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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06 - Newport-Mesa Water Quality Education PlanITEM 6 TO: Members of the Newport Beach City Council FROM: Dave Kiff, Deputy City Manager SUBJECT: Water Quality Education Plan for Newport -Mesa Students RECOMMENDED ACTION: Adopt Resolution 2000 -_ relating to a Water Quality Education Plan for 5th Grade students in the Newport -Mesa Unified School District. EXECUTIVE This Agenda Item asks the City Council to approve a water quality education SUMMARY: plan geared toward 1,600 51h grade students in Newport -Mesa. The Plan would involve a video from the Surfrider Foundation plus classroom time, a field trip to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, and curriculum materials for both teachers and for the students to take home with them. The Council directed the Harbor Quality Citizens Advisory Committee to develop this water quality education plan at the Council's June 28, 1999 meeting. The Plan evolved over almost nine months. This Agenda Item asks the Council to adopt a resolution supporting the Plan. The Resolution emphasizes the intent of the Committee to seek sponsorship and grant funds for the $20,000 plan. BACKGROUND: Water quality has long been a priority for the City Council given our proximity to Newport Bay and the Pacific Ocean. Water quality will continue to dominate the City's agenda as neighboring cities, the County of Orange, the State of California, and the federal government address urban runoff and its resultant water quality impacts in the years to come. For example: • Clean Water Act (Federal). The Act requires the State of California (through California Regional Water Quality Control Boards) to identify impaired water bodies and to implement corrective measures to restore the areas to standards for water contact sports and for shellfish harvesting. These corrective measures include "total maximum daily loads" (TMDLs) which direct local agencies to reduce the amount of specific impairments entering the water bodies. The Santa Ana Regional Board has identified Newport Bay as its primary impaired water body - as such, the Board has adopted three TMDLs (for sediment, nutrients, and fecal coliform) with one under development (for toxics). Newport Beach City Council Page 2 BACKGROUND: Meanwhile, the San Diego Regional Board has issued a relatively rare "clean - (cont'd) up and abatement order" under the Clean Water Act to the City of Laguna Niguel. The Order directs Laguna Niguel to clean up a storm drain from a residential area near Aliso Creek in southern Orange County. While we have not seen this type of action in Newport Beach, the Laguna Niguel order may be a harbinger of things to come. • NPDES Phase Il. US EPA will soon finalize its "Phase 11" rules which will require smaller agencies - and small construction sites - to obtain and comply with National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System (NPDES) permits. Phase II includes extensive education efforts. • Management Measures (MMs). The California Coastal Commission and the State Water Resources Control Board will soon adopt 61 different MMs as a part of their Plan for California's Nonpoint Source Pollution Control Program (1998- 2013). The Plan includes 15 urban runoff MMs addressing two primary strategies - preventing pollutant loadings and treating unavoidable loadings. The former includes extensive education efforts to make it effective. Additionally, experts agree that education is a key factor in improving water quality by reducing urban runoff to the Bay and the ocean. Indeed, there are several water quality education efforts underway today that try to increase public awareness of what they can do at home and at work to limit urban runoff: • Surfrider - Michelle Kremer of Surfrider's National Office in San Clemente reports that Surfrider's Respect the Beach program, including a video entitled Keepers of the Coast, may reach up to 5,000 K -12 students this year. Surfrider's activities also include advertising in national magazines, participation in clean -up days, and a health survey of ocean water users. • CoastKeeper - The local arm of CoastKeeper has started an interactive video program at the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum that enables students to talk to and view a video - cammed diver in the Bay near the Museum. • Newport Harbor Nautical Museum — The Museum staff - in cooperation with CoastKeeper -- has prepared an educational program that would work with 120 students per week in grades 4 -12. • County of Orange NPDES Program -- The County of Orange operates the region's NPDES program on behalf of the County and its 32 cities. The County's program has not traditionally emphasized school -based education, but it may do so soon. Officials with the County say they are "committed to the ... development of a long -term, far - reaching and above all, effective public education program (including school -based programs)." • Marine Education Center at Shellmaker Island -- The City and the Department of Fish and Game have cooperated on a proposal before the American Trader Oil Spill Trustee's group for up to $750,000 to create a marine/ estuarine education center on Shellmaker Island. The Center would serve as a field trip destination for students from throughout the region to learn about urban runoff and its impacts to an environment like Newport Bay. Advocates expect this "urban runoff" focus would complement students' experiences at the more ocean- oriented Ocean Institute in Dana Point. Page 3 BACKGROUND: • Litigation. Defend the Bay, BayKeepers, Surfrider, and others have litigated (cont'd) under the Clean Water Act to help educate local agencies and individuals as to water quality issues (Newport Bay's four TMDLs result from Defend the Bay's lawsuit to enforce the Clean Water Act in the Newport Bay watershed). • OC Coastal Coalition. Finally, the Orange County Coastal Coalition, a coalition of coastal cities, the County of Orange, non - profit organizations, and more, has identified "public education/ outreach" as one of its priorities for 2000. A subcommittee of the Coalition will recommend that the full Coalition pursue state funding for a public education and outreach program focused on Orange County. On June 28, 1999 the City Council tasked the City's Harbor Quality Citizen's Advisory Committee (HQAC) to: "plan and develop a resident, visitor, and Bay user education plan that will reduce inputs to the Bad that impair water quality." The Committee asked Committee member James Martinez, a Newport Beach resident, Newport -Mesa teacher, and Newport Bay rower, to review specific educational materials and to return to the Committee with specific recommendations. Mr. Martinez did so in November 1999 - his education proposal was to focus a district -wide program on Th grade students. Martinez proposed providing the following to each 5'^ grade classroom (or student, where noted) in the Newport -Mesa District: • A school assembly on environment/ water quality issues. • Information about a water quality website development contest. • A simple water quality monitoring test kit (provided to each student). • A copy of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. • A version of the No -Know Board Game, a game about water quality. • A water quality poster (from the national 4 -H Council). • A map of the Newport Bay watershed showing elementary school locations and drainage pathways. • Keepers of the Coast, a Surfrider Foundation video. The Committee discussed the proposal in both February and March 2000. After hearing a presentation about the Newport Harbor Nautical Museums water quality program, the Committee suggested entering into an agreement with the Museum to present the City's program. As such, the Committee has approved the attached Education Plan (Attachment A) and directed me to forward the proposal to the City Council for formal approval. The attachment includes a budget proposal for the Water Quality Education Plan. The Committee has stated its intent - assuming Council approval - to ask for corporate, individual, and other donations to fund the program. If such donations do not materialize, however, the Committee has asked the Council to consider assigning City funds to the effort. ATTACHMENTS: Attachment A - Water Quality Education Plan Attachment B - Resolution 2000 -_ Relating to a Water Quality Education Plan for the Newport -Mesa Area. Attachment A WATER QUALITY EDUCATION PLAN City of Newport Beach Harbor Quality Citizens Advisory Committee Approved by the Committee on March 2, 2000 PURPOSE: To better educate Newport -Mesa area residents about how they can improve water quality in Newport Bay and in the Ocean by changing everyday habits at home, work, and school. METHODOLOGY: To fund a program for all 5"' Grade students in the Newport -Mesa Unified School District (NMUSD) that would cause the students to "take home" what they have learned about water quality. Once taken home, the students will help educate siblings and parents as to ways to change habits that will lead to less urban runoff into the Bay and Ocean. PROGRAM The 5th Grade program would consist of: COMPONENTS: • Curriculum and materials for each NMUSD elementary school. • Water quality website development challenge. • Water quality monitoring test kit (provided to each student). • A copy of The Lorax by Dr. Seuss. • A water quality poster from the National 4 -H Council. • A map of the Newport Bay watershed. • Keepers of the Coast, a Surfrider Foundation video. • Field trip to the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum for further WQ education plus time with the NHNM's underwater video program. DURATION AND The program would begin in the 2000 -01 school year and repeat for 5th TERM: Graders in the 2001 -02 school year. Between now and then, the Committee recommends distributing the Keepers of the Coast video and the Surfrider curriculum to all NMUSD 5th Graders during the remainder of the 1999 -00 school year. Surfrider has offered to provide this material at no cost for this year. BUDGET: Please see Exhibit A. CO- SPONSORSHIP: The Committee recommends that the Council forward this Program to local foundations, corporations, and private donors to solicit their sponsorship of all or part of the Program. Newport Beach City Council Page 5 Exhibit A BUDGET Description Provided in Advance of Field Trip Class Curriculum Surfrider Foundation 55 0.00 0 Keepers of the CoastVideo lSurfrider Foundation 20 0.00 0 Provided at New port Harbor Nautical Museum Field Trio to Nautical Museum NHNM 1,600 $10.00 $16,000 Water ua /I Poster National 4 -H Council 1,600 $0.00 0 Newport Bay Watershed Maps County of Orange GIS 1,600 $1.00 $1,600 Provided upon Return to Classroom Water Quality Monitoring Kits LaMotte 55 $27.00 $1,4851 The LoraxBook Amazon.com 55 $10.47 576 Total Cost Of Pwgrarn 1 ear 19 661 Page 6 Attachment B RESOLUTION 2000- A RESOLUTION OF THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF NEWPORT BEACH RELATING TO A WATER QUALITY EDUCATION PLAN FOR THE NEWPORT -MESA AREA WHEREAS, the waters of Upper and Lower Newport Bay and the Pacific Ocean are important and valued resources to the City of Newport Beach, its residents, businesses, and visitors; and WHEREAS, these waters are generally very safe for water contact sports like swimming, except during storm events and after illegal discharges into storm drains throughout the City; and WHEREAS, urban runoff or "non point source pollution' is a major contaminant to the nation's bays, estuaries, and shoreline; and WHEREAS, many people remain unaware that the region's storm drains take storm flows and urban runoff directly into the Bay and the Ocean without any type of treatment, and WHEREAS, water quality throughout the region can be improved if residents, business owners, and visitors adopt Ocean- and Bay - friendly habits that keep harmful materials out of storm drains; and WHEREAS, experts agree that the most cost - effective method of improving water quality in a region is to educate people about how they can adopt these habits; and WHEREAS, the City of Newport Beach's Harbor Quality Citizens Advisory Committee has been tasked by the City Council with developing a Water Quality Education Plan that would help inform residents about Bay - friendly habits; and WHEREAS, the Water Quality Education Plan developed by the Committee is directed towards the up to 1,600 5th Grade students throughout the Newport -Mesa Unified School District in the hopes that these students will encourage their families to adopt Bay - friendly habits at home and at work; and Page 7 WHEREAS, this Plan will be conducted in a partnership with the Newport Harbor Nautical Museum, the Surfrider Foundation, CoastKeepers, the Newport -Mesa Unified School District, local corporate and individual sponsors, and the City of Newport Beach itself; NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Newport Beach that the City hereby supports the Water Quality Education Plan developed by the Harbor Quality Committee and urges its implementation during the 2000 -2001 school year; and, be it also RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Newport Beach that it hereby authorizes the solicitation of sponsorship and donations for this Plan as the primary source of funding for this effort. Should the level of donations fail to meet the Plans budget, the Council also resolves to consider this matter further within the FY 2000- 2001 budget process. ADOPTED this 14th Day of March, 2000. JOHN E. NOYES MAYOR OF NEWPORT BEACH ATTEST: LaVONNE HARKLESS CITY CLERK