El Segundo moves to sue L.A. over massive Santa Monica Bay sewage spill, foul odors
Santa Monica voters are hoping for a new sewage plant to protect their neighborhoods from the effects of the L.A. County Department of Public Health’s failure to manage a massive sewage spill that has turned the bay’s ocean into a foul-smelling garbage dump for the region.
A Proposition A2 bond measure to build the plant was approved by voters in 2014 with a slim 52% to 48% margin. The measure would have placed a $10 million cap on future development in the city limits and would have required voters to approve a half cent per month fee to pay for the city’s share of the costs of the new plant.
The city could be responsible for some $4 billion in taxpayer dollars to operate and eventually pay for a new sewage plant if the measure didn’t pass by now, according to city officials.
The election campaign has grown increasingly heated in recent months, with a city employee’s death in January, the death of a Navy Seal in February and the deaths of two young girls in April after drinking a bottle of water tainted with raw sewage.
Santa Monica voters have the opportunity to take a new approach and elect someone who will do their bidding to protect their city from the negative effects of L.A. County’s failure to adequately manage its sewage plants.
In a year when our state has passed over and passed over, our municipal government has been completely dysfunctional. There are a dozen or more failed local government systems in the state and we have yet to find one, but that may change soon.
If a new sewage plant isn’t approved, the people of Santa Monica will not have the protection against the ongoing sewage leaks that they need – only the promise of it.
It is time to stop paying into a broken, dysfunctional system that is not working for the citizens of Santa Monica.
The City Council on Friday night unanimously approved the purchase of four new large dump trucks that would speed up the collection of garbage from the
