Item 6-E

Council Meeting: 5/27/97                   Santa Monica, CA

To:       Mayor and City Council

From:     City Staff

Subject:  Recommendation to Authorize the City Manager to Execute
          an Amendment  to Extend Project Deadline of a Grant
          with the State Water Resources Control Board to
          Evaluate the Effectiveness of Catch Basin Retrofits for
          Reducing Pollutants from Entering the Santa Monica Bay  

Introduction
This report recommends that the City Council authorize the City
Manager to execute an amendment of Standard Agreement No. 5-061-14010 with the State Water Resources Control Board to extend the
completion deadline of the grant funded project to evaluate the
effectiveness of catch basin retrofits for reducing pollutants
from entering the Santa Monica Bay. 

Background
The State Water Resources Control Board awarded the City a 
$100,000 grant to study the different types of catch basin
retrofits/inserts available and determine which catch basins are
more effective in capturing which pollutants under what kind of
conditions, e.g., different land uses and levels of runoff.  The
catch basin retrofits/inserts will be tested in UCLA's laboratory
and a prototype catch basin insert will be designed.  Funding
permitting, the prototype catch basin modification or insert may
be installed in one of Santa Monica's catch basins.   The City
got 15 other cities, agencies, and private firm (Chevron) to
support the project with contributions totaling $161,000.   The
City of Santa Monica is the lead agency of the project and
engineering staff act as the project manager.  The original
agreement provided that the final report would be issued in
March, 1997.  The proposed amendment would extend the deadline
for the report to March, 1998. 

Three unanticipated events delayed the project.    First, 
obtaining consensus on the scope of work by the 15 consortium
members with the selected consultant,  Woodward-Clyde
Consultants, proved difficult.   The revision and addition of 
tasks consumed several  months.    Second,  one key member of the
consortium withdrew.    A concerted effort was made to replace
the resulting funding loss.  Ultimately,  consortium members
increased their contributions and Chevron joined the consortium. 
Finally, further delay occurred because of the lack of rain since
February of this year.  One early project task requires the
comparison of pollutants from representative local urban runoff
sampling sites with published findings of pollutants found in
representative common land use in other parts of the country. 
This task will be postponed until the first fall/winter storm. 
The new project deadline is not expected to change.

The State Water Resources Control Board has approved the time
extension but requires consent from the Santa Monica City
Council.

Budget/Financial Impact
There are no budget or financial impacts associated with the
recommendation contained in this staff report. 

Recommendation
Staff recommends that  the City Council authorize the City
Manager to execute an amendment to Standard Agreement No. 5-061-140-0 with the State Water Resources Control Board to extend the
catch basin project completion deadline to March 31, 1998.

Prepared by:   Craig Perkins, Director, Environmental and Public
               Work Management
               Tony Antich, P.E., City Engineer
               Ruta Skirius, Sr. Administrative Analyst