Adequate Infrastructure Investment and Environmentalism Go Hand-In-Hand

Jack, the Governor boldly set some stretch environmental goals for California in his recent speech at the World Environment Day conference. He said, "... Our environmental heritage is just as strong and important as our legacy of opportunity." Could you help translate the Governor's goals into a responsive infrastructure investment plan for the State? What projects ought to be prioritized?

The environment and our civil infrastructure supports us all, every minute of every day. We haven't invested enough in our infrastructure or our environment to retain and improve our quality of life. The governor's initial goals were right, but it is incumbent upon each of us to contribute. Californians – and Angelinos in particular – must step up to regain our infrastructure leadership and to ensure the linkage with environmental stewardship.

This directly benefits each of us. The Los Angeles is a vibrant, growing region. We need environmentally sound infrastructure – such as water and wastewater management, water reclamation, as well as people and goods movement – to foster the economic development that makes progress possible and accommodates inevitable growth. We live with that infrastructure, so the air quality, water quality, and quality of life must be an integral part of any sustainable improvements.

A city like Los Angeles has an intense need for water and continued focus on conservation. We have to realize that the ecosystem in which we live contributes significantly to our quality of life. It is possible to take care of the environment and provide for economic growth at the same time.

Closer to home, you served on a L.A. task force that evaluated the City's comprehensive infrastructure needs. What significant needs were identified, and what lessons were learned about how best to strategically and effectively deploy infrastructure resources?

The departments came with very good data and they understood their department's ten-year needs, which totaled $35 billion in the initial review. There is a total of $26 billion in funding identified for these projects, leaving a $9 billion gap. The departments must be able to meet those needs.

Collaboration between the departments was missing. Los Angeles – before it builds sustainable infrastructure – must build a multi-department, mult-agency focus. This is a team approach that allows innovative mutual projects and financing, as well as public-private partnerships to leverage human and financial resources. Remember, we are receiving less and less state or federal funds.

Departments are now working mostly in silos. There is some cooperation – the Bureau of Sanitation worked with the Department of Water and Power on their facilities - integrated water resources plan. Mayor Villargaosa is coming into office with an acute awareness of the need for more inter-departmental coordination to resolve our $35 billion worth of infrastructure needs.

When Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, in his inaugural address July 1st, committed to "greening" Los Angeles, what do you think he meant/intends?

He is establishing a good vision with the right balance. Also, despite some criticism, I feel he's right to think big and to ask us to think big. California is the 6th largest economic power in the world and LA is the 16th. We can afford an improved environment, and it is a necessary element, not only for quality of life, but also for our future, because we have to make this an attractive place for employers and their employees.

Big cities require parks, good air quality, and a place where you can take your family or kids to relax and appreciate the natural environment. To make big city projects immediately manageable, it is essential to take a community-based approach to ensure we enjoy not only our homes but our neighborhoods as well. People are not looking to escape to the suburbs any longer. We are recognizing more and more the benefits of living in an urban environment. To ensure that urban living remains attractive to people, we have to improve our infrastructure and provide for environmental amenities.

What kinds of projects should the mayor of Los Angeles pursue to move us toward his vision of a "green" city?

We need to assist the Mayor and council to pursue more parks and infrastructure bonds. San Diego just passed a $14 billion infrastructure bond; LA needs a similar effort. Los Angeles is park poor in many neighborhoods. The LA River, what the Mayor has referred to as the "emerald necklace," is something that is going to make us one of the great cities of the future. The LA River is a complicated project because of its size – it is 51 miles long, 30 of them in the city, but its size will also allow many different kinds of improvements to be associated with it. There can be parks, restaurants, schools, athletic programs like rowing, and it can be dammed to allow for other recreational uses during non-flood periods. We also need to challenge the Mayor to address LA politically sensitive topics such as capturing, treating and using stormwater as a water supply, water recycling (reclamation) and double decking freeways for immediate use, but putting in mass transit in those same corridors.

Also, the Port of LA, a critical economic asset of national importance, can, as the Mayor puts it, be a benefit to the entire city. The Port of LA and the Port of Long Beach combine to be the largest port in the nation and will continue to grow, provided we take care of the shippers and other users, who are the customers of the port and therefore the customers of the city. The shippers need better goods movement and better service. We should not only improve the transportation for the residents, but also demonstrate that we can get a container from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, or from Los Angeles to Chicago, more quickly. If we can demonstrate that, we can develop and require an approach where the shippers will help pay for the transportation and environmental improvements that will also relieve the congestion in Los Angeles.

And goods movement creates immediate, good-paying jobs. This, in turn, enhances the tax base that pays for a better environment. In order to improve goods movement and reduce congestion, we will have to turn to public-private partnerships that are available to the Mayor and our city.

It is clear, from MIR interviews over the last few years, that the communities of Wilmington, San Pedro and Long Beach feel overwhelmed by traffic from the movement of goods through their neighborhoods. A political backlash to growth at our Ports is gaining in popularity. As a result, a regional solution to port and freeway congestion is increasingly being discussed. What role is civil engineering playing in developing solutions to the Ports' growth and concomitant traffic?

Civil engineers can plan, design and build "contact sensitive". Contact sensitive designs consider the surrounding environment of the project; For example, two freeways upgrades to Pasadena had two approaches, the first, more contact sensitive, went through the mountain with a tunnel, leaving the open space above, the later, less sensitive, took out the mountain. Engineers can provide highway, bridge and other transit improvements needed to relieve congestion. Civil engineers are the natural service providers; they implement the community and elected officials' visions. However, a regional concept has to be developed, rather than approaching the improvements piecemeal. There has to be a regional solution and not a focus on merely moving containers from the ship to a better location in San Pedro, but on getting containers on their way to Chicago, or a warehouse in Wilmington, or a warehouse in Palmdale very rapidly. If we focus on that customer need, and then bear in mind that we want to relieve the congestion, while improving air quality, we will come up with the solutions.

These issues are not insurmountable. Much of the money exists and the other will need to be raised or re-allocated. We need to look at our local funds, potential fees and bond opportunities, and as we are currently a donor state at the federal level for highway and bridge funds, we need to make sure our representatives are bringing back more of those federal dollars to Los Angeles. In terms of state finances, more of the tax dollars get spent in Northern California than in Southern California, but Southern California contributes more. We need to make sure that those transportation tax dollars get spent here. It is a cooperative approach that is going to have to include multiple agencies and customers, from shippers to the LA residents. If we improve the infrastructure, services, and quality of life in Los Angeles, the economic engine will continue to operate. If we don't improve them, we risk what many large north-eastern cities experienced.

There are regional approaches to raising revenue – and putting it to work here – that haven't been explored.

Let's turn back to the Governor's agenda. At the World Environment Day conference he said, " ... I want to keep the momentum going with respect to the environmental agenda, and as of today, California is going to be the leader in the fight against global warming." Tell us how CH2M Hill, and other civil engineers, might play a role in responding to the Governor's environmental agenda?

CH2M Hill people are environmental, water and infrastructure designers. With our creative collaborations in large and challenging projects, we are frequently asked for technical solutions to those types of needs. Our job often comes down to controlling the sources of pollution or changing how the pollutant source is contributing to other areas such as global warming.

Going back to the port, it has been identified as a major air pollution source. We are working on ensuring that emissions do not increase, with programs like AMPs, which provides electrical power to ships at port so they do not burn diesel. We are also looking into ways to increase port business that do not increase pollution, such as increasing cruise ship traffic, because cruise ships already use the AMPs system.

Engineers also help by creating attractive public transportation options that are more environmentally sound than cars. One day, Los Angeles could have a public transportation system to rival Boston, Singapore or Hong Kong.

With LA City voters having passed Proposition O, implementation is now the challenge. What water quality project is CH2M Hill working on locally? What other infrastructure projects is the firm assisting?

Our firm assists with everything from CALFED's initiatives on water quality to working with local entities on their water supply, treatment plants, their ten-year facility plans, or their stormwater controls. CALFED manages the Sacramento River Delta, which is an important source of water for LA.

The city of LA, working with political and community leadership like Tom Bradley and Felicia Marcus, has done a great job of controlling the discharge from wastewater – water reclamation treatment plants. The water from these plants that goes into our Watersheds, into the LA River, is of very high quality. However, the urban runoff that goes into the river and other natural and man-made drainage systems is a significant source of pollutants. The major sources of water in the Los Angeles River are the upstream water reclamation plants. Measurement of bacteria counts from the treatment plant effluent are negligible, but from the urban runoff, the urban slobber from our streets and parking lots, I believe the counts have been measured at over 50,000 units. It is a huge problem to address and that is what Prop. O will start doing. We are contributing to the clean up effort by helping local agencies to get Prop. 50 funds, or Prop. O funds, or partner with other entities on mutually beneficial projects to treat runoff, store it and use it for beneficial purposes.

In a recent MIR interview with Gibson Dunn's Cecilia Estolano about Prop. O, she noted that the $500 million in bond money approved by the voters, while considerable, is basically only seed money. She contends that if the Prop O Committee plays its cards right, it should be able leverage park bond money and water quality bond money etc., to serve a larger infrastructure agenda. Are there some examples of possible projects that might qualify under Cecilia's criteria?

Absolutely. The LA River needs a few billion dollars to become the natural amenity that people are dreaming about. Improving Ballona Creek and the Ballona Wetlands are also important to many people. Those projects are water quality projects that can be supported by Prop. O funds.

Prop. O demonstrates that the community is interested in improving water quality and it also will allow the city to leverage other sources, like Prop. 50, Caltrans funds, etc., for improved water quality. Many times, if there are local funds available, other state sources will contribute.

Many people may not realize it, but the largest public works program in Los Angeles or the nation is LAUSD's school construction program. How might school facility investments by school districts be effectively and creatively leveraged by local governments to revitalize neighborhoods?

It is easy if you understand water quality issues. There is a misconception that something like improving a parking lot is disconnected from water quality. Well, runoff starts in parking lots, driveways and even freeways. If you can capture that runoff and treat it, you can also improve the surroundings where the treatment unit is. Public works infrastructure costs millions of dollars. While your constructing those public works projects, you are disrupting neighborhoods, and it is worthwhile to create a park or otherwise improve the neighborhood in which the public infrastructure is being located. For example, we're working with Council District 14 and New Schools Better Neighborhoods on a daycare center that was relocated near the LA River, because its original location had been slated for a new high school. The new location may be an area that has significant runoff, so with CD 14 and NSBN we are bringing together Caltrans and the City Engineer to create a solution that will address water quality and other community needs at the same time. In short, it is an effort to coordinate a number of agencies and capitalize on the water quality dollars that are to be spent in the area.

Jack, the examples you have shared, Mayor Villaraigosa's expansive vision, and the governor's environmental stretch goals require that public agencies collaborate, work outside their silos, and plan infrastructure investment so as to achieve a multiplicity of communty goals. Is it really possible for the public and private sector to holistically successfully plan future infrastructure investments?

My work focuses on water, the environment and civil infrastructure, and those contribute to the quality of life in an urban center. I think that our elected officials give us a vision and ask us to think big. We have to recognize our responsibility to help make this happen.

We need to be ready to pay for more bonds like Prop. O. and to fund these projects or help our elected officials find the funds, because it is a point of survival for Los Angeles.

If we truly want to be one of the great cities of this century, we have to create an urban model for the rest of the world that demonstrates that economic growth and success depends upon adequate infrastructure investment. Employers must want to locate here, because it's a good place to do business. People must want to live here, because there are good places to go that are easy to reach, good air to breathe, good water to drink and good jobs to pay for it all. This is a mission that I take personally every morning. My family, my children, live and will grow up in LA.