Summary

The West Basin Municipal Water District (hereinafter West Basin or Discharger), discharges stormwater and brine wastewater from its Edward C. Little Water Recycling Facility (LWRF) to the Pacific Ocean, a water of the United States. West Basin owns, and Suez, Inc. operates the LWRF, an advanced water treatment facility that produces recycled water from secondary effluent wastewater. The LWRF is located at 1935 Hughes Way, El Segundo, California, and has a design capacity to discharge 5.2 MGD of brine wastewater effluent. The discharge is regulated under waste discharge requirements contained in Order R4-2012-0026, adopted by this Regional Water Quality Control Board (Regional Water Board) on February 2, 2012, and by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) on February 8, 2012. Order No. R4-2012-0026 serves as a permit under the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES No. CA0063401). The Discharger filed a Report of Waste Discharge (ROWD) and applied to the Regional Water Board for reissuance of Waste Discharge Requirements (WDRs) and NPDES permit to discharge brine wastewater.

On the basis of preliminary staff review and application of lawful standards and regulations, the Regional Water Board and the USEPA, Los Angeles Region, tentatively propose to issue waste discharge requirements, including effluent limitations and special conditions.

Public Regional Water Board Meeting

The Regional Water Board will hold a public meeting on the tentative WDRs during the Regional Water Board's regular Board meeting on the following date and time and at the following location:
Date: April 12, 2018
Time: 9:00 a.m.
Place: Metropolitan Water District of Southern California Board Room, 700 North Alameda Street, Los Angeles, California

Interested persons are invited to attend. At the public meeting, the Regional Water Board will hear testimony, if any, that is pertinent to the discharge, WDRs, and permit. Oral testimony will be heard; however, for accuracy of the record, important testimony should be in writing.

Please be aware that dates and venues may change. Updated information is available at www.waterboards.ca.gov/losangeles/Exitwhere you can access the current agenda for changes in dates and locations.

Scope of Meeting

The only matter before the Board is the adoption of a new WDRs and permit under the NPDES to incorporate applicable water quality objectives associated with discharges to the waters of the United States.

Availability of Documents

The Report of Waste Discharge (ROWD), other documents relied upon, tentative effluent limitations and special provisions, comments received, and other information are on file and are available for inspection and copying between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. by appointment at the following address: Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, 320 West 4th Street, Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90013

Arrangements for file review and/or obtaining copies of the documents may be made by calling the Regional Water Board at (213) 576-6600. Additionally, the agenda, the fact sheet, and the draft order will be available online at www.waterboards.ca.gov/losangeles/ under the "Tentative Permits" heading.

The entire file will become a part of the administrative record of this proceeding, irrespective of whether individual documents are specifically referenced during the meeting or contained in the agenda packet. The entire file will not be present in the meeting room. In addition to the materials generated for this proceeding, the file includes the administrative records for the applicable Basin Plan amendments. Should any interested persons desire staff to bring to the meeting any particular documents that are not included in the agenda packet, they must submit a written or electronic request to staff during business hours, not later than five business days before the meeting. The request must identify the documents with enough specificity for staff to locate them. 

Nature of Meeting

This proceeding will be a formal adjudicatory proceeding. For such proceedings, the Regional Water Board follows procedures established by the State Water Resources Control Board. These procedures are set forth in regulations commencing with section 647 of title 23 of the California Code of Regulations, in particular, Article 2, commencing with section 648.

Parties to the Meeting

The following are the parties to this proceeding: West Basin Municipal Water District

Any other persons requesting party status must submit a written or electronic request to staff no later than 20 business days before the meeting. All parties will be notified if other persons are so designated. 

Regional Water Board and USEPA staff are not a party to the proceeding; their participation in this proceeding exists for the purpose of advising and assisting the Regional Water Board.

Meeting Procedure

The Board meeting, of which this meeting is a part, will start at 9:00 a.m. Interested persons are invited to attend. When the agenda item is called, staff will present the matter under consideration, after which oral statements from parties or interested persons will be heard. For accuracy of the record, all important testimony should be in writing. The Board will include in the administrative record written transcriptions of oral testimony that is actually presented at the meeting. Oral testimony may be limited to five minutes or less for each interested person, depending on the number of interested persons wishing to be heard. 

Parties or interested persons with similar concerns or opinions are encouraged to choose one representative to speak and are encouraged to coordinate their presentations with each other. Parties will be advised after the receipt of public comments, but prior to the date of the meeting, of the amount of time each is allocated for presentations. That decision will be based upon the complexity and number of issues under consideration, the extent to which the parties have coordinated, the number of parties and interested persons anticipated, and the time available for the meeting. The parties are invited to contact staff not later than March 29, 2018, (two weeks prior to the meeting) to discuss how much time they believe is necessary for their presentations, and staff will endeavor to accommodate reasonable requests. 

The Board does not generally require the prior identification of witnesses, the cross examination of witnesses, or other procedures not specified in this notice. Parties or persons with special procedural requests or requests for alternative meeting  procedures should contact staff, who will endeavor to accommodate reasonable requests. Objections to any procedure to be used during this meeting must be submitted in writing no later than close of business 15 business days prior to the date of the meeting. (Any objections related to the amount of time allocated for parties' presentations must be submitted within two business days of notice thereof, if that date is less than 15 business days before the meeting.) Absent such objections, any procedure not specified in this meeting notice will be waived pursuant to section 648(d) of title 23 of the California Code of Regulations. Procedural objections will not be entertained at the meeting.

The Regional Water Board will not be adopting the NPDES permit during their April 12, 2018, meeting and will formally act on the permit at a subsequent Board meeting on June 13, 2018. Since the public comment period ends April 19, 2018, oral testimony pertinent to the Discharge, tentative WDRS, and NPDES Order/permit will not be heard at the June 13, 2018 public meeting, except as it references comments made before April 19, 2018. Upon issuance of a final permit decision and response to comments, the USEPA and Regional Water Board will notify the applicant and persons who submitted written comments or requested notice of the final permit decision. When a final permit is issued, it will become effective at least 33 days following the date it is mailed to the permittee, unless a request for review is filed. Persons filing a request for review must have filed comments on the draft permit or participated in the public meeting, except as provided for by 40 CFR 124.19.