Heal the Bay Blog

With tax season upon us, it’s actually a good time to think inside the box. As April 15 approaches, ocean lovers throughout the state now have a chance to support their local beach when they file their returns.
 
By simply checking a box on your state tax return, you can make a one-time tax-deductible donation to the California Coastal Commission for any amount you choose.
 
Under the measure sponsored by Torrance-based Assemblymember Al Muratsuchi, your contributions will support the Whale Tail Grants Program, doing an ocean of good for underserved kids, ocean-related museum exhibits, habitat cleanups and restoration projects.

So look sharp, feet-draggers: You’ve got a month to pinch those pennies for the Pacific!

Kirsten James, Heal the Bay’s director of water quality, says it’s time to end the stupid toilet-to-tap” debate.

For the last four years I have been a member of the City of Los Angeles’s Recycled Water Advisory Group (affectionately known as “RWAG”).  Led by the L.A. Department of Water and Power and L.A. Bureau of Sanitation, this diverse group of stakeholders from the government, business and nonprofit sectors keep tabs on the city’s efforts to increase water recycling.

Basically, we all want to avoid the downhill spiral that resulted from the toilet-to-tap debate in 2000, in which mayoral candidate Joel Wachs suggested that a DWP plan to recycle treated wastewater near Hansen Dam would result in Valley residents drinking “toilet water” in the future. The media coverage and public uproar eventually lead to the shuttering of the city’s recycling efforts for years.

RWAG didn’t get off to a great start. In fact, many groups were disillusioned early in the process when LADWP’s initial goal of producing at least an additional 50,000 acre-feet per year of recycled water by 2019 was suddenly pushed back to 2029. Now the goal that I hear most often is 59,000 acre-feet per year by 2035. Let’s stick to a goal and make it happen! (To give you some perspective, the city of L.A. uses about 621,000 acre feet of water each year, with an acre foot being about 326,000 gallons. The new goal would result in recycling accounting for a little less than 10% of our water supply, assuming demand stays constant.)

However, reflecting on the last four years, there are significant signs of progress on the recycled water front.   

In October 2012, LADWP adopted its Recycled Water Master Plan, which outlines plans for groundwater replenishment and non-potable reuse strategies within the city. Basically, this blueprint calls for highly treated wastewater from sewage plants to be pumped to other facilities that can supply it for irrigation. Other projects would replenish groundwater by pumping this treated wastewater — which meets all water quality standards — back into the aquifer for further natural cleansing and use. And yes, this reused water would even be used for drinking water — as it’s been done successfully since 2008 in Orange County!

The advanced treatment pilot project that explored treatment technology effectiveness was completed at the Tillman Water Reclamation Plant, and the draft EIR for the project is expected this fall. This is a big deal. However, the project is contingent on the construction of the San Fernando Basin Groundwater Treatment Complex and that costs big money ($600 million-$900 million, according to estimates given during L.A. City Council’s Energy and Environment Committee last week).

There are also non-potable reuse projects popping up around the city. For instance, the Harbor Refineries Pipeline Project will have 40,400 feet of recycled water piping that will convey recycled water to large industrial and irrigation customers by June 2014.

And this week the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board approved a permit amendment to allow the Water Replenishment District’s Alamitos Barrier project to move toward 100% recycled water. The Barrier project, located on the L.A. – Orange County border, uses 43 injections wells to prevent seawater intrusion into groundwater supplies and to replenish Los Angeles County’s Central Basin. The recycling program would save 3 million gallons per day of potable water, the equivalent of serving the needs of 7,000 homes. 

LADWP’s Master Plan also concluded what many of us already knew — the city’s recycled water program is less expensive than the cost of purchased imported water from MWD over the long-term. As an example, the upcoming non-potable projects in Downtown and East Valley are estimated to have a unit cost of $220 and $560 per acre foot, respectively, whereas imported water is running at $890 per acre foot. 

I believe we are ready for widespread recycled water use. Just look at our neighbors in Orange County who are replenishing their groundwater basin with 70 million gallons of treated effluent daily, with plans to reach 100 million gallons by 2015. An outreach study recently commissioned by LADWP found that the majority of residential and commercial customers support the concept behind the proposed groundwater replenishment. And 87% find that action needs to be taken to ensure L.A.’s water supply.  Keep in mind that this was data collected before the Governor’s recent drought declaration, so these numbers will likely climb.

At our RWAG meeting last week we discussed finalizing the “RWAG Consensus Statement,” which outlines the group’s strong support of recycled water to augment the groundwater supply and keeps the door open to exploring direct potable reuse. Even that small move is a measure of how far we have come from the days of toilet-to-tap (which, by the way, is now called “showers to flowers”). With more widespread public acceptance and the increasing pressures on our water supply, it is all the more important that we ramp up these efforts and start exceeding the goals.

Ever dream about building a custom home along the Santa Monica Bay shoreline? Well, you soon may get the chance – thanks to the return of Heal the Bay’s Designer Sandcastle Competition! On Saturday, April 26, teams from across the Southland will roll up their sleeves – and pant-legs – to create some truly spectacular sand creations near the Santa Monica Pier. We are now soliciting entries from architectural firms, design shops, entertainment studios, production companies, civic groups, community associations and other organizations.

This special fundraising event is a great way to help support the work of Heal the Bay in protecting our local beaches and oceans, while helping foster morale and esprit d’corps in your company or organization. It’s also a great way to showcase your civic-mindedness and creativity to the general public, which will be invited to view the competition as part of Heal the Bay’s well-attended Earth Month Festival. The sandcastle square-off is the centerpiece of the festival activities near the Pier, which also include our largest beach cleanup of the year, theme events at our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and a sustainable seafood cooking demonstration.

Space is limited, so please sign up your team today!

Not a card-carrying AIA member? No worries! Our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium and Time Warner Cable’s Connect A Million Minds initative are hosting a Family Sandcastle Competition at noon on the 26th. Anyone with an imagination, shovel and pail can enter. Check in at the Aquarium the morning of the competion!

Heal the Bay president Ruskin Hartley spends a night at the cinema.

I don’t normally go in for depressing documentaries. But when the local art house is showing a documentary on water around the world (“Last Call at the Oasis“), followed by a panel discussion with some of my friends and board members at Heal the Bay, I will make an exception.

The recent screening at Santa Monica’s Aero Theatre presented moving stories from Las Vegas, Texas, Australia, Israel and right here in California that painted a pretty grim picture of our water woes around the world. Pesticides are bleeding endocrine disruptors into water, turning male frogs into females. Kids are getting lesions from swimming in water polluted with fracking chemicals. The aquifer below the great Central Valley is being bled dry from unregulated wells. Mix in the disruption of climate change and you have a depressing narrative. As one of the scientists summed up: “We’re screwed.”

But amid the doom and gloom there are glimmers of hope. Some of these glimpses appeared in the film, others were shared by the panelists. For years I have been hearing about water wars. Turns out the concept is a fallacy. A social scientist had studied wars over the past 50 years and found that water had actually brought warring sides together even as conflict raged.

And think we’ll never be drinking recycled water? Think again. Singapore already meets 30% of its potable needs through cleverly branded “new” water. Turns out recycled water is more regulated and safer than bottled water. The answer? Put “new” water in bottles and sell it as “porcelain springs” with a slick campaign!

Better water policy often boils down to local communities coming together to stand up for their local water sources and solve problems in their neighborhoods, communities, cities and states. Take Santa Monica, as an example. Tired of waiting for the state or federal government to clean up groundwater contaminated with MTBE and other noxious chemicals, it took matters into its own hands and sued the oil companies responsible for the pollution. The result? $250 million to clean up local groundwater. Local water supplies in Santa Monica have shot from zero percent to 72 percent in a few short years.

We need to take that approach at every level. And we can’t wait for it to happen to us. We just need to get it done.

Our cities and state can start to invest in local water today. We should be cleaning up groundwater. We should be capturing stormwater to recharge our aquifers and irrigate our lawns and golf courses. (Of course, it’d be better if we started moving away from having to maintain water-intensive lawns and gardens, but that’s the subject for another post). And we should be recycling more waste water — as David Nahai said, “It’s only waste water if we choose to waste it.” (David sat on the panel with fellow boardmember Mark Gold, the former longtime president of Heal the Bay.)

And on a personal level, we can work to reduce our water footprint in a number of ways: installing low-flow fixtures, capturing rain in rain barrels, installing simple and cheap grey water systems to re-use water from washing machines to water the garden.

 I turned my sprinklers off before the rain started to fall. Did you?