Time for a ‘moon shot’ effort over Los Angeles storm water

Passage of the proposed Los Angeles County Clean Water, Clean Beaches measure should usher in a sea change in which storm water best management practices are incorporated into all street work, not just watershed projects.

Should “green streets” be streets?

The $270 million question soon to be put to homeowners by the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works is: Will we pay an annual tax of $54 per parcel toward a basin-wide effort to clean at least some of the pollutants swept up in water as it flows from paved surfaces into the storm drain system, rivers and Pacific? This much is clear: We should. This much isn’t: Will we? And, even if we do, will it work before fines over Clean Water Act violations start kicking in and law suits begin?

$270 million a year sounds like a lot until you divide it between 88 cities, a spangling of watershed NGOs and the county Flood Control District. Even if divided proportionately to size of city, the sum starts sounding woefully inadequate considering that alone one storm water park opened in February that was wrought from an

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    Emily Green by e-mail at emily.green [at] mac.com
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