Jaime Kooser welcomed Dennis Dickerson, Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, to the Task Force meeting.

Sediment Thresholds – The group will be revising the workplan at the meeting this afternoon. Data gaps have been identified and assembling a database of existing sediment chemistry/toxicity data is a top priority. A preliminary inventory of existing data is nearly complete (awaiting Port of Los Angeles data).

Upland Disposal/Beneficial Reuse – The workplan revisions were completed at the last committee meeting. Data gaps have been identified. We are working to fill one data gap – the Port of Long Beach plans to hire a consultant to review upland disposal and beneficial reuse projects around the country (and the world, if appropriate). 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 are planning to develop acceptance criteria and monitoring requirements for each disposal/reuse alternative during the upcoming year or two, as well as the potential for regional sites.

Aquatic/Dredge Operations – The workplan has been revised. The committee is focusing this year on development of best management practices for dredging operations and monitoring requirements. The Port of Long Beach proposed an aquatic capping pilot project, which the committee is evaluating. The committee will continue to try to identify aquatic disposal sites for regional use.

Watershed/Source Control – The workplan revisions will be completed at the next meeting in November. The Ballona Creek study is proceeding, and sediment samples were collected prior to the recent oil spill into the creek (@ 500 gallons of groundwater and oil from a sump at Wilshire Renaissance Apartments). We plan to link our efforts with the Regional Board’s TMDL process during the current year. A suggestion was made that this committee should try to develop a plan to deal with cleanup and monitoring of episodic spills.

Advance Planning

Public Workshop – The second annual public workshop will be held on November 2^nd as part of the Coastal Commission’s monthly meeting, in Santa Monica. Last year we focused on a summary of past efforts that culminated in the formation of the Task Force and the legislative mandates of the Karnette bill, with a series of presentations supporting the efforts of the Task Force. This year, we plan to focus on our accomplishments over the past year, with a brief introduction and a list of our successes (especially the multi-user Slip 2 disposal site, the adoption process report and the streamlining report). We also plan to discuss the next steps, and highlight the need for additional funding for specific projects to fill data gaps (despite our success in acquiring some funding). We plan to have a power point presentation summarizing the background info, successes and next steps, then brief comments from any participating agency wishing to address the Commissioners (such as Heal the Bay, Los Angeles County Beaches and Harbors). The Port of Long Beach, Port of Los Angeles, Army Corps and Beaches and Harbors agreed to provide text slides and photos for inclusion into the power point presentation, which will be assembled by Michael Lyons, Lauma Jurkevics and Jaime Kooser.

Executive Committee – This committee will be meeting on November 30^th at the Port of Long Beach to discuss any critical issues that will require help from the Executive Committee to fix. We plan to focus on the strategy adoption process and seek agency reactions to the actions required and the schedule for accomplishing the necessary tasks. We also will reiterate the need for additional funding and solicit ideas.

Legislative Report – Last year the Executive Committee was asked to approve the report prior to submittal to the Legislature. We would like to follow the same procedure this year, meaning that the report should be submitted to the Executive Committee members at least one week prior to the November 30^th meeting. We also want to discuss the need for more involvement in the Task Force by management level personnel from each agency and suggest that the Executive Committee meet in about six months (perhaps next May), rather than waiting an entire year; the meeting could be structured around some deliverable item, such as development of a Dredge Material Management Office, proposed streamlining measures for the permitting process, or the strategy adoption process needs. No field trip has been scheduled for this year’s meeting.

Congress added $100,000 for development of a regional dredged material management plan to the Army Corps’ budget for FY2000. Approximately $20,000 would go into a 905b analysis report (6-12 pages), reviewing the problems and needs, preliminary alternatives, preliminary costs and identifying the federal interest. Approximately $80,000 would go towards development of a project study plan identifying the data needed, tasks to be accomplished, costs for tasks and data, schedule and identifying assignments. The 905b report and project study plan should be completed within 6 months. If a federal interest is identified and the report recommends proceeding with a feasibility study, the study plan must be approved by headquarters in Washington, D.C. A local sponsor would be needed to help fund the feasibility study (50% federal contribution in cash, 50% local contribution, which may be half cash and half in-kind services). The feasibility study might be in the $2 million range, and could be a multi-year effort including pilot projects; a feasibility study could not begin until at least FY2001 (October 2000). The feasibility study could result in recommendations for hard alternatives, such as constructing a regional disposal site, or soft alternatives, such as development of a management plan and guidance criteria or a dredged material management office. The feasibility study should produce an environmental document that can be used for implementation of the recommendations.

The implementation committee still is discussing the possibility of proceeding under the Corps’ operations and maintenance budget, but since this would be 100% federal funds it might be harder to secure funding. However, New York and San Francisco received special funds to conduct similar work.

The Parks and Water Bonds, which will go before the public for approval in the spring, could be tapped for funds. It looks unlikely that the Task Force could get money from the Parks Bond, given its scope, but there is $25 million in the Water Bond targeted for the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, which potentially could supply funds for watershed-related projects, such as sediment catch basins in the upper watershed and other source/sediment reduction methods in the stormdrain channels.

Ralph Appy, Port of Los Angeles, supplied an outline of potential changes in the structure of the group that would allow us to convert this into a permanent committee. Ultimately, we probably would need some type of Memorandum of Understanding for participation by each agency in an Advisory Committee. We still need to develop some general guidance and determine how to ensure participation by the resource agencies. The current proposal entails making the project applicant responsible for coordination and moving things along to resolve any issues or problems that arise. A combined federal/state dredging application has been proposed and the Advisory Group currently is reviewing a draft version; one task of the Advisory Committee might be to review a draft application prior to actual submittal of the permit application to the regulatory agencies. We also have identified the need for a data repository to store sediment chemistry, toxicity and other project information. Eventually, the Advisory Committee may wish to develop a general permit for maintenance dredging, perhaps involving disposal at a regional site(s). Any comments on the draft outline for the Advisory Committee should be submitted to Ralph Appy, who plans to present a more detailed discussion at the January 2000 Task Force meeting.

The dredging for Marina del Rey started on October 18, 1999. Pelican monitoring was initiated on October 10^th and will extend at least until November 1^st. Water quality monitoring is being conducted by Hart Crowser every other week and by the Heal the Bay volunteers three times per week. The Corps expects to move 300,000 cubic meters of contaminated sediments from Marina del Rey to the Long Beach Slip 2 fill, and 160,000 cubic meters of clean sand will be used for beach replenishment. The breakwaters are above water for almost the entire length of the Slip 2 fill (except for an opening for the barges); however, the Port of Long Beach still is dredging contaminated material from the West Basin for placement into the Slip 2 fill.

The Port of Long Beach is proposing dredging of contaminated and clean material in conjunction with widening of the Navy mole and a wharf extension project. The Advisory Group plans to discuss this project in detail on November 16^th. The Port may be able to accommodate @ 100,000 cubic yards of contaminated material from the Los Angeles River Estuary or Marina del Rey (the Port and the Corps will coordinate on this).

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, which could include @ 500,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediments. This material 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.

The adoption process report was adopted with the addition of a few comments from the Army Corps of Engineers. A strategy timeline also was added to the final report (not included in the review draft). The streamlining report was adopted with a few additional comments from Dean Smith, Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors (Marina del Rey does have a Local Coastal Program, which is now reflected in the discussion).

The next Task Force meeting was scheduled for January 25, 2000, at the Port of Los Angeles.