[Water_news] 4. DWR'S CALIFORNIA WATER NEWS -WATER QUALITY- 5/11/09

Department of Water Resources

California Water News

A daily compilation of significant news articles and comment

 

May 11, 2009

 

4. Water Quality –

 

Volunteers clean up L.A. River

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Times

 

Water board waives fines against Boeing

The Ventura County Star

 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

 

Volunteers clean up L.A. River

 

 

 

The Los Angeles Times – 5/10/09

By Carla Hall

A trove of trash was plucked from the Los Angeles River on Saturday morning during the 20th annual river cleanup.

An estimated 3,000 volunteers spread out over 14 sites from the San Fernando Valley down to Long Beach. Wearing disposable gloves and armed with trash sacks, the garbage-collectors-for-a-day did their part to purge the river of all manner of trash that ends up in its 52-mile stretch.

 

"We've had hot tubs and phone booths," said Shelly Backlar, executive director of Friends of the Los Angeles River, which organizes the cleanup. "It's almost like, 'What am I going to find?' "

At the Sepulveda Basin site, volunteers used shovels to dig up old shopping carts as a bluegrass band serenaded them. (At most of the sites, people didn't actually wade into the water.)

"The best thing we have today is a dreadlocked Barbie," said Backlar, who was working the Sepulveda site along with some 200 volunteers -- including members of UCLA's chapter of the national service fraternity Alpha Phi Omega.

A volunteer discovered the doll, its blond hair matted with vegetation, and plopped her on top of a growing pile of interesting finds.

At the Willow Street site in Long Beach, volunteers walked down steep banks to get to the river's edge, steadying themselves with ropes along the way. They plucked rusted metal and tangled electrical cords from the river while ducklings waddled by.

Backlar said cleaning the river can be a pastoral experience. "You're pulling out chip bags and 7-Eleven cups and you look up and a great blue heron will fly by."

On Saturday, Backlar spied an oriole and two ducks. Someone else pointed out a bullfrog.

And a Los Angeles Sanitation Bureau truck was at L.A. River Center headquarters in Cypress Park to pick up some of the garbage. "We ended up recycling a lot of the trash we pulled out of the river," Backlar said. #

 

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-river10-2009may10,0,944992.story

 

 

Water board waives fines against Boeing

The Ventura County Star – 5/9/09

By Teresa Rochester

 

Water regulators Friday waived fines for excess pollution in storm water runoff at the Santa Susana Field Laboratory near Simi Valley as had been requested by the land owner, Boeing Co.

 

The 4-2 vote by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board marked the second time in two years that it waived enforcement limits at two locations where rain drains off the field lab property and into the Los Angeles River and Arroyo Simi.

 

The board’s decision, made at its meeting in Ventura, means Boeing won’t face fines if runoff from the polluted former nuclear site and rocket-test facility contains excessive levels of contaminants. If that occurs, the company will be required to submit a plan of corrective action, which will be subject to review and approval by the water board’s staff.

 

Activists charge that the board’s vote fails to protect the community. They note that the board previously ordered Boeing to remove contaminated soil from the site, but the soil is still in place, as is the order.

 

The board’s vote Friday related to a requirement for Boeing to install ecologically friendly filtering systems at the field lab.

 

In 2007, the water board voted to suspend monitoring at the two runoff sites, known as outfalls eight and nine, and to allow the aerospace company time to put new filtering systems in place. Boeing was facing the prospect of having to comply with pollution limits and face fines if it exceeded those limits next month.

 

The additional time will give the company flexibility in determining “a strategy for dealing with those outfalls.” said Kamara Sams Holden, a Boeing spokeswoman.

 

Friday’s decision was met with anger and derision by community members, activists and political representatives, who accused the board of turning its back on residents while caving to a business.

 

“The community got sand kicked in their faces, again,” Louise Rishoff, district director for Assemblywoman Julia Brownley, D-Santa Monica, said after the hearing. “Once again the community is being asked to trust the polluter to do the right thing. It’s not a good day.”

 

Some board members also expressed dismay, saying that the panel had come down harder on people contaminating the ocean.

 

However, board chair Mary Ann Lutz said the board is unified on what it wants to achieve, “the removal of contamination at the field lab and the protection of human health and water quality.”#

 

http://www.venturacountystar.com/news/2009/may/09/water-board-waives-fines-against-boeing/

 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

DWR’s California Water News is distributed to California Department of Water Resources management and staff,  for information purposes, by the DWR Public Affairs Office. For reader’s services, including new subscriptions, temporary cancellations and address changes, please use the online page: http://listhost2.water.ca.gov/mailman/listinfo/water_news . DWR operates and maintains the State Water Project, provides dam safety and flood control and inspection services, assists local water districts in water management and water conservation planning, and plans for future statewide water needs. Inclusion of materials is not to be construed as an endorsement of any programs, projects, or viewpoints by the Department or the State of California.