available to us and the need to secure funding commitments fairly soon if we are to complete the studies needed to fill our data gaps. We need to discuss this with the Executive Committee and seek help and guidance in lobbying for or directing additional funds towards this purpose. The major tasks to be completed during the coming year were discussed during the subcommittee progress reports.

The meeting schedule for the remainder of the year will be as follows:

March 7, 2000 10 am to noon Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro
May 16, 2000 " "
July 18, 2000 " "
September 19, 2000 " "

We expect to hold the next public workshop in November as part of the Coastal Commission’s monthly meeting (we soon should know the week during which this will be held). The Task Force probably will need to meet in October 2000 prior to the workshop, but we will wait to schedule that meeting. We will be asking the Executive Committee next week for an opinion on when they would like to meet next, which could impact our proposed meeting schedule.

The Port of Los Angeles is proposing a channel deepening project (July 2001 for construction to begin). They are trying to obtain federal money for dredging for up to 7.8 million cubic yards, which could include @ 500,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments. This contaminated material probably would go into a constructed fill at Southwest Slip or Pier 300, both of which are pretty shallow sites and may not be able to accommodate any additional material from other projects; fine-grained clean sediments would go to LA-3. The Port is evaluating the possibility of expanding the shallow water habitat and perhaps capping some of the contaminants around the Cabrillo area (designated as a toxic hot spot). The Port could use the former PacTex site as a temporary storage area. We probably will convene an Interim Advisory Group meeting in the next few months to discuss more details of this project.

Ralph Appy announced that the 2000 Annual Meeting of the Southern California Academy of Sciences will be held on May 19-20 at the University of Southern California. Ralph is planning a symposium session on Coastal Habitat Restoration and Steve Bay, SCCWRP, is planning a session on Understanding the Urban Influence on Santa Monica Bay. Point your web browser to http://earth.usc.edu/~scas for more information.

Several Task Force members attended the Dredged Material Assessment and Management Seminar, sponsored by the Army Corps of Engineers, in San Diego on January 11-13, 2000. Feedback indicates that the conference was extremely informative and useful. There is lots of info posted on their website at http://www.wes.army.mil/el/dots , including models, reports, demonstration projects, etc. Many of the same issues that we face are being addressed by others around the country, so we should be able to benefit from this.

This group met following the Task Force meeting to discuss turbidity issues associated with the Marina del Rey dredging (a separate meeting summary has been prepared and distributed). During the Task Force meeting, several Task Force members voiced concern over the manner in which the Marina del Rey issues were handled. The Task Force and its Interim Advisory Group should be used as the forum for discussing problems and trying to resolve issues. It undermines the credibility and cooperative spirit of the group when this process is not used, as was the case recently when Heal the Bay chose to debate this matter at the Coastal Commission meeting without informing or involving several Task Force members. The Task Force will be better served if we can avoid this type of divisive behavior in the future.

Next Meeting

The next Task Force meeting is scheduled for March 7, 2000, 10 am to noon, at the Port of Los Angeles, San Pedro.