LA Plan May Recycle Storm Runoff

Trash and debris float in the Los Angeles river in Long Beach. (AP Photo/Nick Ut)

LOS ANGELES (AP) - Los Angeles may try to reign in storm runoff by having builders capture it.

A proposal making its way through committee would require new homes, larger developments and some redevelopment projects to collect and reuse rainwater or build systems to filter it.

Builders would have to deal with all the runoff from a storm that dropped three-quarters of an inch of rain or pay a mitigation fee of $13 a gallon.

The ordinance has won approval from the Department of Public Works.

Commissioner Paula Daniels - who authored the proposal - says it would prevent 104 million gallons of polluted storm runoff from reaching the sea. She hopes it will be approved this year and take effect in 2011.