City officials have announced plans to introduce La Jolla as Phase 3 in the pilot street sweeping plan, explaining that new vacuum street-sweeping technology may improve water pollution, but residents must contend with changes to parking.
Representatives from the City of San Diego Storm Water Pollution Prevention Division and the Street Sweeping Water Quality Protection Project discussed new clean water regulations required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the California State Water Resources Control Board during a June 25 community meeting at La Jolla Recreation Center.
City representatives said the City of San Diego is required to address pollution from roadways that enter into San Diego Bay, Mission Bay and the ocean off La Jolla Shores, including bacteria, pesticides, sediment, trash and metal particles on the streets, so their plan to minimize pollutants includes changing the city’s street-sweeping program in some areas, including La Jolla Shores.
“The city is implementing a Street Sweeping Water Quality Protection Project, in the form of a pilot study to address pollution caused by dissolved metals in various water bodies in the city.
The areas chosen are upstream and drain to the water bodies most impaired by metals pollution,” said the city’s project handout.
“Why we are doing this is the EPA and the state said stormwater enters drains,” said Kris McFadden, deputy director of the City of San Diego’s Storm Water Pollution Prevention Division. “We’re making sure what we do is effective for the taxpayer and it meets EPA standards.”
The pilot plan will analyze results from the project, which focuses on removing metals on the street too small to see; study those particles inside the Pacific Ocean; analyze different residential areas; then compare new vacuum street-sweeping technology to current sweepers, McFadden said.
Phase 3 will change ticketing laws regarding La Jolla Shores’ existing street-sweeping routes, which currently allow cars discretion during street-sweeping hours. Because the new sweepers must vacuum inside gutters, city officials said the new pilot program will install no parking signs, forcing cars to move during sweeping.
“Phase 3 will include La Jolla, Torrey Pines, Torrey Hills and Sorrento Valley,” McFadden said. “The plan will last for 24 months, two rainy seasons and two dry seasons.”
During the project’s first two weeks, residents will have a grace period and won’t receive a parking ticket, McFadden said.
The city chose to begin the project’s first phase adjacent to Chollas Creek in the mid-city area, then in the Clairemont area, where pollutants affect Tecolote Creek and Mission Bay.
“The locations are not just random, but adjacent to an area of special biological containment and areas with metal particulates,” McFadden said.
And, parking enforcement personnel don’t tow cars left parked during no-parking hours, unless there’s another reason, such as multiple violations, said Jennifer Nichols Kearns with the city’s Storm Water Pollution Prevention Division.
Officials will analyze pollutants obtained by the vacuum street sweeper to determine the efficiency of the program. For more information, go to www.thinkblue.org or call the Storm Water Pollution Prevention Division, (619) 235-1000.