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RESOLUTION NO. 6337
A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE
CITY OF ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, AUTHORIZING
THE FILING OF A LAWSUIT CHALLENGING THE
STORM WATERlURBAN RUNOFF PERMIT FOR
THE COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES AND THE
INCORPORATED CITIES THEREIN, EXCEPT THE
CITY OF LONG BEACH (NPDES NO. CAS004001)
WHEREAS, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board,
Los Angeles Region ("Regional Board") adopted Order No. 01-182, a
National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System ("NPDES") Permit for
Municipal Storm Water and Urban Runoff Discharges within the County of
Los Angeles and the incorporated cities therein, except the City of Long
Beach (hereinafter "NPDES Permit") on December 13, 2001; and
WHEREAS, in January of 2002, forty-nine cities ("Cities"),
including the City of Los Angeles, as well as the County of Los Angeles,
filed administrative petitions with the State Water Resources Control Board
("State Board") challenging the validity of the NPDES Permit on' a number
of grounds, including its deletion of the "Safe Harbor" provisions that
existed in the prior 1996 NPDES Permit, the modifications to the terms of
the Permit dealing with Receiving Water Limitations and the requirement
therein that would allow "numeric" limits to be imposed upon municipalities
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compliance with the "maximum extent practicable" standard set forth in the
Clean Water Act), as well as those provisions allowing for the automatic
incorporation of total maximum daily loads ("TMDL") by the Regional
Board's Executive Officer, the failure of the Regional Board to comply with
the requirements of CEQA or to adopt terms consistent with CEQA, the
imposition of additional inspection obligations on municipalities for various
industrial and commercial facilities, and the attempt by the Regional Board
to rollback the changes that had been made to the Standard Urban Storm
Water Mitigation Plan requirements ("SUSMP Requirements") by the State
Board, along with other objectionable terms, including various provisions
which infringe upon the local land use authority of the Cities; and
WHEREAS, although indicating in February of 2002 that it would
address a number of substantive issues raised by the administrative petitions,
on December 18, 2002, after three settlement negotiation sessions that did
not lead to a resolution of the issues, the State Board denied all of the
administrative petitions without providing a hearing to the public, and
concluded that the Petitions "failed to raise substantial, new issues;" and
WHEREAS, the City of Arcadia ("City") currently supports and
funds efforts to reduce and eliminate storm water pollution. During the five
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year period of the prior NPDES Permit, the City implemented additional
street sweeping efforts, increased catch basin cleaning, funded a public
information program on storm water pollution, implemented construction
project inspection programs, implemented a Standard Urban Storm Water
Mitigation Plan (the "SUSMP") as modified by the State Board, completed
the site visitation programs, initiated waste-oil recycling programs and
implemented various other storm water programs; and
WHEREAS, the NPDES Permit contains various language within the
Receiving Water Limitations section (and other provisions of the Permit)
which violate the "maximum extent practicable" standard, and which in
many cases, directly or indirectly seek to impose responsibility on
municipalities throughout the County, to insure that storm water runoff into
and from their storm drain systems, does not violate water quality objectives,
including numeric effluent limits that may be adopted through the
incorporation ofTMDLs; and.
WHEREAS, under the NPDES Permit, the City, along with 83 other
incorporated cities in Los Angeles County and the County of Los Angeles,
are required to expand existing storm water treatment programs, and to
implement new storm water programs which the Regional Board purports
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purports will improve the quality of municipal storm water in a cost-
effective manner. However, a cost-benefit study was never performed by
the Regional Board to illustrate that the new programs will result in cost-
effective improvements to storm. water quality. In addition, the Board did
not develop or rely upon scientific data to support the need for the numerous
programs to be imposed by the new Permit; and
WHEREAS, under the new NPDES Permit, the City will be
responsible for implementing a comprehensive inspection and surveillance
program of industrial and commercial facilities to "control" storm water and
non-storm water runoff from these facilities. A recent study ordered by the
United States Congress and completed by the National Research Council of
the National Academy of Sciences recommended that storm water programs
utilize "adaptive implementation", and recognized that cities should not be
subjected to fines and legal action while they are developing new and
untested storm water programs. The new NPDES Permit may place the
Cities in a constant state of violation, and will subject all municipalities
covered by the Permit to needless lawsuits by environmental organizations,
and exposing the Cities to excessive fines. The removal of the legal "Safe
Harbor," combined with the addition of language putting the Cities in a
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constant state of violation, is legally inappropriate and fundamentally unfair;
and
WHEREAS, the revised SUSMP Requirements under the new
NPDES Pennit are contrary to a prior order issued by the State Board, and
require the imposition of mitigation measures that are contrary to existing
State law under the California Environmental Quality Act, and the Pennit
terms infringe upon traditional local land use authority and the basic powers
of local governments;
WHEREAS, the NPDES Permit goes beyond the intent of the Clean
Water Act, and violates the California Porter-Cologne Act, by "micro
managing" and dictating specific programs and a particular manner of
compliance on the Cities, and by imposing requirements that are not
authorized anywhere under State or federal law; and
WHEREAS, the new NPDES Pennit requires that the Cities expand
the current private property site visitation and education program to a
mandatory inspection and enforcement program, that the Cities reduce
pollutants in runoff from private industrial and commercial facilities
(including federal and State facilities) and that the Cities modify their CEQA
Guidelines and their General Plan requirements. All such requirements and
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programs are being mandated on the Cities, without any provision for State
funding; and
WHEREAS, the actions taken by the Regional Board in adopting the
NPDES Permit are inconsistent with the requirements of the Clean Water
Act and State Law, will result in the imposition of unsupportable programs
on the City and its citizenry, and will result in the imposition of numerous
unfunded mandates on the City.
NOW THEREFORE, THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF
ARCADIA, CALIFORNIA, DOES HEREBY RESOLVE AS
FOLLOWS:
SECTION I. To participate with other Cities in the County with the
filing of a lawsuit challenging Regional Board Order No. 01-182, NPDES
Permit No. CAS004001, Waste Discharge Requirements for Municipal
Storm Water and Urban Runoff Discharges within the County of Los
Angeles and the Incorporated Cities therein, expect the City of Long Beach.
SECTION 2. To retain Richard Montevideo, Esq., in coordination
with other Los Angeles County Cities, subject to a retainer letter approved as
to form and substance by the City Manager and City Attorney, to advise,
assist and represent the City in the filing and in the prosecution of a lawsuit
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challenging Regional Board Order No. 01-182, the Municipal NPDES
Permit for Los Angeles' County and the incorporated Cities therein, except
the City of Long Beach.
SECTION 3. The City Clerk shall certify to the adoption of this
Resolution.
Passed, approved and adopted this 7th day of January
,2003.
ATTEST:
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APPROVED AS to FORM:
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City Attorney
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STATE OF CALIFORNIA )
COUNTY OF LOS ANGELES ) SS:
CITY OF ARCADIA )
I, JUNE D. ALFORD, City Clerk of the City of Arcadia, hereby certifies that
the foregoing Resolution No. 6337 was passed and adopted by the City Council of the
City of Arcadia, signed by the Mayor and attested to by the City Clerk at a regular
meeting of said Council held on the 7th day of January, 2003 and that said Resolution
was adopted by the following vote, to wit:
A YES: Councilmember Chang, Kovacic, Segal, Wuo and Marshall
NOES: None
ABSENT: None
ity of Arcadia
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