"License to Kill" Southern California's Waterways

My colleagues at Heal the Bay in Los Angeles have just released a terrific report on a key water quality issue:  toxic discharges of pollution from industry and public wastewater treatment plants in the LA area.  In "License to Kill: The Ineffectiveness of Toxicity Testing as a Regulatory Tool in the Los Angeles Region, 2000-2008," Heal the Bay found hundreds of instances where wastewater discharges contained toxic pollutants in toxic amounts:  "there were 819 chronic and 68 acute toxicity exceedances in the [] effluent, and there were 408 chronic and 64 acute toxicity exceedances among all receiving water testing stations."  Heal the Bay also found that virtually nothing was done about this:  "[d]espite this frequency of instances of toxicity, the Regional Board [the local regulatory agency tasked with implementing clean water law] recorded only 80 violations in the Los Angeles region from 2000 to 2008." 

What does this mean?  It means that often times just existing in certain waterways in Southern California can injure or kill fish and other aquatic life.  These are stunning findings, and they strongly suggest that the ability of local regulators to meet the Clean Water Act's goals and requirements has been compromised.  Indeed, the very first section of the national clean water law says, "[i]t is the national policy that the discharge of toxic pollutants in toxic amounts be prohibited."  (For those who want to read the text, see 33 United States Code Section 1251(a)(3).)

I will be blogging in the coming days about another major failure in water quality regulation in California, so stay tuned.  Good work, Heal the Bay.