Heal the Bay Blog

Communications Director Matthew King uncovers some gems amid the trash collected at today’s 25^th annual Coastal Cleanup Day.

Sept. 20, 2014 — As with my children, I love all my Coastal Cleanup Day sites equally. But I admit that one type of site holds a special place in my heart.

To promote our biggest volunteer event of the year, I’m always on the prowl for oddball stories that capture the imagination of the media and general public. And the pier sites, where teams of SCUBA divers scour the ocean bottom to remove a truly bizarre hodgepodge of lost and abandoned items, never fail to deliver.

Over the years, we have found discarded wedding gowns and WWII-era gas masks underneath the Santa Moncia Pier. We’ve had to shut down the Redondo Beach Pier site when divers plucked what that they thought was a human skull from the seabed. Tests later revealed that the object was merely a very realistic anatomical model weathered by months (years?) in the sea. After 2011’s Coastal Cleanup Day, I spent a week in vain trying to track down an Encino woman, whose wallet we had found in the waves off the Santa Monica Pier. 

And this morning was no different.

In rolling surf, a team of about a dozen divers underneath the Redondo Beach Pier recovered what looked like the sliding piece of a semi-automatic handgun. Local police came down to retrieve the gun part and begin an investigation. Who knows, maybe a criminal tossed it off the pier?

Then, as I headed back to the office, I got word that divers in Malibu Pier had also found a handgun! Cue the opening theme music from “NCIS: Los Angeles.”

One side note more germane to our mission: Before finding the weapon, the Redondo divers discovered four octopuses and at least 100 crabs trapped or entangled in fishing line and other manmade trash.

The 11,155 volunteers who participated this morning in Heal the Bay’s 25^th Coastal Cleanup Day didn’t unearth anything as dramatic as a cephalopod or a Glock. Instead, they helped collect and dispose of the everyday items that comprise the bulk of trash in our beaches and inland waterways – cigarette butts, food wrappers, bits of Styrofoam, plastic bottle caps and the like. Scattered in piles, this detritus looks like an archaeological dig, a telling testament to our throwaway culture and how we treat our natural places.

That said, a few unusual items made this year’s blotter of found objects. Among them: a horse saddle and cash register (Agoura Hills), a manhole cover (Compton Creek), a video promoting a transgender beauty queen contest (L.A. River) and a Pepsi soft-drink can from 1994 (King Harbor). 

The final trash tally reveals that volunteers removed 30,480 pounds of trash at 49 locations, spanning 42.5 miles. That haul adds to an already impressive amount of trash collected by Heal the Bay during Coastal Cleanup Day over the past 25 years – more than 1.7 million pounds. That’s equal to the weight of two fully loaded 747 passenger jets!

We can’t possibly clean up all the litter that mars L.A. County shorelines, rivers and parks in three hours on one Saturday. It is a great day of action and community, but education remains the lasting benefit from Coastal Cleanup Day. A single morning on the beach, creek or park will empower tens of thousands to take steps in their daily lives year round to protect our beaches, neighborhoods and waterways.

After years on this job, it’s clear to me that most Angelenos still have no idea how the stormdrain system works. So it’s enlightening to go to cleanup sites and watch our site captains explain how urban runoff carries pollution directly to local beaches. You can almost see behaviors changing when participants learn that a cigarette butt tossed carelessly on the street in Pacoima, or a fast-food wrapper chucked out of a parked car in Beverly Hills, will ultimately find its way to sea.

Coastal Cleanup Day always lifts my spirits. Besides being good media fodder, the massive volunteer mobilization affirms my belief that L.A. residents care deeply about our work and the local environment. A cross-section of greater L.A. rallies to protect what they love — be it sororities from Cal State Northridge, soccer teams from Lincoln Heights, small business owners from Long Beach, surfer groms from Hermosa Beach or high school students from Compton. It truly takes a village to heal a bay.

Not to worry, if you missed today’s cleanup. You can still do your part. Our Programs staff hosts monthly beach cleanups throughout the year all over L.A. County. Come join us. You might be surprised about what you find.

For a photo roundup from some of today’s cleanup sites, check out our Flickr album. More pictures to come!

                                                                   Redondo Beach police officer takes possession of handgun part found at our dive site.

It isn’t perfect, but the Legislature’s new Water Bond could help improve local water reliability, says Kirsten James, Heal the Bay’s Science and Policy Director for Water Quality.

Aug. 14, 2014 — Last night, in a nearly unanimous vote, the California Legislature approved a new $7.54 billion Water Bond after many months of tense negotiations. The Water Quality, Supply, Infrastructure and Improvement Act of 2014 replaces a bloated $11.1 billion bond that was a leftover from the Gov. Schwarzenegger era. If approved by voters in November, investments will be made in local water supply projects and watershed restoration — initiatives that can directly benefit our drought-stricken state and Santa Monica Bay.

Throughout the negotiations, Heal the Bay advocated for significant dollars to go towards projects promoting regional self-reliance for water supply, thereby improving water quality in our Bay and beyond. We partnered with other NGOs and dozens of local cities to bolster this message in frequent trips to Sacramento. As a result, the bond includes $1.535 billion for water recycling, stormwater capture, water efficiency and other local water projects. 

For instance, investments would be made in expanding multi-benefit projects that capture and infiltrate stormwater for use in recharging groundwater supplies to replenish our overdrafted aquifer and cleaning up existing groundwater supplies. This makes sense: We should be capturing and reusing stormwater instead of funneling polluted runoff directly into the Bay.

Urbanized areas of California have the potential to harness nearly half-a-million acre-feet of water via stormwater capture each year, according to a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Pacific Institute. That’s enough to meet all the water needs of 1 million families for an entire year.

There are many positive elements of the Water Bond. But when passage requires a two-thirds vote in the Legislature, compromises have to be made. A disproportionate amount of funding ($2.7 billion) is allocated for storage projects, which can have major environmental impacts and do not promote the practice of finding “new” local water sources. We are also disappointed to see desalination projects eligible for funding in the money dedicated to drought preparedness and water recycling, without criteria for prioritizing other, more sustainable local water projects.    

Our region (and state) is in desperate need of funds for water quality and local water supply projects. Although this Water Bond isn’t the “silver bullet” solution, many of these investments will help improve both our local water reliability and our response to the drought.

More will have to be done to get us all the way there, but this is an important start.

(Click here for a larger version. Infographic courtesy of NRDC and the Pacific Institute)

9/30/2014 Update: Governor Brown has signed the California Senate approved SB 270, the bill to ban single-use plastic bags across the state, into law. California is the first state to have a state-wide law banning such bags. “We’re the first to ban these bags, and we won’t be the last,” wrote Brown. 

WE DID IT!

Heal the Bay bagged a huge win late Friday night when the California Senate approved SB 270 — a ban on the distribution of single-use plastic shopping bags at major retailers throughout the state. Now we’re just waiting for the bill to make its way to Governor Brown’s desk for ratification. This would make us the first state in the nation to impose a statewide bag ban! Our office is celebrating this Labor Day weekend because we’ve been working hard on this issue for seven long years!

With 13 billion bags handed out each year in California, these “urban” tumbleweeds create mountains of waste, choke our waterways, and cost taxpayers millions of dollars to clean up.

To combat this madness, our science-and-policy team played the lead role in drafting and enacting bag bans in the city and county of Los Angeles. These earlier ordinances served as a model for the statewide bill and created momentum for its passage today. Our science and policy directors Kirsten James and Sarah Sikich also can take some satisfaction that those dozens of pre-dawn flights to Sacramento to work on behalf of the statewide ban have finally paid off.

Heal the Bay and our partners had to battle intense lobbying efforts from Big Plastic. We didn’t have as much money, but we prevailed thanks to your support.

Plastic bags serve as a “gateway” issue for us, getting people to think more sustainably in other areas of their life, whether it’s skipping plastic water bottles or refusing drinking straws. 

Following this victory, Heal the Bay will pivot to a comprehensive statewide solution for trash control – a strong statewide trash policy that would compel all municipalities to meet strict numeric reductions in the amount of trash they send to our local rivers and ocean waterways.

This work is critical for a healthy L.A., but it isn’t sexy. And it’s not easy. It takes months of policy review, nuanced negotiation and constant vigilance. It also takes the political and financial support of ocean lovers like you.

If this work is important to you, please consider becoming a member of Heal the Bay today, or making a small donation to support our plastic pollution efforts.

Got bag ban concerns? Let us hopefully put some of them to rest with this myths-and-facts rundown.

                             Heal the Bay led the charge to enact a ban in  L.A., spurring statewide action

Poor Bag Monster. Where will he pollute next?

Since the 2012 release of the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial Recreational Beach Water Quality Criteria, Heal the Bay, the NRDC and a coalition of environmental groups have been working with the EPA on aspects of implementation. While we had significant reservations about  the lowered standards for allowable beach pollution, our policy team has been offering input on how to strengthen overall public health protection and notification measures.

The 2012 criteria recommend the use of more protective standards for determining when to notify the public about health risks at chronically polluted beaches. The EPA may have developed these so-called Beach Action Values, or BAVs, but the government agency did not require their use.

Well, after months of lobbying, we received a bit of good news this week.

The EPA’s new Beach Guidance Document makes a better effort to incentivize the use of BAVs. To access federal funds for regular beach monitoring, states will have to employ more protective BAVs when making decisions to post beaches or even close them temporarily because of bacterial pollution.

This is a big win for public health protection. The document does include a high-bar exception for states that can scientifically justify use of a different threshold. We hope that California and other coastal states will recognize that the more protective BAV value is the only justifiable approach for adequate public health protection.

While EPA’s action is a big win in protecting the future health of beach-goers, more federal support is needed to broaden the scope of the BEACH Act. The act mandates regular monitoring of all coastal beaches in the U.S. for levels of bacterial pollution. With more than 180 million visits each year to American beaches, it’s simply time to invest in more protective and consistent monitoring. A day at the beach should never make anyone sick.

Kirsten James, our Science and Policy Director for Water Quality, heralds the arrival of the second and final phase of the City of Los Angeles’ ban on plastic bags.

July 1 marks an important milestone for Heal the Bay and our entire region – the end of the single-use plastic bag in the city of Los Angeles!  With phase 2 of the ban soon to be implemented, we are now the biggest city in the nation to successfully tackle the economic and environmental scourge of the plastic bag.

Under a ban championed by Heal the Bay and enacted by the City Council, large retailers stopped distributing single-use plastic bags six months ago and started charging 10 cents for recycled paper bags. Now the same requirements kick in for certain small retailers like convenience stores and pharmacies. With an estimated 2 billion single-use plastic bags taken out of circulation each year in the city due to this policy, we can expect to see a lot less blight and waste in our communities and shorelines.

It has been a long road to get us to this spot. Heal the Bay and our partners urged the city, other communities and the state for many years to move forward with bag policies and other measures to reduce plastic pollution. The efforts are now paying off: Some 108 jurisdictions in California have joined the fight and implemented similar policies. SB 270, a bill authored by state Sen. Alex Padilla that takes these requirements statewide, is now poised to be signed into law later this year. 

It is reassuring to witness the ease of implementation as cities become more sustainable. The city of Los Angeles and other communities have reported few violations or complaints in the start-up period. The vast majority of consumers realize that it doesn’t take much effort to think beyond wasteful single-use products and remember a reusable bag alternative.

For those who haven’t fully transitioned into reusable mode, remember to start bringing your reusable bags to small stores such as corner drug stores, mom-and-pop groceries and convenience marts like 7-Eleven beginning July 1.

People often ask our policy team, “What’s next for you guys after the bag ban?” Unfortunately, there’s still plenty more to be done to address plastic pollution and single-use products clogging our waste-stream and oceans. Single-use bag policies can act as a gateway to get people thinking more sustainably in other areas of their life, whether it’s skipping plastic water bottles or refusing drinking straws at restaurants. Next up for Heal the Bay is focusing on a strong statewide trash policy. We’ll keep you posted.

In the meantime, start spreading the news about the ban…and maybe put a plastic bag in your scrapbook to show your grandkids.

FAQ via lacitybag.com

When does the ban on plastic carryout bags take effect?

To reduce waste and pollution, on January 1, 2014, the City of Los Angeles will ban plastic carryout bags and require a $0.10 fee on each paper carryout bag requested by the customer at certain large retailers. On July 1, 2014, the City of Los Angeles will ban plastic carryout bags and require a $0.10 fee on each paper carryout bag requested by the customer at certain small retailers.

Are all shapes and sizes of plastic bags banned?

Plastic carryout bags at large and small retail stores affected by the ordinance are banned. Not all plastic bags are banned. Bags allowed are:

• Produce bags used for bagging vegetables, fruits and meats, and pharmacy bags;
• Restaurant bags;
• Hardware stores bags (e.g. Home Depot, Lowes and others); and
• Select retail stores bags (e.g. Macy’s, JC Penny, Ross, TJ Maxx, and others).

Consumers may consider using used bread or chip bags, sandwich bags, liners for cereal boxes, and other types of bags as an alternative for wet waste and pet droppings.

What types of stores are included in the ban?

Large stores with gross annual sales of over $2 million selling dry groceries, canned goods, or nonfood items and perishable items or stores of at least 10,000 square feet of retail space generating sales or use tax and has a licensed pharmacy are included in the ban (e.g. Ralphs, Target, Walmart, Vons, Food 4 Less, 99cent Only Stores, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid, and others).

Small stores such as drug stores, pharmacies, supermarkets, grocery stores, convenience food stores, food-marts, and other entities engaged in the retail sales of a limited line of goods that sell milk, bread, soda, and snack foods, in addition to stores with a Type 20 or 21 license issued by the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control are included in the ban (e.g. 7-Eleven, AM PM Mini Markets, and others).

The City of Los Angeles’ program is similar to the ordinances adopted by a number of local jurisdictions including the cities of Long Beach, Pasadena, and Manhattan Beach as well as the unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Where can I get reusable bags?

ON JULY 1 ONLY: Visit these locations in LA for a free bag, while supplies last!

Reusable bags are widely available for purchase at select retail stores and markets. Reusable bags are also being distributed by LA Sanitation through select City-sponsored events and locations on a first come, first served basis and provided at no cost while supplies last.

For Retailers

How would my store comply with the Single-Use Carryout Bag Ordinance?

• Cease providing customers single-use plastic carryout bags (produce bags or product bags are exempt).
• Make available to customers reusable carryout bags or recyclable paper carryout bags.

• Charge customers requesting recyclable paper carryout bags 10 cents per bag (No store shall rebate or otherwise reimburse customers for any or all of the 10-cent charge required).
• Provide at the point of sale, free of charge, either reusable bags or recyclable paper carryout bags or both, at your option, to any customer participating either in the Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT), Special Supplemental Food Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) or in the CalFresh/Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for purchased items covered under those programs. Items not covered under these programs e.g. beer, wine, liquor, etc. will not require stores to provide free of charge, either reusable bags or recyclable paper carryout bags to carry these items.
• Indicate the number of recyclable paper carryout bags provided and the total amount charged for the bags on customer receipts.
• Complete and submit Quarterly Report Form online at http://san.lacity.org/ no later than 30 days after the end of each quarter.

What information will be included in the Store Quarterly Report?

• Total number of recyclable paper bags provided (including those provided free of charge to EBT, WIC, and/or SNAP customers).
• Total amount collected from the paper bag charge (NOTE: Actual amount collected from the paper bag charge are to be retained by the store).
• Efforts to promote reusable carryout bags, if any.

Are biodegradable plastic bags allowed?

No. Plastic carryout bag means any bag made predominantly of plastic derived from either petroleum or a biologically-based source, such as corn or other plant sources. It includes compostable and biodegradable bags.

Can biodegradable plastic bags at least 2.25 mils thick be considered “reusable”?

Yes, as long as the requirements of a Reusable Bag as defined in the Ordinance are met.

Will there be a charge for small sized paper bags distributed at checkout, typically provided by small stores to their customers?

Yes. Any store that provides a recyclable paper carryout bag at checkout to a customer must charge the customer 10¢ for each bag provided to carry out their purchase.

Which bags should I charge 10¢ for?

You must charge 10¢ for each paper bag provided to a customer for the purpose of carrying purchased goods away from your store. Carryout bags provided to WIC/SNAP purchases are exempt from this charge.

Are prescription bags subject to the 10-cent charge?

According to the California Pharmacy Board, pharmacies are required to keep medical information confidential. Since many pharmacies use opaque bags for this purpose, only carryout bags used for prescription drugs would be exempt from the Bag Ordinance. Carryout bags customers obtain for other purchased items would still be affected.

Is there a law that requires me to put alcoholic beverages into carryout bags?

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control has no law that mandates a retailer provide a bag for purchased alcoholic beverages. If a paper bag is provided, you must apply the 10¢ charge.

What is the 10-cent charge used for?

All monies collected by a store under this Ordinance will be retained by the store and may be used for:

• Costs associated with compliance
• Actual costs of providing recyclable paper carryout bags
• Costs associated with a store’s educational materials or education campaign encouraging the use of reusable bags including “Remember Your Bag” signage in parking lots.

Does the 10-cent charge per paper bag apply to everyone? Who is exempt?

All affected stores authorized to accept EBT, WIC, or SNAP purchase payments must provide at the point of sale, free of charge, either reusable bags or recyclable paper carryout bags or both, at the store’s option, to any customer participating either in the EBT, WIC, or SNAP for purchased items covered under those programs. Items not covered under these programs e.g. beer, wine, liquor, etc. will not require stores to provide free of charge, either reusable bags or recyclable paper carryout bags to carry these items.

Is the 10-cent charge per paper bag taxable?

No, according to the State Board of Equalization 10-cent charge on recyclable paper carryout bags would not be subject to State sales tax.

Are reusable bags less than 15 L in volume capacity allowed to be given away for small stores that typically sell items smaller in size and quantity to individual customers?

No. Customers are to be reminded to bring back their reusable bags when shopping. If only a small number of items are being purchased or the items being purchased have handles, customers can easily carry away without a bag.

Who is responsible for enforcement of the ordinance?

Bureau of Sanitation of Department of Public Works, City of Los Angeles will be responsible for enforcement of the Ordinance.

What are the penalties and fines for Ordinance violations?

• Written warning notice
• Fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100.00) for the first violation after a written warning notice given
• Fine not exceeding two hundred dollars ($200.00) for the second violation after a written warning
• Fine not exceeding five hundred dollars ($500.00) for the third and any subsequent violations after a written warning

What happens to the money collected from violation fines?

Fines collected pursuant to this Chapter shall be deposited in the Citywide Recycling Trust Fund of the Bureau of Sanitation, Department of Public Works to assist with costs of implementing and enforcing the Ordinance.

Can written warnings and fines be disputed or appealed?

A store operator who receives a written warning notice or fine may request an administrative review of any fine issued by filing a written notice of appeal with the Director of Bureau of Sanitation no later than 30 days after receipt of a written warning notice or fine.

The notice of appeal must include all facts supporting the appeal and any statements and evidence, including copies of all written documentation and a list of any witnesses that the appellant wishes to be considered.

A hearing officer will conduct a hearing concerning the appeal within 45 days from the date that the notice of appeal is filed, or on a later date if agreed upon by the appellant and the Bureau of Sanitation, and will give the appellant 10 days prior written notice of the date of the hearing.

The hearing officer may sustain, rescind, or modify the written warning notice or fine, as applicable, by written decision. The hearing officer will have the power to waive any portion of the fine in a manner consistent with the decision. The decision of the hearing officer is final and effective on the date of service of the written decision, is not subject to further administrative review, and constitutes the final administrative decision.

Have any cities in California banned single-use plastic bags?

As of October 1, 2013, over 55 cities and counties have banned single-use plastic carryout bags in California including Glendale, Long Beach, Malibu, Pasadena, San Francisco, San Jose, Santa Monica, West Hollywood, and unincorporated areas of Los Angeles County.

Can customers use their own carryout bag?

Yes. Anything they can safely carry their groceries with, including: reusable bags, baskets, buckets, and boxes.

What if customers don’t want to buy/bring a reusable bag or purchase a paper bag?

If they can comfortably carry their paid purchases out by hand, that is one option; or their goods can be packaged back into the shopping cart or basket for transporting to their vehicle, where they can be unloaded.

Are reusable bags recyclable? Where can customers bring them to be recycled?

Depending on the material, it may be recyclable. Visit Earth911.com for more information on recycling locations.

Who do I contact for questions about the Single-Use Carryout Bag Ordinance?

For questions, please contact the City of Los Angeles, Solid Resources Citywide Recycling Division by email at SRCRD@lacity.org or call (213) 485-2260.

Is there a law that requires that alcoholic beverages be placed in carryout bags?
There is no California law that mandates a retailer provide a bag for purchased alcoholic beverages. If a paper bag is provided, a 10¢ charge must be applied.

Good news for oceangoers in the Pacific Northwest: Heal the Bay has revved up reporting of weekly water quality grades for nearly 200 beaches in Washington and Oregon. Starting this June, we will be issuing A to F grades throughout the busy summer beachgoing season.

Like California, Washington and Oregon generally enjoy very good water quality. But troubling pockets of bacterial pollution still dot the shoreline. Contact with polluted water can cause upper respiratory infections, stomach flus, skin rashes and ear infections.

To avoid these kinds of illnesses, beachgoers can check updated weekly grades each Friday at beachreportcard.org. Heal the Bay provides this searchable online database as a free public service. Ocean-going families can find out which beaches are safe and unsafe, check recent water quality history and look up details on beach closures.

In our first weekly report (June 6), all Washington monitoring locations are earning A grades during dry weather. However, there are 10 monitoring locations at three beaches in the state closed due to pollution-related issues: a sewage spill, dairy waste discharge to a creek and one unknown cause of elevated bacteria in marine waters.

In Oregon, 22 monitoring locations are earning A grades during dry weather sampling in the latest weekly report.

In a related move to protect public health, Heal the Bay has just released its annual beach water quality report, which analyzed all the data gathered from monitoring locations throughout the Pacific Northwest in 2013.

The annual report analyzed weekly water quality data collected at 183 beach monitoring locations in Washington and Oregon last summer, issuing an A-to-F grade to each location based on levels of bacterial pollution. The lower the grade, the greater the risk of contracting an illness from water contact.

The report found that Washington exhibited good water during dry weather last summer, with 89% of monitored locations earning A or B grades (a 6% dip from the three-year average). However, a handful of beaches in the state received failing grades: Freeland County Park (D and F grades), Manchester Beach at Pomeroy Park (D and F grades), Allyn Waterfront Park (F grades), and Little Squalicum Park (F grades).

Meanwhile in Oregon, all 11 beach monitoring sites (those monitored frequently enough to earn annual grades in the summary report) received either A or B grades during summer dry weather, indicating that water quality was excellent during the reporting period.

High bacteria counts can be due to a number of sources, but frequently are connected to runoff.  Heal the Bay recommends staying out of the water for 72 hours following any significant rainstorm, and staying at least 100 yards from any outfall pipe, stream or creek entering marine recreational waters

 “It’s great to see nearly all monitored beaches in Oregon and Washington getting excellent water quality grades,” said Kirsten James, Heal the Bay’s director of science and policy for water quality. “But there are problem spots, so it’s critical to check out the Beach Report Card before you and your family visit the shore because a day at the beach should never make you sick.”