Here’s a list and brief description of the top 10 water quality advocacy wins over the past 20 years.

Upgrades to the Hyperion treatment facility
When Heal the Bay was founded in 1985, Hyperion was dumping barely treated sewage and sludge into Santa Monica Bay. Some fish had tumors and fin rot, and there was a dead zone in the Bay. By packing hearing rooms and testifying before regulatory agencies and joining an already pending lawsuit as a friend of the court against Los Angeles, the City consented to comply with the Clean Water Act. In 1987, sludge stopped flowing into the Bay. And by 1998, sewage treatment plant upgrades were completed. Today, Hyperion is considered a world-class treatment facility.

Full secondary treatment at the Los Angeles County Joint Water Pollution Control Plant
This plant in Carson is the largest of LA County Sanitation District’s wastewater treatment facilities, treating 350 million gallons of wastewater per day. In January 1992, the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the California Regional Water Quality Control Board filed suit against the water districts under Section 301 (h) of the Clean Water Act to comply with full secondary treatment at the plant. A consent decree was negotiated between the water district, Heal the Bay, the EPA and the Natural Resources Defense Council to meet this requirement by December 31, 2002. Combined with Hyperion’s upgrades, there has been a 90 percent reduction in sewage solids discharged into the Bay since 1985.

Tapia discharge prohibition
The Tapia Water Reclamation Facility, run by the Las Virgenes Municipal Water District, discharges disinfected wastewater into Santa Monica Bay via Malibu Creek. The waste water discharged increased the frequency that Malibu Creek broke through through Malibu Lagoon and emptied into the Bay. Those discharges contributed to Surfrider Beach’s distinction as the only Santa Monica Bay beach to consistently receive an “F” water quality grade in dry weather. In 1998, Heal the Bay was instrumental in the Regional Water Quality Control Board’s decision to prohibit Tapia’s discharge to Malibu Creek from April 15 to November 15 each year. The prohibition provides a more natural flow to Malibu Creek and the lagoon, a cycle that is important to native species like the endangered tidewater goby, whose breeding depends on certain temperature and salinity cues in the lagoon. In addition, the flow prohibition has led to less frequent lagoon breaches and reduced nutrient loading to the creek and lagoon from April to October.

Storm water permits issued in 1996 and 2001
In 1996, Heal the Bay launched the “40-day fight for clean water” campaign, which led to the successful passage of Los Angeles County’s first tough storm water permit. Five years later, Heal the Bay and other environmental groups fought successfully for an even tougher, more comprehensive and enforceable storm water permit that NRDC and the State are still protecting from the onslaught of lawsuits from dischargers.

Santa Monica Bay Beaches Bacteria TMDL
Heal the Bay and other environmental organizations successfully pressured the EPA and the Regional Water Quality Board to develop enforceable cleanup plans for 155 polluted water bodies in Los Angeles and Ventura counties by 2011. While the federal Clean Water Act of 1977 required the establishment of Total Maximum Daily Loads (TMDLs), or limits on the amount of a particular contaminant that could be discharged into impaired waterways (waterways in which pollution has led to the loss or impairment of one or more designated beneficial uses, including swimming, aquatic life, and drinking water) the requirements were not being enforced before Heal the Bay, the Natural Resources Defense Council and Santa Monica BayKeeper brought suit against the EPA and the water quality board. That suit led to the establishment of TMDLs for bacteria at Santa Monica Bay beaches, Cabrillo Beach, and Marina del Rey—which means that by 2005, no beach in these areas can have excessive levels of bacteria during dry weather.

Los Angeles River Trash TMDL
As with the Santa Monica Bay Beaches Bacteria TMDL, in 2001 there was a TMDL passed for trash in the LA River. This “zero tolerance for trash” calls for cities to slowly decrease the amount of trash entering the LA River over the next 12 years.

The Propositions
Over the past 20 years, Heal the Bay has campaigned on behalf of five key propositions that require the state to target funds for acquiring land and cleaning up our parks and beaches, our water bodies and water supplies. They are:

Propositions 12 &13: Statewide ballot measures, which passed in 2000, and together designated more than $2 billion for land-use upgrades for urban parks and undeveloped state and local wilderness areas. Los Angeles County and the city received $700 million, with $25 million targeted for Santa Monica Bay and $25 million for protection of Ballona Wetlands.

Propositions 40 & 50: Provide $5 billion for safe drinking water, clean beaches and coastal waters, park and air quality improvements and wildlife and open space protection. Passed in 2002.

Proposition O: A $500 million bond measure approved by Los Angeles voters last November to improve local water supplies and keep dangerous bacteria and toxic pollution from contaminating waterways.

Ahmanson Ranch
Washington Mutual Bank agreed to sell Ahmanson Ranch to the state of California in 2003, preserving 2,300 acres of parkland and protecting the headwaters of Malibu Creek and the contiguous wildlife corridor from the ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains to Santa Monica Bay. The sale was the result of years of pressure by Heal the Bay and an amazing coalition of environmental advocates and elected officials.

Clean Beach Initiative
Thanks partially to Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card, which shows the negative impact polluted runoff has on California beaches; nearly $80 million in bond money was appropriated three years ago for government agencies to use to tackle problems of bacterial pollution on their beaches. Known as the Clean Beach Initiative (Pavley), the goal of the appropriation is to reduce the number of days that water quality at California’s beaches is impacted by bacteria. The Clean Beach Initiative was designed to grant municipalities the initial capital to tackle water quality issues, encouraging them to craft together projects that could span 25 years.

Legislation
Throughout the 20-year history of Heal the Bay, we have worked with state legislators to craft bills that would lead to laws requiring cleaner water and further public awareness of environmental concerns for the Santa Monica Bay. Heal the Bay staff were involved in the following bills that became law:

AB 1548 (Pavley): Education and environmental literacy bill that mandates environmental education standards be incorporated into the curriculum textbooks and frameworks for grades K-12.

AB 885 (Jackson): The Septic Systems Standards Bill established statewide water quality performance standards for operations of onsite sewage treatment systems.

AB 411 (Wayne): The Beach Water Quality Act created human health standards for beach water quality, mandated monitoring of water quality, and established a beach closure system protocol.

AB 538 (Wayne): A bill that established the protocol for identifying sources of fecal indicator bacteria at high-use beaches that are impacted by flowing storm drains.

SB 72 (Kuehl): This law standardized storm water monitoring and reporting and set clear and specific minimum requirements for municipalities and industries for sampling, method detection limits, analytical procedures and reporting requirements.

AB 1138 (Kuehl): This bill established mandatory enforcement of storm water permit monitoring and reporting requirements.