Saying the goal is unrealistic, the Los Angeles City Council voted
Tuesday to file a lawsuit challenging a state rule that requires the
city to eventually keep all storm-drain trash from flowing into the
Los Angeles River and Ballona Creek.
Under the Water Resources Control Board regulation, expected to go
into effect in three or four months, the city faces fines if it does
not reduce the amount of trash running into the river and creek by 10%
annually, so that the waterways will be refuse-free in a decade.
"That is impossible," said Councilwoman Cindy Miscikowski.
The council voted 9 to 5 to file the Superior Court lawsuit seeking to
invalidate the rule. Under pressure from supporters of the regulation,
the council also set a hearing next week to debate the issue. The city
has estimated it would cost $700 million to install trash screens on
the drains. The screens would cut runoff pollution by 60% in five
years, but would not keep all trash out, officials say.
Judith Wilson, director of Los Angeles' Bureau of Sanitation, said the
state rule would hold the city liable for trash that the wind blows
into the water. "We could be spending millions and millions of
dollars and miss the requirement by a decimal point and be subject to
enforcement action or a third-party lawsuit," Wilson said.
Councilman Nate Holden said the rule "can't make the water
drinkable in 10 years, and if [it does], there will be no money left
to do anything else in L.A."
The regulation is now under routine review by the state Office of
Administrative Law. During its first two years, the 10% reduction
would not be enforced, while the state measures trash flows. Later,
violations would carry fines of as much as $27,500 per day.