MINUTES OF THE REGULAR MEETING
OF THE COMMISSION OF
HELD AT THE OFFICES OF THE AUTHORITY
December 14, 2007
9:30 a.m.
COMMISSIONERS
PRESENT
Drew Bohan – Ocean Protection Council
Diego Cadena - Los Angeles County Department of
Public Works
Chris Crompton -
Mas Dojiri - City of
Tracy Egoscue
- Regional Water Quality Control Board,
Robert Ghirelli - Orange County Sanitation
District
Janet Hashimoto - US Environmental Protection
Agency, Region IX
Gerhardt Hubner – Ventura County Watershed
Protection District
Alan Langworthy – City of
Steve Maguin - Los Angeles County Sanitation
Districts
Darrin Polhemus - State
Water Resources Control Board
John Robertus
- Regional Water Quality Control Board,
Cid Tesoro –
Jerry Thibeault - Regional Water Quality Control
Board,
Stephen Weisberg - Executive Director
B. Richard Marsh - Legal Counsel
Ken Schiff - Deputy Director
Bryan Nece – Administrative Officer
Larry Cooper - Principal Investigator
Keith Maruya - Principal Investigator
Eric Stein - Principal Investigator
Art Barnett – Supervising Scientist
Shelly Moore - Programmer
Meredith Howard - Scientist
Karen Setty – Science Writer
Phil Friess - Los Angeles County Sanitation
Districts
Deb Smith
- Regional Water Quality Control Board,
Joe Gully - Los Angeles County Sanitation
Districts
Gerry McGowen – City of
George Robertson - Orange
County Sanitation District
Tim Stebbins – City of
Commission Chair Polhemus
called the meeting to order at 9:37 AM.
Commissioner Polhemus welcomed two new
Commissioners. Drew Bohan is the new Alternate Commissioner for the Ocean
Protection Council. Tracy Egoscue is the new Commissioner for the Los Angeles Regional
Water Quality Control Board.
CONSENT
AGENDA
1. MINUTES OF MEETING HELD SEPTEMBER 14,
2007
2. QUARTERLY FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE
PERIOD ENDED
SEPTEMBER 30, 2007
3. QUARTERLY STATEMENT OF INVESTMENTS AT
SEPTEMBER 30, 2007
4. MINUTES
OF CTAG MEETINGS OF AUGUST 23, 2007
5. 2007
AUDIT
Commissioner Maguin motioned
for approval of consent items, which was seconded by Commissioner Dojiri. The consent items were unanimously approved.
6. EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR’S
REPORT
The Executive Director
began with an update on Administrative activities. He indicated that the Agency had received its
eighth exception-free audit in a row.
Special recognition was given to Administrative Officer Bryan Nece for
this remarkable accomplishment.
The Executive Officer
then provided an update on Technical activities. He began by noting the high level of
productivity of Agency staff in terms of technical reports and scientific
papers. He indicated that the 2007
Annual Report was completed and will be distributed in January.
As another example of
staff productivity, the Executive Director provided four examples that
illustrated the impact the Agency has had on management activities. The first was the California Department of
Pesticide Regulation (DPR) action to re-evaluate anti-fouling bottom paints
following an expansion of a SCCWRP study that found pollution from copper
antifouling paint in
The
final element of the Executive Director’s technical report was the Agency’s
ability to attract science to the southern
7. CTAG
REPORT
Gerry McGowen, Chair of
the Commissioner’s Technical Advisory Committee (CTAG), presented a summary of
their November 8th meeting. At this
meeting, the group selected dates for their 2008 meetings, received the
Executive Director’s report, and received an update on the Bight ’08 regional
monitoring and plans for the SCCWRP Symposium.
Presentations were also given by Eric Stein on evaluating the effects of
climate change on coastal wetlands and by Ken Schiff on design storm standards
for water quality. The CTAG Chair then
summarized the interests presented by CTAG members for coordination with the
Agency’s Research Plan. The next CTAG
meeting is February 26, 2008.
Due to a scheduling
request, the Commission agreed to move up agenda item numbers 14, 12, and 13.
12. DESIGN
STORM STANDARDS FOR WATER QUALITY
Ken Schiff made a
presentation describing the Agency’s research exploring the concept of a design
storm standard for water quality. While
design storm standards for hydrology and flooding were commonplace, design storm
standards for water quality do not exist.
Working with the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board’s Wet
Weather Task Force, the Agency examined two conceptual approaches to modeling
water quality for design storm standards.
The first approach models end of the watershed wet weather discharges
and impacts to receiving waters. The
second models wet weather discharges from small upstream catchments and
simulates best available technology (i.e., BMPs) to predict effluent water
quality relative to existing water quality criteria. An example was shown for copper discharges
from the Ballona Creek watershed and from a high density residential land use
catchment with three types of BMPs.
While both approaches appeared viable for developing design storm
standards, there were a number of issues that needed to be addressed before
standards could be promulgated. These
issues included exploring differing land uses, watersheds with varying
rainfall, and more constituents. There
were also a number of nontechnical factors like cost of compliance and
allowable exceedence frequencies for water quality standards. The Wet Weather Task Force recommended
investigation into these additional technical and nontechnical factors.
13. CLIMATE
CHANGE EFFECTS ON WETLANDS
Eric Stein made a presentation about the Agency’s
emerging research into climate change effects on wetlands. The Wetlands Recovery Project (WRP) has spent
several hundred million dollars to purchase and restore coastal wetlands. However, the effect of climate change and sea
level rise has not been considered in the WRP’s planning efforts. Moreover, where research has been done in
other parts of the country, the effects of climate change have focused solely
on oceanic forcing and did not include terrestrial forcing that may result from
increased storm size, intensity and frequency associated with El Nino
events. Dr. Stein indicated that the goal
of this study is to expand the application of watershed models previously
developed by staff, combine these with oceanic models developed by our project
partners at UCLA and NCCOS, and predict the overall impact on coastal
wetlands. Potential changes to wetlands
span a wide range of management interests including change in wetland size,
extent, frequency of inundation, habitat suitability, salinity, and depth, as
well as threat of invasive species, and effects on infrastructure. Results of this project will be used to assist
the WRP in incorporating climate change into their wetland restoration planning.
8. CONTRACT
APPROVAL
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.
1)
2) Hercules Inc ($30,000)
Toxaphene Analysis
3) SFEI ($27,000)
Historical Ecology
4)
Hydromodification Management
There were no objections to these
contracts.
9. JOINT POWERS AGREEMENT
The Executive Director presented a draft of the
next Agency Joint Powers Agreement (JPA) for Commission consideration. The current JPA expires in June 2009 and the
approval process will require 18 months.
The Personnel and Finance Committee reviewed the draft agreement and
recommended approval for member agency legal review pending several minor
modifications. These modifications
included: 1) updating the name of the Authority throughout the document; 2)
changes to headings for clarity; 3) removal of travel expense reimbursement for
Commissioners to attend Agency meetings; and 4) changing the donation of the
signatory agencies to a fixed amount over the term of the four year
agreement. The fixed price would
incorporate a single increase from the existing agreement rather than annually
escalating the cost each year as it currently exists. Some discussion followed
as to the language regarding associate member agencies in the JPA. Commissioner Egoscue motioned that the
Associate Members be listed in the JPA, the Executive Director create a
separate agreement for Associate Member Agencies, then attach this agreement to
the JPA as an Appendix. Commissioner
Maguin seconded the motion, which was unanimously approved. The Executive Director was asked to bring a
copy of the Associate Member Agreement to the next meeting.
The Executive Director
reported on progress in planning the next Bight-wide regional sampling. Over
120 people representing nearly 70 organizations, including several new
potential participants, attended a Bight’08 kickoff meeting held September
19th. The Executive Director summarized accomplishments thus far including the
creation of five Planning Committees representing the major framework of the
program, seven Technical Work Groups charged with implementation and logistics,
and a Steering Committee that serves to integrate all of the monitoring
elements. The Planning Committees
included coastal ecology, water quality, microbiology, rocky reef habitat, and Areas
of Special Biological Significance (ASBSs). A timeline for creating study
plans, developing methods manuals, and conducting field sampling was presented.
15. FUTURE MEETING AGENDA
ITEMS
The Commission identified
two items for future meetings. The first
was a request to hear about the changes implemented by CIWQS in response to the
SCCWRP-facilitated review of the program.
The second was a presentation on the Agency’s new web page design, which
the Commission suggested might be more appropriate for the June meeting when implementation
of the web site design was further along.
16. OTHER BUSINESS AND COMMUNICATIONS
Commissioner Cadena mentioned that Commissioner Wolfe with Los Angeles County Department of
Public Works was retiring in March.
17. PUBLIC COMMENTS
None
18. ADJOURNMENT
The meeting was adjourned at 12:20 pm until the next Commission meeting on
March 14, 2008.
ATTEST:
Bryan Nece
Secretary