SR 01-09-2018 3B
City Council Report
City Council Meeting: January 9, 2018
Agenda Item: 3.B
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To: Mayor and City Council
From: Susan Cline, Director, Public Works, Office of Sustainability & the
Environment
Subject: Authorization for final payment to the City of Los Angeles for the Cost-sharing
Monitoring Plan Memorandum of Agreement for the Santa Monica Bay
Beaches Bacterial Total Maximum Daily Load
Recommended Action
Staff recommends that the City Council:
1. Authorize the City Manager to approve the cost-share payment in the amount of
$75,485.30, including $66,888.62 for Fiscal Year 2016-17 and exceedances of
$8,596.68 for Fiscal Year 2015-16, to the City of Los Angeles to comply with the
cost-share monitoring plan with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control
Board’s Bacterial Total Maximum Daily Load requirements for the Santa Monica
Bay Beaches.
2. Authorize budget changes as outlined in the Financial Impacts and Budget
Actions section of this report.
Executive Summary
As a municipal agency within the boundaries of the National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination System (NPDES) permit system of Los Angeles County, the City of Santa
Monica is part of a regional partnership of cities responsible for improving water quality
for Santa Monica Bay. As a partner, the City is obligated to comply with requirements of
a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) to reduce pollution from urban runoff into the Bay.
A TMDL requires a monitoring plan to collect data on water quality prior to and after a
TMDL is implemented to demonstrate compliance with water quality objectives. As a
member of the jurisdiction that drains into the Bay watershed, the City is responsible to
share the costs of implementing a water quality monitoring plan for the Santa Monica
Bay Beaches Bacterial TMDL that has been established for this watershed. Thus, the
City has had a three-year renewable Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) with the City of
Los Angeles since 2003 to share these costs.
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The most recent Santa Monica Bay Beaches Bacterial TMDL cost-sharing MOA 2013-
17 expired on June 30, 2017. Unlike past three-year MOAs, the 2013 MOA was a four-
year term. However, when Council approved the 2013 MOA, funds were encumbered
to cover the costs for the first three years, but not the fourth year. Therefore, staff is
asking Council to approve the recommended action to increase the budget, and allow
the City to pay the charges incurred during the fourth year (FY 16-17) of the MOA. The
one-year FY 16-17 cost, to be paid during FY 17-18 from the Clean Beaches and
Ocean Parcel Tax Fund, is not to exceed $75,485.30.
Background
The Federal Clean Water Act (CWA) requires the California Regional Water Quality
Control Board, Los Angeles Region (Board), to develop water quality standards that
identify beneficial uses, and criteria to protect beneficial uses, for each water body
found within its region. Beneficial uses include swimming, fishing, drinking water,
navigability, and wildlife habitats and reproduction. Section 303(d) of the CWA requires
states to prepare a list of water bodies that do not meet water quality standards and
establish for each of these water bodies pollutant load allocations known as total
maximum daily loads (TMDLs), which will ensure attainment of water quality standards.
A TMDL represents an amount of pollution that can be released by anthropogenic and
natural sources of a watershed into a specific water body without causing a decline in
water quality and beneficial uses.
The Santa Monica Bay watershed is listed on California’s 2006 Section 303(d) list due
to impairments by bacteria, and its beaches are subject to postings and closures due to
elevated concentrations of this pollutant. The Board adopted bacterial TMDLs for wet
and dry weather runoff into the Bay in 2003. These TMDLs regulate the amount of
bacteria found in discharges of runoff from the cities within the Bay watershed.
In accordance with the Bacterial TMDLs, the City of Los Angeles submitted a
Coordinated Monitoring Plan (CMP) for compliance with the TMDLs on behalf of the
agencies within the Bay watershed. The City of Los Angeles currently performs all
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required monitoring and reporting to the Board, and annually invoices the City of Santa
Monica for its share of monitoring costs.
The City Council approved the initial Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) for cost-
sharing bacterial monitoring on July 8, 2003 (Attachment A). The last MOA renewal
was approved by Council on August 13, 2013, and included a three-year term and a
provision allowing for a fourth year (Attachment B). However, when Council approved
that agreement, funds were budgeted to cover the costs for the first three years, but not
for the fourth year. Staff inadvertently failed to allocate the fourth year funds during the
2013 staff report process.
Discussion
On November 28, 2012, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los
Angeles Region approved a new National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System
permit with additional monitoring requirements beyond the previous permit. Though a
new cost-sharing MOA was approved by City Council on August 13, 2013, the City only
budgeted for the three-year term of the MOA. Article V, Section 4 states, “This MOA
shall continue on a month to month basis after expiration date as stated in Article V,
Section 1 . . . not to exceed 12 months.” The City of Los Angeles sent the City an
invoice for $75,485.30 for the month-to-month term covering FY 2016-17, which
includes $8,596.68 for exceedance monitoring in FY15-16. Staff is requesting to
appropriate the necessary funds to pay this invoice. A new cost-sharing MOA was
approved by the Santa Monica City Council July 11, 2017, for FY 17-18 and beyond;
this MOA is going through the signature phase, at this time (1/2/2018) with the City of
Los Angeles, before it can be executed (Attachment C).
Financial Impacts and Budget Actions
Santa Monica’s share of the monitoring costs for the fourth year of the Memorandum of
Agreement is not to exceed $75,485.30, which includes additional costs for exceedance
monitoring. Payment of the invoice requires a FY 2017-18 appropriation of $75,486 to
the Clean Beaches and Ocean Parcel Tax Fund (account 06402.555170).
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Prepared By: Neal Shapiro, Senior Sustainability Analyst
Approved
Forwarded to Council
Attachments:
A. July 8, 2003 Staff Report
B. August 13, 2013 Staff Report
C. July 11, 2017 Staff Report