CLEAN BEACHES — SOLVING LOS ANGELES' URBAN RUNOFF TMDL REQUIREMENTS THROUGH SMALL-SCALE, DECENTRALIZED SOLUTIONS

The 44 beaches along the Santa Monica Bay (SMB) in Los Angeles County, California, are among the most popular in the nation; they are visited by an estimated 55 million beachgoers a year and generate over $1.7 billion a year for the local economy (refer to area map in Figure 1below). Since 1998, there have been over 100 posted beach closures of these beaches, and because of this, the California Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) listed the SMB beaches as impaired for bacteria (i.e., total coliform, fecal coliform, and enterococcus) under Section 303(d) of the Clean Water Act. As a result of a consent decree between the United States EPA, Heal the Bay, and Santa Monica BayKeeper, the RWQCB was ordered to expeditiously implement total maximum daily load (TMDL) requirements for the Los Angeles region. One of the first TMDLs is for bacteria to the SMB beaches during wet weather.