| By Lookout Staff
April 19 -- A bill that toughens State laws requiring
the emergency notification and reporting of raw sewage spills,
such as the one that recently polluted Santa Monica Bay, scaled
its first legislative hurdle this week.
Introduced by Assembly member Ted W. Lieu (D-Torrance), Assembly
Bill 800 was approved on a bipartisan vote by the Assembly
Environmental Safety & Toxic Materials Committee Monday.
The bill was spurred by a report from the Los Angeles County
Auditor-Controller that turned up evidence of hundreds of
unreported sewage spills throughout Los Angeles County since
January 2002.
The study found that records do not exist for 189 of the
208 sewage spills that reportedly took place on the County
coast in the past four and a half years. The largest such
spill occurred last year in Manhattan Beach, which is in Assembly
member Lieu's district.
"This is a serious public health issue,” Lieu
said. “These unreported spills represent over eight
million gallons of raw sewage that have spread into the coastal
areas of Los Angeles County.
"This is reprehensible that the proper public health
authorities were never contacted in the event of these spills,
and that no one really knows where the spills occurred and
what communities were impacted," he said.
Jointly authored by Assembly members Julia Brownley (D-Santa
Monica) and Paul Krekorian (D-Burbank), the bill makes two
major changes in the reporting of spills.
In the event of a sewage spill, it requires immediate notification
of both the local health officer and the Office of Emergency
Services, and it imposes fines on sewage treatment officials
if they fail to report a spill.
"In the event of a spill, the most important thing is
protecting the public," Lieu added. "If health officials
are notified immediately, they can notify the public, close
beaches and begin the clean-up process right away."
The bill is supported by the LA County Board of Supervisors,
and Supervisor Don Knabe, who represents much of the coastal
area in Lieu’s district, which includes Venice, has
been working closely on the issue.
The bill will now go before the Assembly Public Safety Committee.
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