Attendees

Dennis Dickerson, Michael Lyons - Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board
Jaime Kooser, Jack Gregg - California Coastal Commission
Bill Paznokas - California Department of Fish and Game
Dean Smith – Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors
Steven John – U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Rick Cameron, Tom Johnson – Port of Long Beach
Kathryn Curtis – Port of Los Angeles
Doland Cheung – U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Paul Krause, Kathleen McDonnell – Harding Lawson Associates
John Johnsen – Hart Crowser Inc.
Seth Molinari – URS Corporation
Steven Bay – Southern California Coastal Water Research Project

Welcome

Jaime Kooser and Dennis Dickerson welcomed everyone to the meeting. Jaime indicated that the Coastal Commission is close to hiring a strong candidate to replace Lauma Jurkevics, but they have not quite finalized the deal.

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 was included in the budget released to the legislature as a line item (Issue 100, Contaminated Sediments Task Force Management Plan) and successfully made it through the Senate and Assembly Budget Subcommittees without any problems. The odds appear to be pretty high that this amount will remain in the final budget signed by the governor, presumably by July 1^st. The Task Force expressed its appreciation for the vision and support of Peter Douglas, Executive Director of the Coastal Commission, who suggested this strategy to acquire funding, and for the well-written finance letter which served as the support document for the funding request, primarily assembled by Michael Lyons.

Report to the legislature: The Task Force approved the revised report and recommended submitting it to the Executive Committee at the July meeting for their approval to distribute it to the legislature and other interested parties. The legislative report will be sent to the Executive Committee members well before the July meeting, so they will have ample time for review (they did review the first draft).

Next meeting: The next Executive Committee meeting will be held on July 5^th, 10 am to noon, at the Port of Long Beach. The main topics for discussion will be approval of the Report to the Legislature and discussion about how to spend the $2 million for contract studies, assuming that this funding is approved. Each subcommittee will develop more detailed scopes of work for their particular projects. This will 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. We will need to develop a mechanism for soliciting proposals and selecting contractors to perform the studies. The Task Force recommended developing a master contract for all of the studies and awarding it to a single group that could serve as the contract administrator – SCCWRP (Southern California Coastal Water Research Project) was suggested as the best choice for this role (as a non-profit group, it is simpler for the State to contract with SCCWRP than with individual consultants, and they have a low 5% administrative fee to manage contracts). Michael Lyons will investigate the feasibility of this alternative and report at the July 5^th meeting. The Task Force also asked whether State Board would charge overhead against the $2 million – Michael Lyons will determine the answer to this question and other contracting issues prior to the July 5^th meeting.

Subcommittee Progress Reports

Aquatic Disposal/Dredging Operations – The subcommittee met on April 18^th and discussed the Corps of Engineer’s Los Angeles Regional Dredge Disposal Management Plan. The Corps is using the subcommittee to solicit input from the Contaminated Sediments Task Force. The COE has $100,000 to perform a 905b analysis (determining the federal interest in a project) and develop a project study plan. The COE is hoping to receive additional funding in the next fiscal year to perform up to 4 pilot projects. The COE has hired Moffatt and Nichols as the contractor to develop the 905b analysis and project study plan.

The subcommittee also met on May 10^th to review the skeleton framework for the 905b analysis and project study plan. The alternatives chosen for analysis must meet federal economics requirements and also must include an ecosystem restoration component (although it is not yet clear how this should be implemented). The COE and the subcommittee are concerned that the proposed schedule for these studies might not be fast enough to ensure completion in time for incorporation into the Task Force’s management plan. It might be possible for the Task Force to adopt the draft feasibility study or to ask for an extension to the January 1, 2003, deadline for submittal of the management plan. The subcommittee also needs to determine whether the upcoming State funding of data gaps projects can be counted as in-kind services towards the COE requirement for local sponsor participation in the implementation projects.

The next subcommittee meeting is scheduled for June 27^th. The COE will be holding its F3 and F4 conferences on the Marina Del Rey/Ballona Creek feasibility reports.

Upland Disposal/Beneficial Re-Use – The subcommittee was scheduled to meet on May 9^th, but the meeting has postponed due to Michael Lyons’ severe bout with the flu. The subcommittee will meet in June. Several subcommittee members attended the PIANC workshop in Oakland on May 2^nd to hear presentations by several vendors on beneficial re-use alternatives for contaminated sediments.

Watershed Management/Source Reduction – This subcommittee’s meeting also was derailed by the flu. The subcommittee will meet in June.

Sediment Thresholds – This subcommittee met on May 2^nd and started work on a scope of work for the data gaps studies. A meeting is scheduled for June 2^nd to discuss a draft scope of work and June 21^st to discuss database issues.

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

Beneficial Re-Use Alternatives

Paul Krause, Harding-Lawson, presented a summary of the special study conducted for the Port of Long Beach (at the request of the Upland Disposal and Beneficial Re-Use Subcommittee) to identify potential re-use alternatives and new techniques and technologies being tested or implemented around the country. Rick Cameron has the final report; he will provide an electronic version for posting on the Coastal Commission web site. If you would like to receive a copy of the report, contact Rick at 562-590-4160 or cameron@polb.com.

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