Safe Clean Water Program – A Time to Reflect (Part I)

May 4, 2023

Four-and-a-half years ago, Los Angeles County voters passed Measure W with nearly 70% of the vote. Measure W created a voter-approved tax that raises about $280M per year, in perpetuity, to better manage urban and stormwater runoff. The measure established the countywide Safe Clean Water Program (SCWP), which has already earmarked over $1B in funding to a myriad of multi-benefit stormwater projects.  

Los Angeles Waterkeeper, along with a group of nonprofit partners known as the OurWaterLA (OWLA) coalition, was integrally involved in the development of the measure and the campaign to pass it. I continue to be heavily engaged in the SCWP, having been appointed as both the Chair of the Scoring Committee, and a member of the Central Santa Monica Bay watershed committee, which decides which projects get funded in that region. LAW also continues to be engaged in the OWLA coalition that works to ensure the SCWP is meeting the program’s goals.  

In February, Los Angeles Waterkeeper released the most comprehensive assessment of the SCWP to date; this report was received with some level of fanfare, as well as praise and critiques.   

I felt it important to summarize the assessment here – in my words – as we explore What’s Worked, What Hasn’t & What’s Next for the SCWP. However, before getting to our findings, it is important to address why we prepared this assessment, and what we hope to accomplish with its release. Having completed 3 rounds of funding and allocated more than $1B of taxpayer money, now is the right time to evaluate how the program is performing in the real world so that we can build upon the positives and address any shortcomings. LA Waterkeeper’s independent assessment is intended to inform the County's ‘biennial review’ of the program.  

As an advocate for this program, I also personally wanted to better understand its performance so I can focus my efforts moving forward in ways that will most contribute to the SCWP’s success. I’ve heard from people I respect, who were also very involved in the development of the SCWP, that they feel the program is falling significantly short of its goals and is not turning out to be the transformational program it could be. Others have complained to me that money is not going out the door quickly enough, despite the $1B earmarked to date. This latter complaint hit its crescendo during our massive and ongoing storms this year, when reporter after reporter would ask why more SCWP projects haven’t already been built to capture all this runoff that we’re seeing wash out into our coastal waters.  

These concerns – while they are somewhat in conflict – are understandable, but it’s also uncertain how accurate these perceptions are. That’s exactly why LA Waterkeeper embarked on its assessment of the SCWP’s Regional Program, to use data to help parse perception from reality. 

Some fellow advocates told me they are reluctant to see any detailed assessment of the SCWP for fear that any criticism will reflect poorly on the program and undermine the public’s faith in this important program. While I can understand these concerns, I find them misguided. If we won’t take the hard look at the SCWP, how can we ensure the program continues to improve and meets its myriad of goals as fully as possible? Without data, we can’t even celebrate the successes that have been achieved with confidence.  

Learn what this assessment found in our next blog, “Safe Clean Water Program – What’s Worked and What Hasn’t.”