Stricter Water Rules to Protect Swimmers Are Postponed

Staff at the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board this week decided to postpone taking action to ensure that bacterial contamination in urban runoff would not close any of the bay's 44 beaches for a single day during summer.

To comply with a federal consent decree stemming from lawsuits filed by environmentalists, the board was expected to adopt measures making it easier to impose fines and cleanup orders on the county and the 13 cities that ring the bay if they fail to meet new limits on fecal coliform discharged into storm drains between April and October. It will probably take up the issue again by summer's end.

Jonathan Bishop, the agency's executive officer, said although the regional board has had three years to meet the deadline, a last-minute flurry of public comments received just prior to Tuesday's board meeting necessitated a delay. Some cities are already diverting summertime runoff to prevent contamination from reaching beaches, but he acknowledged that more needs to be done to protect public health.

Environmentalists were outraged by the board's inaction, claiming that the agency folded under pressure from local governments, which must comply with the new limits.

"This refusal to act puts back on the shelf standards that would have protected millions of Los Angeles beachgoers this summer from exposure to bacteria and viruses that can make them sick," said David Beckman, a senior attorney for the Natural Resources Defense Council, one of three plaintiffs in the suit.

"What's at stake here is implementing the heart of the Clean Water Act in Southern California," said Tracy Egoscue, executive director of the Santa Monica Baykeeper. "The water board has flinched in the face of [today's] deadline."

The decision comes at the height of the summer season, when millions of beachgoers flock to the nation's most popular beaches stretching from the Palos Verdes Peninsula to the Ventura County line. Pathogens flowing from storm drains to surf can cause skin rashes, earaches and gastrointestinal illness, among other health problems. The pollution comes from a wide range of sources, including lawn fertilizer and leaks from septic tanks and sewers.