Recommendation to authorize City Manager to execute all documents necessary to enter into a Cooperative Implementation Funding Agreement between the City of Long Beach and the California Department of Transportation, for the Long Beach Municipal Urban Stormwater Treatment Recycle Facility project, and any necessary amendments regarding the scope and or term. (Citywide)
Motion carries. Do you have, Councilman Austin? Yes. Councilman Austin's here. All right, motion passes. And item 27. Report from Public Works recommendation to enter into a cooperative implementation funding agreement between the City of Long Beach and the California Department of Transportation for the Long Beach Municipal Urban Stormwater Treatment Recycle Facility Project City Wide. Mr. MODICA Thank you, Vice Mayor, members of the Council. We're extremely excited to be here tonight to give you a presentation on L.B.. This is a fantastic partnership that Public Works has been leading along with Caltrans is going to be our funding agency. I won't steal their thunder, so I'll turn it over to them. But we are just beyond ecstatic that this is becoming a reality and is going to help us with our long term liability for stormwater, help our beaches and also have a reclaimed water source. So with that, I will turn it over to Craig Beck, our director of Public Works. Thank you very much. Good evening, Vice Mayor. Members of the City Council. I share Assistant City Manager Monica's enthusiasm for this project. It really is an exciting day to talk a little bit about Long Beach Marston and this project that you have before you this evening. So what is Long Beach must. It is a municipal urban stormwater treatment facility. And what it's intended to do is essentially treat stormwater runoff that goes through our storm drains before it's pumped into the L.A. River. So we'll show you in just a minute. A slide that will talk about our cities tributary, tributary, watershed system and how it discharges into the L.A. River. This facility in phase one will treat approximately 43% of that water runoff. It meets the city's National Pollution Discharge Elimination System, or NYPD's permit requirements, and really helps the city avoid potentially very costly fines if we do nothing to treat this water moving forward. So this is a little snapshot, a map. The facility is intended to be constructed adjacent to the L.A. River, just south of the Shoemaker Bridge. And you're all thinking, well, aren't we rebuilding the Shoemaker Bridge in the near future? And the answer is yes. We are going to be rebuilding the Shoemaker Bridge in the near future. But this project will be in coordination with not only the Shoemaker Reconstruction Project, but also a Green Greenway expansion that will ultimately connect Drake Park to Cesar Chavez Park. So as Tom mentioned, this project wouldn't be part wouldn't be possible without our funding partners. And this is truly a partnership between the city and Caltrans. Tonight, before you is the request to approve a reimbursement agreement that would allow for up to $28 million for design and construction of L.B. Mass. This project would include the interception, diversion and treatment of both dry weather, urban water runoff and the first flush of rainwater. So some of the dirtiest water that we see is when we get the first inch or so of rain. And it would allow for the treatment of that water again before going into the L.A. River. And we all know that the L.A. River flows into our bays and our beach areas. This initial phase will allow us to treat approximately 5000 acres of the watershed system. So how does it work? You're probably familiar with some of the pump stations that we have along the L.A. River. The pump stations are where all the storm drains drain into. We do have some screening functions in the pump stations now to keep large debris from going into the river. But it doesn't really treat the water. And this project is intended to divert the water as it goes to the storm drain system. It'll flow down to Long Beach, mass. It'll be treated at Long Beach and then pumped into the river. If we have a really large storm event, the water would flow through the pump stations into the river as it's currently designed. But this, again, is really intended to treat dry, dry weather runoff in that first flush. So what are our next steps? Well, first, with council approval tonight, we will finalize the agreement with Caltrans. We'll start moving forward with the design. We'll get a environmental impact report completed. We'll have to obtain permits. And you can see some of the agencies that we'll be working with to obtain those permits. We'll construct a facility and then we'll all be able to enjoy a cleaner river and beaches. So what's next after we get the facility constructed? We're really also looking right now at future phases. One of the real benefits of the design that we've put together is it will allow expansion. And I showed you on that map that roughly it covers 43% of the city's watershed that drains into the L.A. River. We'd like to capture 100% of that watershed with this facility. So with future funding and future expansion, we'd be able to capture all that. Currently, the your staff has filed an application with the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy for $2 million to build a wetlands in conjunction with this facility. We're really looking forward to hearing about that funding and moving forward with that project moving in the future. We want to create retention facilities that would then allow us to use the treated water for irrigation of not only the new Drake Chavez expansion, but also other parks within our downtown region. So lastly, I want to make sure that we take a moment and thank all of our partners tonight. We have with us Scott McGowan, who's the chief environmental engineer for Caltrans. We also have Constantine contacts. He's the watershed manager at Caltrans. They've been great partners as we move this forward and we thank them for being here this evening. We also have Richard Watson from Watson Associates, Kiko Anderson, who's helped us along the way. He's from Kuwait Consulting. And your own stormwater compliance officer, Officer Tony Revell. That concludes your staff report. And we await any questions you may have. Thank you. Council member, Urunga. Thank you, Mary Lou. More than anything else, I just want to give kudos to staff and and to all our partners in joining us in this effort. It's a great opportunity to not only get involved more as we've been trying to do with the L.A. River, we see all the consequences of what happened north of us. And so this is a great effort to be able to use some of that runoff and clean it up and repurpose it and reuse it. We don't have enough recycled water in in Long Beach and into our parks. And I see this as a project that's going to greatly benefit at least those two parks right now. And hopefully, as this project moves forward, that there will be other projects included as well as in my area, as well as Advocate Park in Silverado, which are in the West Long Beach area, which but the river as well . So I want to thank the staff for their efforts. Councilwoman Price. Thank you. I too want to commend staff on their excellent work and on their collaboration and partnership. This is a huge. Financial partnership, and we're very grateful to staff for pursuing it and working so closely with Caltrans, as I know we do on many projects. So thank you. And I think this is going to be great. Thank you. And I'm sorry I missed calling on the maker of the motion, Councilwoman Gonzalez. That is okay. I too, just wanted to extend my very many thanks to our public works team and our consulting team, Kay Koa and Tony and Craig and Caltrans. We appreciate the partnership. I know just looking at the larger picture, we just had a meeting in the first District relative to the Shoemaker Bridge. And so looking at that whole region and reimagining it with be must is is really a very exciting all the pieces are moving together and sitting on the I7 ten project committee. We see it in an even larger scope and it's still very exciting as one of the longest or as one of the 710 communities. So thank you very much for the partnership and the hard work. We appreciate it. Thank you, Councilwoman Gonzales. Councilman Johnston. Yes. I'd just also like to add my congratulations and thanks to our staff for their great work. This is a huge shot in the arm for for our city, as well as the L.A., the lower L.A. River. And looking forward to seeing this this project work. I did have a couple of just brief questions regarding the wetlands restoration grant. I know it's $2 million from Rivers and Mountains Conservancy. How large a space are we looking at restoring and how many acres would that be? Councilmember Austin will be approximately four acres. And I'm trying to find the map here. So the area that expands where Schumaker is now, it will essentially be on both sides of the Long Beach. Must. You'll have to envision. If I had a point, I could point to you. But it's. Oh, wait, they're telling me I have a pointer. Look at that. So this area right here, which is some of our downtown green open space, this will be recaptured once we do our shoemaker bridge expansion. And then the idea is we would connect the greenbelt all the way through to this area here. And then this is Drake Park here. So the lower level of the bluff would connect all the way through. The wetlands area is roughly built in right along this section. That's fantastic. Thank you for Francine. That question. And then I did have a question in terms of the timeline in which we think this project will actually come to fruition. About 30 days. No, I'm kidding. That's pretty good. We hope to celebrate its grand opening in roughly three years. Okay. Thank you very much. Great work. Mr. Beck, did you say grand opening in two years? Is that what you said? Well, I said three years, but you'll certainly be invited to the grand opening. When's the groundbreaking? That's what we want to know. And that's and I also wanted to actually I want to thank Tonio Revelo and his team for bringing this project full circle. Just a personal congratulations to Tony. Tony is one of our unsung heroes. I know some of you have seen him in the council chamber, in the audience, as as we have items that deal with storm water. But he's someone who's completely dedicated to clean water and to reusing water and and really making sure that we end up using what we can more than once. And so personally, from me, Tony, for someone who's worked in the water industry almost 20 years now, I want to thank you for your commitment. I want to thank you for the excitement that you bring to my office when you bring projects like this. And I think one of the favorite things I have heard from Mr. Rebello is saying to me that no one loves trash more than you do. So thank you for that. And, Mr. Beck, you have a great staff. I'm so glad you are able to lead this project forward and see it to fruition. And I will definitely be there at the groundbreaking, at the grand opening. And it's a great day. And Councilmember Your Honor is correct. We do not it's not that we don't have enough recycled water as much as it is the cost of piping it throughout our city. So having a treatment facility where the source of the runoff is is just it's a gift. It's a huge gift. And I want to thank our partners for helping us with this and helping us make this happen, because that is really a wasted resource that does become runoff and it's right there. So thank you. There's been a motion and a second. Is there any member of the public that wishes to address Council on item 27? Please come forward. Very good to be clear, because this is surely an outstanding project. In fact, if you read in the copy, the email that I sent you, that it went up to General Troy about 3 hours ago on feedback from yesterday's seawall or breakwater issues and study. The L.A. River flow and that which comes down to it. And the quality water was number one, number one on the priority list of those groups that were at my table, and I'll go into more of that later and so forth. But they they recognize the import of that apparent technically just in the balance of the 2 minutes, as is related to this, in cleaning up the rest of the water. That can be done in the second thing, and I suggested to the colonel, we stopped the general, we stopped the yada, yada, yada, and we will move forward by the end of the summer with the lowering of the breakwater in two specific locations, pursuant to the plan that both Johnson and Vicksburg have agreed upon, which will give us the title of Flushing. But the title flushing really doesn't solve the problem. What solves the problem is what's going to be done by this. And then the convening authorities have to lean on those upriver to do the same thing. But as I say, I'll get into more than that. But it's an outstanding program, so forth, and it's a step in the right direction. And we're not going to have to wait. We'll have the breakwater lowered in right places before the end of the summer. So it will be ahead of your grand grand opening, thanks to check the email that should be in your box there. Thank you, Mr. Good here. Thank you. I think I'd be in error if I didn't. Thank you as well. I forget your name. There should be a line back here of people thanking you and your department because you were doing one of those jobs that we all need. And if something comes up that happens in error or wrong, we're going to complain to your office. Thank you so much for what you're doing. And and having clean water and readily available water is such a privilege. Every morning I start my day looking at a young kid from Africa and his dream is being fulfilled because for the one time in his life, he has pumped water. Thank you. God bless you. Q There's been a motion and a second members cast your vote. Thank you. Tom mentioned Kerry's. So let's go back to. The consent calendar. So a motion for consent. It's been in motion in a second. So any member of the public that wish to address the Council on consent.