River cleanup.

The Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board has just come out with a plan to reduce the flow of metals into the San Gabriel River.

Faced with a March 2007 deadline to comply with a consent decree after environmental groups sued to reduce river contaminants, the water agency has proposed eliminating most of the copper, lead, zinc and selenium from the river over the next 10 years.

A draft plan now circulating for comment covers a large area in the San Gabriel River watershed, stretching from Irwindale to Long Beach. It would require all entities that produce these metals or discharge them into watershed--including industrial plants, cities that operate storm drains and construction firms--to reduce their discharges. The reduction targets are allocated using complex formulas.

A similar plan for trash that was proposed for the Los Angeles River met with fierce resistance from a coalition of cities led by Los Angeles. The cities lost their lawsuit last year and now must spend millions of dollars to install catch basins and other debris-control devices. Whether San Gabriel River watershed cities pursue a similar course remains to be seen.

For more information, log on to the water board's Web site, waterboards.ca.gov/losangeles, click on the Total Maximum Dally Load (TDML) link on the left hand side, then go to the watershed window and select the San Gabriel River link.

Staff reporter Howard Fine can be reached by phone at [phone], ext. 227, or by e-mail at [e-mail].