PURPOSE

Staff is requesting City Council approval of a Total Maximum Daily Load Consultant Cost-Sharing and Retention Agreement. 

BACKGROUND

The City of Burbank has been asked by the Los Angeles County Executive Advisory Committee (EAC) to join a Total Maximum Daily Load (TMDL) consultant cost-sharing and retention agreement.  The EAC is an ad hoc committee comprised of 12 individuals, selected by the County of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Flood Control District, and the cities in Los Angeles County, whose purpose is to facilitate municipal stormwater permit activities among the permittees and to represent the permittees before the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Board) and other federal, state, and regional agencies. 

The purpose of the agreement is to fund technical and scientific studies related to the development of TMDLs.  A TMDL is the maximum amount of a pollutant a water body can receive from all sources on a daily basis without impairing the water�s beneficial uses.  The federal Clean Water Act requires that TMDLs be developed for  certain impaired water bodies.  All entities that discharge to an impaired water body must comply with the TMDLs once they are adopted.  TMDLs will be incorporated into various discharge permits, including the City�s municipal stormwater permit, either through amendment of the current permit or as part of the permit renewal process. 

There are 92 TMDLs scheduled for the Los Angeles region, each requiring extensive analytic work to guide their development.  The Regional Board has included the opportunity for stakeholder participation in the development of TMDLs in its Draft Strategy for Developing TMDLs, released in December 2002.  This participation can take a variety of forms including notice and comment, policy coordination and technical collaboration through advisory groups, and formal responsibility for completing all or a substantial amount of the work necessary to adopt TMDLs. 

ANALYSIS

The TMDL consultant cost-sharing agreement will facilitate the participation of Los Angeles region cities in the development of TMDLs as encouraged by the Regional Board�s Draft Strategy.  The agreement enables the cities to procure professional services to provide scientific data and technical analysis that can be used to develop and review TMDLs.  The information will also help cities better understand the potential operational and financial impact of TMDLs.  Development of this type of information can be expensive, and the agreement enables the cities to more cost effectively obtain consultant services by combining resources.  For example, the City of Burbank�s water reclamation and sewer division is already working with the Regional Board on a TMDL study for ammonia in conjunction with the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts and the City of Los Angeles.  If Burbank had conducted this study on its own, it would have cost over $400,000.  However, by doing the work in conjunction with the other sewer agencies, the cost to Burbank is reduced to $104,000.  

Under the EAC�s proposed TMDL consultant cost-sharing agreement, the participants will appoint a steering committee to develop a scope of work, prepare a request for proposal, and select a consultant.  The County of Los Angeles will administer a trust fund to receive the funds collected from participants and from which to pay the consultant.  The initial cost to participants is $7,500.  The participants will be invoiced for this initial payment when the agreement takes effect.  Additional assessments can be made upon a majority vote of the participants.  The amount of the additional assessments can also be modified by a majority vote of the participants.  If there are any funds remaining in the trust fund at the termination of the agreement, the County will redistribute the funds to the participants. 

Any participant can opt-out of the agreement at any time by providing written notice to the steering committee.  A participant who opts-out cannot receive a refund of payments made to the trust fund before the participant opted-out.  This is to ensure that the trust fund will be able to meet contractual obligations to the consultant made before the participant decided to opt-out. 

The agreement can be amended or terminated by a simple majority of the participants.  The agreement will take affect when 20 cities have approved it.  Currently, 13 cities have done so.

FISCAL IMPACT

The initial cost to the City to participate in the TMDL Consultant Cost-Sharing and Retention Agreement is $7,500.  Sufficient funds are available in account number 494.PW23A.62085.  Should additional assessments be approved by the participants, and staff determines that continued participation in the agreement would benefit the City, staff will use funds currently available in the 03/04 budget and, if needed, will budget funds for this purpose in the 04/05 budget. 

RECOMMENDATION

Staff recommends that the City Council adopt the proposed resolution approving the TMDL Consultant Cost-Sharing and Retention Agreement. 

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