PRESENTATION OF THE ADOPT-A-STORM DRAIN PROGRAM

 

Recommendation:

It is recommended that the City Council:

 

Presentation:

At the Public Works Commission meeting on June 13, 2001, the Commissioners supported Staff’s recommendation for the Adopt-A-Storm Drain Program and recommended Staff forward the program to the City Council for approval. Tonight, Mr. Paul Polizzotto will present some examples of how the Adopt-A-Storm Drain Program could work. The basis of the program is for corporations to pay for cleaning technology and other Best Management Practices in exchange for recognition within the City, and in City-produced media, in exchange for their contributions. After this presentation, Staff would like City Council’s direction regarding viability of this program for the City. Staff would like specific feedback about the kind of recognition the City Council would be willing to see for this purpose.

Staff is excited about the concept of engaging corporate partners in a problem in which corporations have played a major part in creating. The laws leave the corporations out of the solution. The Adopt-A-Storm Drain Program brings them in.

With specific or general direction, Staff can return to Council with a much more detailed program which will include sponsors, contracts, budgets and final draft advertising recommendations within 120 days of Council’s approval.

 

Background:

The Federal Clean Water Act of 1971, as amended in 1986, includes provisions for reducing polluted water being discharged into storm drain systems. This law, and subsequent storm drain system permits, place the legal responsibility of achieving clean water goals on the owners of the storm drain systems. Since 1990, Hermosa Beach has been operating its storm drain system under the auspices of a permit issued by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. The permit requires the City to implement certain Best Management Practices (BMP’s) designed to decrease the pollution of storm water run-off. Some of these BMP’s include:

• Providing public education about storm water run-off and how to reduce storm water pollution.
• Improving street sweeping.
• Providing litter collection systems and programs.
• Training City employees in good housekeeping practices.
• Inspecting City-owned drains for illicit connections.
• Painting warning messages at catch basins.
• Cleaning catch basins.
• Providing educational site visits to restaurants and automotive-related businesses.

These types of BMP’s require considerable effort on the part of existing staff and some additional City funds. The requirements of the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permit to date have been geared to changing people’s behavior in order to reduce storm water pollution. Some improvement has been seen in the cleanliness of regional receiving waters, but not enough to satisfy regulators or the environmental groups who are watching the results of storm water clean-up programs. As a result, much more stringent requirements are soon to be imposed on municipalities.

This is a proposal to attract corporate partners to assist the City with meeting its obligations to reduce pollution in storm drain system run-off. The program, known as the Adopt-A-Storm Drain Program, will allow corporations to finance needed storm water clean-up operations, installation of storm water cleaning equipment and public education campaigns in exchange for City-approved street signs, newspaper ads, cable TV spots and web site acknowledgement. Also, the Adopt-A-Storm Drain Program will involve the business community, which produces many of the products that end up polluting storm water, in the solution to the problem. Products found in storm water run-off include: fast food wrappers, cups, drink containers of all kinds, pesticides, petroleum products, paint, asphalt, concrete, etc.