Toxic waste site near Kettleman City to pay $311,000 in fines

A toxic waste dump near the San Joaquin Valley farming community of Kettleman City has agreed to pay $311,000 in fines for failing to report 72 hazardous materials spills over the last four years, the California Department of Toxic Substances Control announced Wednesday.

Brian Johnson, the department's deputy director of enforcement, described the fines as "a substantial and aggressive penalty."

The penalties were part of a settlement that capped an investigation into the Chemical Waste Management facility, the only one in California licensed to accept polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, a carcinogen.

A review of company documents and monitoring records revealed "no sign of health risks to the local community" from the spills of lead contaminated soil, herbicides and other chemicals, Johnson said. Most of the spills were about a pint in volume, he said. The landfill's operating permit requires the company to notify the state so that spill cleanup is documented.

The violations will be taken into account when the department rules later this year on the proposed expansion of the facility, which is running out of room. The company also wants to renew its 10-year operating permit, which ends in June.

"When that permit expires, the facility will continue to operate under the old permit conditions until a final decision is made," Johnson said.

In an interview, Chemical Waste Management spokeswoman Jennifer Andrews said the spills were "not reported to the state because they were small spills, which were immediately cleaned up. In addition, we believed we were operating within our permit conditions."

The action came four years after activists petitioned state and federal health agencies to investigate whether the 31-year-old landfill might be linked to severe birth defects in residents of Kettleman City, about three miles away.

A survey by state health investigators ruled out the dump as the reason 11 babies were born with cleft palates and other physical deformities in Kettleman City between September 2007 and March 2010. Three of the babies died.

The activist groups People for Clean Air and Water and Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice criticized the fines as weak and renewed their call on state regulators to deny the facility's permit applications.

"It's absurd for the state to claim with a straight face that 72 spills of hazardous substances do not pose a health threat," Greenaction spokesman Bradley Angel said. "It didn't even know the spills had gone on for four years until it stumbled upon the problem in a company log."

The landfill has a long history of violations.

In 1985, the Environmental Protection Agency fined the company $2.1 million for violations that included operating additional landfills and waste ponds without authorization.

In 2005, the company was fined $10,000 for violating federal PCB monitoring requirements. It was cited again in 2007 for failing to properly analyze incoming wastes, storm water runoff and leachate for PCBs.

In 2010, the EPA levied a $302,100 fine for failing to manage PCBs properly. A year later, the facility agreed to pay $400,000 in fines and spend $600,000 on laboratory upgrades needed to manage hazardous materials.

louis.sahagun@latimes.com

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Low-income California seniors to move into new managed care plan

In a major shift triggered by the national healthcare law, nearly half a million low-income California seniors and disabled patients will begin moving into a new managed care program this fall.

The patients, who receive both Medi-Cal and Medicare, are among the most costly in the state. Officials believe that the program, Cal MediConnect, will reduce spending and improve care by shifting the patients out of a fragmented system and into one that is more coordinated.

The state and the federal government signed an agreement Wednesday officially establishing a test program for the patients, known as dual eligibles.

"We believe it will transform the state's healthcare system," Health and Human Services Secretary Diana Dooley said.

Advocates, however, continue to worry that the transition could affect patients' access to doctors and medications.

"We are concerned about how this is going to translate in the real world for beneficiaries," said Kevin Prindiville, deputy director of the National Senior Citizens Law Center. "There is a lot of change happening very quickly."

Deborah Doctor, legislative advocate for Disability Rights California, said many people will benefit from the transition. But she expressed concerns about whether the state or the health plans would be ready in time. She also said she wondered about the projected Medi-Cal savings, estimated to be just 1% in the first year.

"Why are we going ahead at this pace in California if the money savings are going to be so small?" she said.

Under managed care, health plans will be paid to coordinate all of a patient's care rather than doctors being paid based on the number of services provided. Experts say this could reduce costs by helping more patients stay in their homes and reducing unnecessary trips to nursing homes and hospitals.

The state plans to begin notifying beneficiaries this summer and enrolling them in October. The state had originally planned to transition 800,000 dual eligibles, but officials said Wednesday that they would cap enrollment at 456,000 patients, including a maximum of 200,000 in L.A. County.

The project is planned to last three years, but state officials hope to continue beyond that and to expand the number of participants.

In addition to getting medical and mental health services, beneficiaries in the program will have access to dental and vision care and nonemergency transportation.

Under the agreement, beneficiaries will be able to opt out of the project for their Medicare services and will have other protections designed to ensure continuity of care.

Cal MediConnect is the fifth such project approved by the federal government as part of the federal healthcare overhaul, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. The project will take place in eight counties: Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Diego, San Mateo, Alameda and Santa Clara.

anna.gorman@latimes.com

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Ex-girlfriend recounts Rockefeller impostor's paranoia

When Christian Gerhartsreiter learned a detective was searching for him, he became paranoid and started living a more clandestine life, a former girlfriend testified Wednesday.

He dyed his dark hair and eyebrows blond. He disposed of his garbage in public trash bins. He had his live-in girlfriend, Mihoko Manabe, walk on the opposite side of the street and refused to exit buildings with her at the same time, Manabe said.

Gerhartsreiter's odd behavior began in 1988 shortly after Greenwich, Conn., police Det. Daniel Allen left a phone message seeking to meet with him, Manabe said. Allen was assisting San Marino police with an investigation into a young couple's disappearance three years earlier.

Prosecutors contend that Gerhartsreiter avoided Allen because he killed his San Marino landlady's son and buried his body in her backyard. John Sohus' body was dug up in 1994, nearly a decade after he and his wife, Linda, vanished. Gerhartsreiter, now on trial for Sohus' murder, was known as Christopher Chichester when he also disappeared from San Marino in 1985. He later resurfaced on the East Coast as Christopher Crowe and, later, Clark Rockefeller.

As Christopher Crowe, Gerhartsreiter had given a Connecticut acquaintance a white pickup truck registered to the Sohuses, prosecutors said. When authorities learned of the truck's whereabouts, they sought to interview Gerhartsreiter about the couple's disappearance.

Manabe said she met Gerhartsreiter in 1987 at Nikko Securities, a Japanese brokerage firm with a New York City office. Manabe worked there as a translator, and Gerhartsreiter, whom she knew as Crowe, was the head of a bond trading department, she said. Within a few months, they began dating, and Gerhartsreiter moved into her Manhattan apartment.

He was fired from Nikko Securities, Manabe said, because "human resources found out that his name wasn't real." He told her his real name was Christopher Chichester Mountbatten. He then took a job with Kidder, Peabody and Co., another New York securities firm, she said.

When Manabe told her boyfriend that Det. Allen had called, Gerhartsreiter said Allen wasn't with the police, that "he was [himself] in danger and that there were people coming to get him and his family," Manabe recalled.

Gerhartsreiter "was an unusual person, but after the call, it was markedly different," she said.

Defense attorney Brad Bailey last week said that his client may have been evasive and tried to avoid Allen, but that did not prove he was a killer.

Shortly after Allen's call, Gerhartsreiter proposed to Manabe, she said. She accepted, though Gerhartsreiter "wanted me to break ties with my family and friends so we could go into hiding," she said. "We were going to go to Europe."

Prosecutors said records show Gerhartsreiter, who was born in Germany, renewed his passport three days after Allen's call.

The couple never went to Europe, Manabe said.

They had their mail sent to post office boxes instead of their address, she said, and Gerhartsreiter shredded their garbage because "he was always paranoid that somebody would be rifling through our trash."

Gerhartsreiter also got rid of his car, telling Manabe he left it on the side of a street because something was wrong with it, and he never drove again, she said. He left his job at Kidder, Peabody "because of his family and his own safety," and never worked again, she said.

"He had no job; he had no ID; he had left society," Manabe said.

In 1989, Manabe and Gerhartsreiter took a trip to Camden, Maine, to look for wedding venues. Gerhartsreiter made a reservation at a restaurant using the name Clark Rockefeller. It was the first time he used the name, she said.

He continued to use it, she said, because "he liked the attention that he got."

Manabe, who spoke quietly on the witness stand, said she was embarrassed to answer questions about the couple's relationship, which lasted until 1994, when she broke up with him.

"It's not part of my life I like to talk about or remember," she said.

jack.leonard@latimes.com

hailey.branson@latimes.com

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UC to pay $1.2 million to settle suit targeting UCI Medical Center

The University of California has agreed to pay $1.2 million to settle a federal whistle-blower lawsuit charging falsification of records and poor supervision of patients by UC Irvine anesthesiologists.

The suit said anesthesiologists at the university's medical center filled out patient care reports before procedures started, "making it appear the anesthesiologist was present" when he or she wasn't.

The lawsuit was brought by Dr. Dennis O'Connor, a former professor of anesthesiology at UCI School of Medicine, who will receive $120,000 of the settlement. The remainder goes to the federal government.

O'Connor alleged in the 2008 suit that anesthesia was administered by nurse anesthetists or residents with no supervising anesthesiologist in the immediate area, as regulations require. He said in an interview that anesthesiologists were sometimes in a different building.

"Our view is UCI placed profits over patient safety," said Louis Cohen, O'Connor's attorney.

In a statement emailed Wednesday, UC Regents denied the allegations.

UCI Medical Center had come under fire in the past for similar accusations. The medical center was placed under state supervision in 2008 because of the anesthesiology department's "inability to provide quality healthcare in a safe environment," according to a federal report. Among the most serious failings federal inspectors cited was filling out reports in advance of care.

In 2008, the California Medical Board accused the former head of the anesthesiology department, Peter Breen, of gross negligence and incompetence. Two years later, the medical board gave him a public reprimand for writing that a patient was "stable" and "comfortable" during each phase of the procedure before anesthesia had been administered.

Breen was ordered to take ethics and medical record-keeping courses. He also was reprimanded by the Illinois Department of Professional Regulation.

Breen, who remains at UCI, did not return phone calls or an email Wednesday.

The UCI statement said "new leadership took over and transformed" the anesthesiology department in 2008, putting in place new training and policies, including "an electronic record keeping system that does not permit the practices alleged."

O'Connor, who now works at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Long Beach, remains wary of UCI Medical Center. "I won't go there, and I wouldn't take my family there," he said.

The medical center has suffered a number of scandals in the last 18 years. In 1995, fertility doctors were accused of stealing patients' eggs and embryos and implanting them in other women without permission.

In 2005, the hospital shut its liver transplant program after federal funding was withdrawn. The action came after The Times reported that 32 people died awaiting livers, even as doctors turned down organs that later were transplanted elsewhere.

jeff.gottlieb@latimes.com

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Feuer accused of improperly obtaining taxpayer matching funds

A longtime Westside activist Wednesday filed a lawsuit accusing Los Angeles city attorney candidate Mike Feuer and his political consultant of improperly obtaining taxpayer matching funds by hiding the true cost of his campaign.

Working with the nonprofit group Fix the City, former City Council candidate Laura Lake alleged that Feuer and his consultant, John Shallman, failed to comply with laws governing campaign contribution limits and disclosure of election spending.

The lawsuit mirrors complaints filed with the Ethics Commission earlier this year. Both the lawsuit and the complaint target a consulting agreement that allowed Shallman to run Feuer's campaign for $1 and receive a "win bonus" if he won outright.

Lake — a supporter of Feuer's opponent, City Atty. Carmen Trutanich — said the consulting agreement masked the true cost of Feuer's campaign, which included work by Shallman on campaign communications and strategy. By avoiding payment to Shallman, Feuer kept his expenses below $1.26 million and fraudulently qualified for $300,000 in taxpayer matching funds from the city, the suit said.

"We want these laws taken seriously," she said, adding: "We're putting all candidates and politicians on notice."

Feuer said he consulted the Ethics Commission about the agreement and was told that it complies with all applicable rules. And he indicated Wednesday that he reworked his contract with Shallman one week after the March 5 primary to make regular payments to him throughout the remainder of the campaign.

Feuer said he rearranged the agreement with Shallman because of the quality of his work, not because of the ethics complaint. "I decided that I wanted to ensure that he was compensated no matter the outcome of the race," he said.

The lawsuit seeks to force Feuer to give back the $300,000 and prevent him from receiving additional taxpayer money during the runoff campaign unless he makes regular payments to Shallman. Lake also suggested that she and her allies are looking at other candidates to see if they are obeying the city's rules regarding contribution limits, taxpayer matching funds and disclosure of campaign spending.

Feuer's campaign said other experts on city and state ethics rules consider the agreement legal. He also released a statement from Stephen Kaufman, an election law attorney, calling the "win bonus" proper under campaign finance laws.

"Whether a consultant chooses to get paid up front or defer his payment to the end is a business decision the consultant is entitled to make," Kaufman said.

Ethics Commission officials will not comment on whether they have received citizen complaints or whether advice was sought.

Fix the City is a group that has focused on Fire Department response times and other city issues and is led by two neighborhood activists — Mike Eveloff and James O'Sullivan. Both are supporters of Trutanich.

In her lawsuit, Lake also asked that a judge from another county handle the case because Feuer's wife, Gail Ruderman Feuer, is an LA. County Superior Court judge.

jean.merl@latimes.com

david.zahniser@latimes.com

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Girl who vanished from Valley home is found six miles away

Authorities late Wednesday were trying to unravel how a 10-year-old girl vanished from her Northridge bedroom in the middle of the night, then mysteriously reappeared with cuts and bruises half a day later and miles away.

Police said they were looking for two men they believe were involved and have recovered a black pickup. The LAPD has nothing to connect the men to the girl in terms of previous contact, police sources said.

"I've got a young lady that was abducted. I don't know the reason," said Los Angeles Police Department Capt. William P. Hayes.

At a news conference earlier in the day, LAPD officials said they believe the girl was dropped off at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Woodland Hills, six miles from her home. She was seen wandering in a nearby parking lot and recognized by a bystander, who pointed her out to police on patrol.

It is unclear who dropped the girl off and how she may have left or been lured from her Northridge home. She reportedly disappeared from her bedroom sometime between 1 a.m. and 3:30 a.m.

"We don't know what happened inside of the house," said Los Angeles police Cmdr. Andy Smith. "But it certainly would appear that she didn't make it from her house over here a distance of some six miles all by herself."

The girl's mother told authorities that she saw her daughter in her bedroom about 1 a.m. She checked on her about two hours later because she noticed the bedroom door was ajar. She looked in and saw that the girl was gone. She searched the entire house, then called police.

Police said they took the missing child report extremely seriously because the girl had no behavioral issues or problems with her parents. She had never run away before, police said.

"She wasn't that kind of kid," Smith said.

About 2:50 p.m., the girl was found near Oxnard Street and Canoga Avenue. She had cuts and bruises, some to her face. In news helicopter footage, she appeared to be barefoot and wearing clothing different from what she had on when she was last seen.

"She basically is in shock right now," Capt. Kris Pitcher said.

A manager of a nearby animation studio, who saw the girl when he went to a gas station near a Starbucks and Goodwill store where she was found, said the preteen looked drained.

"Her face was white. She looked very tired and worried," said Nicolas Jackson, manager of Moonscoop. "You could see she had some worries for the past few hours."

Authorities are reviewing security camera footage from every business in the area. A house-to-house search in a two-mile-wide grid around the girl's home was launched after she disappeared but turned up nothing.

Late in the day, however, Hayes said authorities had secured several locations where they believe the girl had been taken and said multiple cars had been used.

Pitcher said police are "turning over every stone so we can catch up with" the people responsible for the girl's abduction.

Still, Smith cautioned, there is no evidence someone is roaming neighborhoods looking to kidnap children.

"We're going to search every facet of this case, to find out what happened, and to get to the bottom of it," he said. "It's every parent's nightmare: In the middle of the night you go check on your child … your child is gone."

joseph.serna@latimes.com

kate.mather@latimes.com

richard.winton@latimes.com

Times staff writer Ari Bloomekatz contributed to this report.

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L.A. wants Convention Center alternatives to AEG stadium plan

Los Angeles officials agreed Wednesday to pursue a parallel track for redeveloping the city's Convention Center in the event that Anschutz Entertainment Group and the National Football League fail to reach agreement on the Farmers Field stadium downtown.

Jan Perry, chair of a special City Council committee overseeing the AEG deal, said she remains hopeful that the city can continue to work with the entertainment giant in both drawing an NFL franchise and building the stadium in the L.A. Live area.

But with a recent management shake-up at AEG, the city must begin looking at other ways of expanding and redesigning the Convention Center — a primary goal of its AEG agreement, she said.

That hasn't changed, Perry said Wednesday, and it's important "to look at other ways to achieve this goal."

Committee members asked the city's chief legislative analyst, Gerry Miller, and its chief administrative officer, Miguel Santana, to come back within 30 days with other options for renovating the Convention Center's aging West Hall and other properties.

Miller and Santana will work with the Urban Land Institute to evaluate various options, getting assistance from a technical advisory panel with expertise in design, finance and land use.

Alternatives include operating a new hotel to bring in revenue, as has been done in Chicago, or floating bonds and implementing new taxes to help pay for a renovation, Santana said. Updates are needed, officials said, because the Convention Center is too small and outdated to draw the kind of large conventions that would bring more tourists to the downtown area.

Initial euphoria at the prospect of attracting an NFL team has soured in recent weeks with steady reports that AEG and the league owners are at loggerheads in striking a deal.

In September, the City Council approved agreements for the construction of a stadium to accommodate an NFL team on the West Hall site of the Convention Center. That agreement is contingent on AEG identifying and bringing a team to Los Angeles by October 2014.

Shortly before the issue came before the council, AEG's owner, Phil Anschutz, announced that he was putting his entertainment conglomerate, which includes L.A. Live and Staples Center, on the market.

Then two weeks ago Anschutz stunned the City Hall establishment by announcing that he was taking AEG back off the block and that he had parted ways with Tim Leiweke, AEG's longtime public face in the city and the key deal maker on the stadium project.

Anschutz and the NFL have each said they are continuing to work together to bring an NFL franchise to the city. But frustrated City Hall officials say they have no choice but to begin making other plans.

Councilman Bill Rosendahl, a committee member, said he was "still outraged" that Anschutz had cut ties with Leiweke, a respected figure in Los Angeles business, political and labor circles. "I'm very disappointed to hear that AEG is playing some games with us," he said.

catherine.saillant@latimes.com

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Jan Perry to endorse Eric Garcetti in mayoral race

Jan Perry, the strong favorite of African Americans in the March 5 primary for Los Angeles mayor, plans to announce Thursday that she is backing her ex-rival Eric Garcetti in the May runoff, her spokeswoman said.

Perry's endorsement is one of the most prized in the May 21 contest between Garcetti and City Controller Wendy Greuel. Perry has been a colleague of Garcetti's on the City Council for almost 12 years

Neither Garcetti nor Greuel emerged from the primary with significant backing among black voters, one of the biggest blocs up for grabs in the runoff. For weeks, the two have been competing fiercely to line up support from high-profile African Americans.

Greuel, who often reminisces about working as an aide to the city's first black mayor, Tom Bradley, scored endorsements this week from Los Angeles County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas and former President Bill Clinton, a popular figure among African Americans.

Those announcements deflected attention from turmoil in Greuel's campaign. She hired a new campaign manager, Janelle Erickson, to take charge of day-to-day operations last week, removing those duties from another top advisor, Rose Kapolczynski.

In addition, Greuel's field director and three others quit the campaign. All four had worked in the get-out-the-vote operation of President Obama's reelection campaign. The shake-up came after Greuel finished second in the primary, in which she and her allies far outspent Garcetti.

The final tally for the primary, released by the city clerk's office Tuesday, confirmed that Garcetti led with 33%, followed by Greuel at 29%. Talk radio personality Kevin James came in third with 16%. Perry finished fourth, also with 16%. Emanuel Pleitez, a former aide to Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, won 4%.

With all the ballots counted, turnout was 21% of the city's 1.8 million registered voters, up from a preliminary turnout rate of 16% based on ballots counted on election night.

The results confirmed that Perry swept the most heavily African American neighborhoods of South Los Angeles and the Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley, underscoring the value of her support in the Greuel-Garcetti runoff.

Spokeswoman Helen Sanchez said Perry "examined both of their records very carefully and felt that Garcetti had a very solid record and was the best candidate to move the city forward."

There was a personal dimension to Perry's decision. In her campaign's closing days, Perry was deeply offended by Greuel attacking her for a 1994 personal bankruptcy tied to the failure of her ex-husband's law practice. Greuel, who lives in Studio City, served on the council with Perry for seven years.

But Perry's endorsement of Garcetti was no sure thing.

She felt betrayed by Garcetti last year when he voted for new council district boundaries that took away nearly all of Perry's cherished downtown turf, leaving her mainly with impoverished neighborhoods along the Harbor Freeway. Perry's role in downtown's economic comeback was a key focus of her campaign. She lives on Bunker Hill, outside her new district.

Greuel stayed on the attack Wednesday. Speaking from a lectern outside City Hall, she blamed Garcetti for the city's surge in unemployment during his watch as council president.

"Eric Garcetti has also left Los Angeles with huge budget deficits," Greuel said.

Like Garcetti, Greuel voted on the council in 2007 for raises of up to 25% over five years for thousands of city workers, despite the budget shortfall that the city was facing as the economy was turning downward. Speaking privately to union audiences during the mayoral campaign, Greuel has criticized Garcetti for backing layoffs and furloughs of city workers to balance the budget.

Unions representing the bulk of the city workforce have lined up behind Greuel and spent heavily to get her elected. Also backing her is the powerful Los Angeles County Federation of Labor.

Garcetti sought to highlight his own labor support Wednesday at a rally of more than 100 workers at a union hall south of downtown.

"He is ready to fight for us," said Mike Perez, president of SEIU's United Service Workers West, which represents more than 40,000 janitors, airport workers, security officers and others. Perez was interrupted by chants of "Si se puede!" and "Garcetti!"

After the rally, Garcetti dismissed Greuel's contention that he was to blame for the city's high unemployment. "There was a countrywide recession happening," he said. "That's what I read in the newspapers."

michael.finnegan@latimes.com

james.rainey@latimes.com

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Wendy Greuel attacks Eric Garcetti's job-growth claims

Los Angeles mayoral candidate Eric Garcetti regularly touts his record of job growth on the campaign trail. In Hollywood, he points to cranes looming on the skyline as evidence of his revitalization efforts in his district. In television ads, he cites a report that ranked his district No. 1 in adding jobs.

On Tuesday his opponent, Wendy Greuel, fiercely attacked those claims, accusing Garcetti of "fudging" his numbers and presiding over "horrific job losses" across the city during his six-year tenure as City Council president.

Greuel's campaign blamed Garcetti for a spike in the citywide unemployment rate, which it said rose from 5.9% to 13.3% during his presidency.

"City Councilman Eric Garcetti has been at the center of the paralysis that has brought the city to a standstill in many ways," Greuel said.

Garcetti's campaign said the attacks were baseless. "There has been a nationwide recession," Garcetti spokesman Jeff Millman said. Garcetti did plenty to create jobs as council president, including reducing the business tax, Millman said. Greuel, now the city controller, served on the council with Garcetti for seven years, including three years as the body's second-in-command, he added.

"She was Eric's deputy on the council, sitting right there next to Eric," Millman said. "It's a strange attack coming from a candidate who has been an elected official in Los Angeles for the last 11 years."

Greuel campaign spokesman John Shallman accused Garcetti of blaming others "for his failures," which Shallman called "the definition of weakness."

He did not respond to questions about whether Greuel — or Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa — bears any responsibility for the high unemployment figures. Over the weekend, Greuel hired a new campaign manager, Janelle Erickson, who has spent the last four years as a deputy mayor to Villaraigosa.

Greuel's campaign also alleged Garcetti has been wrongly taking credit for jobs that were created in his district.

Garcetti often cites a Los Angeles Chamber of Commerce report showing that in 2011 the number of jobs in his district grew by 5%.

But the figures being cited by Garcetti don't give a true picture of 2011 job growth in his district, the Greuel campaign contends, because they are based on new political boundaries drawn last year.

Garcetti told reporters Tuesday that his district would have been first in job growth under either the new or old district lines. "If you actually take the data, even with the old ones, we'd be No. 1," he said. "Anybody who does the numbers both ways, it would still look like that."

Gary Toebben, president and chief executive of the Chamber of Commerce, said his group hasn't examined the jobs figures for Garcetti's district as it was drawn in 2011.

He also said the chamber, which has endorsed Greuel, had not reviewed "how a specific council member's activities positively or negatively impacted the job growth number."

kate.linthicum@latimes.com

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Southland ports could see more tax revenue

WASHINGTON — The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach are in an unusual position in today's era of Washington austerity: They could soon receive more federal money.

A bill sent to the Senate by a committee chaired by Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) seeks to address a long-standing California gripe: Its ports receive pennies back for every dollar raised by a tax on cargo.

The measure would nearly double, to about $1.6 billion a year, funding for harbor maintenance nationwide, give priority to the busiest ports and expand the use of the money to include work that the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports are eager to undertake.

It's too early to say how much the ports could receive. But the Port of Los Angeles, which received none of the money in the last three years, hopes to snag $2 million to $5 million a year initially and $10 million to $20 million a year eventually. The Port of Long Beach could not provide a figure.

Despite the arcane subject of port funding, the legislation shows how a committee chair can tailor a measure to benefit his or her state even after Congress has put an end to the controversial practice of lawmakers earmarking funds for pet projects.

Boxer included the language in the broader Water Resources Development Act, describing the changes as a more equitable way to distribute funds generated by the shippers' tax.

California ports generated $430 million from the tax in fiscal 2011 but received only $54 million back for harbor maintenance. Los Angeles and Long Beach received nothing in 2011. A Congressional Research Service report listed Los Angeles and Long Beach as ports whose customers generate a substantial amount of the tax revenue that is mostly spent on the maintenance of other harbors.

The legislation doesn't explicitly refer to the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports but will "potentially have a huge benefit" to them, said Steve Ellis of the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense.

"We see this as a big plus," said Michael R. Christensen, Port of Los Angeles deputy executive director for development — "if it can just make it through" Congress.

The measure could face pushback from senators whose states now receive a larger share of the harbor maintenance funds. Christensen said Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) told him during a meeting that any change to how the funds are distributed could run into opposition from other senators "because they get the benefit of all of this tax collected on goods coming into California."

Funds are now allocated based on ports' needs for maintaining the depths and widths of harbors, as recommended by the Army Corps of Engineers. A large chunk of the money has gone in recent years to Gulf Coast ports, which are "relatively expensive to maintain," according to a Congressional Research Service report.

The Los Angeles and Long Beach ports have not needed money in recent years to maintain their naturally deep harbors. But they would benefit from the legislation because it would expand the use of funds to cover eagerly sought maintenance of channels up to the docks.

Though the legislation is important to California, Boxer said she intended to "make the case that it's not just about [her] state" and that ports generating cargo taxes should receive an "equitable" share.

Officials at the Los Angeles and Long Beach ports, which handle about 40% of the cargo containers entering the U.S., have argued that port users have a "reasonable expectation" that the money they pay in taxes will return to maintain the harbors they use.

Ultimately, the funding would be subject to Army Corps of Engineers' recommendations and the annual congressional appropriations process. But California could receive a boost when the issue comes before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees the port spending, because it is chaired by Feinstein.

The water bill passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously last week. The overall bill, which its supporters portray as a jobs measure, would authorize water projects, including nearly $1 billion to shore up flood protection in the Sacramento area.

richard.simon@latimes.com

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