On Tuesday night, Claremont City Council unanimously approved a cooperative agreement between the cities of Claremont, La Verne, Pomona and San Dimas that outlines administrative and cost-sharing for the storm water Coordinated Integrated Monitoring Program (CIMP) recently approved by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

The goal of the agreement between the four cities—collectively referred to as the East San Gabriel Valley Watershed Management Group (ESGVWMG)—is to provide a framework for completing tasks necessary to successfully implement the water monitoring.

Tasks include the design, acquisition and installation of the monitoring equipment, the collection of data at three water receiving sites and three storm water outfall sites and analysis of data with the required water quality objectives and adaptive management process. The watershed management group will also be tasked with preparing and submitting annual reports to the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board.

Based on their familiarity with the San Gabriel River watershed area and the monitoring requirements of the East San Gabriel Valley watershed, MWH Americas Inc. has been selected to implement the CIMP monitoring services at a cost of $927,622. Based on a cost-sharing formula between the four cities, Claremont’s share of the contract will be approximately $200,000 with funding available in the Community Development Department’s 2015-16 operating budget for compliance activities.

MWH Americas, Inc. prepared both the Watershed Management Program (WMP) and the CIMP documents for the ESGVWMG, with the CIMP document receiving final approval on June 25, 2015. The WMP document received conditional approval in April 2015 and the four cities are awaiting final approval from the regional board on their requested revision.

In order for the city of Claremont to move forward with the MWH contract, all four cities must approve the cooperative agreement prior to the execution of the contract. Each of the four cities is in the process of seeking approval of the agreement from their respective city councils. The La Verne City Council approved the agreement on July 20, and the cities of Pomona and San Dimas anticipate approval of the agreement at their upcoming council meetings on August 3 and August 11, respectively.

The cooperative agreement names Claremont as the lead agency. The city of Claremont will be responsible for the additional duties of awarding consulting contracts for the monitoring service and coordinating invoice payments, as well as submitting annual reports to the Los Angeles Regional Water Control Board.

The agreement provides for a 10 percent administrative fee to be paid to the city of Claremont to compensate for additional duties associated with the lead agency status.

City Attorney Sonia Carvalho said that two other items relating to stormwater discharge permits also came before the Claremont City Council during a closed session on Tuesday.

The council voted 5-0 to direct city staff to submit comments to the Los Angeles Regional Water Control Board before August 3 in what was described as an “administrative matter pending before the regional board.”

In addition, the councilmembers authorized an intervention in a writ of mandate lawsuit that was filed on Friday, July 24 by the National Resources Defense Council.

“Based on the level of participation of other cities impacted by this decision, the city of Claremont may intervene in that action if directed to do so by the city manager,” Ms. Carvalho said.

—Angela Bailey

news@claremont-courier.com