PREPARED BY: AMANDA BOOTH DATE OF MEETING: 01/21/20
SUBJECT:
TITLE
RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF SAN PABLO APPROVING THE CITY OF SAN PABLO’S DIRECT DISCHARGE PLAN FOR SUBMITTAL TO THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY REGIONAL WATER QUALITY CONTROL BOARD
Label
CITY MANAGER RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
Adopt Resolution
Body
Compliance statements
FY 2019-21 Council Priority Workplan Compliance Statement
Improve Public Safety Item 505 “Keep San Pablo Clean Litter Control Initiative” is an adopted policy items contained in the FY 2019-21 Adopted City Council Priority Workplan, effective March 1, 2019.
CEQA Compliance Statement
The content of this plan has been determined to not qualify as a project, as defined by CEQA, or to be exempt pursuant to CEQA Guidelines section 15301(Existing Facilities), 15306 (Information Collection), 15308 (Actions by Regulatory Agencies for Protection of the Environment), 15321 (Enforcement by Regulatory Agencies), or 15061(b)(3) (no potential significant effect on the environment). If any construction project or other action that could have a significant environmental impact occurs as a result of this plan, a separate CEQA analysis will be performed to determine that project’s CEQA compliance.
BACKGROUND
The purpose of this Direct Discharge Trash Control Plan (Direct Discharge Plan) is to document the City of San Pablo’s comprehensive plan to control, to the extent practicable, the discharge of trash to receiving waters from non-storm drain system sources. This plan was developed in accordance with San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board (RWQCB) Provision C.10.e.ii of the Municipal Regional Permit (MRP) under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES).
The MRP allows Permittees to offset part of Provision C.10.a trash load percent reduction requirements by implementing a comprehensive plan, approved by the Executive Officer, to control direct discharges of trash to receiving waters from non-storm drain system sources. Provision C.10.e.ii sets a maximum of 15% offset credit and requires the plan to be submitted by February 1 of the first year in which offsets are to be reported in the Annual Report (i.e., fiscal year (FY) 2019/20 Annual Report). This Direct Discharge Plan includes the following required elements:
• Description of sources of the directly discharged trash;
• Description of control actions that will be implemented to prevent or reduce direct discharge trash loads in a systematic and comprehensive manner;
• Map of the affected receiving water area and associated watershed; and
• Description of how the effectiveness of controls will be assessed, including documentation of controls, quantification of trash volume controlled and assessment of resulting improvements to receiving water conditions.
Summary of City of San Pablo Direct Discharge Plan
The City of San Pablo currently has several programs in place for residents-some in coordination with the solid waste franchise contractor Republic Services-to help reduce litter and illegal dumping and meet water quality requirements. Programs for residents include dump vouchers, dumpster days, curbside clean-ups, bulky item collection, mattress recycling, and household hazardous waste drop-off. In addition to these programs, the City also performs the following services to reduce litter and illegal dumping:
• The City’s Maintenance Division empties Citywide garbage cans two times per week and removes illegal dumping five times per week.
• The City uses 1-800-NO DUMPING (1-800-663-8674) line for residents to report illegal dumping.
• The City uses the County Court system’s Work Alternative Program to pick up litter at Davis Park every Friday.
• The City has a contract with Contract Sweeping Services for street sweeping services to remove litter from local roads.
• The City has a partnership with EarthTeam where local youth are hired to pick up litter and collect data on the location and type of litter.
• Through the County, San Pablo utilizes the Coordinated Outreach, Referral, Engagement (C.O.R.E.) program to conduct homeless outreach and facilitate connections to shelter and services. The C.O.R.E. team helps to prevent homelessness and provide trash services for these residents.
As part of the Direct Discharge Plan, the City will work on implementing the following programs:
Outreach Campaign
Develop an outreach and education campaign with the goals of educating residents and businesses about the programs offered in San Pablo and inspiring community pride. The educational component aims to reset social norms on personal responsibility for proper waste disposal, reemphasize the laws and consequences for litter and illegal dumping, and remind residents and businesses of proper disposal options available to them. This program would use bilingual print and social media, as well as community events, to engage the community.
Infrastructure
Install additional infrastructure, such as trash bins and fencing, to improve proper disposal in the public rights-of-way. The Public Works Department would install additional trash bins, where needed, to reduce littering. In addition, fencing could be installed in areas adjacent to creeks, to reduce illegal dumping and littering.
Enforcement and Maintenance
In order to continue encouraging citizens to properly dispose their waste, the Code Enforcement Division will seek to identify opportunities to improve enforcement on parking violations, to make street sweeping more effective, and enforce litter and illegal dumping violations.
New Ordinances
City staff will review potential ordinances that will require non-franchised haulers to obtain a permit from Contra Costa County’s Environmental Health Department to operate in the City. This permit requires haulers to be inspected and follow the County rules about collecting and transporting solid waste.
San Pablo staff will also explore the implementation of an excess litter fee on types of businesses that are determined to excessively contribute to the City’s litter and illegal dumping issue. The purpose of this fee would be to help maintain clean streets, parks and sidewalks, and well as provide resources to support outreach, programs, infrastructure improvements and enforcement on litter and illegal dumping.
Program Evaluation
In order to evaluate the effectiveness of litter and illegal dumping reduction efforts, the City will collect and compare multiple qualitative and quantitative parameters, including:
• a pre-/post-survey of business, schools and residents on available programs;
• data on tonnage of illegal dumping collected (specifically in or adjacent to creeks);
• number, types and location of litter collected (Earth Team);
• on-land visual trash assessments (OVTAs);
• litter hot-spot assessments; and
• the number of parking citations issued.
In addition, the City will continue to monitor and document illegal dumping and encampment abatement using the City’s asset management system, Cartegraph.
Direct Discharge Plan Submittal
By submitting this Plan to the RWQCB by February 1, the City is requesting approval from the RWQCB Executive Officer to claim the maximum 15% trash load reduction offsets through implementation of this comprehensive management plan as allowed in Section C.10.e.ii of the Municipal Regional NPDES Permit. If the Plan is approved by the Executive Officer, the City of San Pablo will improve the City’s total trash reduction percentage from 81% to 96%.
Proposed Multi-Year Strategy Plan for Illegal Dumping and Litter Control
Many of the proposed programs listed above for the Direct Discharge Plan are recommendations developed for the proposed Multi-Year Strategy Plan for Illegal Dumping and Litter Control (Strategy Plan) which was initiated by the City Manager in July 2019, with an internal City employee Task Force to address City-wide litter control and illegal dumping nuisances. These programs will be formally presented to City Council during the first quarter of 2020 as a long-term strategy for program implementation and ongoing budget expense authorization in FY 2020/21, and going forward in future years due to current Gann Limit restrictions for FY 2019/20. Some one-time funding has been identified for City Council appropriation during FY 2019/20 for specific programs to be authorized prior to June 30, 2020 which will support the Direct Discharge Plan. If at that time City Council has any comments or changes to said programs for the proposed Strategy Plan, staff will update the Direct Discharge Plan accordingly, and resubmit to the RWQCB.
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no additional fiscal impact associated with this item. Any programs referred to in this Direct Discharge Plan will be recommended and discussed as potential Litter and Illegal Dumping Task Force programs. It is estimated that 60 hours of staff time was required to create this Direct Discharge Plan.
ATTACHMENT: City of San Pablo Direct Discharge Plan