City May Deny Freedom of Sweep
Arthur Kim, Daily Californian, November 2, 1995

Once every month, most of Berkeley's residents move their cars off the roads in order to make way for street sweeping equipment.

But people who live on approximately 81 city blocks, or 6 percent of Berkeley's residential streets, have opted out of the program that requires residents to move their cars, choosing instead to clean their own roads.

The City Council created the option in 1991 and controversy has surrounded the issue since that time. The debate recently took a concrete turn, after critics, including officials from the public works commission, recommended the city require all residents to join the regular street sweeping program.

According to Berkeley activist L A Wood, the exempted neighborhoods work against the city's clean-water goals because the residents do not adequately maintain their streets.

"What we cannot afford is toxic runoff (and) opt-out doesn't sweep streets," he said. "I can guarantee you that they don't, and I'm talking about a complete sweep."

But Duston Richards, a resident on Keoncrest Drive in North Berkeley, said his neighborhood probably does a better job sweeping than the city could.

"I think the neighbors do a better job of policing the street," he said. "This is an incredibly close community, it's a clean neighborhood."

As a participant in a federally mandated clean water program, Berkeley has been seeking to control pollution by intensifying its street sweeping efforts. A certain type of pollution called urban runoff occurs when motor oil, auto emissions and other contaminants are washed into the city's storm drains and flushed untreated into local creeks and the San Francisco Bay.

The efficiency of street sweepers in picking up the fine particles of heavy metals has been a point of contention in the opt-out debate.

"(The street sweepers) don't do anything," said Jerry Gwathney, a resident on Acton Street in North Berkeley. "They just roll by blowing up dust onto the sidewalk. They make, no difference at all."

Earlier this year, the public works commission and members of the city staff delivered a report to the council recommending the elimination of the opt-out alternative.

The report found that Berkeley removed more copper than required under the minimum standard set by the regional water quality control board, but said the city should still do more by sweeping all the streets.

The report also said that retaining the opt-out alternative in the program would cost the city an additional $26,000 every year in administrative expenses.

The report, which the council sent back to the public works department for more information in June, was to be brought before the council last week, but was withdrawn by the city manager.

Mayor Shirley Dean said the council needed more information to make a decision. "There are a lot of issues around this report that need to be straightened out until it can be brought before the council," she said. "How can we say we're going to buy $100,000 worth of (street sweeping) equipment, and we don't know if it's going to work?"

But Councilmember Dona Spring said she saw no reason for the council to delay further action on the issue.

"All I can imagine is that a little time is needed to educate residents," she said. "It's not a lot to ask people (to move their cars). Driving a car is a responsibility."

Vicki Elmer, director of public works, said the opt-out issue should not cloud the fact that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency had awarded the city a second-place award for an outstanding storm-water program.

"We're really moving forward overall," she said. "There are a lot of other things we are doing to reduce the runoff of heavy metals to the Bay. There's a lot more energy around this issue than is warranted by the facts on both sides."