2 days Ago
As California looks to improve its ability to capture and store stormwater throughout the state , there is at least one sizable public landowner that is exempt from such efforts: The Los Angeles Unified School District. One of the largest real estate holders in the Greater L.A.
area, the school district owns more than 3,200 parcels of land that occupy more than 10 square miles combined — an area almost twice the size of Beverly Hills. Now, environmental groups are urging state water regulators to include the district’s K-12 campuses in updated stormwater regulations, saying that LAUSD could make a considerable contribution to reducing pollution and enhancing water supplies in the region. “Schools have been unregulated for runoff pollution for far too long,” a coalition of local groups wrote in a recent letter to the State Water Resources Control Board .
The groups include the Los Angeles Waterkeeper, Heal the Bay, the Nature Conservancy, the Natural Resources Defense Council and others. They noted that it’s been about a decade since the board last updated its stormwater regulations, known as MS4 permits . The board is now drafting an update to the rules, and the coalition says it is imperative that campuses be included.
“Once again, exempting K-12 schools from the [permit] will allow the wholly inadequate regulation of runoff from schools to continue for years more, and this lack of regulation will not provide the needed pressure to bring school districts like LAU.
