Port of LA must improve stormwater management per lawsuit tentatively settled

The Port of Los Angeles must significantly improve its management of stormwater and groundwater to ensure that toxic pollutants stay out of the harbor, according to Wednesday's tentative settlement of a lawsuit against the city of Los Angeles for alleged violations of the federal Clean Water Act.

The lawsuit, brought by Los Angeles-based Environment California in July 2024, alleged that there have been more than 2,000 illegal discharges of pollution in the previous five years at the port. That pollution stems from bacteria-laden stormwater and contaminated groundwater that accumulates in a 53-acre area of the port and is discharged into the harbor, the suit alleges.

"Californians deserve healthy and vibrant coastal waters, not contaminated effluent that can lap up on our world-renowned shores," said Laura Deehan, Environment California's state director. "This settlement is a great step toward a cleaner, safer San Pedro Bay, and it's a demonstration of the vital role that citizen lawsuits play in the enforcement of our federal environmental laws."

The suit alleged that since at least 2019, the port -- also known as the Los Angeles Harbor Department, a department of the city of Los Angeles -- has repeatedly discharged untreated wastewater with illegal levels of toxic copper and fecal bacteria into the harbor within San Pedro Bay.

Inner Cabrillo Beach, located at the edge of the Los Angeles Harbor and just downstream from the Port, was ranked as one of the beaches with the most potentially unsafe days according to Environment America’s 2023 “Safe for Swimming?” report.

Stormwater is supposed to be conveyed to an on-site treatment system. That system is supposed to remove the grit, toxic metals and bacteria that accumulate on the property during dry weather and then end up in stormwater.

However, Environment California says, the Port’s treatment system is both ineffective and undersized.

If approved by U.S. District Judge Consuelo Marshall in Los Angeles federal court after a 45-day waiting period, the settlement will require the city to treat stormwater to ensure that fecal bacteria stay out of the harbor. It will also require that groundwater contaminated with toxic pollutants be redirected to the Terminal Island Water Reclamation Plant, where the water can be beneficially reused after treatment, according to Environment California.

Additional reporting by City News Service