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NEWS FROM WATERSHED MANAGEMENT
The Los Angeles County BMP Task Force
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April 2002 Issue |
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Do you represent a public agency, private developer,
consultant, or DPW Division with an interest in the design, approval, purchase, use, or
maintenance of stormwater quality Best Management Practices in Los Angeles County? Then
you're a BMP stakeholder, and we have a Task Force for you.
What is a BMP?
The letters BMP stand for "Best Management Practice," which, in the context of stormwater
quality, is a device or activity that improves or prevents the pollution of stormwater
and urban runoff. Stormwater is what flows off the land and into the storm drains, creeks,
rivers, lakes, and ocean when it rains. Even when it's not raining, due to everyday human
activities, there is water flowing in city and rural streets, making its way to the nearest
water body. We commonly call this dry weather urban runoff "nuisance flow." Both stormwater
and urban runoff have been identified as serious contributors of pollution, and regulations
have been developed on the federal, state, and local level to reduce and eliminate this
pollution. The most significant requirement of these regulations to reduce and eliminate
dry and wet weather pollution is the implementation of Best Management Practices.
Best Management Practices can be "structural" or "nonstructural" in nature, and can be either
commercially or publically available. Structural BMPs are those that employ some sort of
physical disruption, intercession, or redirection of the rainfall/runoff pattern to reduce
or eliminate stormwater pollution. Examples of structural BMPs are detention ponds, deflector
screen trash separators, and engineered wetlands. Nonstructural BMPs, on the other hand, are
activities and programs that do not interfere with the flow of water, but can get water cleaner
nonetheless. Examples of nonstructural BMPs are public education and catch basin stenciling.
The Mission
BMP stakeholders from around Southern California, hosted by the Department of Public Works,
came together a year ago to form the BMP Task Force and give it a mission. The mission of the
Task Force is "to be an ongoing forum to facilitate the selection, implementation, and financing
of effective BMPs through: data gathering, analysis, and exchange; stakeholder coordination; and
outreach."
Goals and Objectives
Early in its existence, the Task Force developed goals and objectives for itself that include:
developing a protocol by which BMP manufacturers can submit performance information; assembling
standard plans and specification of BMPs according to the protocol; investigating regional BMP
solutions; researching BMP financing mechanisms; and developing a BMP web site. The Task Force
formed subcommittees for each of these goals. The evaluation protocol is very close to completion,
and a BMP web site is ready to go live.
The Stakeholders
Current members of the stakeholder group from the Department of Public Works are: Watershed
Management (Bill DePoto, Jessica Dominguez, and Wai So); Flood Maintenance (Jerry Burke and
Gus Nakhoul); Design (Richard Weyermuller); Building and Safety (Mitch Miller); Road Maintenance
(Rainer Globus); Construction (Oscar Enriquez, Kira Alonzo, and Wu Tan); Land Development (Steve
Burger, Bruce Hamamoto, and Saleh Khalil); and Environmental Programs (Nardy Drew and Frank Chin).
Stakeholders from outside the Department of Public Works include representatives from cities
(including Calabasas, Westlake Village, Glendale, and Santa Clarita), other public agencies
(including the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project and the California Dept. of Health Sevices),
nonprofit and advocacy groups (including TreePeople, North East Trees, and the L.A./S.G. Rivers
Watershed Council), real estate developers (including Newhall Land and Farming), engineering
consultants (including Psomas and Fluid Systems), and BMP vendors (including Stormceptor, Jensen
Precast, and CDS Technologies).
BMP Web Site
In the very near future, County Public Works will host and maintain a web site,
www.BMPLA.org, on behalf of the BMP Task Force. The web site
will contain frequently asked questions and answers about BMPs, links to related BMP web sites,
acronyms, a list of BMP stakeholders, a list-server subscription service, and a BMP "Yellow Pages."
The Yellow Pages will be a searchable data base of BMP vendors and services. The data base
includes contact information for suppliers of BMP devices and services from trash separators
to porous pavement. The Yellow Pages also contain hot links to governmental and nonprofit agency
web sites that cover topics from green roofs to performance criteria for vegetated swales. Look
for an announcement of the web site's activation!!
Monthly Stakeholder Meetings
If you have an interest in stormwater Best Management Practices, you're invited to attend a meeting
of the BMP Task Force any first Monday of the month at DPW headquarters from 1:30 to 3:00 PM.
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