Three-year project will focus on county's stormwater runoff
Tony Biasotti
Ventura County Star
07/26/2011
The county of Ventura and its 10 cities will cover half of the nearly $900,000 cost for testing stormwater runoff and funding a public-relations campaign to encourage people to limit runoff.
The Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday to approve two contracts with private firms totaling $867,423 for the three-year project. In both cases, the work is required by the state permit issued last year that regulates stormwater runoff in Ventura County, according to a report to supervisors from the Ventura County Watershed Protection District, which is paying for half of the project.
Both contracts were agreed upon after competitive bidding, the district said.
The first contract, for $372,423 over three years, is with Weck Laboratories, a firm based in City of Industry that tests water from municipal storm drains for pollutants. The company has been testing in Ventura County since 2009.
Weck's new contract is bigger than the last; the firm was paid $208,000 to do similar testing over the past two years. That's because of increased testing requirements in the new stormwater permit, Watershed Protection District officials said in their report to the board.
