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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCC Min 2001-08-27 8-27-01 Seal Beach, California August 27, 2001 I The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular adjourned session at 6:17 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Doane Councilmembers Boyd, Campbell, Yost Absent: Councilmember Larson Councilman Larson was present, awaiting the Council in the Conference Room. Also present: Ms. Yeo, City Clerk The City Manager and City Attorney joined the Council in the Conference Room for Closed Session. The City Clerk advised that anyone wishing to speak to the items listed on the agenda could do so at this time. No member of the public addressed the Council. I CLOSED SESSION The City Clerk announced that the Council would meet in Closed Session to discuss the items identified on the agenda, a conference with legal counsel with regard to two potential cases of litigation pursuant to Government Code Sections 54956.9(b) and (a), and a conference with the City's labor negotiator relating to Management/Mid-Management Employees pursuant to Government Code Section 54957.6. The Council adjourned to Closed Session at 6:18 p.m. and reconvened at 6:46 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order. The City Attorney reported the Council had discussed the items previously announced, City Council gave direction with respect to Item "B", no other reportable action was taken. ADJOURNMENT It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to adjourn the meeting at 6:47 p.m. Approved: - I Attest: 8-27-01 Seal Beach, California August 27, 2001 The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular session at 7:03 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag. I ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Doane Councilmembers Boyd, Campbell, Larson, Yost Absent None Also present: Mr. Bahorski, City Manager Mr. Barrow, City Attorney Mr. whittenberg, Director of Development Services Chief Sellers, Police Department Mr. Dancs, Director of Public Works/City Engineer Mr. Cummins, Associate Planner Mr. Pounds, Interim Director of Recreation, Parks, and Community Services Ms. Arends-King, Director of Administrative Services Ms. Yotsuya, Assistant to the City Manager Ms. Yeo, City Clerk APPROVAL OF AGENDA Councilmember Campbell requested that Item "N" be removed from the Consent Calendar for separate consideration, and Councilman Boyd requested that Item "0" be removed. Boyd moved, second by Campbell, to approve the order of the agenda as revised. I AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried , ANNOUNCEMENTS Councilmember Campbell announced that Mr. Frank Laszlo, a College Park East resident and former member of the City Council and Mayor will have bi-pass surgery the following day in Los Angeles, if anyone wishes to send a get well card it would be best that it be sent to his residence, and wished Mr. Laszlo the best. Councilman Yost invited all to attend the upcoming Sandcastle Festival on September 8th and 9th and learn about water quality as well. Mayor Doane presented a 'Friends Helping Friends Succeed' pin to Mr. Buzz Jandelli, a member of the ambassador group for the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce and Business Association. Mayor Doane expl~ined that an ambassador is someone that is not a member of the Chamber however works hard on its behalf because they believe in the betterment of the Chamber and the City, in this case Mr. Jandelli delivers the monthly newsletter and tends to the Chamber office on Thursdays. Mr. Jandelli accepted the pin with appreciation. I PUBLIC COMMENTS Mayor Doane declared the Public Comment period open. I Mr. Steve Masoner, Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce, again, announced the upcoming Sandcastle Festival, September 8th and 9th, stated he and his wife have watched the event grow over 8-27-01 I the past five years, they are enthusiastic about this years event, the Festival is about family, kids, and this town. Mr. Masoner expressed his appreciation to the residents for their tolerance given the imposition of allowing the Festival to take place. He offered that the Sandcastle Festival is about education relating to water quality, safety, etc, in addition to enjoying a great exhibition at the Art Festival and the sandcastle contest. He noted that Star 98 radio will be doing photo I.D. cards for children, a survivor obstacle course to teach water conservation, coloring books, a treasure hunt, Main Street shopping game, a program will teach the harms of tobacco, oil recycling containers, a program that teaches what kelp does in the ocean, display of vehicles, etc., this is an opportunity to provide educational issues in a fun environment, there will also be sign ups for the San Gabriel River clean up on October 6th. Mr. Masoner said his understanding is that the Police Department has entered a sandcastle building team, and in the interest of competition his question would be if the Fire Department, City and Lifeguards intend to let them take the award. Mr. Masoner invited all to attend the Sandcastle Festival, the help of volunteers is welcomed as it takes over two hundred people to put on the event, all proceeds go toward applying for grants for cleanup of the San Gabriel River and beach, and expressed appreciation for the support of the City. Mr. Doug Korthof, Seal Beach, stated the Seal Beach Chamber of Commerce is to be commended as they have done everything that could be expected from a beach city Chamber, they work selflessly, set good examples, everyone should support the Chamber for doing a great job, they have even addressed the Long Beach Council asking for assistance with cleanup coordination/efforts. Mr. Korthof said his comments are to be directed to the sewage issue on the Council agenda, commended the staff report as excellent, in that it takes months to understand this issue, yet noted that one fact was missing from the report which states the alternative is fifty/fifty primary and secondary sewage, however with the waiver announces that Orange County Sanitation District will go to eighty/twenty if given the opportunity, the waiver allows the District to do that without any further application to the Water Quality Control Board or the Environmental Protection Agency, that would be eighty/twenty versus full treatment, not fifty/fifty. Mr. Korthof noted that there are numerous cost numbers being tossed around, yet fifteen thousand other districts, including Los Angeles, have been able to find the money to implement full secondary treatment, according to the District budget it seems quite certain they have already done cost shifting to the ocean based upon a quotation that states 'the Board of Directors selected a preferred level of treatment alternative in October, 1999 so the cost savings would be primarily achieved through the reduction in the amount of secondary treatment which results in a shift of solids disposal from the land to the ocean.' He mentioned too that in looking at the year 2000 operating budget for the District the cash flow is $739 million and $555 million consists of reserves, to that he would question why so much money is in reserve, the ordinary citizen would use the reserves to payoff debt because one can always borrow money, yet the District is making money by borrowing money at the low rate granted to tax free special district bonds, four percent, and then when the District loans reserves it is at the Merrill Lynch higher interest rate of six percent. He said this is a joke on the federal government who grants the tax free status, not to allow the banking of money but supposedly to build a plant to treat I I 8-27-01 sewage, that is not happening, the District is not spending that money to treat secondary sewage. Mr. Korthof said not only is the Sanitation District making money by cost. shifting the disposal of solids to the ocean, they are also making money on debt swaps, the difference between four andrsix percent allows the District to make two million dollars for each hundred million dollars in reserve, that is basically creating wealth, and is done every year. He stated then that the Orange County Sanitation District debt service payments of $46 million are largely offset by interest income of $28 million on the $555 million in reserve. He claimed too that the District is considering contracting with other cities to take their sewage because they can under bid Los Angeles County which has to do full secondary treatment, to that he questioned whether it is appropriate for a sewer agency to venture into the field of potential financial gain, he thought not, the desire is to fund sewage treatment, not fund a financial institution. Mr. Korthof stated all can be proud that Seal Beach is taking a position on this issue, not only is Seal Beach a beach city but also at the foot of the San Gabriel River, the recipient of the debris from up-River, the gatekeeper of the San Gabriel. Seal Beach has a representative on the Board of the San Gabriel Conservancy, recently a State representative and Los Angeles County Supervisor distributed the first funding from Proposition A which is designed to bring back the San Gabriel River, the Los Angeles River too is subject to this, noted that the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy is helping as well, suggesting that if the City does not take a position on the District's waiver then Seal Beach should leave the Board of the San Gabriel Conservancy, how can this City tell others to not allow their debris in the River if Orange County can not take care of its own sewage. Mr. Korthof offered that the Orange County Sanitation District is going to ask everyone to wait for a study, his belief is that that study is not necessary, the 1996 study is still awaited which was used for the 1998 waiver. I I Mr. Jerry Anderson, Sandpiper Drive, expressed concern with a flier he received relating to tree trimming and stre~t sweeping, he called the contact person listed on the;flier yet he received no information, he also talked to th~ City Engineer, he had an appointment to see the City Manager however instead spoke with the Assistant to the Manager, the sum total of what he found after talking to all four people is that the City has no program, without a program how is it known that it will cost four times the money, to his thinking if something is to be solved you first need to identify the problem, explore the options to take care of the problem, then determine how much is needed in terms of resources or money to solve the problem, here there is no program. Mr. Anderson offered that the only thing he learned was that neither Leisure World or Surfside would be involved in this program, which he believed is not good, this proposai is a fee for a service, the street sweeping program as not a benefit to him by cleaning the gutter, he in fact does that, but it is a benefit to him as a resident because the town is clean, that is the same benefit that residents of Surfside and Leisure World receive, as an example, he lives on the Hill, he does not need a berm, that is the same thing. Mr. Anderson claimed that is not the way to run a city, a city should be composed of people that work together for the common good, certain areas should not be excluded, if the program is valid and just, it makes sense for all. He urged everyone to read the flyer that states by contracting out the I 8-27-01 I City will have weekly sweeping for a little more than for twice a month sweeping with in-house forces, to that he questioned how a little more equates to four times the money, he did not understand and was unable to get an answer, contracting for street sweeping is a big change, contractors will often bid low the first couple years during which the City will have sold off its equipment, lost its ability to clean the streets, and then at the mercy of the contractor, the City's record is not all that good in dealing with outside contractors. Mr. Anderson offered, as an example, if the City were to decide to contract with Orange County Sheriffs would it be done in the same manner or would the public be notified, if the City changed ambulance services would the City send out a flier and present it as a completed decision, costing residents four times the money with no program in place or response time. Mr. Anderson said he was not opposed to the fees if they were just and reasonable, however they are not just and reasonable when the City cannot provide information on what type of services the residents will receive, two meetings ago a member of the Council asked what was involved in the tree trimming proposal, the response of the City Manager was more tree root repair, to that he urged that the Council insist on a street tree program that includes an annual schedule and the cost. Ms. Sue Corbin, Seal Beach, commented on the .water rate increase, said she had felt that Leisure World would be exempt yet allowed to vote, to that she mentioned there is a federal law that municipalities seem to not follow that requires door to door surveys, City, State and Federal agencies claim that the other agency should do it, however a city is mandated to do a survey with water rate increases. The street sweeping proposal is a scam to bring in money by issuing more tickets, even today the street was not swept next to the curb where the debris is. She expressed pleasure at seeing the taxpayers speak to how the Council spends their money. In reference to the Seal Beach Boulevard project, Ms. Corbin stated it did not have an EIR, the Coastal Commission was not contacted, the new City Engineer was not required to go through the regular employment process as required by federal law, the roadway was not compacted properly, also, further up the Boulevard there is an entire traffic lane that is sunken yet the City is planning to let the contractor off by a million dollars because the Engineer was not available, the third lane over has been patched, it too is sunken, and motorists do not want to drive there. Ms. Corbin stated as far as sewage, she absolutely agrees with opposing the waiver, the Sanitation District should do what is required, yet charged that this City is leaching raw sewage into the ocean. Mr. Joey Ricano, Huntington Beach, expressed appreciation to the City of Seal Beach, it was the voters who selected this Council, it is to those voters that the credit must ultimately go them for the history that may be made at this meeting, through the democratic process the voters of this City have assembled a government of elected officials poised to lead two and a half million people in central and northern Orange County into the twenty-first Century. He mentioned that of fifteen thousand Sanitation Districts, there are thirty-six waivers, Orange County being the largest of the waiver holders, the waiver is due for re-evaluation every five years as it was meant to be temporary, it was granted so that Orange County might ease more smoothly into full compliance with the Federal Clean Water Act, that was seventeen years ago, if that did not suffice then what would, time has run out, the water quality and soiled reputation illustrates this all too well. Mr. Ricano stated that in all I I 8-27-01 fairness the Orange County Sanitation District has had its chance, the waiver has had its time, if the 1996 study had been made available to the proper agencies in 1998 the waiver would likely have been gone, possibly before it caused the 1999 beach closures which in his opinion it did, not the birds, not AB 411, or things washed down stream. Mr. Ricano asked the Council to stand tall, be leaders, the City may never again steer such an important issue, his belief is that Newport Beach and Huntington Beach will fall in line behind Seal Beach, as will Irvine and other cities. Only the end of the waiver will work, not microfiltration, not advanced primary treatment, not a longer outfall pipe, and not another study. Mr. Ricano said sometime ago, opposition to the 301(h) waiver might have been called something bad in this county, yet now it will be called hero, asked that the Council do them a favor, get rid of the waiver, and thanked the Council for its courage. I Mr. Jonathan Grossgold, property manager of 239 and 241 Seal Beach Boulevard read in full a letter dated August 27, 2001 from the newly formed Seal Beach Boulevard Business Association, addressing with appreciation, in part, the continued attention of the Council to the stretch of Seal Beach Boulevard between Pacific Coast Highway and Electric Avenue, that as a group they seek an official statement that the future of the businesses on the Boulevard will continue to have the benefits and rights of ownership that are enjoyed today in perpetuity, and should changes to the Boulevard be furthered considered, as is rumored, that thqse on the street be afforded meetings with staff and members of the Council, that a safety assessment of the newly configured Boulevard be accomplished at the earliest time possible as there are concerns of those on the Boulevard, that a primary function of the newly formed Seal Beach Boulevard Business Association will be to seek and assure better communication, and urged that communication and involvement of the citizens and business owners on the Boulevard be given highest priority in the future so that they may protect the long term viability of their businesses and make the street safe for residents and visitors. J I Mr. Dennis Baker said he too wished to direct his comments to the wastewater issue. He commended the community for its small town flavor, a stark contrast to other cities he has visited, and urged that it remain as such. Mr. Baker commended the Council for being the first to develop a resolution addressing the issue of the 301(h) waiver, other cities have been considering the issue for some time, encouraged Seal Beach to be first, set the example for the coastal cities as well as other cities in the Sewer District by passing the resolution in support of eliminating the waiver, encouraging the District to go to full secondary, the secondary treatment is by no means the end of the issue as he anticipates in years to come water issues relating to reclamation, etc., the first step however is to eliminate the waiver. Mr. Reg Clewley, Seal Beach, noted his understanding of a future agenda item relating to an increase of taxes at which time the public will be allowed only five minutes to address that issue. He mentioned the item on this agenda with regard to the ocean outfall, yet there is no time being afforded the public for the purpose of discussion except during the public comment period which is meant for comments on matters not on the agenda. Mr. Clewley said he wanted to speak to street sweeping since he had only limited time to talk about the numerous tax measures that are being proposed I I 8-27-01 I to be placed on an upcoming ballot, the street sweeping proposal is completely unnecessary to be done on a weekly basis as it takes between two and three weeks for a bacterial problem to accumulate on a street, that according to the information pamphlet distributed by the City, this is as senseless as the collection of recycling refuse cans on a weekly basis, his recommendation is street sweeping every other week, claimed however there is some wisdom in increasing fines for illegally parking in the path of the street sweeper, this City charges $19 for street sweeping tickets yet in neighboring Garden Grove the fine is $39, to which he offered that some cities use those citation fines to pay for street sweeping rather than having fines become General Fund revenue. Mr. Clewley displayed a Sanitation District hat inscribed 'Protecting Your Environment.' It was the order of the Chair, with unanimous consent of the Council, to declare a recess at 7:43 p.m. The Council reconvened at 7:50 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order. I Ms. Seretta Fielding, Seal Beach Boulevard, expressed appreciation for the long overdue improvements that have been made to Seal Beach Boulevard, whether liked or disliked they have been achieved, yet there will be problems as there always is with change. She thanked the City, the engineers, including the newly hired Director of Public Works. Ms. Fielding agreed that the Boulevard project may not be perfect yet the City and engineers have always indicated that they will work with the residents, if something is a problem they will address it, the Boulevard is narrower, perhaps people will have to give up a minute of their life to slow traffic, the project will be beautiful, something that area of town has needed for a long time yet it may not be exactly what everyone prefers including the possibility of a flood this year. Ms. Fielding mentioned that considerable time, money and effort has gone into this project, if anyone feels Seal Beach Boulevard is not right now, where were they before, the Boulevard has had nothing done for thirty-five years, and she applauds everyone who for the last twenty years has worked to get something accomplished. Mr. Jim Milne, Newport Beach, said he has come to this meeting in hopes that what happened to his little girl does not happen to the children or grandchildren of others. He explained that his daughter developed an earache after swimming in the ocean, the doctor prescribed medicine and advised to keep her out of the water, even while on vacation, and described the potential of a life threatening disease. Mr. Milne stated this was his first time to speak before a City Council, thanked the Council for being attentive, he is familiar with Seal Beach, a beautiful community, and urged that the Council act responsibly to oppose the 301(h) waiver, enforce the Clean Water Act, by doing so, a favor for generations to come. Ms. Fran Johnson, Coastline Drive, said the City will soon propose to sweep the streets on both sides, to which she asked where will visitors park then on sweeping days, at present sweeping is only on one side of the street on a particular day which then allows parking on the opposite side. Ms. Johnson agreed that the street sweeper rarely reaches all of the debris on cul-de- sacs and along certain ditches, requesting that serious consideration be given to charging residents for services they do not favor. Ms. Johnson also encouraged the Council to not support renewal of the Orange County Sanitation District 301(h) waiver. Mr. Glen Clark, Trailer Park, I 8-27-01 reported he had recently distributed an extensive booklet of accomplishments in the Park over the past couple of years, many in cooperation with the City, expressed appreciation for the assistance from the City and that of six hard working Trailer Park boardmembers. Mr. Clark announced that the Seal Beach Trailer Park will be holding an election on Thursday evening at the library, there are three vacancies on the board and it is hoped there will be a good turnout, yet unfortunately there are certain Park residents who are waging opposition of the boardmembers, false statements and allegations are being made, stated the board needs cooperation, direction and a teamwork approach to get the things done that are needed, also expressed concern with regard to a few individuals placing the Park bond issue in jeopardy. Mr. Frank Boychuck, Trailer Park, also extended gratitude to the Council for its support, personally thanked Councilmember Campbell for her comments relating to the work he personally put into the Park purchase, and agreed that it takes a team effort, explaining that after the first visit of Mr. Hall to the Park almost three years ago a team of six people with various strengths worked quite well together and accomplished an almost impossible task. Mr. Boychuck expressed appreciation to the City Clerk for offering her time to oversee the upcoming election for the Park board. Mr. Boychuck said he has received personal attacks as well as Council and board members from a few individuals in the Trailer Park creating an air of paranoia for their own hidden agenda, as late as this day he spoke to one of the residents who indicated that his competition for a board seat informed her she could not vote for Frank Boychuck because he has some arrangement with the Police Department to eliminate or harm his competition, another falsehood is that he is secretly selling his home, to that he offered that after working hard for over two years to save the Park why would he now want to leave, this the kind of politics they are up against in the Trailer Park. He said he saw a virus come into the Park, the homes of people jeopardized, if something was not done the Park by this time would likely have been demolished, a hotel built, or rents would have gone to $1,200, the need was seen ! and it was dealt with, it is now ironic that since that has been accomplished, the virus is coming from internallsources. Mr. Boychuck stated he would not participate in negative politics even if that means he does not win, and recounted the numerous hours spent and efforts put forth by the Park committee on behalf of the Park and its residents. I I Mr. Greg Jewel, member of the Huntington Beach/Seal Beach Surfrider Foundation, complimented and wished success to the upcoming Sandcastle Festival event. Mr. Jewel stated that the deliberate discharge of sewage effluent at sea is a willful act that can be controlled, allowing it to continue is in some sense more reprehensible than the failure to control other more diffuse sources of pollution, those the words from an August Santa Barbara News editorial, although this a small newspaper, other larger papers and groups offer information to Seal Beach for review regarding the contamination of local beaches as well. Mr. Jewel noted that the Orange County Sanitation District is the human waste recipient of over two million North Orange County residents which translates to about one hundred ten gallons of poorly treated wastewater per person per day that the District delivers to the ocean, why is it only partially treated is a good question especially when the necessary technology exists to serve North Orange County residents with full secondary treatment which would significantly reduce the ocean outfall I 8-27-01 I pathogen counts. As a beach city, Mr. Jewel stated it should distress this Council that the Sanitation District clings to a temporary 301(h) waiver which allows the District to discharge dirtier water than allowed by the Federal Clean Water Act, by sending a message to the Sanitation District to immediately stop the use of the waiver, the Council could accomplish three things, it would send a message to constituents that the Council is protecting their health and well being while preserving their ocean and beaches, it would also send a message to other North Orange County cities that Seal Beach will not place the $12 billion beach recreation economy at risk, and third, it would preclude the Sanitation District from engaging in the unproven science of microfiltration after primary treatment, a process that requires a temporary waiver be retained and renewed, without the waiver the Sanitation District would be forced to select a secondary sewage treatment protocol and become part of the pollution solution. He offered that perhaps the 1977 EIR/EIS for the District said it best some twenty-four years ago, that secondary treatment processing achieves greater removal of bacteria and virus levels than primary processes and that the potential risk to the pUblic health would be reduced by a similar factor. For an average Seal Beach family of four, Mr. Jewel made a comparison of additional cost for full secondary treatment sewage processing for fourteen days and properly treated outfall for a month to an order or two of fast food burgers. He said at the outset of the meeting it was said they would try to deliver new information with the intent that it would lead the Council to make new decisions, and to that asked if the Council would do the right thing and tell the Orange County Sanitation District that the City of Seal Beach is against the waiver renewal. Mr. Curtis Spadee, member of the Huntington Beach/Seal Beach Surfrider Foundation and member of the Ocean Outfall Group, said he was present to speak in opposition to the 301(h) waiver held by the Orange County Sanitation District and to inform the Council of the effects of their effluent in the shoreward transport of the plume. Mr. Spadee stated that it is known that primary treated sewage contains contaminants which are both hazardous to human health as well as marine life, half of the effluent from the District receives only primary treatment, the District relies on a dilution factor of 148 to 1 to make the effluent safer, his research into the OCSD annual reports show that in 1996 bacterial levels reached 24,000 to 50,000 per 100 milliliters, in 1997 the levels reached 28,000 to 50,000, an out of range event as shoreline monitoring takes place, about 70 parts per hundred milliliters. Although the high concentrations were typically restricted to the 20 to 30 meter ranges, the area in which the outfall lies is known for upwelling in the deeper, colder water, the high concentrations also indicate that some parts of the discharge plume are not receiving full initial dilution, a serious issue when considering the study done for the District in 1997, that analysis of an effluent plume transport assumes a 300 to 1 dilution ratio, yet the District states their dilution ratio is 148 to I, the District bases the safety of their operation on this study but the problem is that the plume is twice as concentrated as the researchers had figured, which means the edge of the plume exteqds much farther than previously thought. The question is, has the plume ever transported toward shore, to that the District states in their annual reports that the plume has a small chance, not a zero chance, of reaching shore. Mr. Spadee said the 1997 study estimates the movement of wastewater away from the outfall by using a progressive diagram approach, I I 8-27-01 with this method each current measurement is in the time series and is represented by an arrow going away from the outfall, one consequence of using this approach is it is possible for the predicted movement to go on-shore at the coastline, the authors of this study say this is an impossibility, but is it when one considers the water hitting the shore and folding back on itself, the point is, the chance of the plume reaching the shore is not zero, it never has been, the health issue here is not one of absolute safety but of acceptability, and the District has gone to great lengths to prove that its effluent is not responsible for beach closings and frequent contamination postings. Mr. Spadee asked why wait for more studies from the summer involving the AS power plant to come in when there is already enough evidence of the plume reaching the shore, stated that the wastewater needs to be cleaned up, requested the support of the Council to get rid of the 301(h) waiver and go to full secondary treatment now. I Mr. Irwin Haydoc, Fountain Valley, said he is a user of the coastal zone from Long Beach to the Newport Beach area, he is concerned about this issue, his hope is that this may be the first move for better treatment. Mr. Haydoc complimented the Council for its efforts and offered help from the Ocean Outfall Group if desired. He mentioned that between January and July of 2001 the Internet reported over two hundred days of beach closures, all closures except for one were from unknown sources, one was a three day closure due to a Sanitation District spill, he subsequently read in a Sanitation District publication that that closure resulted in a fine of over $100,000 against the Sanitation Districts who then convinced the Regional Board to use some of that money to do a special project so that the Orange County Health Organization would learn when to close the beaches and how much beach to close, unfortunately that project will be conducted in Newport and used in the Santa Ana watershed to make a decision, yet his understanding is that the spill affected the San Gabriel River and eventually Seal Beach, a matter the City may want to look into. Mr. Haydoc said he spent fifteen years with Los Angeles County Sanitati~n Districts, it was felt they had flushed out the San Gabriel River section between the line channel and the 405 freeway and beyond, so he is surprised at how many closures Seal Beach has experienced over the years, something is wrong and needs to be done. Mr. Haydoc offered that a world class sanitation district could surely find the sweet spot and a balance between air, land and water, environmental impacts and economic cost, another article reported that over $100 million is generated from beach usage, therefore if the City has a reputation as having polluted beaches, much of that revenue will be lost. Mr. Haydoc stated again that he believes the sweet spot can be found, that the Sanitation District can balance the air, land, water costs and environmental impacts, however cautioned that no one be allowed to balance it on the back of the City or its beaches, these are the beaches of all, they are used constantly for surfing and swimming, the Sanitation District has said, according to their June report, that scientific evidence will lead their way, to that he said it is believed that it has been shown that there is scientific evidence that pollution has been caused with the primary cause being the ocean outfall. The District report states they want to do the right things at just the right time to make everything balance, and environmental protection is basically the same thing, it states further that one should keep in mind that I I 8-27-01 I when the Orange County Sanitation District addresses the question of environmental benefit it must address more than just public health and marine quality. To that Mr. Haydoc noted that the cost is about a nickel a day for better treatment and probably clean beaches, if that does not do it they can do even more with disinfection. He mentioned that the District has established a schedule of workshops and meetings starting this past July through December, 2002 before making a final decision, that is sixteen months before staff receives word that they should start working on a plan for treatment and disposal with or without the waiver, disinfection, or anything else they may need. Mr. Haydoc expressed his belief that Seal Beach will motivate the Orange County Sanitation District to review and move towards a real solution. I Mr. Larry porter, member of the Ocean Outfall Group, commended the Council for taking the lead and agendizing this important issue of pursuing the denial of the waiver for the Orange County Sanitation District, requested too that at the time the Council moves forward with the resolution that the City also notify the regulators that are in charge of granting the waiver, the Environmental Protection Agency in San Francisco and the Regional Water Quality Control Board in Santa Ana, that Seal Beach does not want this waiver to continue, rather full secondary treatment. Mr. Porter explained that primary treatment requires two hours, secondary treatment requires five hours and currently, waste coming from the varied sources is treated only three and a half hours, the request would be that it be treated seven hours, full secondary treatment. Mr. Porter thanked again the Council for moving forward, for doing the people a favor by being the first to start a cascade of all of the cities to eliminate the 301(h) waiver. Ms. Eileen Murphy congratulated Seal Beach for being the first of the thirteen Cities needed to require the Sanitation District to drop the waiver, and encouraged the Council to adopt Resolution Number 4926 asking that the Sanitation Districts waiver be denied. With regard to the alternative to support microfiltration, Ms. Murphy said first of all it will cost about $1.5 million and approximately three years before it is known if it will work, also, the District would still need the waiver if it does work, then another alternative asks for further study, to that she said the preliminary study that the District did this summer at a cost of $5 million proves that the Sanitation District plume comes back within one mile of the shoreline, the waiver claims that the plume comes within three miles of shore, no more studies are necessary. Ms. Murphy again asked that the Council vote to approve alternative one, the Resolution. Mr. Don McGee said he resides close to the offensive outfall pipe that the Orange County Sanitation District utilizes to spew poorly treated sewage into the ocean and near his doorstep. Mr. McGee thanked the Council for taking the initiative to oppose the waiver that has allowed the District to circumvent the Clean Water Act by exploiting this loophole. He said inasmuch as this month marks the first step of the EPA to uncover the extent of the Orange County sewer crisis, having sent letters to cities and water districts throughout Southern California, it is obvious the EPA has a lack of funds, personnel, and will, and/or all of the aforesaid, taking that into consideration questioned if entertaining thoughts of continuing an ill conceived waiver seems wise, prudent and/or judicious, also, it has been reported that the State Water Resources Control Board, responsible for enforcing the Clean I 8-27-01 Water Act, does not have a record of forty-two percent of the recent sewage spills in Orange County, the executive director of the Water Board said 'they do not know about a spill unless they call, that is to the spillers advantage, they are the cops and they are not going to invite us to their party.' Mr. McGee said dependency on these agencies to protect the public seems foolish and misplaced, who is monitoring the situation and who is monitoring the monitor and is the monitoring actually focusing on what needs to be monitored or merely compiling words and numbers in a frantic effort to further enalibis an outdated agenda, from his experience with bureaucracies he said all too often they seem less interested in truth and reality than maintaining the status quo, this requires three parts condescension and two parts arrogance which further distances them from the people they are purported to be serving. Mr. McGee said in truth, the plume reaching the surf line should be the only fact considered in deciding whether to continue this circumvention of the law that the 301(h) waiver necessitates, common sense, a sense of decency and a sense of the future should be the guiding factors in any decision regarding the ocean. Mr. McGee said according to a joint EIR done by the EPA and the District, the average number of viruses in secondary effluence are two hundred times less than in primary effluence, the potential risk to public health would be reduced by a similar factor, going to full secondary with disinfectant does not cost two hundred times more, twenty times more, not even two times more, so why is there a waiver. He reported having made inquiry of a professor specializing in marine biology at UCI about this situation, her response was that 'primary treatment includes screening and sedimentation which only removes large objects in raw sewage, tires, diapers, shopping carts, etc., but has little effect on organic nutrient removal and pathogenic micros reduction,' given this, the topspin from the District should be that the surfers should be happy that they do not have to dodge shopping carts and tubeless tractor tires, what more could they and the public possibly expect and/or demand. Mr. McGee asked that the Council 'do us a favor, get rid of the waiver.' I I Mr. Jan Vandersloot, founder and director of the Ocean Outfall Group, restated the request of others that this Council be the leader, he mentioned that the Ocean Outfall Group has been going city-to-city, their Group needs a standard to bare, they would like that to be this Council approving the resolution for no waiver, he requested too that the Council not consider alternatives two or three to modify the resolution to approve some other means of treating the sewage such as filtration or microfiltration, methods that will likely be brought forth by the District Manager later in the meeting, he offered that those treatments are experimental, have been tried only a small amount of sewage, they will spend $1.5 million over two years to experiment further to see if that concept is even feasible, it is not known if it is feasible at this point, an untried and untrue method of treatment. Mr. Vandersloot said on the other hand there is a tried and true method of treatment, that is full secondary treatment which is used by 99.75 percent of all sanitation districts in the united States, rather than being the leader in wastewater management the Orange County Sanitation District is at the bottom of all sanitation districts in the united States who do not treat to full secondary levels. He anticipated that the District Manager will speak to sweet spot balance and how to balance water, land, air and energy, to which he requested that this City I 8-27-01 I not support that balance on the back of a waiver which by its very nature is an exception to the rules and very much out of balance, there is only thirty-six other agencies in the united States that have this waiver, Orange County is the largest, has the most at stake, there is forty-two miles of coastline, the District is dumping two hundred forty million gallons of poorly treated sewage a day, that because it is not going through full secondary treatment. Mr. Vandersloot reported that the Ocean Outfall Group has attended every Board of Directors meeting of the Orange County Sanitation District over the past eight months and is now conducting a city-by-city campaign, going to every city in Orange County that belongs to the Sanitation District, the Group needs to have something to show the other cities why they too should support a policy of no waiver, that is why it is so important for this Council to vote against the waiver, choose alternative one which is adoption of the Resolution as proposed, once the Resolution is adopted the Council will be a hero and be able to lead opposition to the waiver, showing the rest of the County that Seal Beach is taking a stand therefore they can take a stand. He mentioned that the cost of secondary treatment is only five cents a day per person, his belief is that the Orange County Sanitation District already has the money, they have $700 million, $500 million in reserves, it only costs $350 million to implement full secondary plus disinfection. The District has turned into a financial institution, doing it on the back of a waiver whereby they do not have to treat the sewage as much as everyone else does in the United States. Ms. Reva Olson, Seal Beach, stated it is too bad that the children cannot go into the ocean, aware parents will not let them. Ms. Olson said the Outfall Group should be commended because they have educated the public on what is happening in Orange County, noting that Orange County has had so much bad publicity as to how finances are handled, how the health and safety of the citizens is taken care of, and mentioned her ,embarrassment with regard to the beach closings. Ms. Olson said she recognized the concern of Councilman Boyd with runoff however encouraged the Council to oppose renewal of the Sanitation District waiver 301(h), concluded that Seal Beach is a nice town and said she feels good about recent decisions made by the Council. Mr. Dean Rynaman, Costa Mesa, prior residences in Newport Beach and Anaheim, said he too creates waste, pays for the waste to be treated, is forced to swim in the waste that is not treated properly, and encouraged the Council to oppose the Sanitation District waiver. He offered that the citizens pay Orange County Sanitation District to treat the sewage correctly, and in the past he often heard that the District was technologically superior, there were visitors from allover the world, that is no longer heard. He too made the statement that the ocean is not an infinite resource, it is a finite resource, a closed system, more and more evidence points to the fact that if the ocean is abused it will be lost. Mr. Rynamen mentioned a news article this day about solutions to micro viruses and bacteria, that battle is being lost, this is an opportunity to take care of micros before they infect the people, and asked, for the sake of the citizens, that the waiver be opposed. There being no further comments, Mayor Doane declared Public Comments to be closed. I I 8-27-01 PRESENTATIONS ORANGE COUNTY REGIONAL AIRPORT AUTHORITY - ART BLOOMER General Art Bloomer introduced himself as an Irvine resident and Executive Director of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority, in turn introduced Mr. Jack Wagner, Executive Director for the Orange County Regional Airport Authority (OCRAA) for Public Information, their presentation will hopefully be on the positive aspects of turning the closed Marine Corps Air Station into a commercial airport, a brief overview of the County plan for doing that, and a description of what the mission of the Airport Authority has been over time. I At the request of Councilmember Campbell that General Bloomer provide some background about himself, the General stated he previously served thirty-one years in the Marine Corps, retired from EI Toro as the Commanding General in 1986, three separate tours at EI Toro commencing in 1956 as a Second Lieutenant, made over a thousand landings and takeoffs at EI Toro, graduate of the Navy Test Pilot School, served a tour at the Naval Air Test Center in Maryland as a test pilot, has flown over fifty-two different models of airplanes, he is not a commercial airline pilot yet very familiar with airplanes and their characteristics. . Seal Beach has long been a member of the Orange County Regional Airport Authority established approximately 1973, once called Inter-Counties/ Cities Airport Authority, later became Orange County Cities Airport Authority, the mission of the organization from its beginning was to locate a second airport site in Orange County to meet the projected demand at some point in the future requiring another airport besides John Wayne. I . The mission of OCRAA has since been changed to promote the aviation reuse of EI Toro and actively resist a future expansion of John Wayne Airport, which honors the John Wayne Airport settlement agreement to keep it capped at 8.4, also of importance to the citizens of Seal Beach, is that a part of the OCRAA mission today is to ensure the continued military use of Los Alamitos Joint Forces Training Base and the Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station; . General Bloomer reviewed a statement made by the Secretary of Transportation on how valuable transportation is, the key to productivity, and in particular how important it is to the economy of California, when there is congestion and inefficiency in transportation, there is no infrastructure, as an example, if one does not build sewer treatment plants, if one does not build roads or power plants to generate electricity, the people in positions of responsibility in government have failed to plan for the future by providing that infrastructure, if that is not done there will be a tax and a burden upon every business, community, and individual; I . with regard to the historical demand for travel, air passengers to year 2000 is approximately 90 million annually in the Southern California region, I I I , 8-27-01 the projections up to 2025 is a tripling demand for air cargo, about double, an estimated 157 to 160 million, of the demand for air passengers in the Southern California region, in Orange County the demand is projected to be about 34 million annual passengers by the year 2025; . Today that demand in Orange County is presently met by John Wayne Airport which serves only about 7.5 million annual passengers and is capped by the John Wayne settlement agreement at 8.4 million annual passengers, there are only two flights a day that carry approximately twenty thousand tons of cargo out of Orange County, there are passengers that originate from within Orange County that John Wayne does not handle, those passengers fly out of Los Angeles International, Ontario, and Long Beach which is around another 7 or 8 million, so at this time Orange County is generating about 14 million annual passengers and only half of them can be served by John Wayne; . Some say the projection demands are wrong because the population is only going to grow a small percentage, seven to eight percent, from 2.6 to 3.2 million persons by 2020, yet the projections are doubling the air travel demand, historically it has been proven that the growth and demand for air travel is not a linear correlation to growth and population, growth is at a different rate and there are many factors that determine what the demand for air travel is; . Jobs in Orange County are projected to increase from 1.3 to 2.1 million and air cargo will probably reach about 2 million annual tons in year 2020, much of which will be international air travel and air cargo, therefore if there are about 34 million annual passengers and 2 million tons of air cargo and there is no place to move it out of Orange County where does that demand go, it will go over the freeways and highways to some other airport that can handle the passengers and cargo, namely Los Angeles International and Ontario which are the two largest; . If nothing is done about this there will be 20 million air passengers and 2 million tons of air cargo clogging the roadways looking for air service by 2020, so how will this be resolved; . The opponents of air service out of EI Toro are wrong, they claim that John Wayne Airport is capable of handling all of it for the next twenty years, that because they challenge the demand numbers, saying the population will only increase seven percent, therefore air travel will only increase seven percent, historically that does not bear true; . With regard to the physical capacity of John Wayne Airport, it sits on only five hundred acres and has the smallest runway in the United States that offers commercial air services, possibly the smallest commercial runway in the free world, 8-27-01 Orange County is the sixth largest county in the United States with the shortest runway that provides air travel; . All know that one can not travel entirely across the United States out of John Wayne Airport, certainly not with a full load of fuel and full load of passengers, as an example, United Airlines will start flying out of John Wayne to Dulles in upcoming months yet not with a full load of passengers and full load of fuel, they will pay a penalty, every airline that has ever flown out of Orange County has given up a penalty in either passengers, fuel weight or cargo; I . From John Wayne there is a limited number of destinations, no international flights, and only two cargo flights per day, to expand John Wayne to enable it to handle the projected demand, even though it can not be expanded to meet the projected 34 million annual passengers by 2020, yet to expand John Wayne to one of the alternatives shown in the County EIR, to serve twenty-five million passengers would cost about $5 billion and would require the condemnation of a number of private properties, businesses and homes in order to acquire the additional real estate in order to build another runway, to lengthen the existing runway, to depress the 405 freeway underneath the runways, an extremely costly proposition; I . Why EI Toro, some of the advantages are 4,700 acres, 2,200 of those acres under the County plan will be devoted to open space and green areas, the greatest argument to him is that he does not recall another airport in the United States, with the exception of perhaps the new Denver airport, that has a 14,000 acre area surrounding the base without a single residence, a comparison can be made to John Wayne where there is a house within half a mile of the end of the takeoff runway, as well as hundreds of homes and schools within five miles, at EI Toro there will be a 14,000 acre buffer; . The EI Toro site has four existing runways, two of which are ten thousand feet long and two are eight thousand feet long, the County plan even calls for increasing the length of those runways to 12,000 and 9,100 feet, there are toll roads, freeways, the rail station, the Irvine Transportation Center sits within a hundred feet of the Base, thus multi- mobile ways of reaching EI Toro, yet of greatest significance is the $10 billion value and gift of that property to the citizens of Orange County; I . EI Toro Airport equals money and jobs - 146,000 total jobs, $9.7 billion annually, $4 billion personal income, this will increase the ability of the County to be a global competitor in the international market place; . A brief overview of the County's Just the Facts Program - the County plan is more than an airport, it is the EI Toro Airport and Open Space Plan, the master plan consists of a 265 acre regional park, I I I 8-27-01 an 82 acre cultural and educational facility, a 970 acre wildlife and habitat area, an existing golf course, a new executive golf course, a corporate campus, a public service provider area to tie in all of the County foodbanks for more efficient distribution, an area for air cargo for present and anticipated future demand, a hotel, a terminal area for passenger aircraft boarding, the first phase to be built during the first ten years with expansion as required as demand increases, a state of the art airport; . The Southern California economy is a magnificent and great contributor to the economy of the Nation, also a great contributor to the Southern California economy, it is believed to be safe to say growth is going to continue, the population will continue to increase, there will be an increase in the number of businesses in the County, and increase in international business opportunities and trade; . Every day it can be heard that people are delayed somewhere because of air travel, the air system of the Nation is close to gridlock, not enough capacity to meet the demand, again, the demand is increasing at a rate greater than the rate of increase in population, in year 2000 there were 700 million passengers traveling by air in the United States, the projection is 1 billion air travelers by year 2010; . Infrastructure capacity is stagnant, only six runways have been built in the United States in the last fifteen years, four of those are at the new Denver Airport, Phoenix recently had a new runway built, another is believed to be built in San Francisco, yet four runways sit empty and unused at EI Toro capable of providing commercial air services; . The County Operational Plan consist of arrivals coming in from the south at approximately Dana Point, landing to the north, most departures would takeoff to the east, approximately thirty percent would takeoff to the north, again, the 14;000 acre buffer zone consists of not a home or school, that has been in existence, and the County used that based on the sixty-five decibel CNEL Military Noise Standards; . Concerns about Seal Beach and EI Toro, what if no airport is built at EI Toro, a possibility, one can project the increase of traffic on the 405 freeway with people traveling to Los Angeles International, how will this effect the local economy; . As of today it is said the new Secretary of Defense and the President are talking about another round of BRAC base closures, even though the closures started in 1991 and 1993 at Tustin and EI Toro are not complete, those two are left, should there be another round of BRAC closures and it is decided to close Los Alamitos or Seal Beach Naval Weapons Station, what does this portend, would they put in a great park or an airport in Seal Beach; 8-27-01 . The General said he would leave those questions with the Council, offered to answer any questions, or show additional slides if there was interest in viewing the misinformation put out by those opposed to the airport at EI Toro. Councilman Boyd requested General Bloomer show the additional slides. I * The General explained that much of the misinformation has to do with demand, safety has been criticized, how unsafe is it to take off on ten thousand foot runways, yet say nothing about the five thousand seven hundred foot runway at John Wayne, an airplane can become airborne at John Wayne using approximately eighty percent of the runway, an aircraft can become airborne at EI Toro using about forty percent of the runway, the question is which would be preferred, noise and air quality are the other issues; * The opponents state that EI Toro is not needed, that the numbers the Southern California Association of Governments used to project demand are wrong, and that John wayne can handle all of the traffic for the next twenty-five years, another airport is not needed; * It was stated again that the EI Toro runway is ten thousand feet long, the hill is not even a thousand feet high, is over 6.6 miles away before another airplane starts its takeoff, the opponents say that airplanes will be taking off into mountains, that airplanes crashed there, to which he confirmed that a plane did crash there in 1965, a military version 707 that killed eighty-four marines, that incident was a pilot error, 1:00 a.m. takeoff, bad visibility, made a right turn for a reason no one will ever know, an unfortunate accident that has been used to say how unsafe EI Toro is, which is not true; I * The opponents claim also that the military never used that runway after the accident, again not true, the General claiming he has personally taken off from that runway in transport and commercial aircraft in support of the troops in Dessert Storm, commercial, civilian, and transport aircraft used that runway many times after 1965; * The airport has already said that flights from EI Toro can be safely accommodated, an FAA safety analysis is anticipated soon, the word of the FAA is that flights can be safely accommodated from the airport; I * With regard to noise it was said a depiction of the opponents is 747 aircraft flying in formation and coming in to land, that a great distortion, the flight tracks come no where near a home within 6.5 miles of the runway, if the same type of flight takeoff were used at EI Toro that is used at John Wayne the aircraft would be about three thousand feet over Lorna Ridge, four to five thousand feet over Mission viejo when the right turn is made 8-27-01 also, noise will be nowhere near as loud as a military jet with the afterburners on; * With regard to air quality and traffic misinformation, the opponents say there are no fuel pipelines to serve EI Toro, that there will be two hundred forty-four diesel trucks a day hauling fuel, and jet exhaust will poison the air, yet according to the EIR there are two different pipelines coming into EI Toro, one the military used, the Norwalk pipeline to the north, the other runs along the Santa Fe tracks to the south, it is clearly covered in the EIR that the plan is to use pipelines to provide fuel into EI Toro, not diesel trucks; I * It can safely be said there will be reduced trips on congested freeways, 761,000 fewer trips per day are projected if EI Toro is used as an airport, it would take the traffic off the freeways going to Los Angeles International or Ontario, there are also multi-mobile transit options, and when there is less traffic there is better air quality. I Councilman Larson recalled seeing a report by a group that supports an airport yet it states that the runways should not be crossing, to that they projected a safety factor. General Bloomer responded that that is a valid concern, this is an old design of an airport, and stated that in the OCRAA cities, of which there are sixteen, it is believed to be safe to say that all of the member cities and representatives are united in desiring that the reuse of EI Toro be for commercial aviation, even though there are some differences on the board with respect to how it should be operated, some members have proposed that the arrivals come in from a different direction and the departures take off in another. The General said it is explained in the EIR why the preferred alternative of the County was chosen, that is not to say that at some point in the future, as new technology comes forth, the criteria that the County planners used to choose that alternative may no longer be valid, part of the problem is that arrivals coming in from the north do not meet the FAA criteria for clearances at a three degree glide path coming in over Lorna Ridge, however there is new technology that he believes will soon be approved by the FAA which would allow that glide path to be increased and allow an airplane such as a 777 or 747 to come in at a higher glide path, this FAA study may give a lot of insight to that. He noted that if the County plan does not meet FAA criteria for safety or airspace management then the FAA will be the final arbiter on how the airport should be operated, the contention of his group is that the best thing that should happen is that an aviation use be commenced quickly, that could be done with cargo which would give a feel as to how the airport is operating and how it is integrating with the air space that surrounds it, that would be better known after it has been used as a commercial airport for a time, there is always room to improve the efficiency of an airport operation, during the jet evolution many airports changed their operations such as building longer runways, that same thing may be seen in the future with things such as the JPS technology and other improvements that will enable better air space management and better control of arrivals and departures. I 8-27-01 Councilmember Campbell made the comment that expansion of John Wayne Airport could only be done at one end because the end of the runway ends where the 73 freeway cuts in, it would be a tremendous project to extend the runway over the end of a cliff. Of interest last year were some test flights performed at EI Toro, one plane was due to land at 10:00 a.m., it did not, it arrived instead about noon, however around 10:00 a.m. the phone began ringing with noise complaints even though the plane had not yet landed, when it did land the people all missed it. Councilmember Campbell said Seal Beach has considerable at stake with the proposed EI Toro airport, if not built, CalTrans will most likely widen the 405 freeway, a known fact is that it is easier to condemn developed residential land for freeway widening than it is to take military land, so if the 405 is widened a number of homes in College Park East will be condemned rather than cutting into the Naval Weapons Station, this is a significant concern. Councilmember Campbell mentioned that Colonel wagner too is a retired marine officer, in 1989 Colonel Wagner was the representative for EI Toro at the Site Coalition meetings, at that time he would repeat that EI Toro was not available, now it.is and Colonel Wagner is working on this effort. She mentioned that initially there were about two dozen sites in Orange County, a couple were added, others were removed because of fatal flaws, of interest is that Los Alamitos was removed from the list because it was considered a medium haul site where the intent was to seek long haul sites, also, Los Alamitos had a fatal flaw in that the takeoffs intersected over Leisure World with the approach to the Long Beach airport. Councilmember Campbell noted that there were four sites in this area that were among the top ten and never taken off the list, as these sites remained on the list they became more developed on paper, of those sites one was the Naval weapons Station, another was called Long Beach Harbor yet was actually located at the end of Seal Beach Boulevard, in both cases Seal Beach Boulevard became the connection to the 405 freeway, as a local street it ceased to exist, Seal Beach Boulevard became the freeway to get to either the .new airport on the Weapons Station or the airport at the end of the Boulevard, that plan took a good portion of Leisure World, the Hill, and Old Town, Seal Beach ceased to exist as it is known today. She mentioned that the other two sites were Bolsa Bay off the coast of Bolsa Chica State Beach and Huntington Flats off the coast of Huntington Beach, at present everyone is concerned with water quality, yet in ten years South County will have the population to vote to put an airport anywhere in Orange County if EI Toro is not approved for airport use, if an airport were to come into Seal Beach, water quality will not matter, the beach will be ruined, people need to pay attention. I I Colonel Wagner concurred with the comments of Councilmember Campbell, confirmed that during the Airport Site Collation days they fought vehemently and rightfully so because the Marine base was not available but it was known that EI Toro was an outstanding airfield that served the Marines for over fifty years through props and jet aircraft, that is why when the base closed both he and General Bloomer came to separate, yet the same conclusion that this was the logical place to serve Orange County particularly because of the buffer zone, an ideal location, however they are not dealing with a practical issue, it is a not in my backyard issue that involves distortion, lies, accusations, personal threats, and he is even being sued. Mayor Doane asked if anyone has pointed out during discussions relating to a park or an I 8-27-01 I airport how little of the park plan would actually be a park and how much would be expensive homes that would generate even more need for an airport. Colonel Wagner responded that that is an issue, however they can only discuss the airport, not attack the park, yet in the EIR when the airport use verses the millennium plan, which is called the park plan, is compared, the traffic generated by the homes surrounding the park, the fourteen thousand acres, it is known that homes are the greatest generators of vehicle traffic. Mayor Doane noted that today there were survey results published in a newspaper that indicates Orange County residents prefer the park to the airport, that is a concern. The COlonel agreed that it is, however there are also discussions with regard to planning for infrastructure, for that, leadership at the local, city, county, and regional levels is necessary, a plan is needed for the future, not thinking about what it is like today, the cost in future years without a plan for power generation facilities, fuel refineries, etc. will be substantially more, or, there will be unacceptable consequences, and confirmed this is difficult to explain to the average person. Colonel Wagner encouraged the Council to review the needs of Seal Beach for the future, he can assure of the need for an airport at EI Toro or the City will have to try to determine what to do when they attempt to put an airport in the backyard of Seal Beach. General Bloomer added he does not favor tearing up runways as it is not known when there may be another military contingency requiring aircraft use, EI Toro is a great site for emergency relief in the event of an earthquake, floods, etc., much better than John Wayne of such case, there are many reasons to not tear up the runways. Councilman Larson mentioned that he did not particularly like airplanes and does not fly out of Orange County because of the takeoffs, one experience had been shortly after the takeoff rule, the pilot on that flight informed the passengers that he was required to cut back on the power at the time he needed it most. General Bloomer said he understood the comments of Councilman Larson, as a pilot he too does not like takeoffs at John Wayne, his preference is a gentle climb rather than the steep climb. Colonel Wagner noted that the rate of climb is a thousand feet per nautical mile at John Wayne Airport, the highest in the United States, most airports have a climb requirement in the three to five hundred foot range, the climb rate at EI Toro is three hundred sixty feet per nautical mile on one runway, four hundred ten feet on another, that climb rate is forty-one percent of that required at John Wayne, that gives the pilot a lot of available power in case something were to go wrong. Appreciation was extended to General Wagner for the presentation. I I PROCLAMATION - LAWSUIT ABUSE AWARENESS WEEK Mayor Doane proclaimed the week of September 17th September 21st as "Lawsuit Abuse Awareness Week." second by Boyd, to approve said proclamation. through Yost moved, YES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried PROCLAMATION - RACE FOR the CURE Mayor Doane mentioned that Councilmember Campbell would be attending the upcoming Orange County Race for the Cure event representing the City of Seal Beach. Councilmember Campbell announced that the upcoming 10th Annual Race for the Cure, the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, will be run on Sunday, September 23rd in Newport Beach. Councilmember 8-27-01 Campbell read in full the "Race for the Cure" proclamation, invited all to attend this event, and noted that nationwide the rate of breast cancer is one in nine, in Southern California it is one in eight, and in Orange county it is one in seven. Larson moved, second by Boyd, to so proclaim. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried I COUNCIL ITEMS ORANGE COUNTY TRANSPORTATION AUTHORITY POLICY COMMITTEE APPOINTMENTS Mayor Doane mentioned the request to appoint two members of the Council to the Orange County Transit Authority Policy Committee. Councilman Larson volunteered to serve however noted he would be unable to attend the first meeting to be held in September. Mayor Doane said this is a first step in the effort to approve a study of high capacity transit system options, it is felt to be important that Seal Beach be represented, as far as light rail this part of Orange County seems to be completely overlooked. Mayor Doane was suggested as the second representative, and it was again noted that both would be unable to attend the September 27th meeting. Yost moved, second by Boyd, to approve the appointment of Councilman Larson and Mayor Doane as members of the Orange County Transportation Authority (OCTA) Policy Committee. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried I CONSENT CALENDAR - ITEMS "E" thru "0" Yost moved, second by Boyd, to approve the recommended action for items on the Consent Calendar as presented, except Items "N" and "0", removed for separate consideration. E. Approved the waiver of reading in full of all ordinances and resolutions and that consent to the waiver or reading shall be deemed to be given by all Councilmembers after the reading of the title unless specific request is made at that time for the reading of such ordinance or resolution. F. Approved regular demands number 34148 through 34357 in the amount of $929,227.10, payroll demands numbered 13041 through 13243, and 27718 in the amount of $219,913.83, payroll liability account 9000662 through 9000671 in the amount of $77,650.46, and authorized warrants to be drawn on the Treasury for same. G. Adopted Ordinance Number 1474 entitled "AN ORDINANCE OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH AMENDING SECTION 13D-7 OF THE CODE OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH REGARDING THE ALLOWABLE HOURS OF CONSTRUCTION AND MAINTENANCE ACTIVITIES." By unanimous consent, full reading of Ordinance Number 1474 was waived. I H. Authorized the Mayor to sign the response letter directed to Judge C. Robert Jameson relating to the 2000-2001 Grand Jury Report 'Affordable Housing, Light One Candle,' and instructed staff to forward a copy of same to the orange County .Grand Jury and the Planning Commission. I I I AYES: NOES: 8-27-01 1. Adopted Resolution Number 4922 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH, CALIFORNIA, APPROVING THE CITY'S PARTICIPATION IN THE LOCAL COASTAL FUNDING ASSISTANCE PROGRAM." By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution Number 4922 was waived. J. Approved the Agreement for provision of Environmental Health Services between the City and the County of Orange for the enforcement of certain health and safety codes in the City for an unspecified term commencing July l't, 2001, and authorized the Mayor to execute said agreement. K. Supported the higher funding level of $151,572,000.00 allocated by the House of Representatives for beach restoration projects, and authorized the City as a signatory to the American Coastal Coalition Resolution "Supporting Federal Funding of Coastal Projects." L. Adopted Resolution Number 4923 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH ESTABLISHING WAGES AND BENEFITS FOR MANAGEMENT AND MID-MANAGEMENT EMPLOYEES AND REPEALING ON THE EFFECTIVE DATES SPECIFIED ALL RESOLUTIONS IN CONFLICT THEREWITH." By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution Number 4923 was waived. M. Adopted Resolution Number 4924 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY.COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH AUTHORIZING THE RECOVERY OF ADMINISTRATIVE COSTS INCURRED IN CONNECTION WITH ARRESTS." By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution Number 4924 was waived. P. Bids were received until August 22"d, 2001 at 11:00 a.m. for Coastline/Carmel Avenue Storm Drain Replacement, Project Number 50056, at which time they were publicly opened by the City Clerk: BNB Engineering Atlas Allied Southern California Undergrounding $43,500.00 $50,500.00 $67,000.00 Awarded the contract to the lowest responsible bidder, BNB Engineering, Inc., for project Number 50056, Replacement of the Coastline/Carmel Avenue Storm Drain in the amount of $43,500.00 and authorized the City Manager to execute said contract on behalf of the City. Q. Awarded the unit price/maintenance contract for berm and sand maintenance services to Cattrac Construction based upon their proposal dated August 16, 2001, and authorized the City Manager to execute same on behalf of the City. Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried 8-27-01 ITEMS REMOVED FROM THE CONSENT CALENDAR ITEM "N" - RESOLUTON NUMBER 4925 - APPLICATION - BLOCK GRANT FUNDS - ROBERTI Z'BERG-HARRIS BLOCK GRANT PROGRAM - PARKS/WATER/AIR/COASTAL PROTECTION ACT Councilmember Campbell noted that the fiscal impact of this item will come from the Park Improvement Fund balance, to that she had inquired what would not then be funded in lieu of this proposed match of funds, the response from the City Manager was that nothing would be impacted. I Councilman Yost moved to adopt Resolution Number 4925 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH APPROVING THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH TO APPLY FOR GRANT FUNDS FOR THE ROBERTI Z'BERG-HARRIS URBAN OPEN SPACE AND RECREATION PROGRAM UNDER THE SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD PARKS, CLEAN WATER, CLEAN AIR, AND COASTAL PROTECTION BOND ACT OF 2000." Councilman Boyd seconded the motion. By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution Number 4925 was waived. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried ITEM "0" AWARD OF BID - ALLEY UTILITY REPLACEMENT PROGRAM (WATER/SEWER) - PROJECTS 019-49820-062. 043-49813-060 Councilman Boyd commended staff for their efforts to bring together this project for the rehabilitation and replacement of the 13~/14th Street and 14~/15th Street alleys from Pacific Coast Highway to Electric Avenue, the second big stride since the lOth/Main Street alley, this program is intended to be on-going for years to come, noted also that the project is under budget given the engineering estimate of $904,000.00, and the sole bid received was in the amount of $756,963.00, expressed appreciation to the Orange County Sanitation District for their contribution in the amount of $224,100.00 of Cooperative Project money. I Bids were received until August 22, 2001 at 10:00 a.m. for Project Number 49813-50062, Utility Line and Alley Replacement Program, 13th/14th and 14th/15th Street alleys, at which time they were publicly opened by the City Clerk as follows: Marjich Brothers, Inc. $756,963.00 Boyd moved, second by Campbell, to award the contract for the Alley Utility Replacement Program (Water and Sewer), projects 019-49820-062 and 43-49813-060 to the sole bidder, Majich Brothers, Inc., in the amount of $756,963.00, and authorized the City Manager to execute the contract on behalf of the City. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried I RESOLUTION NUMBER 4921 - STORMWATER OUALITY MASTER PLAN Councilman Boyd requested that this item be continued, continued once before however are other issues of importance are on the agenda such as the outfall discussion, and inquired if it was necessary that an action be taken on the Resolution at this meeting. The City Manager agreed that the Council could continue the item if desired. Councilman Yost stated his preference that this item be agendized at the beginning of the next Council meeting, to that Mayor Doane suggested it be moved forward on the agenda at the time of 8-27-01 approval of the agenda. Councilman Yost said he would do so in order that the residents can hear all the information on the matter. I Boyd moved, second by Yost, to continue Resolution Number 4921, the Stormwater Quality Master Plan, to the September lOth meeting. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried RECESS It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to declare a recess at 9:20 p.m. The Council reconvened at 9:30 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order. RESOLUTION NUMBER 4926 - OCEAN OUTFALL - WASTEWATER ISSUES- 301(HI WAIVER Councilman Boyd introduced Mr. Blake Anderson, General Manager of the Orange County Sanitation District, present to discuss the 301(h) permit that has been a subject of discussion. I Mr. Anderson said he could only imagine what those present may be thinking as to what could possibly be said in response to the eloquent and passionate pleas heard from fourteen speakers, his hope is to convince those present to allow the process to move forward, that he understands it may appear to be a clash of values, yet his feeling is that it is not, rather a clash of perspective and possibly disagreement on the technical approaches that the Sanitation District uses to address the cleanup of environmental issues. . The process that the Orange County Sanitation District will be moving forward between now and December of next year is worth waiting for, and by now he and Mr. Haydoc and Mr. Vandersloot are familiar with the comments of each other; . There is a fairly simple but profound description of what the Orange County Sanitation District faces in making environmental decisions, that is that whatever the District does as an operating sewage treatment plant has some significant impacts on air, land, and water quality; . It takes energy to convert waste from one environmental media to another, that is part of what the District has thought about for the past fifteen years, it is the way they frame, plan, design and operate their facility, that describes who they are as a public agency, and what they believe in to protect the environment and look at all these issues simultaneously as the District makes decisions; I . The Orange County Sanitation District operates and maintains two regional treatment plants, six hundred fifty miles of sewers and twenty-two pumping stations, the District operates and maintains those facilities with a budget of over $40 million a year, and a twenty year capital budget of $1.5 billion, reserves are set aside for the specific purpose of rehabilitating, upgrading, 8-27-01 and the addition of facilities over the next twenty years, that money is earmarked for projects; . The District treats 240 million gallons of waste per day with five hundred staff, engineers, operators, maintenance people, laboratory technicians, planners all working together to operate this large regional facility; I . . The Orange County Sanitation District looks at wastewater treatment as being three parts, first, in the community itself the District has a very aggressive industrial source control program, that is where the toxicants that are contained within industrial waste are controlled, the District has received several EPA awards over the past few years and the District can show the trends that have been excellent over a period of twenty years in reducing industrial waste from their system; . Treatment, half of the wastewater receives advanced primary treatment using coagulation chemicals that improve its removal rate and half the flow receives secondary treatment; . Wastewater then goes to ocean disposal through the ocean outfall, the Sanitation District does depend upon depth, distance, and dilution as part of the overall way that wastewater is managed in orange County, and that is one of the reasons this combination of events, source control, treatment, and outfall, makes the Orange County Sanitation District only one of thirty-six agencies in the country that have a 301(h) waiver; I . The Sanitation District also reclaims water, between five and ten million gallons a day with the Orange County Water District, and the plan is to increase that to about seventy million gallons a day through a project that is currently under design, the opening of that new plant will be in the year 2005; . The ocean outfall goes out a little over four miles before making a turn, in two hundred feet of water there is a one mile diffuser with five hundred ports, that induces a tremendous amount of dilution; . There is a plume that comes out of the outfall that looks similar to smoke coming from a chimney, the plume stays basically parallel to shore and moves anywhere from a mile to two to three miles offshore depending upon prevailing conditions; I . The Orange County Sanitation District is highly regulated, their permit is issued by the united States Environmental Protection Agency under the provisions of the Clean Water Act, approved by the Regional Water Quality Control Board under the California Porter-Cologn Act and a number of other permits including those issued by the South Coast Air Quality Management District, that is basically the rules under which the Orange County Sanitation I I I 8-27-01 District must perform three hundred sixty-five days a year; . Question is why does the Sanitation District have an Ocean Discharge 301(h) Permit - first, the District does pay attention to the air, land, and energy impacts that are a part of overall operations, truck traffic is one area that translates to higher levels of treatment as more chemicals are added to the wastewater, those are realities that the District tries to keep in mind as they look at this important public policy decision, and it does give the ability to balance environmental impacts; . The Sanitation District has had fifteen years of ocean monitoring and the District believes that is convincing evidence that they are protecting the ocean environment and recreation; . Question is what does the discharge permit do for the District - it relaxes only two standards, the biochemical oxygen demand which is the way to measure how much oxygen the wastewater consumes out into the environment after its discharge, an issue that is important to streams and lakes and inland discharges, not an issue for an ocean discharge like that of the Orange County Sanitation District, there is no oxygen depletion in the ocean environment around the outfall, the second issue is suspended solids, in large quantities suspended solids can blanket the ocean bottom, limit light penetration, add to turbidity, those are issues that are not present and not of concern with their ocean discharge; . In response to a question posed, it was explained that suspended solids, they are microscopic, appear cloudy, the District is required to have a strict industrial source control program, strict toxicant limits are set on their discharge, the Orange County Sanitation District is required to meet the same limitations that every other ocean discharger in California must meet, because of their industrial source control program they are able to do that; . The District is required to meet all of the ocean water quality standards in the State of California, the State Water Resources Control Board every few years issues a 'California Ocean Plan' which establishes a number of limitations that the District must achieve as do all other ocean dischargers, the Districf also must support a naturally occurring aquatic community, there are years of monitoring data to demonstrate that; . The District must protect public health, that the issue upon which the discussion at this meeting turns, the ocean monitoring program costs approximately $2 million a year to conduct everything required, there are a number of things to be looked at on a routine basis such as beach stations for bacteria, ocean sediments for chemicals, ocean water quality for chemicals, 8-27-01 chemicals in fish tissues, and characterize the animal communities that live around the outfall, that includes small animals that live in the sediments, as well as the fish and crustaceans that live around the outfall; . The Sanitation District must demonstrate to the satisfaction of the State of California and the EPA that the District is maintaining a natural animal community around the outfall, that has been demonstrated; I . There are four questions that anyone in orange County should ask of the District, and in turn the District asks itself, is it safe to swim, is it safe to eat the fish, are the fish healthy, is the ecosystem being protected; . It is believed the monitoring data of the District shows that to be true, the studies done so far off Huntington Beach also demonstrates that; . The big question is Huntington Beach - approximately three thousand feet of shoreline in Huntington Beach regularly experienced elevated bacteria levels, in 1999 that became very evident, during that time the District spent considerable money monitoring the ocean, the District initially suspected it was the result of their outfall or a large trunk line that runs along Pacific Coast Highway, a lot of money was spent trying to find where the leak might be, it was never found, the District did discover however that water coming from the Talbert Marsh was believed to be influencing the beach therefore the District along with Huntington Beach conducted a number of dry weather urban runoff diversions and with that the bacterial levels improved by a factor of two, a significant improvement, as a result of that work in August and September of 1999 the Huntington beaches started to go from being closed to being posted and the recreational resources began to return to natural conditions; I . In response to a suggestion of Council that information be shared as to what the commitment of the Board of the Sanitation District was to Huntington Beach and how much money was spent on testing that summer, it was reported that in 1999 the District spent well over $1 million in search of the reason for the high bacteria counts, in 2000 nearly that amount was spent, and this summer, to test the UCI hypothesis the District will spend about $5 million for a very intense program designed by a Technical Advisory Committee comprised of representatives of Scripts Ocean Institute, UCLA, USC, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration and others; I . The program consists of the best ocean scientists on the west coast, collected around the questions as how to test the UCI hypothesis, which, stated simply, that a combination of naturally occurring ocean forces along with the discharge from the ADS power plant could pull the edge of the plume into I I I 8-27-01 shore and cause the bacterial problems that have been experienced; . The Sanitation District took the hypothesis seriously, a third party scientist was retained to design a study which is still on-going, with caution, reported there are preliminary results, the District has found there is clean water in all of the testing done, there has always been clean water between the District discharge and the elevated bacterial counts on the beach, it was found too that the beach appears to have more elevated bacteria during a receding tide as opposed to a flood, that would lead one to believe that there is still some kind of inland source contributing to the problem in Huntington Beach, for that reason some additional checking of land, bay sources in and around the AES power plant is being done, stormwater channels are being looked at as are old drawings and photographs to explore if there is an old sewer pipe or other infrastructure that may be conveying bacterial contamination; * To a question posed by the Mayor as to possible leakage from the treatment plant at Brookhurst and Pacific Coast Highway, the response was that one of the first questions raised by the District in 1999 was if any of their own treatment facilities might be leaking into the ground and was that water moving to the beach, that was checked as was the main sewer line along Pacific Coast Highway, as well as the outfall pipe which starts just up-coast of the Santa Ana River, the District did dye studies as well to look for any evidence of a leak that would explain the bacterial problems; . The ocean discharge permit, which has been called the waiver, the variance, the loophole, is issued under the terms in the Clean Water Act, first issued in 1984, renewed in 1998, the District will have a permit application of some type due to the EPA and State of California in December, 2002, the current permit will expire in June of 2003, the District is obligated to put in a new application one hundred eighty 180 days before the expiration of the existing permit to give the EPA and the State time to consider the terms and conditions that they will issue to the Sanitation District; . Over the next sixteen months the Orange County Sanitation District intends to have an open process to allow the public to provide input at numerous workshops that will be held at the District's administrative offices with the Board of Directors present, including a hearing, there will be a formal public commentary period in mid-2002; . During that period all of the ocean research that is now being conducted off of Huntington Beach, various reports on treatment technology, including research on microfiltration as a possible treatment technology, that is found to be quite attractive because it uses little energy, produces little sludge, is remarkably efficient for removing bacteria and viruses from the waste stream, however 8-27-01 microfiltration is yet unproven, that is why the research is being done, those reports, along with costs and financing will be considered by the twenty-five member Board of Directors in their decision which is expected in November, 2002; . The Orange County Sanitation District's introductory public workshop was held in July, the public was provided with an outline of events, in October, 2001 the District expects to complete the Huntington Beach field work, in November the District will likely conduct a second public workshop, the Huntington Beach report is expected to be completed in March, 2002, this coming Thursday the Technical Advisory Committee is meeting on the question of how to interrupt the results that are currently being developed, all of which will be subject to peer and third party review, that will go into the Huntington Beach report, a draft version of the treatment studies report is expected, a third workshop is anticipated to provide a public update on the findings until that time, final reports will be filed with the District Board about May of 2002, a fourth public workshop is thought will be provided to review details and an 'A' and 'B' budget will likely be adopted, the intent is to be prepared dependant upon the final decision of the Board to move forward with a higher level of treatment, thus the Board will be asked to adopt two budgets, one status quo, the other to move to a higher level of treatment; I I . It was explained that over the years the District has made sure they do not build any kind of a blind canyons in what they do, the land is available, they have planned with a footprint of what full secondary treatment would be, in mind is what the financing will be, the intent is that whatever decision the Board makes turns to the question of adequate level of treatment and that there is no excuse, financial, technical or otherwise to not do what the Board decides, that is part of the confidence they have in what they are doing, making sure all of the information is provided to the Board so they can make a thoughtful determination about this very important public policy decision; . The Sanitation District expects that a draft permit application will be completed in August, 2002, that would begin a forty-five day public commentary period to give all stakeholders reasonable time to review the application, provide public comments to the Board in September, a response by the Board in October, a final hearing by the Board in November, and adopt the terms of what the permit application will be, then it would be expected to submit the permit application in December of next year to the EPA and the State of California; I . Question, what does the Orange County Sanitation District need from the City of Seal Beach, the District would like the Council to remain engaged in this dialogue, certainly from Councilman Boyd and his participation on the Board of Directors 8-27-01 I they would hope staff would review and comment on the marine science as it is completed early next year, it is hoped the Council will invite the District back for a formal study session during 2002 as the information moves forward, and mainly, the preference would be that the Council wait to consider a resolution asking the District to move to full secondary treatment until all the facts are in, the Board has the ability to deliberate, and make a final decision that is. believed Seal Beach and the other twenty-four entities that are on the Board of Directors can live with. I Councilman Yost noted that in 1990 there were sixty 301(h) permits issued, last year only thirty-six were issued, question is why the decrease and why would one not join one of the communities that no longer requires a waiver, it is certain that the population in all of the cities has increased, the solid waste requiring disposal has increased, yet fewer waivers by about sixty percent, again why would the District not want to join them especially since the District is the largest discharger of the thirty-six permits. Mr. Anderson stated he was not aware of what led to the decisions of the other agencies to move to full secondary, noted that one thing that has been said in recent months is that there has been a significant increase in the amount of wastewater the District is discharging, possibly some threshold has been crossed as a result of that, the discharge of the District has ranged somewhere between 220 million and 260 million gallons a day for about the last fifteen years, much of that has to do with water conservation, changes in the economy from year to year, whether or not there has been wet weather or dry weather, surprisingly the overall amount of material being discharged has not changed much today from what it was fifteen years ago, however the question remains why not go to full secondary. Councilman Yost offered that it appears that of the sixty permits issued ten years ago, twenty-four have gone to full secondary treatment and no longer require a 301(h) waiver, the Orange County District is one of the thirty-six remaining and the largest discharger of those permits, the others determined it was in their best interest to go to full secondary treatment. Councilman Yost mentioned that through his profession he is accustomed to basing things on science and evidence, he would find it hard to determine to wait for a series of studies as it would not seem to make sense to continue to discharge large amounts of partially treated sewage five miles off the coast, maybe just get rid of the waiver. Mr. Anderson said if there was evidence that the District's plume was coming to shore, he would be the first to make that recommendation to the Board of Directors, at this time there is no evidence that the plume reaches shore, that is fact, yet there is considerable amount of concern about that, the 1996 study was mentioned, it showed little difference from the findings so far this summer, the plume did not reach shore in 1996 nor this summer. Given that, what should compel the District to make the decision to move to full secondary treatment, the estimated initial cost of which is about $200 million in capital costs, another $200 million in the next ten or fifteen years as the plant stands with increasing population, to make that decision it is' felt one needs to come to the conclusion there is in fact something wrong that needs to be addressed, at this point the marine environment around the outfall is natural and healthy as are the conditions in terms of bacterial levels I 8-27-01 along the beaches, to that he would say that if the District was at full secondary today, and disinfected, that the bacterial counts that are experienced around Huntington Beach today would be no different, there is no evidence at this point to give reason to believe that the plume is reaching shore, and it is felt that turns the $200 million question. To Mr. Anderson, Councilman Yost said given his experience with the Sanitation District he would obviously know the multitude of diseases that are transmitted by the oral fecal route, so to him it seems unrealistic to have this deposit of 240 million gallons a day of potentially lethal waste five miles off the coast, even if it is said it does not reach shore today, what about tomorrow or next week, and given that nearly half of the other agencies have already gone to full secondary, it would seem that this City should recommend full secondary treatment as well. Mr. Anderson said among the various things that will be described to the Board are air impacts, additional truck traffic, and additional energy requirements that going to a higher level of treatment will imply, that is part of the formula, the sweet spot that was mentioned is felt should be taken into account as long term, sustainable wastewater management is looked at, all those other environmental media are just as important as water quality, the entire picture needs to be considered when making a decision. Councilman Yost concurred, noting that one of his ambitions when he came on Council was to work on water quality in the San Gabriel River, he understands the inter-relation between urban runoff and the way the hardscape is structured where the runoff essentially goes into the River, into Coyote Creek, off the beach and closes the beach whenever there is a major sewage spill, he believes in reclamation, water conservation, and best management practices, is in agreement that the total picture needs to be looked at, to him it would seem that part of that would be to not deposit partially treated sewage off the coast. I I Mayor Doane mentioned that he serves on the West Orange County Water Board, that agency has been hearing about reclaimed water, there were some steps and a lot of opposition to allowing it to trickle down into the aquifer to where it becomes part of the water supply, to that he asked if the District were to go to full secondary treatment would that increase the amount of reclaimed water that could be made available, not necessarily go into the aquifer but to be used for golf courses and irrigation of plants along the freeways and such, also, is there any tie-in with possibly going to full secondary and increasing the amount of use able water, that an issue that the Water Board is look to. Mr. Anderson responded that if all of the wastewater received full secondary treatment that would mean more water available for reclamation, the ground water replenishment system project is currently underway with the Water District, phase one would start at 70 million gallons a day, phases two and three would place them at 130 million gallons a day, still short of the 240 million gallons per day that they presently treat. His feeling in the long term is that Orange County and Southern California will look towards more and more water reclamation, so conceivably phases four and five would move further along, going to full secondary or using microfiltration, which is a promising technology, would provide additional wastewater that could in the future be reclaimed by the Orange County Water District. Mayor Doane offered that if the District went to full secondary and generated more reclaimed water would revenue not be realized that would offset the cost. The response of Mr. Anderson was I 8-27-01 I no, explaining that the secondary effluent that they provide to the Water District is at no charge, then when the Water District, with the sanitation District, builds phase one they will use water sales as revenue to pay for the operation of the reclamation plant, the tertiary treatment or microfiltration, reverse osmosis, and ultraviolet disinfection that they will provide at their facilities, the Sanitation District receives nothing from the secondary effluent that they provide the Water District, that has been the practice for over twenty-five years. Mayor Doane asked if that practice could be corrected, to which Mr. Anderson responded that he did not believe so because it is necessary to have a water supply that is relatively competitive with Metropolitan Water District rates, that has been a controversial issue with the water pumpers in Orange County, so they have tried to keep the cost of wastewater treatment on the District side and the cost of reclaimed water on the Water District side, that for the purpose of keeping it fairly affordable so that the much needed water reclamation project can move forward, it all fits together, especially in the long term. I Councilman Boyd said what is done at the District in terms of treatment and discharge, the term sewage is actually wastewater, what that is is whatever goes down a sink, shower, dishwasher, washing machine, toilet, industrial discharge into the system as well, a large percentage of that water comes from non-human sources other than washing materials. Councilmember Campbell said with the number of permits decreasing, if this permit were approved it would just be delaying the inevitable and at the peril of all, there needs to be plans for the future whether it be .airports or sewage treatment. She expressed her concern with the plume being five miles out, what if it decides to move, there will be no means to stop it, this City is concerned with water quality because it sits at the mouth of the San Gabriel, she could not support renewing the waiver again. Yost moved, second by Campbell, to adopt Resolution Number 4926 entitled "A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SEAL BEACH RELATING TO THE DISCHARGE OF WASTEWATER INTO THE PACIFIC OCEAN," opposition to the 301(h) waiver as set forth in Alternative One of the staff report. By unanimous consent, full reading of Resolution Number 4926 was waived. I Councilman Larson said he refused to believe that the Sanitation District is operated by a group of elected officials that are uninformed, uninterested and non- sympathetic to the needs and the purpose of the District, they work in this area, have experts, a member of this Council sits on the Sanitation District Board and is privy to all of the information, this City has no vote on whether or not the District receives a variance, he believes also that the regulatory agencies that regulate the Sanitation District are unaware of the fact of what is going on, the plume has been offshore for a long period of time, it is not coming to shore now, tomorrow, or next week. Councilman Larson noted that if he votes against the resolution there are those that will say he is against motherhood, children swimming, etc., however, his belief is that there needs to be fairness in how pUblic funds are spent, if a half billion dollars were to be spent to do something that is then proven it did no good, that the causes of pollution was from some other source, so he would suggest that the Sanitation District be given the opportunity and time to proceed with this orderly process 8-27-01 that includes public input and opportunity for the groups to attend the meetings, challenge the evidence provided, in that what has been presented to this Council is a scare tactic of raw sewage off the beach and children swimming in it, yet that has not been proven by the statement that the Council now has, and confirmed his intent to vote no on the Resolution with the idea that the Sanitation District should be permitted to proceed in what seems to be an orderly and scientific method. I Councilman Boyd stated this is an issue the District has wrestled with for some time, the 301(h) waiver came to attention of most of the Board members during this last year as the deadline for consideration began to approach. He noted those present from the Ocean Outfall Group, and pointed out that they are early in the process, and likely looking to mount support for their cause. Councilman Boyd agreed however with the comments of Councilman Larson, the District is informed, money is not their primary concern, it is with the health of the ocean and the people that use it, as well as the economy of Orange County, it is important to have a clean ocean to support the economy, recalling the 1999 closures in Huntington Beach, treatment options and treatment costs are significant issues, as was stated by the District Manager it is not known what the different methodologies that are available now or in the near future could mean to this issue. He mentioned too that there are major concerns with urban runoff, for Seal Beach that is a primary concern because this City is not affected by the plume directly even if it should reach the shore, he would personally like to see a comprehensive effort by the District, as well as the County and each city within the watershed area to manage what they do and how they treat urban runoff, it is felt that eventually it will be necessary for the Sanitation District to treat what goes in the storm drains, that too is an issue that will increase costs for treatment and reclamation. Councilman Boyd said he feels compelled to support a resolution to say that a clean ocean is wanted, it appears the Council is leaning in that direction, however it is early in the process to be taking a position. Councilman Yost said he too appreciated the comments of Councilman Larson, it is believed that the interest of Mr. Anderson is to provide the best Sanitation District possible within their budget, he is also, as all administrators are, subject to running a good agency under the direction of the board, that does place some financial pressures on the person who runs that department. Councilman Yost expressed his concern with the problem of the increased number of beach closures, the increase in bacterial levels, the number of waivers nationally are decreasing nearly by half, yet this District is considering renewing their waiver, he generally wants to see the studies before making a decision, however again, it does not make sense to continue to dump large amounts of sewage offshore just because the District does not have the final studies, he lacks understanding why it is considered a good thing to dump 240 million gallons of partially treated wastewater five miles offshore daily when the coast is the livelihood of the area. I I Councilman Larson said he has always sympathized and appreciated the fine work of Councilman Yost with regard to the water quality coming down the San Gabriel River and the fact of the many hundreds and millions of dollars it will take to solve the problem in Seal Beach, and unless the additional tests reveal it is necessary to go to complete 8-27-01 I treatment, that money could very well go to do something in the San Gabriel River and other sources to keep the beaches in Seal beach clean, noting too that the local beach closures have not been the result of the plume. Councilman Yost agreed that most of the local problems have been due to urban runoff, agreed also that part of this is inter-related, if the District did go to full secondary treatment and the available water for reclamation is increased it is actually financially viable for cities inasmuch as this City irrigates with tap water where reclaimed water is approximately half the price, if reclaimed water is used, as has been discussed with Long Be?lch, it has a positive impact on the budget, it will improve the general situation, replenish the aquafer, decrease the amount of wastewater produced that is being pumped offshore, which also has to be treated. Mayor Doane noted however that wastewater requires separate pipes and feeder lines, that raises the cost. I Councilman Boyd mentioned that the Sanitation Board consists of twenty-five members, it will require thirteen members to direct staff to pursue either choosing the waiver or to deny that path, it is believed that December, 2002 is the timeframe for submittal. He noted that the Outfall Group made it quite clear that they intend to continue their crusade city-to-city, they have been to Seal Beach twice, are present each week at the District. Mayor Doane complimented the Outfall Group for their presentations, they are presenting a message yet also have results, that in the form of creating a public outcry, and as an elected official one does not turn their back on a public outcry. AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Yost Larson Motion carried Councilman Yost stated his appreciation for and understanding of the position of Councilman Larson, and Mayor Doane offered that his vote was in no way negative towards the Sanitation District Board. PUBLIC HEARING - LOCAL LAW ENFORCEMENT BLOCK GRANT Mayor Doane declared the public hearing open to consider the acceptance and appropriation of local law enforcement block grant funding in the amount of $20,879. The City Clerk certified that notice of the public hearing had been advertised as required by law, and reported that there were no communications received relating to this item. The City Manager presented the staff report, explained that the Local Law Enforcement Block Grant funds in the amount of $20,879, recently made available to the Police Department, are proposed to be used to upgrade the computer aided dispatch and the records management system, and to make certain upgrades to the computer security system. I Mayor Doane invited members of the audience wishing to speak to this item to come to the microphone and identify themselves for the record. There being no comments presented, Mayor Doane declared the public hearing closed. Boyd moved, second by Larson, to approve the acceptance of Local Law Enforcement Block Grant 2001 of $20,879 and the appropriation thereof as reported, also approved the allocation of $2,320 from the 2002/2003 General Fund as the City match to accept said grant. 8-27-01 AYES: NOES: Boyd, Campbell, Doane, Larson, Yost None Motion carried CITY ATTORNEY REPORT No report was presented. CITY MANAGER REPORT No report was presented. I COUNCIL COMMENTS Councilmember Campbell mentioned receiving a call from a resident of the Old Ranch Town Homes claiming to have recently been awakened at 5:30 a.m. by workers at the Old Ranch Golf Club using noisy lawn maintenance equipment, and questioned who they might call prior to 7:00 a.m. in such instance. Councilman Boyd thanked those who have responded and requested to be added to his e-mail distribution list, he has received ten to fifteen a week, it has been successful and he will continue as long as there are requests from the public. Councilman Larson mentioned that this meeting has illustrated a concern he expressed sometime ago, items are scheduled and placed on Council agendas, people have put forth time and effort and anticipate having the opportunity of being heard to express their point of view, yet unfortunately an hour and a half is spent under Public Comments, this might be compared to a defendant going ahead of the plaintiff in a law suit, however his view of orderly process and a system of fairness is that the Director of the Sanitation District was invited to make a presentation, yet before he could do so there was the hour and a half of public statements, including statements involving the presentation by the District. Councilman Larson requested the City Manager conduct a study of other cities in Orange and Los Angeles counties as to whether it is general practice to allow Public Comments at the beginning of the session or at the end, pointing out that no matter the Council can take no action or discuss the issues brought forth. Councilmember Campbell mentioned that Public Comments were once agendized for thirty minutes at the beginning of the meetings, if one did not speak during that period they had the opportunity to speak at the end of the meeting, usually thirty minutes is enough time, in instances like this meeting the majority of speakers do not live in Seal Beach, also, the second Public Comment was eliminated because there was really no need. Councilman Larson said he was not suggesting a return to two Public Comment periods, the Council does not impress a rule where if someone is going to speak on a particular item they should wait for that item to come up, if that were followed the Sanitation District would have had the opportunity to make their report, then others could responded, his comments were merely in the interest of fair play. Councilman Boyd said he agreed, however the Brown Act requires the Council to allow the public to speak on any item before an action is taken, that could be done, the public comment period could be done away with and then allow general public comments at the end, these are business meetings during which the Council is to take action on issues of importance, it may be more relevant to allow comments at the time of considering an item. Mayor Doane said when he first joined the Council, he attempted to learn as much as possible about the City, one of the things he did was ride along with a Police Patrol Unit, after ten years he has again participated in a ride along in order to observe the changes in the City, these experiences have been extremely educational, it has shown the changes and procedures of the Police Department, a Department of which he I I 8-27-01 / 9-10-01 is very proud, and encouraged the members of the Council to also take advantage of this opportunity. CLOSED SESSION No Closed Session was held. I ADJOURNMENT It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council to adjourn the meeting until September lOth at 6:30 p.m. to meet in Closed Session if necessary. By unanimous consent the meeting was adjourned at 10:28 p.m. Attest: (j;~- ~M?/)e vb) J City Clerk ) Approved: I Seal Beach, California September 10, 2001 The City Council of the City of Seal Beach met in regular adjourned session at 6:30 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order with the Salute to the Flag. ROLL CALL Present: Mayor Doane Councilmembers Boyd, Campbell, Larson, Yost Absent: None Also present: Mr. Bahorski,.City Manager Mr. Barrow, City Attorney Ms. Yeo, City Clerk The City Attorney mentioned that anyone wishing to speak to an item on the agenda could do so at this time. I CLOSED SESSION The City Attorney announced that the Council would meet in Closed Session to discuss the items identified on the agenda pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.9(b), one potential case of litigation, Section 54956.9(a), Stinson versus City of Seal Beach, and a conference with the City's real property negotiator relating to the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power site pursuant to Government Code Section 54956.8. It was the order of the Chair, with consent of the Council, to adjourn to Closed Session at 6:33 p.m. The Council reconvened at 7:05 p.m. with Mayor Doane calling the meeting to order. The City Attorney announced that the Council