MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING

OF THE COMMISSION OF

SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA COASTAL WATER RESEARCH PROJECT AUTHORITY

 

HELD AT THE OFFICES OF THE AUTHORITY

3535 Harbor Blvd., Suite 110, Costa Mesa, California

 

September 14, 2007

9:30 a.m.

 

 

COMMISSIONERS PRESENT

David Barker - Regional Water Quality Control Board, San Diego Region

Diego Cadena - Los Angeles County Department of Public Works

Mas Dojiri - City of Los Angeles

Robert Ghirelli - Orange County Sanitation District

Janet Hashimoto - US Environmental Protection Agency, Region IX

Steve Maguin - Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts

Darrin Polhemus - State Water Resources Control Board

Mary Anne Skorpanich - County of Orange

Cid Tesoro – County of San Diego

Jerry Thibeault - Regional Water Quality Control Board, Santa Ana Region

Sam Unger - Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los Angeles Region

 

STAFF PRESENT

Stephen Weisberg - Executive Director

B. Richard Marsh - Legal Counsel

Ken Schiff - Deputy Director

Bryan Nece – Administrative Officer

Steve Bay - Principal Investigator

Larry Cooper - Principal Investigator

Keith Maruya - Principal Investigator

Eric Stein - Principal Investigator

Art Barnett – Supervising Scientist

Jim Allen – Senior Scientist

Shelly Moore - Programmer

Karlene Miller - Administrative Analyst

 

OTHERS PRESENT

Mike Chrisman – Ocean Protection Council

Brian Baird – Ocean Protection Council

Jon Bishop - State Water Resources Control Board

Phil Friess - Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts

Deb Smith - Regional Water Quality Control Board, Los Angeles Region

Joe Gully - Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts

Gerry McGowen – City of Los Angeles

Chris Crompton – County of Orange

 

Commission Chair Polhemus called the meeting to order at 9:35 AM.

 

The Commission welcomed five new Commissioners. Mary Anne Skorpanich is the new Commissioner for the County of Orange, David Barker is the new Alternate Commissioner for the San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board, Phil Friess is the new Alternate Commissioner for the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts, Jon Bishop is the new Alternate Commissioner for the State Water Quality Control Board and Sam Unger was designated as a meeting alternate for the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board. It was announced that Tracy Egoscue had been appointed the new Executive Officer of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

 

Two guests were introduced, Mike Chrisman, Chair of the Ocean Protection Council and Brian Baird, the Assistant Secretary of Ocean and Coastal Policy.

 

CONSENT AGENDA

 

1.            MINUTES OF MEETING HELD JUNE 8, 2007

 

2.            QUARTERLY FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE PERIOD ENDED

JUNE 30, 2007

 

3.            QUARTERLY STATEMENT OF INVESTMENTS AT JUNE 30, 2007

 

4.             MINUTES OF CTAG MEETINGS OF MAY 16, 2007

 

Commissioner Maguin motioned for approval of consent items, which was seconded by Commissioner Ghirelli.  The consent items were unanimously approved.

 

REGULAR AGENDA

 

5.            EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S REPORT

 

The Executive Director’s administrative report focused on the tremendous success the staff has enjoyed had with the new Costa Mesa facility.  Dr. Weisberg noted that the facility was becoming a regional meeting center, as was hoped.  Meeting room occupancy was averaging four days per week including multiple meetings on several days over the past month.  He indicated his pleasure that the new facility was even being used by some of our partner organizations to facilitate scientific discussion, such as a recent 100 person meeting organized by Sea Grant to assist in developing California’s research priorities for the tri-State agreement.  He also commented on the success of the Agency’s Open House on June 15th.  More than 300 people visited, including 30 former employees, all of whom were impressed by the new facility.  Dr. Weisberg recognized Bryan Nece, the Authority’s Administrative Officer, who brought facility construction in on time, under budget and to the staff’s great satisfaction.

 

Dr. Weisberg started his technical report by expressing satisfaction that the agency’s science was being used by California’s water quality management agencies to affect their actions and went on to describe several such projects. He first described the external review panel that SCCWRP facilitated to review the California Integrated Water Quality System (CIWQS), the State Board’s information management system.  The panel made seven key recommendations on how to improve CIWQS, including both technical and programmatic suggestions.  He was pleased that the State Board had found these recommendations useful and were in the process of addressing them. He indicated that a second, follow-up review of the program would be held at SCCWRP on December 19-20 (Note: this has subsequently been rescheduled for Feb 27-28). 

 

He next provided an update on the Agency’s epidemiology studies. The goal of these studies is to assess the health effects of swimming at beaches subject to nonpoint source pollution, which are the predominant kinds of beaches in southern California but have not been considered in development of national beach water quality criteria. He indicated that US EPA had recognized the value of these studies and was now planning to integrate their epidemiology studies with SCCWRP’s in establishing national criteria and would be providing resources to SCCWRP to assist in our studies at Avalon Beach on Catalina Island.

 

The Executive Director described status of the Agency’s project to assist the SWRCB by developing the technical foundation for their sediment quality objectives (SQO).  He indicated that there are presently no SQOs available at the national level, mostly because of the scientific complexities associated with assessing bioavailability of contaminants in the sediment matrix.  He indicated that SCCWRP’s use of a multiple lines of evidence approach was a breakthrough in this area and that the external scientific steering committee had endorsed that approach.  The State Water Board was planning a Public Workshop proposing adoption of this approach on September 18th.

 

The Executive Director next discussed the recently signed Memorandum of Understanding between the Agency and NOAA’s National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science (NCCOS).  He indicated that this MOU has already resulted in several collaborative partnerships including: 1) NOAA supplying scientists and laboratory analysis for the epidemiology study; 2) SCCWRP providing NOAA tissue and sediment analysis of the emerging contaminant class polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDEs) in samples from southern California; 3) a joint publication on antifouling paint biocide concentrations in southern California marinas; and 4) hosting of a harmful algal bloom conference at the Agency’s facility in Costa Mesa next spring.

 

The fifth item in the Executive Directors Technical Report in which the agency is helping to facilitate change was the interaction between the Government Accounting Office (GAO) and the local beach management community.  The GAO recently conducted an audit associated with reauthorization of the BEACH act, which focused on success of the program in the Great Lakes.  SCCWRP facilitated a meeting between the GAO and California’s Beach Water Quality Work Group (BWQWG) so that the GAO could assess whether the lessons learned in the Great Lakes were also relevant to California.  The GAO program manager came to Costa Mesa to provide her assessment of the BEACH Act effectiveness, listen to the BWQWG and develop recommendations for improvements to the Act that would address west coast beach issues.

 

Commissioner Jon Bishop arrived.

 

Due to a scheduling conflict for Mike Chrisman, the Commission agreed to move up agenda item number 11.

 

11.            CONSIDERATION OF THE OCEAN PROTECTION COUNCIL AS A POTENTIAL MEMBER OF SCCWRP

Mike Chrisman, Chair of the California Ocean Protection Council (OPC), discussed the Ocean Protection Council’s desire to become a member of SCCWRP in response to the interest expressed by the SCCWRP Commission at their five-year strategic planning meeting. He indicated that the OPC has already had several successful interactions with the Agency including making use of its marine debris research, SCCWRP’s participation on the marine life protection act (MLPA) scientific advisory team, and SCCWRP studies on rapid microbial method development, and swimmer health effects.  He indicated that he envisioned several more opportunities for interaction that could be explored, including effects of climate change, seafloor mapping, and ocean observing systems, should the OPC become formally associated with SCCWRP.  Several Commissioners expressed widespread recognition of the opportunities for interaction between the Agency and the OPC.  Mr. Chrisman was asked whether he would have the time to regularly attend SCCWRP Commission meetings.  He indicated that if invited to join, he would assign Brian Baird, the Assistant Secretary for Oceans at the Resources Agency, as the SCCWRP Commissioner and Drew Bohan, Executive Policy Officer for the OPC, as the alternate Commissioner to ensure continuous participation in SCCWRP Commission meetings.

 

Commission Chair Polhemus asked Dr. Weisberg about the procedure to add a member organization.  He responded that the Authority’s joint powers agreement (JPA) states that a new public agency having common power to the Signatories may be added to the JPA upon concurrence of two-thirds of all the members of the Commission.  Mr. Marsh, the Authority’s legal counsel read the Ocean Protection Council mandate and confirmed that they had powers common to the Authority’s JPA.  Commissioner Ghirelli motioned for adding the Ocean Protection Council to the Authority’s JPA with the identical responsibilities of the Signatories without requiring a financial contribution.  Commissioner Thibeault seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously with Commissioner Hashimoto abstaining. 

 

6.         CTAG REPORT

Gerry McGowan, Chair of the Commissioner’s Technical Advisory Committee (CTAG), presented a summary of their August 23 meeting, He indicated that they heard presentations about 1) the Agency’s application of the draft sediment quality objectives to a statewide data set as the basis for a 305b report on the condition of California’s estuaries, 2) the Agency’s studies to establish consumption rates for freshwater fish in Los Angeles region, and 3) the summary report from Bight’03 that would be presented to the Commission in the afternoon.  He stated that all of these presentations were well received by CTAG.

 

7.            APPOINTMENT OF COMMISSION CHAIR AND VICE CHAIR

SCCWRP’s Joint Powers Agreement requires annual election of Commission Chair and Vice-Chair.  Commissioner Maguin motioned for election of Commissioner Polhemus from the State Water Resources Control Board as the chair and Commissioner Dojiri as the Vice-Chair. The motion was seconded by Commissioner Unger and approved unanimously.

 

8.            FUTURE MEETING DATES

The Commission selected the following meeting dates and a meeting time of 9:30 am for calendar year 2008:

 

March 14th

June 13th

September 12th

December 12th

 

Commissioner Ghirelli motioned to approve the Commission meeting dates. This motion was seconded by Commissioner Maguin and approved unanimously.

 

9.            CONTRACT APPROVAL

The Executive Director requested that the Commission approve resolutions regarding the following contracts that would be offered to the Authority.

 

1)         EPA ($700,000)

City of Dana Point ($500,000)

CICEET ($50,000)

Epidemiology Study

 

Upon the motion of Commissioner Maguin, seconded by Commissioner Thibeault, the
contract was unanimously approved by Resolution, with Commissioners Hashimoto abstaining.

 

As an informational item, Dr. Weisberg described contracts with value of $250,000 or less that the Authority has accepted or indicated a willingness to accept. While the governing agreement of SCCWRP requires no Commission action on these, the contracts were described to inform and ensure that the direction of the Authority’s work is consistent with the desires of the Commission. 

 

2)         State Water Resources Control Board ($75,000)

            TMDL Support

 

3)            California Department of Health Services ($75,000)

            Beach Watch

 

4)         The Boeing Company ($199,500)

            Stormwater Particle Study

 

5)         US Army Corps of Engineers  ($6,550)

Peer Review of Draft Field Guide

 

6)            Construction Industry Coalition on Water Quality  ($40,000)

Boeing ($40,000)

 

7)         Santa Ana Watershed Association  ($10,000)

Historical Ecology Report

 

8)         Copper Development Association  ($15,000)

Acid-volatile sulfide analysis

 

9)         SFEI ($4,000)

Remote Observations of Episodic Sediment Transport Patterns

 

10)       Santa Monica Bay Restoration Foundation ($9,000)

Santa Monica Bay MLPA MTAC   

 

There were no objections to these contracts.

 

10.            ACTION ITEMS RESULTING FROM FIVE YEAR STRATEGIC PLANNING MEETING

The Executive Director summarized the action items that have been initiated in response to the Commission’s strategic planning meeting that was held in May. The first was to enhance interaction with the Resource Agency, as many of SCCWRP’s studies intersect with their mission.  Dr. Weisberg indicated that participation of the OPC in SCCWRP, and the assignment of Brian Baird as Commissioner, will serve to bridge that gap.  The second action item was to clarify guidelines for contract acceptance.  Dr. Weisberg reminded the Commission that a written set of guidelines was submitted to and accepted by the Commission at their last meeting.  The third was to improve the Agency’s communication and outreach.  Dr. Weisberg indicated that there were several activities underway to address this item.  First, SCCWRP was planning to revamp its web site to make it more thematic and easier to navigate.  The agency was in the process of hiring a new science writer to create content for the site and was seeking a web design firm to refine layout of the site.  The second was to conduct a series of internal seminars on a quarterly basis to better inform agency staff of our own research activities.  The third was to hold a full-day SCCWRP Symposium to better inform the member agencies of our research activities and to introduce them to our scientists.  The Symposium was scheduled with CTAG for Jan 15.

 

Commissioner Smith Arrived.

 

12.            HYDROMODIFICATION 

Dr. Eric Stein presented findings from the Agency’s project with Colorado State University to develop tools for implementation of hydromodification management measures.  These tools will be designed to better protect the physical, chemical, and biological integrity of streams and the associated beneficial uses.  The focus of the project is to develop tools that will answer the following questions: 1) Which streams are at the greatest risk of hydromodification effects? 2) What are the anticipated effects of hydromodification in terms of increased erosion, sedimentation, or habitat loss, associated with increases in impervious cover? 3) What are potential management measures that could be implemented to offset hydromodification effects and how effective are they likely to be?  Field work on the project began in September 2007 and the first preliminary products will be available in Spring 2008.

 

Lunch Break

Commissioner Dojiri Arrived.

 

13.            BIGHT’03 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The Executive Director described the major findings from the Bight’03 Regional Survey.  He began by discussing that the desire for a regional program resulted from the historical lack of information on the overall health of the coastal ocean.  This need is addressed through the collaborative, integrated Bight monitoring that brought together nearly 60 organizations.

 

There were three elements to Bight’03 program.  The first element was coastal ecology, which focused on assessing the extent of contaminant impact in sediments.  The results from coastal ecology showed that although a large fraction of the sediments in the Bight were contaminated, a relatively small portion resulted in biological effects.  The most dramatic sediment contamination and accompanying biological effects were observed in embayments such as estuaries, marinas, and harbors.  Dr. Weisberg said that the draft SQO’s being developed by the SWRCB were applied to these data, which showed that approximately 12% of the embayment area in the Bight would be classified as likely or highly impacted.  The coastal ecology component also examined tissue contamination in pelagic fish and nearly 100% of the anchovies and sardines landed at commercial docks in the Bight were contaminated with total DDT at levels exceeding Canadian guidelines for risk to higher trophic level consumers.  Finally, the coastal ecology component estimated the mass of total DDT in the Bight and found the vast majority occurred in sediments, with nearly half located in the deep ocean slopes and basins (> 500m depth).  The total mass measured in Bight, however, was only about 10% of the mass discharged since the 1950s, suggesting that much of that mass has either metabolized or transported out of the study area.

 

The second element of the Bight regional monitoring program was shoreline microbiology, which assessed whether exposure for surfers, who recreate some distance offshore, are protected by the routine samples that are collected in ankle deep water at the shoreline.  This was addressed through paired samples collected in both depths at approximately 100 sites throughout southern California.  Results showed that there was a relationship between samples taken offshore compared to samples onshore.  Ninety-five percent of the samples at the two locations in dry weather were either both above or both below the bacterial standard.  Where there was disagreement, the onshore samples were almost always above when the offshore samples were below the bacterial standard, indicating that the existing monitoring program is conservative at protecting surfer health. 

 

The third element of the Bight regional monitoring program was water quality.  This element addressed the spatial and temporal extent of stormwater plumes by integrating remote sensing (satellites, drogues, etc.) and ship based sampling.  Stormwater plumes in the Bight were found to be large, covering hundreds of square kilometers.  However, the portion of the plumes where biological effects were observed (i.e., aquatic toxicity, high levels of fecal indicator bacteria) was small, generally extending less than one km from shore and remained near the surface (< 5 – 10 m mixing depth).  Remote sensing and ship-based measurements complimented each other and both were found to be necessary for achieving a complete picture of plume extent. 

 

The Bight regional monitoring program also provided a platform to conduct several exploratory studies.  In 2003, these studies included harmful algal blooms, endocrine disruption, and sediment toxicity identification evaluations, amongst others.  The special studies were extremely useful in gaining insight for Pseudo-nizchia and its toxic byproduct domoic acid, quantifying exposure and observable effects in flatfish near wastewater outfalls due to hormone mimicking compounds, and identifying pyrethroid pesticides as one of the primary toxicants in sediments at the mouth of urban watersheds. 

 

Dr. Weisberg also indicated that there were a number of side benefits to the Bight’03 regional monitoring program that will improve the day-to-day ongoing monitoring at each of our member agencies.  For example, the quality assurance/quality control program has led to consistent comparability among member agencies as a result of the laboratory intercalibrations studies.  Another example is the development of assessment tools such as the Benthic Response Index (BRI).  A BRI for embayments was developed during Bight’03, an area for which there was no previous means to assess benthic condition, and that index has been incorporated into the SWRCB’s SQO Program.  A final example was the information management component, which was so effective it has now spread beyond the Bight program to other applications including SWAMP, the SMC, and MARINe.

 

13.            FUTURE MEETING AGENDA ITEMS

The Commission identified three items for future meetings.  The first was a short progress report about the Agency’s endocrine disruption studies, which Dr. Weisberg indicated he would give in December. The second was a presentation on the Agency’s new web page design, which Dr. Weisberg suggested would be more appropriate for the March or June meeting when the design was further along. The third was a request of Commissioner Polhemus to hear about the changes that were implemented in CIWQS in response to the SCCWRP-facilitated review of the program.

 

14.            OTHER BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS

None.

 

15.            PUBLIC COMMENTS

None

 

16.            ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 2:45 pm until the next Commission meeting on December 14, 2007.

 

            ATTEST:

 

            Bryan Nece

            Secretary