Heal the Bay Blog

Mark Gold, current board member and former president of Heal the Bay, writes today’s guest blog post about the opening of our latest exhibit at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium– the Dorothy Green Room. The post comes courtesy of LA Observed.

We’d like to thank the Annenberg Foundation and the Nature Education Facilities Program Grant Awards under Proposition 84 for supporting the new Green Room. More than 2,100 visitors came this weekend to see the new exhibit, setting an all-time record for weekend attendance. Come and see it for yourself!

Last Saturday, on another gorgeous 80 degree day during our year without a winter, Heal the Bay dedicated the new “Green Room” at the Santa Monica Bay Aquarium to the extraordinary life and achievements of our founding president and California treasure, Dorothy Green. Some things haven’t changed much in California over the last 35 years since Dorothy became a force of nature opposing the peripheral canal project in the late 1970s. We have the same governor — he just declared an official drought last week — and a new version of the peripheral canal (with tunnels this time) is in the news and controversial again.

Dorothy wasn’t a big fan of drought declarations. She educated many of us about the importance of valuing all water, whether it came from rain, snow melt, or sewage. Her life’s goal was to get everyone to understand that California has enough water, but we don’t have a drop to waste. The Green Room shares this vision of smart water management. You’ll find exhibits on the importance of local water self-reliance through conservation, water recycling, and stormwater capture there. And you’ll learn about the importance of protecting our watersheds and the benefits they provide to wildlife, our coastal waters, and to all of us.

Outside the doors of the aquarium lies a bay that no longer contains fish with tumors and fin rot, or a dead zone, or beaches that are routinely closed due to large sewage spills. A lot has changed for the better since Dorothy created the vision and provided the leadership and inspiration that has made Heal the Bay such an unprecedented success. The Green Room helps tell her story of how one person made a difference by improving the quality of life for millions of people in the Los Angeles region who enjoy and love our beautiful coast and the incredible biodiversity in our bay and local watersheds.

The Green Room will educate and inspire tens of thousands of people annually on how a strong environmental ethic of activism, sustainability, leadership, and perseverance can heal even the most polluted bays or degraded rivers. Dorothy educated, mentored, and inspired generations of environmental stewards and activists, including myself. In the most fitting of launches, her young granddaughter opened the Green Room by cutting the ribbon, thereby initiating the next generation of future activists to learn about Dorothy, watersheds, and sustainable water management.

Gov. Jerry Brown officially declared a drought in the state of California earlier this year. Heal the Bay is part of a coalition of concerned NGOs that is evaluating long-term solutions to water management in California and exploring a more integrated path forward. Here are some thoughts about what a drought declaration means.

Here’s what drought in the Golden State looks like: consecutive dry years with no immediate relief in sight and until recently no real usage restrictions while the state’s reservoirs and rivers run dry. We’ve all seen the extreme versions of California’s traditional wet and dry cycles. But what if this really is the new normal? Some water agencies, especially in the south, continue to say water supplies are ample for the next couple of years. But with the effects of climate change already being felt, it’s clearly time to adapt.

Like a dieter who abandons short-term fad fixes, we now have to think about permanent and fundamental changes in our water behavior. As some of us step on the scale and realize the need for a drastic lifestyle change, so too must we design our water diet for the coming future. As with any change in behavior, it may be uncomfortable to change our water habits. But looking back to recent history, there is cause for optimism.

During the droughts of 1976-77 and 1986-91, California put incentives and programs into place that reduced water demand in the urban sector. Even with increases in population, water demand remained flat. Incentives focused on indoor water usage, and drove changes in plumbing fixtures such as ultra-low flow toilets. L.A. community-based organizations replaced over 1.5 million toilets, along with showerheads and sink aerators. Public awareness programs made people aware of leaks, and restrictions limited outdoor water waste. Statewide per capita water usage dropped, prices raised, and obscure water agencies suddenly became visible. Terms like aquifer, watershed, and groundwater were being used while sanitation agencies that traditionally dumped treated sewage into the ocean began treating it to the level that it was safe to use for groundwater recharge, most notably in Orange County.

We are now in another dry cycle and we must seize on opportunities to save water. How can Californians build on previous successes to do their part? Here are some important ways to get started:

1. Reduce leaks. As a homeowner or renter, the best way to determine if you have a leak is to turn off all taps and see if the dials still turn on your water meter. If they do, you have a leak. You are usually responsible for leaks from the meter to your property. Some municipalities and water agencies will adjust bills when leaks have been repaired. We also need to address leaks on a district or city scale. The average California city leaks 8-10% of its water because of old pipes underground, wasting not only water but the embedded energy used in pumping and treating our water. Let your elected officials know that they need to make our community drought proof by reducing leaks, those mains that continually break.
2. Upgrade your landscape and irrigation. Still living in the ‘50s with a large front grass lawn? During dry conditions many are letting their lawns die, but sprinkler systems eventually creep back on. There are more appropriate landscape choices. Smart water agencies are actually paying people to remove grass and replace it with plants that thrive in dry conditions and don’t require constant watering and mowing. It’s also an opportunity to reset your front yard so it isn’t just flat and shedding water onto the street and into our oceans. Try capturing water with swales while putting it back into the ground. The use of mulch with drip irrigation or micro-sprinklers further eliminates water usage and runoff onto the street.
3. Install stormwater and rainwater catchments. Droughts are often followed by flooding. Even within droughts there are wet periods, like three years ago when heavy rains allowed storage to refill and this last November when the San Francisco Bay area flooded. We should be prepared to capture and use what comes when it rains. We need to be prepared with systems in place and not miss opportunities. Many cities offer rain barrels or cisterns at a discount.
4. Check the toilet. A little-known law takes effect this year requiring the replacement of all water-wasting toilets with 1.6-gallon versions. Millions of old toilets were replaced with incentives in the 90s, but many of those are now outdated and leak through worn flapper valves. Check your tank by putting vegetable dye into the tank and wait to see if it shows up in the bowl. These silent leaks add up and can be easily fixed with replacing flapper valves or new high efficiency 1.2-gallon toilets.
5. Go greywater. Greywater systems capture everything but your toilet and kitchen water. The systems can now be legally used in California within certain guidelines. This water can be reused for irrigation and shouldn’t just be dumped into the stormdrain. Some cities are offering landscape meters, acknowledging the larger amount of water wasted outdoors.

Larger policy issues for the state of California related to drought include lack of groundwater regulations, lack of meters for agricultural agencies and re-thinking water rights. Other topics include prioritizing the need to capture stormwater more aggressively and increased wastewater recycling. Greater watershed management, from the forest to the seas, needs investment, including aquifer cleanup (the underground reservoirs that hold groundwater). Water bonds are being discussed now at the state legislature and they need to look first to local solutions and incentives to save water.

The discussions around expensive diversion tunnels must prioritize maximizing local water supplies. Water supply is indeed limited and we need to make permanent changes.

If we look at this dry time across the West it can be seen as a window into the future. And our future may look a lot like Australia’s. Faced with long-term drought, the nation reduced demand to 30-50 gallons per day per person. Investments were made, some good and some bad, and prices rose. Policy changes were made and water catchment systems, tanks and cisterns were put into place. When the drought turned to flood, water was captured in a decentralized manner.

California’s per capita water usage is at 174 gallons, while L.A. is at 123 and Sacramento is at 224.

Urban water agencies are required by state law to reduce consumption 20% by 2020. Only by innovating and investing locally in reducing water demand – and creating green, local jobs in the process – can we achieve the Governor’s Water Action Plan. Simply put, conservation needs to become a way of life. Many government leaders have adopted a conservation ethic, along with smart business and agriculture interests. We need to reward that efficiency, rather than chasing after costly and unsustainable engineered solutions.

After all, baby, it’s dry outside and the well is running dry.

Thanks to Conner Everts, longtime Heal the Bay partner and Executive Director of the Southern California Watershed Alliance, for his efforts on this piece.

Kirsten James, Heal the Bay’s Director of Water Quality, will be taking an important trip abroad to talk about our successes. Here she shares her thoughts.

For the next week, I have a special opportunity to look beyond Santa Monica Bay, California and the nation. I’m traveling to China to learn about water resource issues in the world’s most populous nation. My typical work trip involves attending a legislative hearing in Sacramento or a conference in San Francisco, so it’s a big change of pace.   

The Beijing government has invited me to speak about water issues and regulation in California and share lessons learned about how to balance water quality and water supply needs for tens of millions of residents. Water resource practitioners at the Beijing Hydraulics Research Institute and agencies in Beijing are now developing a Water Action Plan for the city to address its flotilla of environmental and supply challenges. This is no small task, as you can imagine, and California water experts may be able to offer some insight about what to do and what not to do.

China’s water issues are not dissimilar to California’s. The south of China has the majority of water, while the north of China has the majority of the population and agriculture and is more like a desert climate. The geography is flip-flopped but the dynamic is the same as the Golden State.

Large engineering projects have been the “solution”  for water supply for hundreds of years. The “Grand Canal” between Beijing and Hangzhou was finished in 500 A.D.! (Sounds a lot like our State Water Project, only on another continent and 1,500 years ago).  As main population hubs become dangerously short of water and existing water sources are plagued by pollution, the Chinese government is again looking to large-scale engineering projects.  The South-North Water Diversion Project will move water along 2,000 miles of canals. 

California and the entire United States still face many water challenges, but we have come a long way since the adoption of the Clean Water Act in 1972.  The most obvious indicator is that we no longer have rivers catching on fire like we did in 1969! The U.S. grappled with many environmental problems following the great population boom and industrial expansion after World War II. Now China finds itself in a similar situation.

In California many communities are focusing on ensuring a sustainable supply of local water and instituting more “green solutions” to water management. So I definitely have a good story to share, including providing the hope that in a relatively short period of time, a nation can turn things around for the better.

I’ll keep my eyes and ears open. When I get back, I’ll share some of what I’ve learned.

Don Kinsey has been appointed to a two-year term as chairman of Heal the Bay as part of a planned executive board transition announced today by the regional environmental group.

Heal the Bay CEO Ruskin Hartley says that despite warm temperatures all is not sunny in Southern California.

I spent much of the past two weeks on the beach. While the rest of the country suffered through sub-zero temperatures, it remained a balmy 72 and sunny here in Southern California.  It’s been great as my family from the Bay Area and England was here for the New Year.  Each day we’d remark how glad we were that it had “turned out nice again.” Let’s face it, 72 and sunny is pretty much perfect. Christmas on the beach. Can you beat it? Really not.

But with the holidays a memory, it is time to get serious about what 72 and sunny means for us in Southern California and beyond. If dry weather persists, and with no rain in the forecast, we need to start thinking about drought.

Gov. Brown is starting to think the same, according to the head of the Department of Water Resources. When a drought is declared in Sacramento, it has cascading effects across the state. Crops die as previously irrigated fields dry.  Sprinklers are banned and lawns turn brown.  Native fish in our streams struggle as water is diverted.  Water quality suffers as discharge regulations are relaxed. The economy suffers as agricultural fields lie fallow. And we start counting the days until the raindrops fall.

2013 was a record dry year for the state. By some estimates, it was the driest year in California since records began, way back in 1849. In downtown Los Angeles we had 3.6 inches of rain, a tad drier than 1947 and 1953 when 4.08 inches fell.  To add some perspective, in 1849 the state’s population was about 50,000; in 1940, 6.9 million lived here. That rose to 10.6 million in 1950 and stood at 37 million in 2010. That’s less rain and a lot more people.

 It’s true that we have built a remarkable system to capture and transport most of the state’s water from north to south (while sweeping in water from the Colorado system to boot). We’re definitely getting better at using water efficiently here in California — after all, L.A.’s population has grown over the last 20 years and our water usage has not. But we have a long way to go. In California we use an average of 105 gallons per day per person. In Australia they have it down to 59 gallons daily.

The impending drought highlights the need to invest in our water infrastructure in California. But we can no longer assume it’s just a matter of impounding and transporting water from north to south. We need to work towards a more resilient system. And resiliency has to start locally. We need to make investments to reduce demand and make California a world leader. We need to make better use of local water supplies by cleaning up and harvesting groundwater, sustainably. We need to recycle wastewater (300 million gallons a day out of Hyperion alone). We need to capture, infiltrate and make use of urban runoff, reducing stormwater pollution in the process.And then, and only then, should we shore up our ability to move water around the state to better match supply and demand.

Doing all of this is going to take bold leadership. We at Heal the Bay are ready. Are you?

Peter Shellenbarger, a Heal the Bay science and policy analyst, and James Alamillo, Heal the Bay’s urban programs manager, say plans for revitalizing the L.A. River may soon hit a snag.

The Los Angeles River has been getting a lot of attention lately. It also may soon get some much-needed TLC, in the form of extensive revitalization plans now being debated by a complex web of local, state and national agencies.

Various government units and community groups are assembling detailed plans for bringing the river and its many tributaries back to fuller life, such as the U.S. Army Corps’ ARBOR plan or the recent expansion of L.A. River kayaking programs.

Revitalizing the L.A. River and its tributaries would obviously provide enormous environmental, economic, recreational and social benefits to Southern California.

But these visionary projects may soon hit a bump in the river, as it were.

A new study by the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board, to be debated in the coming months, could undermine legitimate opportunities to expand green space and recreational opportunities for millions of residents in L.A. County.

In a nutshell, the Regional Board has been gathering data about recreational uses along 44 miles of river. Many observers are concerned that the new study, known as RECUR, will be used to delist or redesignate beneficial recreational uses along several major segments of the L.A. River and its tributaries, such as Arroyo Seco, Verdugo and Compton Creek. The specter of reduced protections is now clouding many of the grand visions to bring the Los Angeles River and its tributaries back into greater public use.

If the board ultimately decides to eliminate designated recreational beneficial uses along many stretches of the river and its tributaries, there will be less regulatory oversight provided to these reaches. If parts of the river are viewed as not having recreational use potential, water quality standards would be relaxed in those areas.

Some dischargers welcome such changes because weakened protections make it easier and less expensive to meet compliance standards. But the changes could result in a regulatory hodgepodge on the river, where different sections receive different water quality protection. It’s a dangerous precedent.

Delisting or redesignation also would result in less protection of parts of the river with recreation potential, creating fewer incentives to enhance them in revitalization plans. Designers would obviously think twice about siting public amenities in spots with compromised water quality.

There are numerous efforts underway by many community and government groups to transform the L.A. River from a largely concrete channel into a healthy ecosystem. Projects are being pursued by Heal the Bay, City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, California Coastal Conservancy, California State Parks, California Department of Water Resources, Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, amongst others.

So a number of interested parties are watching the RECUR study very closely. The report does provide some valuable information about the Los Angeles River and its tributaries, such as confirming what recreational uses are happening in various reaches. But the study has significant flaws.

Most important, the report is merely a snapshot in time and fails to capture a full picture of potential recreational uses in and along the river.

The board’s process for judging the recreational value of river stretches seems like a bit of Catch 22 logic. Many areas are being considered for recreational delisting because the Board says no one uses them. But in reality, most of these stretches are either fenced off or posted as being illegal to use. One could reason that no one is using them, although this is not always the case.

RECUR’s timeframe does not adequately reflect current uses of the Los Angeles River or its tributaries, or possible uses if existing legal restrictions are removed. For example, kayaking on the Los Angeles River is so popular that a second designated spot has been opened along a section of the Glendale Narrows. But RECUR doesn’t take these uses into account, as they were not taking place during the study period. The random two-hour observations included in the study took place from July 2011 to December 2012

Heal the Bay staffers have observed bathers in Compton Creek, yet the presented study results indicates that no observed or reported recreational activities occurred along this stretch.

In essence, under the proposed delisting portions of the river will largely be “written off” for revitalization because they will no longer be viewed as worthy of potential recreational use or protection. That may be useful to dischargers, but it will seriously shortchange local residents who could benefit from expanded uses of the river that to this point have been untapped.

With limited resources for enforcement and compliance oversight, the Regional Board should prioritize the protection of established beneficial uses, instead of engaging in the messy process of removing them.

The Regional Board is now deciding if it will take action on the Technical Report and debate proposed amendments to the LA/Ventura Basin Plan. Among the discussion items would be the suggested changes to recreational beneficial-use designations in the Los Angeles River System.

In advance of any possible action, the Board is seeking public comment on the report. Staff is encouraging the public to submit written comments by Feb. 28. The process allows members of the public to express concerns about the draft feasibility report. Yes, the document is a bit of a slog, but the stakes are important. This is a great opportunity for the public to become involved in the decision-making process about the future of the L.A. River. Make your voice heard. Please send comments to the Board.

Consuming recreationally harvested mussels, clams or scallops from the Los Angeles County coastline may be hazardous to your health, according to a new advisory issued by the California Department of Public Health.

Officials are noting dangerous levels of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins have been found in mussels in the region. They also note that cooking the shellfish does not destroy the toxin. Eating tainted seafood can cause a variety of very serious illnesses.

The advisory does not apply to commercially sold shellfish, which are frequently monitored and tested for toxins. More information here.

CEO Ruskin Hartley gets up close with the wonders of the Bay.

For the last eight weeks or so I have largely been looking at Santa Monica Bay from the shore. Since moving to Los Angeles, I’ve enjoyed playing in the waves and swimming along the shoreline, but today was my first chance to get further out into the Bay. I joined our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium team on one of its weekly collecting expeditions, which harvest kelp to feed the animals in the aquarium. As our aquarist, Jose, says, it’s the weekly trip to the farmers market.

The Bay, and indeed the oceans, give us so much. After all they cover 71% of the planet and provide everything from the oxygen we breathe, to the fish we eat, to the natural substances that thicken Jell-O. The list goes on. But a few hours on the water off Palos Verdes gave me something distinct – a profound sense of the wonder of the ocean.

It really is a different world out there. The solid earth is replaced by the ever-shifting, fluid ocean. Wave upon wave. Powerful forces gently lifting our 14-foot dinghy up and down as we leaned over the side, straining for the kelp. The constantly changing play of light and shade on the water as the clouds and sun slid overhead.

Where we first encountered the kelp, the long tendrils reached for the light, laying down when they reached the surface. This caused the ripples to flatten out, leaving a glassy surface. The seals, sea birds, and even the odd kelp crab seemed quite at home out there. I was a grateful visitor.

Bobbing around on the surface of the vast ocean gave me the same sense of walking amid the redwood giants. A sense of being a tiny part of the wonderful world.

            Santa Monica Pier Aquarium aquarist Jose Bacallao shows Ruskin the ropes off Palos Verdes.