Beach Report CardBeach Report Card SpanishLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyMore Ways to GivePalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
Show the special ocean lover in your life what they mean to you by donating a gift to Heal the Bay this Valentine’s Day. At the same time, you’ll be making a significant difference to our local waters.
If you like, Heal the Bay will send notification of your dedication gift along with your personal note to the person of your choosing.
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Editor’s Note: Mark shares some more of his more memorable moments at Heal the Bay. Read the first installment A Wave of Memories and the second.
Beach Report Card Most of the best BRC stories aren’t mine, but I have a few. I remember sitting down with my first staff hire, Roger Gorke – now with the EPA office of water in D.C. — to create the first report card. It was an annual study and only included Santa Monica Bay beaches. The early report cards often resulted in irate calls from electeds that somehow blamed us for their poor water quality. We had many press conferences with Dr. Aliza (Lifshitz) providing a medical perspective and talking to the Spanish language media. One year, she had to carry the whole press event at Cabrillo Beach because I literally had no voice! James Alamillo and Mike Grimmer have taken the BRC through many incarnations, but the efforts of former Microsoft exec Jeff Littrell and former staffer Tom Fleming in making the leap to a statewide report card on the website was huge! Amy Smart has come through as a spokesperson for the Beach Report Card, Annual Dinner, Day Without a Bag and Coastal Cleanup Day. I’m so glad Heal the Bay is honoring her at the annual dinner on May 17 this year.
Starstruck An event at a Santa Monica bar where rock Hall of Famers John Densmore and Ray Manzarek from the Doors made a generous donation, and The Surfers (Kelly Slater, Peter King and Rob Machado) played in front of an enthusiastic crowd including Pamela Anderson.
My dissertation research on pathogens in stormdrain runoff and the fate and transport of runoff plumes on the beach. It never would have been possible without dozens of volunteers collecting samples during all sorts of conditions, support from the Santa Monica Bay Restoration Project, and the analytical efforts of L.A.’s Environmental Monitoring Division, and virologist Charlie McGee and his crew at the Los Angeles and Orange County Sanitation Districts. The research demonstrated that human sewage was getting into stormdrains, which led to the first-ever epidemiology study on swimmers in runoff contaminated waters. The study demonstrated that people that swim at runoff polluted beaches were far more likely to get sick. These results were the catalyst for AB 411, a state bill that established California beach water quality standards and a beach monitoring and reporting program.
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Editor’s Note: Mark shares some more of his more memorable moments at Heal the Bay. Read the first installment A Wave of Memories.
The Ahmanson Ranch campaign. I remember: touring the watershed with Board President Tony Pritzker and former Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, representing Washington Mutual. Flying up to a WaMu shareholders meeting with Rob Reiner and Alfre Woodard on a private jet to protest the development. The coalition of Hollywood (Chris Albrecht and Reiner), electeds, Native Americans, Mary Weisbrock and Save Open Space, Heal the Bay (Mark Abramson’s covert maps of Ahmanson Ranch riparian habitat were key), and the brilliant campaign work of Chad Griffin and Steve Barkan. Getting screamed at by Reiner at a meeting. The only other person that ever yelled at me like that was my dad. I can only imagine what would have happened if we lost! The anti-climactic press event celebration when the state purchased the land (Governor Davis was being recalled). The joy of taking my kids, Zack, Jake and Natalie, to the Ranch just days after it opened to the public.
Litigation I’ve always been a “sue as a last resort” kind of advocate, but sometimes litigation is the only solution. NRDC’s Joel Reynolds and I spent countless hours with former L.A. County Sanitation Districts’ GM Jim Stahl to settle the full secondary treatment lawsuit about the Carson plant. Once we got through the “sewage is good for the fish arguments” (thank you Willard Bascom of the Southern California Coastal Waters Research Project in the late 1980s) and the “sewage solids are needed to cover up the DDT and PCB contaminated sediments” or “two wrongs make a right” argument, we were able to negotiate a resolution quickly. In fact, it only took the Sanitation Districts four years to build its full secondary facilities. Also, we partnered with NRDC on some industrial waste litigation and an industrial stormwater lawsuit against the Port of Long Beach (led by current criminal court judge Gail Ruderman Feuer). I still remember all the inspections of pretty nasty Port facilities.
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The Santa Monica City Council unanimously supported a resolution last night affirming individual environmental rights to clean air, water and soil, sustainable water and food supplies, and a climate unaltered by anthropogenic impacts. Nearly 40 speakers ranging from high school and college students to environmental activists from Northern California spoke in support of the sustainability bill of rights.
The resolution, crafted by Santa Monica city staff in response to a draft ordinance recommended by the city’s Task Force on the Environment, commits the city to come back this summer with recommended legal changes to allow individuals to protect those rights. Although the council vote only approved a resolution instead of a legally enforceable ordinance, the action puts the city on track to a process that provides individuals defensible environmental rights and extends protective rights to local natural resources.
Last night was a first step towards changing the dialogue on environmental protection in Santa Monica, and hopefully that shift in dialogue will move far beyond the city’s borders. The recommended legal changes to Santa Monica law will come to the city council at the same time as the third iteration (and third decade) of goals and metrics under Santa Monica’s Sustainable City Plan. We could see a draft as early as mid-summer.
We all have the right to clean air, water and soil, and corporate rights should never supersede these rights. The time is now to move from just voluntary intentions to making these sustainability goals legal, enforceable obligations.
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Last chance to cast your vote! Get your vote in today!
VS. 
With Valentine’s Day approaching, we want to know the ideal coastal spot for sparking a romantic mood. It can be anywhere along the U.S. West Coast, from California to Oregon and Washington. El Matador and Ranchos Palos Verdes have garnered top votes, which one will claim the top spot?
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Heal the Bay volunteers who helped make the new marine protected areas (MPAs) a reality can now join our new citizen scientist program, MPA Watch. Staff scientist Dana Murray, who manages the program, says you don’t need to be an expert to lend a hand.
“We had many supporters and people who worked hard to get MPAs approved in L.A. County,” she said. “We thought this was a good way for people to stay involved.”
Pairs of volunteers with binoculars, clipboards and cameras already have started canvassing the beaches, recording data on what they see people doing, from scuba diving to commercial squid fishing.
Join Dana and become an official steward of the sea at two upcoming classes.
Can’t make it this week? For future trainings, contact Dana.
Or, celebrate Underwater Parks Day with us Sat., January 21 at Point Dume and our Aquarium.
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Can good design change the world? According to JUST DESIGN Socially Conscious Design for Critical Causes, a new book about communication design for the greater good, the answer is a resounding “Yes”!
Containing more than 140 stories of socially-engaged design the book showcases a diverse collection of projects, people and causes, such as trashionista Marina DeBris and Project H, the humanitarian design nonprofit.
JUST DESIGN author Christopher Simmons, principal creative director of the noted San Francisco design office, MINE, says he wrote the book because, “For many, doing good work that also does good in the world is part of the ethos of design practice.”
Learn more.
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“The same nutrients that make your grass grow also will make algal blooms grow if they wash down the storm drains and into the waterways,” notes Susie Santilena, an environmental engineer in water quality at Heal the Bay.
The nitrogen and phosphorus in fertilizers that are so good for plants, may contribute to toxic red tides in the ocean and can make algae run wild in freshwater areas like Malibu Creek, creating dead zones as the green scum blocks sunlight and inhibits the growth of other plants and animals, Santilena says.
The algae even wreaks havoc when it dies, because it sucks oxygen out of the water as it decomposes, a process known as eutrophication.
“When you don’t have oxygen in your waterway, your marine life suffocates and you get fish die-offs because there’s no dissolved oxygen in your water,” she says. “And there are aesthetic issues—algae growth can create pond scum, which is just kind of gross to look at in waterways.”
So what to do? It’s tricky, environmental advocates say, because while organic fertilizers such as steer manure and worm castings have advantages that chemical fertilizers don’t share, both can create destructive runoff if they aren’t applied carefully.
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On Jan. 11, San Luis Obispo County became the 15th community in the state to pass a ban on single-use plastic bags in an effort to encourage citizens to use reusable bags instead.
The California Grocers Association endorsed the proposal, as did representatives of local landfills, who said plastic bags are a problem for them. Approximately 130 million plastic bags are used each year in the county alone, and only three percent of those are recycled.
In an attempt to stop the ban in SLO County, the Save the Plastic Bag Coalition said after the meeting that it would file a lawsuit within 30 days, serving a “threat of litigation” to the board. The coalition issued a similar challenge when the Manhattan Beach City Council approved a bag ban in 2008, which ultimately failed in July 2011 when the California Supreme Court unanimously ruled in the city’s favor. The Manhattan Beach plastic bag ban goes into effect Saturday, Jan. 14.
Momentum for plastic bag bans has been building since 2007, when San Francisco became the first city in the nation to ban the free distribution of plastic bags. Other cities and counties across the country have followed, including Seattle, Portland, Ore., San Jose, Los Angeles County, and Washington, D.C. Smaller cities such as Santa Monica, Long Beach, Carpinteria and Fairfax have enacted some form of ban or limitation on the use of plastic bags.
The SLO County ban will apply to single-use plastic bags at supermarkets, pharmacies, convenience stores and big-box stores as part of an effort to get shoppers to start bringing in reusable bags. It is scheduled to go into effect on Oct. 1. 2012.
Heal the Bay has led the legislative fight to enact a bag ban for more than five years as part of its ongoing efforts to tackle plastic pollution in California seas and neighborhoods. Join us and take action.
Learn more more about the San Luis County bag ban.
Read about plastic pollution and its impact here.
About UsLong Beach / AvalonMalibu / Pacific PalisadesMarina del Rey / Playa del ReyMarine Protected AreasPalos Verdes PeninsulaSanta MonicaSouth BayVenice Beach
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (Jan.10, 2012) – Heal the Bay president Mark Gold announced today that he is stepping down from the environmental organization to accept a position at the University of California at Los Angeles as associate director of its Institute of the Environment and Sustainability.
Gold, a 23-year veteran of Heal the Bay, is returning to his alma mater to provide leadership at the Institute’s Coastal Center. As part of his management duties, he will also help spearhead efforts to build the Institute’s education, research and public outreach programs. He begins his new duties at UCLA Jan. 30.
Executive Director Karin Hall and Associate Director Alix Hobbs will continue to provide day-to-day management and organizational and fiscal oversight for the environmental group. Heal the Bay’s board of directors will be meeting to determine a management structure for the nonprofit following Gold’s departure. Gold will continue to serve on Heal the Bay’s board of directors.
“Everyone who lives in or visits Southern California has benefited from Mark Gold’s tireless efforts to keep our waters safe and clean,” said Matt Hart, chairman of Heal the Bay’s board of directors. “He has also built a great organization of smart, dedicated professionals that will sustain the legacy he and Dorothy Green started over 25 years ago.
“On behalf of our Board of Directors, our Board of Governors and the thousands of Heal the Bay volunteers, I want to thank Mark Gold for his leadership and service to Heal the Bay and wish him the best of luck in his new career at UCLA.”
While working on his doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA, Gold joined Heal the Bay as staff scientist in 1988, making him the organization’s first employee. Guided by his mentor and Heal the Bay founding president Dorothy Green, Gold was named executive director of the organization in 1994 and president in 2006.
He has worked extensively over the last 25 years in the field of coastal protection and water pollution and is recognized as one of California’s leading environmental advocates. He has authored or co-authored numerous California coastal protection, water quality and environmental education bills.
“I have been lucky to be part of an environmental organization that has achieved so much to better Southern California,” said Gold. “I’ve had the privilege to work with many incredible leaders, staff members and volunteers that have shared a common vision of clean water and protected watersheds. I am confident that the senior management team we’ve spent years developing will continue to move the organization forward. Heal the Bay will always be an important part of me, but I look forward to new challenges at UCLA’s Institute of the Environment.”
Heal the Bay staff is focusing on four key policy issues in the coming year:
Heal the Bay is one of the largest and most influential environmental groups in California. Combining scientific rigor with dogged advocacy, Heal the Bay staff and volunteers have secured dozens of environmental wins for Southern California coastal waters, including:
More about Mark Gold
Gold received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Biology and his doctorate in Environmental Science and Engineering from UCLA. He has served as chair of the Santa Monica Environmental Task Force for 18 years and was vice chair of the California Ocean Science Trust. Currently, Mark is vice chair of the National Estuary Program’s Santa Monica Bay Restoration Commission.
About Heal the Bay
Heal the Bay is a nonprofit environmental organization that makes Southern California coastal waters and watersheds, including Santa Monica Bay, safe, healthy and clean. We use science, education, community action and advocacy to achieve our mission.
Contact: Matthew King, Heal the Bay, 310.451.1500, x 137; cell 310.463.6266
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