CONTRA COSTA CLEAN WATER PROGRAM
Watershed Assessment & Monitoring Committee
April 25, 2006 Meeting Minutes
Attendance:
MUNICIPALITY / ATTENDED / ABSENTCity of Antioch (Vice Chairperson) / Phil Hoffmeister
City of Concord / Jeff Roubal
City of Pleasant Hill / Bill Lightfoot
City of Richmond / Lynne Scarpa
City of San Pablo / Karineh Samkian
Contra Costa County (Chairperson) / Tonya Redfield
Town of Moraga / Jill Mercurio
Non-Voting Members
Flood Control District
2
Program Staff:Jamison Crosby
Chris Sommers (EOA, Inc.)
Michelle McCauley
I. / Introductory Remarks and Announcements: Tonya Redfield began the meeting at 9:35 and proceeded immediately to the agenda.
Chris Sommers reminded co-permittees of the “2006 National Monitoring Conference” being held May 8-11, 2006 in San Jose and the May 12, 2006 CASQA meeting to be held in San Jose on the following day.
Sommers announced the revised TMDL for Mercury will be presented at a public Hearing at the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) office on June 14, 2006. He pointed out the fundamental difference with regard to stormwater between this TMDL and the one remanded last year by the State Board is the proposed adoption use of a water quality objective for mercury in fish tissue. Comments on the TMDL will be coordinated through BASMAA and are due to the RWQCB by May 21st. A due date for comments to BASMAA has not been set.
Tonya Redfield announced the County Watershed Program had been invited back to submit a round two proposal for a Consolidated Grant to fund their “Keep the Delta Clean” program.
II. / Update on Municipal Regional Permit
A. / MRP Monitoring Table – MS4 Existing Efforts – Sommers stated he had developed a draft “Existing Efforts” table that compares the current efforts of Bay Area stormwater programs with efforts suggested under the Draft MRP Monitoring Table. Costs for monitoring would increase current budgets 2-3 times, if all the elements of the Draft Monitoring table were included in the final permit.
B. / Update From MRP Steering Committee Meeting, April 24th – Jamison Crosby was unable to attend the beginning of the meeting and asked for feedback on the entire meeting. Karineh Samkian commented the development community was very well represented and pushed hard to maintain the threshold at 10,000 feet vs. reducing it to 500 ft., as has been pushed for by the environmental Non- Governmental Organizations (NGOs). Developers pointed out the RWQCB has no data to support the reduction of the threshold.
C. / Revised Schedule – No firm revised schedule yet but there was some talk of an Administrative Draft in the fall and workshops in the early winter.
III. / CCMAP Status and Future Tasks
A. / Update on 2006 Bioassessments – Sommers reported Scott Cressey is currently in the field sampling. The sampling has been delayed by rain events. It will take Cressey two (2) weeks to complete the sampling.
B. / Update on Reporting of 2005 Bioassessments – Sommers is still working on the draft. He will send out the Draft report prior to the May WAM meeting so people will have time to review it prior to discussing it at the meeting.
C. / Discussion of proposed sediment/toxicity sampling by City of Richmond (COR) – Agenda topic was misidentified and should have been titled “Proposal to Develop a Scope of Work by consultant on behalf of WAM for PCB sampling in City of Richmond”. Lynne Scarpa presented the results of three (3) different sampling events along Cutting Blvd, Harbor and Wright in Richmond in 2000, 2002, and Dec. 2005. Many of the sample results exceeded the human health standard of 200 ppb for PCB’s. Great care was taken in the 2005 sample event to isolate the sample sites from tidal influence to ascertain if the high levels were originating on land or from contaminated tidal waters backing up into inlets. The former Heckathorn DDT plant is located in the sample vicinity and was cleaned up years ago under EPA Superfund regulations. The cleanup remediated soils to human health standards, but not to the more stringent standards possibly being suggested for stormwater. Scarpa stated there are a variety of sources that could be responsible for the PCB contamination.
Scarpa asked WAM Committee members to authorize up to $5,000 to develop a Scope of Work (SOW) to evaluate historical and ongoing PCB sources and inputs and develop BMPs. The SOW would compile all the past sampling in this part of Richmond, determine next steps, and possibly include a literature search of all other relevant studies in this area.
Some Committee members questioned the fairness of using Program dollars to fund a study in Richmond. The justification provided by Sommers and Scarpa were as follows: The wasteload allocation for PCB’s will be a 90% reduction of the current load (over 20 years); and, since the wasteload allocation would be assigned to the entire County, not specifically one City, it was in the Program’s interest to investigate. Additionally, it is likely that there are other areas in the county that have elevated levels of PCBs and therefore, lessons can be learned from the Program’s experience in Richmond.
Phil Hoffmeister moved/Karineh Samkian seconded/To approve the development of a Scope of Work for a cost not to exceed $5000 to examine PCBs and develop BMPs for the City of Richmond. Passed unanimously.
IV. / Special Study and Project Status Reports
A. / Contra Costa Street Sweeping Special Study – Sommers confirmed with co-permittees they received the email containing the Sample and Analysis Plan and asked for comments. Samkian asked that staff tone down the language of the plan. There were no other comments.
B. / Golf Course Study – Update on Draft Report – Crosby reported Mike Blankinship has pushed back the completion date on the draft Golf Course Study. Crosby plans for Sommers and staff to edit the first draft. The second draft will be provided to WAM Committee members for comments. The final draft will be presented to the Management Committee for comments.
C. / Pool and Spa Discharge Implementation Workgroup – Crosby indicated she contacted all the POTWs, Christine Sotelo of the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board, and Dale Bowyer of the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board to set up a meeting date. Crosby estimates the meeting will take place in the last two weeks of May.
Sommers suggested that draft brochure language be developed prior to the meeting, so the participants would know the gist of the message. Samkian requested the draft brochure language be vetted with WAM prior to sending it to the Workgroup. Crosby said this should probably happen sometime in late summer. Sommers also suggested asking RWQCB for a letter telling POTWs that they will accept pool and spa discharges.
V. / Format & Content of Future WAM Meetings – Open Discussion
A. / Frequency and Duration - After some discussion co-permittees agreed to continue meeting monthly and reduce the meeting time to two hours. Crosby will send an email to determine a start time of 9 am or 9:30 am by vote.
B. / Content and Presentation Format – Include a bulleted list of to-do items for staff and co-permittees.
C. / Comparison With Alameda County-wide Clean Water Program’s WAM Group – Co-permittees reviewed the Alameda CCWP WAM group agenda and minutes and agreed it would help keep the meeting short if the agenda packet contained a summary of the details to be discussed. This would allow co-permittees to be more prepared and ask questions as well as reduce staff’s time to cover the item.
VI. / Summary of Action and Agenda Items for Next Meeting:
Co-Permittees:
à Vote by email on preference for meeting time: 9am, 9:30 am or no preference.
Staff:
à Crosby to explore process for developing Scope of Work for PCB study in Richmond.
à Sommers to send draft bioassessment report before next WAM meeting.
à Crosby to send URLs for conference and meeting and Sommers “existing efforts table”.
Agenda Items For Next Meeting:
à Comments on draft bioassessment report
à Watershed Health Initiative
à Stream and Wetland Protection Policy
VII. / Adjournment: Redfield adjourned the meeting at 11:45 am.
Next Watershed Assessment & Monitoring Committee Meeting:
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Start time 9:00 AM to 11:30
Conference Room “B”
255 Glacier Drive
Martinez, CA 94553
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