Heal the Bay Blog

Just four years ago, in an refreshing showing of  cooperation, a coalition of environmental groups, concerned citizens, retail stores and local governments banded together to brainstorm a solution to the plastic bag problem in L.A. The “urban tumbleweed” was becoming a ubiquitous sight. Bags were caught in trees, found on the freeway, floating in the river and the bay, clogging storm drains and entangling marine life. The average Californian was using about 500 single-use plastic bags a year and recycling efforts were a flop. There had to be a better way.

The coalition formed an event, “A Day Without a Bag.” The event aimed to educate shoppers about the environmental harms of wasteful plastic bags and give them another option — a free one at that. Sites popped up all over the county to give away free reusable bags. 

The day of action took off and has since been celebrated in many creative ways. Seen as L.A.’s holiday gift to the environment, A Day Without a Bag usually involves a “green Santa” giving away reusable bags, sometimes with a “plastic bag monster” in tow. One year, plastic trash zombies even danced to Michael Jackson’s Thriller downtown to raise awareness about plastic pollution in the Santa Monica Bay.

With statewide plastic bag legislation falling through earlier this year, local action ramped up, and recently we’ve seen plastic bag bans from the County of L.A., the City of Long Beach and San Jose. In addition to holding close to 200 giveaway sites last week all over southern California, a summit was also held by the coalition to guide local officials through the process of enacting their own bans. The summit materials are posted online. This year’s event was a huge success. In addition to green Santa doing his thing, Sherrif Lee Baca even stopped by to help Compton High School students hand out reusable bags.

Learn more about the 2010 Day Without a Bag.

So, in addition to your two turtle doves, your five golden rings and your partridge in a pear tree, hopefully you landed yourself a great new free reusable bag on us and our partners for the holidays.

Happy last minute shopping.

Today, the Los Angeles City Council voted to move forward with an important ordinance on low impact development (LID). The proposed ordinance will now be reviewed by the City Attorney before a final vote likely to be held in early spring of 2011. Heal the Bay and other members of the Green Los Angeles Coalition have been advocating for the Ordinance’s passage for nearly two years.

Learn More

• Proposed LID Ordinace Factsheet
• Proposed LID FAQs
• LID Factsheet
• Low Impact Development in the City of Los Angeles

About the Ordinance

The City of LA has been considering a low impact development ordinance for nearly two years. Specifically, this regulation will make LID a key part of new and re-development throughout the city.  It exempts any project that deals with less than 500 square feet of impermeable surface, and larger developments or remodels must propose anything from installing a drainspout redirect, which would channel the water from gutters off of driveways and into a garden, to more elaborate tools to help rainwater and urban runoff filter into the ground.

What is LID?

Low impact development refers to building in a way that captures a majority of rainwater and runoff on site, mostly by creating permeable surfaces like gardens and green space but also by diverting rainspouts and using permeable asphalt and other paving surfaces.

Why is LID Important?

When water flows down city streets, it picks up chemicals, trash and bacteria, and carries those pollutants into the stormdrain system, where they are carried directly out to our rivers, creeks and beaches. When water instead is diverted to a permeable surface, like a garden, that water percolates through the ground, where it is naturally filtered and cleaned, and ultimately ends up recharging our natural groundwater supplies.

Because Southern California imports so much of our water, it is critical that we conserve and reuse as much water as possible. LID captures water that would otherwise be wasted and returns it to our water table. In addition LID saves local governments money in complying with Clean Water Act regulations.

In a nail biter, the State Water Resources Control Board got the three votes it needed Tuesday to turn down a broad amendment that would have gutted California’s new Once-Through Cooling policy for power plants. Board members Tam Doduc, Fran Spivy-Weber and Art Bagget supported the motion to uphold the policy and oppose the amendment.

The board also agreed to expedite analysis of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s implementation plan next summer. Over the past year, the DWP has argued numerous times that it can’t meet the OTC policy compliance deadlines for re-powering three of its power plants by the end of 2021.

Earlier, the DWP promised to phase out all OTC, but it wanted until 2031 for Scattergood and up to 2040 for co-generation power plants.  But, then DWP lobbied the State Water Board for a policy amendment to extend the compliance timeframe in exchange to phasing out OTC at all three power plants.  Instead of introducing a narrow amendment for DWP, the State Board proposed an expanded amendment, opening up a Pandora’s box in the OTC policy for co-generation and fossil fuel plants up and down the entire state coastline.

As a result, a number of enviro and fishing communities joined to oppose the expanded amendment for gutting the policy. Linda Sheehan, the executive director of California Coastkeeper Alliance, took lead in the comment-writing and organization effort. Santa Monica Baykeeper, NRDC, Sierra Club and Surfrider also strongly opposed the amendment at the hearing.

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