"Environmental SWAT Team Tests Runoff To Nab Polluters"

"L.A. Waterkeeper inspectors collect samples during rainstorms and have them analyzed in an effort to force polluters to clean up."

"It's just after midnight when it starts to drizzle near downtown Los Angeles.

Lara Meeker, a short blond wearing a purple rain jacket, pulls into a fast-food parking lot a few blocks from the Los Angeles River, watches the sky and waits.

The watershed manager for Los Angeles Waterkeeper is tracking this late February storm by radar on her smartphone. Already, she has sent out a flood of text messages, maps and assignments to a small crew of environmentalists.
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It's going to be a long and soggy night monitoring the murky water sloshing off metal scrap yards, auto dismantlers and waste facilities in one of the biggest storms of the season."

Tony Barboza reports for the Los Angeles Times April 8, 2014.