Redondo Beach Chamber: Ensuring Coordinated Response And Notification For Emergency Sewage

Press release from the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce:

7/28/2021

the  Chief  Executive  Office  (CEO)  to  investigate  the  emergency  sewage  release  at  the Hyperion  Reclamation  Plant  (Plant)  and  report  back  to  the  Board  within  7  days.  The purpose  of  this  report  back  was  to  identify  the  causation  of  the  delayed  response  by County agencies and corrective action needed to ensure faster response, coordination, reporting and notification about future sewage discharges. Timely beach closures during sewage discharge events are critical to preventing public exposure to harmful bacteria. On behalf of the Board, the CEO retained Citygate Associates, LLC to conduct an expedited  review  of  the  incident,  which  included  interviews  with  key  personnel  and

response teams involved in the response. The initial report concluded that “the handling

response teams involved in the response. The initial report concluded that “the handling of this release and the necessary public notification were failures.” The report provides four groups of recommendations: (1) the notification process needs a tiered alert system to  denote  severity  and  must  include  active  communication  as  opposed  to  the  mere   issuance of an email; (2) standard operating procedures need to be updated to prevent a single point of failure by one person or technology system; (3) the agencies need to come together  in  the  next  four  weeks  and  quickly  establish  a  new  intra-agency  standard operating procedure for major plant emergencies; and (4) County departments need to fully  implement  the  Incident  Command  System.  Additionally,  the  report  recommended that a more detailed After-Action Report be completed and submitted to the Board.  It is imperative that County agencies and the Plant learn from this “near miss” event and  quickly  act  to  establish  more  robust  response  and  notification  procedures.  The Department of Public Health, as the lead agency for recreational water quality, must take the necessary steps to ensure timely public notification and closure of beaches resulting from emergency sewage discharges.  I, THEREFORE MOVE that the Board of Supervisors direct the Office of Emergency Management and relevant County agencies to provide a verbal report on Item 79-B from the July 13, 2021 Board Meeting, detailing the causation of delayed response and notification and corrective action that is needed to ensure faster response, coordination, reporting and notification about future sewage discharges that may require timely beach closures to prevent public exposure to harmful bacteria. I,  FURTHER  MOVE  that  the  Board  of  Supervisors  directs  the  Chief  Executive Office,  in  coordination  with  the  County  Fire  Department,  Department  of  Beaches  and Harbors,  Department  of  Public  Health,  and  in  consultation  with  Los  Angeles  City Sanitation and Environment, to publish a detailed After Action Report within 30 days . Click Here for Full Report

This press release was produced by the Redondo Beach Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.