Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout01/11/1994, AgendaThe City Council City of San Luis Obispo, 990 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93403 ME7,'G AGENDA �euC Dh -ITEM # 9"07' Honorable Mayor and Members. of the Council: Thank you for taking time to hear me last night. I appreciate your courtesy and swift action. I feel that the severity of this matter was too great for a 3- minute time limit and perhaps, in the attempt to squeeze everything in, I did not make a proper conclusion to my presentation. I therefore offer the following coda just to make certain you heard the gist of my plea: Used motor oil is a worse pollutant than unused oil. A spill of any amount of,used motor oil anywhere, but especially in a watercourse, is of urgent consequence. I conclude that either sufficient oil booms and oil sucker pads were not immediately available to treat this spill with the care it deserved or, that someone made a decision that this spill was not important enough to deserve full attention. Perhaps both situations occurred? In any event, the results were equally negative: The stream ecosystem suffered unnecessary damage while the public health was exposed to unnecessary risk. The response was clearly inadequate . I trust that your staff will act quickly and thoroughly in this matter. I would appreciate being informed of all actions taken and hope to receive a copy of the official report. Thank you for your concern. Sincerely yours, Pr essor Ric and J. re a Fisheries Biologist, Cal Poly, and Appointed Member, City of S.L.O. Environmental Quality Task Force Biological Sciences Dept. Cal Poly State University @'COUNCIL ❑ CDD DIR San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 131CAO B'ACAO ❑ N DIR �fRE 12 January 1994 CHIEF ATTORNEY OA lH Pw DIR CLERWORIG ❑ POLICE CHF: RECEIVED ❑ MGMTTEAM ❑ REC DIR ❑ C READ FILE ❑ UTIL DIR IAN 1 2 1994 ❑ PERS DIR 'CITY COUNCIL. SAN LUIS OBISPO, CA Honorable Mayor and Members. of the Council: Thank you for taking time to hear me last night. I appreciate your courtesy and swift action. I feel that the severity of this matter was too great for a 3- minute time limit and perhaps, in the attempt to squeeze everything in, I did not make a proper conclusion to my presentation. I therefore offer the following coda just to make certain you heard the gist of my plea: Used motor oil is a worse pollutant than unused oil. A spill of any amount of,used motor oil anywhere, but especially in a watercourse, is of urgent consequence. I conclude that either sufficient oil booms and oil sucker pads were not immediately available to treat this spill with the care it deserved or, that someone made a decision that this spill was not important enough to deserve full attention. Perhaps both situations occurred? In any event, the results were equally negative: The stream ecosystem suffered unnecessary damage while the public health was exposed to unnecessary risk. The response was clearly inadequate . I trust that your staff will act quickly and thoroughly in this matter. I would appreciate being informed of all actions taken and hope to receive a copy of the official report. Thank you for your concern. Sincerely yours, Pr essor Ric and J. re a Fisheries Biologist, Cal Poly, and Appointed Member, City of S.L.O. Environmental Quality Task Force FM �a� city Of san WIS oBispo COUNCIL AGENDA Tuesday, January 11. 1994 - 7:00 PM Council Hearing Room, City Hall 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Peg Pinard PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE ROLL CALL: Council Members Penny Rappa, Bill Roalman, Vice Mayor Allen K. Settle, and Mayor Pei — Agenda Distribution List (.12/20/93) I. Unpaid Subscriptions• (All mtgs.unless o/w noted) AIA President ASI -President'- B.I.A., Lynn Block Chamber of Commerce Dick Cleeves /Chamber of Comm. H.Ovitt, Co.Spvrs.Chair Paul Hood, Co.Administration Housing Authority KCBX KCOY KCPR:(2)Gen.Mgr.& News Dir. KDDB .KEYT KGLW - - KKJG KSBY KVEC Library (front desk) Mustang Daily New Times Pac.Bell /Brad Schram Pac.Gas &Elec.Co /B.Boyer Planning Commission So.Calif.Gas Co./Vic Sterling Council of Govts./Ron DiCarli League of Women Voters Telegram- Tribune SLOCityEmp ..Assoc/T. Girvin SLOFireBattChiefAssoc /S.Smith SLOFirefightersAssoc /D.Wunsch SLOMMgmt- ConfEmpAssoc /D.Cox SLOPo.liceOffAssoc /T.DePriest .SLOPolStaffOffAssoc /T.,Costa Denise Fourie, CHC Chair STUDY SESSION Dave Romero, REVISED . COUNCIL LIAISON REPORTS (riot to exceed 15 minutes)I Council Members report on conferences or other City activ� APPOINTMENTS Al. COUNCIL COMPENSATION COMMITTEE (ROMERC Consideration of the appointing a five member Council Comj even - numbered years, to review the Council compensation pe expense reimbursement, professional development allowance! The City of San Luis Obispo is committed to include the disabled in all o Telecommunications Devitt for the Dcaf (805) 781 -7410. Please speak to MG like to use a device to assist you in hearing the meeting. For additional ii 1 City Council Meeting Tuesday, January 11, 1994 ♦ RECOMMENDATION: By motion, establish committee and appoint Lynn Cooper, Frank Martinez, Diane Long, Bob Silva and Mike Multari to serve until adoption of a new Council Compensation resolution to come before the Council no later than April 1, 1994. STUDY`SESSION 1. DRAFT URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN (MOSS /514 - 90 min.) Consideration of a the Draft Urban Water Management Plan. ♦ RECOMMENDATION: Receive report and provide comments and direction to staff. DNS (not to exceed 15 minutes) kos council, Member . or the City' AdIrninstrative.Officer may inf in: communications and °ask for comment and /or discussioi i or approval may not be taken. Action on itertis' may be`si An: . A. RECESS TO CLOSED SESSION. B. RECONVENE IN OPEN SESSION TO REPORT ON ACTION TAKEN. C. ADJOURNMENT. rA7 MI MMA } S%,u UJIS 087x". } 5S Luis SIM } •.' ...,ae_- penalty of rprj:n'J °.hat t W tYA0.9gd ;:sty of San Luis Obispo in the City MOrk"e and that I posted thi Age watt 04 door of City Fis11 on 2 i1 °�illlIII city of san luis osispo STUDY SESSION COUNCIL AGENDA Tuesday, January 11, 1994 - 7:00 PM Council Hearing Room, City Hall 990 Palm Street, San Luis Obispo CALL TO ORDER: Mayor Peg Pinard ** Lead Person - Item to come back to Council * Denotes action by Lead Person PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE No Asterisk - Information Only ROLL CALL: Council Members Penny Rappa, Bill Roalman, Dave Romero, Vice Mayor Allen K. Settle, and Mayor Peg Pinard P.C. 1. Don Smith expressed concerns about water resources and submitted a letter outlining those concerns. Dunn* P.C.2. Dr. Richard Krejsa requested the City correspond with the State Department of Fish and Game and investigate the response to a spill of used oil into San Luis Obispo Creek on 12118193 (consensus). so COUNCIL LIAISON REPORTS (not to exceed 15 minutes) Council Members report on conferences or other City activities Timelimd`3 minutes C.L.R. 1. Council Member Romero updated Council on the Airport Area Annexation process. C.L.R.2. Council Member Rappa reported that the City /County /Schools Joint Use Foundation had made progress toward joint efforts at fleet maintenance. C.L.R.3. Vice Mayor Settle updated the Council on COG's traffic congestion policies. 1 City Council Meeting Tuesday, January 11, 1994 APPOINTMENTS ► Al. COUNCIL COMPENSATION COMMITTEE (ROMERO /SE17LE /123 - 5 min.) Consideration of the appointing a five member Council Compensation Committee, formed in even - numbered years, to review the Council compensation package including salary, benefits, expense reimbursement, professional development allowances and other compensation. ♦ RECOMMENDATION: By motion, establish committee and appoint Lynn Cooper, Frank Martinez, Diane Long, Bob Silva and Mike Multari to serve until adoption of a new Council Compensation resolution to come before the Council no later than April 1, 1994. Gladwell* FINAL ACTION- Appointments made (5 -0). STUDY SESSION ► 1. DRAFT URBAN WATER MANAGEMENT PLAN (MOSS /514 - 90 min.) Consideration of a the Draft Urban Water Management Plan. ♦ RECOMMENDATION: Receive report and provide comments and direction to staff. Moss* FINAL ACTION. Discussion held and staff direction given. COMM. 1. ACAO Ken Hampian summarized efforts to temporarily fund the STAR Program for at- risk children at C.L. Smith School. A. RECESSED TO CLOSED SESSION RE: Real Property Negotiations at South Broad and Alphonso Street. B. RECONVENED IN OPEN SESSION TO REPORT ON ACTION TAKEN. NO ACTION TAKEN. C. ADJOURNMENT. 2 [For Release at City Council Meeting, 11 Jan '94] The City Council City of San Luis Obispo, 990 Palm Street San Luis Obispo, CA 93403 Honorable Mayor and Members of the Council: IV �ING AGENDA PO 8LI G Dljl� I'--'Q - -ITEM # IMDACN1 San Luis Obispo, CA 93407 10 January 1994 5AO ORNEY 13 ❑0CCDDIIEDDDDIR 20'F CHIEF S CLERKK)RIG DI ❑ POLICE CHF ❑ MGMT TEAM ❑ REC DIR ;Lffl) F E ❑ UTIL DIR ❑ PERS DIR RECEIVEIrhe rear panel on a container of new motor oil carries the following warnings: JAN 11 1994 'USED GASOLINE MOTOR OIL IS A POSSIBLE SKIN CANCER HAZARD BASED ON ANIMAL DATA." CITY COUNCIL "Avoid contact with used motor oil. Don't pollute. Return used oil to collection centers." SAN LUIS OBISPOA CA Waste oil is laced with highly toxic trace metals as well as polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) which the State Water Resources Control Board has found to be a significant source of pollution whose detrimental effects may continue for decades once introduced into the environment ( "California's Rivers ", Calif. State Lands Commission, 1993, p. 69, 105). Jesse R. Huff, chairman of the California Integrated Waste Management Board, has recently stated that one gallon of [used] motor oil can contaminate 1 million gallons of drinking water (Telegram- Tribune, Dec. 21)! The early evening spill of a 500 - gallon tank of used motor oil being transported from and to Spring Toyota, on Dec. 18, points to severe inadequacies in local regulatory agency spill response procedures about which I believe you should be concerned. I submit the following list of observations and questions for your attention: 1. Allegedly, only "about 125 gallons" (T -T, Dec. 20) leaked via a storm drain into San Luis Obispo Creek at Marsh & Higuera St., but how does one estimate an amount of oil floating downstream in the dark? What was the true amount? 2. 1 understand that the response team did not set an intercepting boom into the creek at South Street until at least two hours after the spill. If that is true, then a large initial slug of oil must have flowed downstream beyond the city where it could affect not only agricultural water but also, if any ended up behind the Marre Dam, the drinking water supply of residents in San Luis Bay Estates! Were early samples taken and tested? 3. Which agency stores the spill supplies and why did it take two hours to get a boom for the creek? Why were there only two inadequately -sized booms available? Since there are now four booms in the creek, from what source did these larger booms come more than a week later? If, as rumored, they were loaned from, or donated by, PG &E from Diablo Canyon, why is it necessary to rely on on PG &E for emergency spill supplies? Is there no closer source? 4. It is rumored that Spring Toyota employees did their own cleanup of the creek on the morning after the spill. If that is true, then what agency authorized their participation and what qualifications do they have in spill cleanup techniques? Who judged that their cleanup was adequate? 5. Damage was thought to be "really minimal" because the DFG warden walked the creek a day later, on Dec. 19, and said : "We didn't notice, observe, or see any dead animals. In fact we saw a fish swimming near the source at Higuera and Marsh." He "found little residual effect" and said the test for him "is whether or not wildlife has been killed." Does a sight test for dead wildlife meet State or County Environmental Health standards for testing toxic effects of waste oil in drinking water or agricultural water sources? Why wasn't there a DFG biologist present at the spill site on Saturday evening? Were any toxic samples sent to the State Water Pollution Lab at Rancho Cordova? 6. According to a follow -up report (T -T, Dec. 21), the driver, not a licenced waste hauler, was cited only "for failing to tie down the load" and Spring Toyota, who authorized the unlicenced transport, will be liable for cleanup costs. Is this really a sufficient penalty for the careless transportation of toxic materials within our city? 7. Only after a public complaint by a resident of Brook Street, four days after the spill, did DFG finally order a creek cleanup and a California Conservation Corps crew allegedly was hired by Spring Toyota (T -T, 23 Dec.). But the CCC did not start immediately and a few days later they were called south to help with the Oxnard spill. It is said that they returned to SLO Creek on Dec. 30th. Why did we have to wait 12 days to begin the creek cleanup ordered on the 4th day? B. Did the CCC, in fact, do any cleanup or utilize absorbant pads to soak up oil ponding along the creek edge vegetation? Where and when was this done? How many absorbant pads were utilized in this entire operation and who supplied them? When did these pads become available? Where were they stored? 9. 1 walked the creek 4 days after the spill and found and photographed visible effects of the spill all the way down to the old Lower Higuera Street bridge, over 3.5 miles south of the spill site! The two booms in place were too short to span the creek width. There were insufficient blue - colored absorbant pads to blot the entire surface immediately upstream of the booms. The booms were placed in fast riffle areas rather than in quite water. Oil was passing both around the boom ends and also flowing under the booms. 10. Three weeks after the spill, on January 7, my fisheries students and I visited San Luis Obispo Creek at 4 localities below the spill site. There was less continuous oil sheen on the surface but we witnessed oil along the edges and still flowing in spots on the surface. If any cleanup had been done, there was no visible evidence of it on the stream bottom or at the edges except that 4 larger booms had replaced the original two grossly inadequate ones. The upstream area above the booms, again as earlier, was not blanketed sufficiently with absorbant pads (this time white). And oil was floating through one boom not anchored properly across the creek. It appears to me that it may be t6o late to begin any cleanup at this late date as most of the damage that could be done has likely been done by now. Some surface insects are returning and crayfish are establishing new sites downstream. 11. Many policy questions remain: What criteria were used, or will be used, to determine whether or not cleanup done by a Spring Toyota crew, a DFG warden, or a CCC crew is judged to be "adequate" for SLO Cr.? Who issues these criteria and are they available to the general public? What is the chain of command and what role does the County of SLO play? Is there an emergency spill response plan for inland waters? Comments: Since toxics are often picked up by microorganisms at the base of the food chain, it may take several years before they bioaccumulate as residual effects higher up in the food chain. The fact that the warden didn't see any "residual effects" on the day after this careless poisoning is not unexpected. It has taken 135 years for the toxicity of Gold Rush mercury to show up as a residual effect in the Bay -Delta striped bass population! I would suggest that the warden's criteria for resource damage is outmoded, and insufficient. Surely better technology is available than a subjective determination of whether or not wildlife was killed. And better technology is available. The question is why wasn't it used? Do I understand correctly that the emergency oil spill response plan is applicable only to marine spills by large oil corporations who pay their share of the cleanup and materials? If so, then who is in charge of spills on inland waters? Why was the U.S. Coast Guard involved in the 1981 ( ?) break in the oil pipeline and spill into SLO Cr. on upper San Luis Drive but not in this spill? It is likely that many more fish were not killed by the spill not because it was a minor spill, but simply because much of the stretch of creek downstream was dry until the November rains and the territorial young salmonids had not re- colonized the area as the wandering schools of speckled dace had! Honorable Members of the Council, any spill of used oil or other toxics into San Luis Obispo Creek is an insult to this already fragile aquatic habitat and the community of organisms in its adjacent riparian habitat. Nevermind the actual or potential damage to aquatic organisms: used motor oil is also a threat to public health! In view of this, and the bungling bureacratic response to Unocal's massive Guadalupe petroleum leak, I would have expected local agencies such as DFG and RWQCB to take extraordinarily careful protective measures to contain the waste oil at its source, before it unnecessarily slimed 3.5 miles of the creek, or more. In my view, the measures taken to protect the creek were shabby and inadequate. It appears that big or small, there is no response plan adequate either to containing oil spills, or to penalizing polluters, in this county. I personally believe that a Resolution to the State Department of Fish and Game is in order, protesting its failure to excercise its role as public trustee of our state's biotic resources, in this specific case, regarding the aquatic and riparian habitats of San Luis Obispo Creek. Some local agencies should, I believe, be publicly chastised for their mediocre response that was and continues to be, in my professional view, as careless and unacceptable as the oil spill itself. However, since it is more important that such a fiasco not occur again, my students and I are asking tonight that you initiate an official city investigation into answering the questions of public policy and response procedures listed in the points above.* The public health of our citizenry requires it; the environmental health of our stream ecosystem needs it; and public confidence in our regulatory agencies demands it. Pro Zre yours, s Richard J. Krej3a Fisheries Biologist, Cal Poly, and Appointed Member, City of S.L.O. Environmental Quality Task Force. * You should also urge the SLO County Board of Supervisors to cooperate in this investigation.