Replica of Esperanza Elementary School’s Green Schoolyard created by SALT Landscape Architects, showcasing nature-based play elements
Every child deserves a school that’s safe, healthy, and allows them to thrive. In Los Angeles, a majority of LA County schools are covered in pavement. Not only does pavement contribute to high temperatures on school campuses, it also prevents water from infiltrating when LA experiences rain, leading to stormwater runoff.
Greening schoolyards by removing pavement and implementing nature-based solutions (i.e. schoolyard forests, habitat gardens, bioswales, outdoor classrooms, nature-based play areas, etc.) is one way to tackle these problems and make schoolyards safer and healthier for students. Implementing schoolyard greening projects in Los Angeles has proved challenging.
Council for Watershed Health, Heal the Bay, Los Angeles Waterkeeper, and Randolph Consulting Group have teamed up to promote large-scale schoolyard greening and stormwater management throughout LA County, particularly in LA’s most park-poor and historically impacted communities.
Annelisa Moe (Heal the Bay), Alejandro Fabian (TreePeople), and Ben Harris (LA Waterkeeper) at the Managing Stormwater on School Campuses: From Potential to Permits session at the Green CA Schools Summit in Pasadena
Our team launched our partnership with a session at the Green CA Schools and Higher Education Summit in Pasadena on November 13, 2025. The Summit opened with remarks from State Superintendent of Public Instruction, Tony Thurmond, and Deputy Superintendent, Abel Guillen, as well remarks from the Mayor of Pasadena, the SoCal firestorms still fresh on the speaker’s mind, they spoke about resiliency and the role schools play in supporting more climate resilient solutions, increasing shade canopy through trees, greening of school campuses and the importance of teaching stewardship to students. It was great to see these points elevated by state leadership.
Los Angeles County is in a unique position to lead in the state because of the L.A. County’s Safe Clean Water Program, which funds stormwater projects to improve water quality, increase water supply, and provide community benefits. Schools are a critical component of this ecosystem by managing stormwater and greening campuses, we increase climate resiliency, and provide an enriched learning environment for students across the region. The more we are able to connect greening and stormwater management, the better for the region.
The session we put together, titled Managing Stormwater on School Campuses: From Potential to Permits, walked attendees through what stormwater runoff is and the impact of stormwater pollution on our waterways, data from a TreePeople study on the potential of LAUSD schools to contribute to stormwater management, and the regulatory environment for stormwater management (i.e. are you now or will you be legally required to manage stormwater).
The key takeaways we wanted the audience to leave with are:
In LA County, the average one-inch rainstorm results in 10 billion gallons (30,700 acre-feet) of runoff moving through the storm drain system.
Looking at all schools in LA County, there is a total of 19.5 billion gallons per year (60,000 acre-feet/yr) of stormwater management potential (this volume would address almost 75% of LA County’s groundwater recharge goal for context), and strategically selecting the sites with the greatest potential, 10% of the sites (78 LAUSD sites) could achieve 9.8 billion gallons per year (30,000 acre-feet/year).
While schools are not currently regulated by a stormwater permit (i.e. required to legally manage their stormwater), they are one of the few entities left that are not regulated and are likely to be regulated in the future.
Overall, we are galvanized by the momentum that is building in Los Angeles for green schoolyards and will be hosting our own symposium in May exploring the many synergies of school greening and stormwater. We look forward to seeing you in May.
Heal the Bay is ecstatic to announce A BIG WIN for the coast!
For years, treated wastewater from the Ventura Water Reclamation Facility flowed directly into the Santa Clara River Estuary, one of Southern California’s most important and sensitive coastal ecosystems.
As of January 7, 2025, that changed. With the launch of Phase 1A of the wastewater recycling project called VenturaWaterPure, water is now being diverted away from the estuary, marking a major step toward healthier habitats and a sustainable local water supply for the City of Ventura.
This milestone is the result of decades of collaborative advocacy led by Heal the Bay and the Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation’s Ventura Coastkeeper Program, with the City of Ventura becoming a strong partner in delivering this outcome.
Why should Angelenos care? Because ecosystems are connected. The Santa Clara River flows to the ocean and provides critical habitat for protected species like the tidewater goby and snowy plover. Protecting these ecosystems helps shape water quality and strengthen regional climate resilience across Southern California.
Cleaner water and healthier habitats are a win for everyone, and proof that long-term environmental advocacy works. Ventura’s progress on water recycling puts the region more than a decade ahead of Los Angeles, showing what’s possible now and what remains at stake as LA delays action on our own water recycling efforts.
Read our 2024 Update: A Clean Start In Ventura
Heal the Bay and Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation have been collaborating to reduce impacts to the Santa Clara River Estuary from the Ventura Water Reclamation Facility since 2011, following a legal settlement (consent decree) with the City of Ventura. After more than a decade of scientific studies, bureaucratic negotiations, infrastructure planning, and a lengthy permitting process, we are excited that the VenturaWaterPure project is moving forward. The project will provide a net benefit to the estuary by reducing discharge of treated wastewater from the facility, which has a multitude of negative impacts on water and habitat quality in the estuary.
The Santa Clara River Estuary outlet to the ocean
The Ventura Water Reclamation facility
On December 15, 2024, Heal the Bay joined our consent decree partners along with Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Water and Science Michael Brain, to celebrate this water recycling and ecosystem restoration project.
Heal the Bay’s Associate Director, Science & Policy (Water Quality) Annelisa Moe (left) attends the VenturaWaterPure press conference.
Under CA State law, discharging treated wastewater is considered an unreasonable use of that water, and is therefore illegal, unless it provides an environmental benefit. Unfortunately, based on conclusions from a Science Panel and Technical Advisory Committee, treated wastewater flow into the naturally brackish Santa Clara River Estuary does not benefit the ecosystem, but actually negatively affects it in a variety of ways:
Decreases salinity variability, which is favorable for invasive species
Increases levels of nitrate and other nutrients leading to low dissolved oxygen levels, which is harmful to the entire ecosystem
Heightens the water level in the estuary leading to local flooding at McGrath State Park and unseasonal estuary berm breach events, which impedes public access and is harmful to native and listed species
So the City of Ventura has committed to dramatically reduce their discharge to the estuary and limit nutrient loading in any remaining discharge through the VenturaWaterPure project. The project also offers a co-benefit of up to 1.76 billion gallons of new recycled water supply for the City of Ventura by 2032. This supports the human right to water using an approach that is environmentally protective and affordable, especially when compared to other methods such as importing water, or using ocean water desalination.
Heal the Bay will continue to work closely with Wishtoyo Chumash Foundation and City of Ventura to ensure the transition to reduced discharge is protective of the estuary, that the new brine discharge to the ocean is done responsibly using the best available technology, and that the existing treatment ponds (which currently serve as important bird habitat) remain protected as part of the final VenturaWaterPure project.
Support Heal the Bay’s mission to protect public health through clean water policy:
Coming Home, Changed: Reflections One Year After the Palisades Fire
By Tracy Quinn, President and CEO, Heal the Bay
One year ago, fire tore through Pacific Palisades and forever altered my relationship with the place I call home.
Like so many of my neighbors, I was displaced by the January 2025 Palisades Fire. For nearly a year, I lived in limbo, grateful that my house was still standing yet unable to return to it. That dual reality has stayed with me: relief and grief, gratitude and guilt, hope and heartbreak all existing at the same time.
I did not lose my home. Many did. And that truth has been one of the heaviest things to carry.
Survivor’s guilt is a quiet companion. It shows up when I drive past empty foundations, when I talk to neighbors mourning the loss of family heirlooms, when I unlock my own front door knowing others no longer can. Moving back to the Palisades has been both joyful and deeply sad. It has been wonderful to finally unpack my suitcase, to walk familiar streets, to watch the marine layer creep up the canyon. It has been sad because the neighborhood I returned to is not the same one, I left.
And yet, from the very first days after the fire, I also knew this: standing still was not an option. Not just because my insurance company would not approve long-term housing, forcing me to move every couple of weeks, but because the impacts of a wildfire do not end when the flames are out.
In coastal communities like ours, they flow downhill—into storm drains, creeks, lagoons, and ultimately the ocean.
I am grateful to have had a way to channel heartbreak into action at a time when the fire left so many feeling powerless. I am proud to be part of the Heal the Bay team that jumped in immediately, launching water quality testing to understand what the fire meant for beachgoers and for marine life that can’t escape our coastal waters. In the absence of clear regulatory standards for wildfire contaminants, our scientists used every available tool to assess potential risk and just as importantly, to explain what we still do not know.
When we learned that the EPA planned to use a site adjacent to Topanga Creek and Lagoon to sort and stage hazardous materials, we demanded a meeting. We raised concerns about placing hazardous waste operations next to an ecologically and culturally sensitive area and pushed for stronger protections and safer alternatives.
A year later, this is what we’ve learned.
We still do not know enough about the impacts of fire-related pollution on human health. In the absence of state or federal public health standards for wildfire contaminants in recreational waters, Heal the Bay scientists relied on the Environmental Protection Agency’s Risk Screening Level Calculator, a tool originally developed to evaluate exposure to individual contaminants in air, drinking water, and soil. While it was not designed for complex, multi-contaminant wildfire scenarios or recreational ocean exposure, it is currently the only published framework available to help contextualize this type of data.
Water quality data collected by Heal the Bay and the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board between January and May 2025 indicate that potential risk to people recreating in ocean water appears low when compared to EPA Risk Screening Levels. However, these screening levels are not safety thresholds. They do not account for cumulative exposure to multiple contaminants, pre-existing health conditions, or sensitive life stages such as pregnancy. Without clear regulatory standards, it is not possible to make definitive statements about safety, underscoring the need for clearer state-level guidance on post-fire water sampling, standardized testing protocols, and public health benchmarks for recreational exposure following wildfires.
While potential risk to humans from ocean recreation appears limited based on available screening tools, early monitoring raises greater concern for marine life. Unlike people, marine organisms remain continuously immersed in coastal waters and often have a lower tolerance for contamination. Wildfire-related pollutants can accumulate over time within marine sediments and move through the food web, potentially affecting fish, wildlife, and people who consume locally caught seafood. These impacts may unfold gradually and are not always visible in short-term water sampling.
The EPA hazardous waste sorting and staging sites at Topanga may have contributed to elevated pollutant levels at Topanga Beach. Shortly after operations began, water sampling detected a spike in several contaminants on February 6. While this timing does not establish causation, it raised serious concerns about whether hazardous waste handling activities may have played a role. Following advocacy and operational changes, subsequent sampling showed improvement, but it may take years to fully understand the long-term impacts on our coast and marine life.
What this past year has made painfully clear is that wildfires are no longer rare emergencies. They are recurring features of a changing climate. If we do not learn from this experience and make meaningful changes, the next disaster could be even more devastating.
For the coast, that means four urgent actions:
Fix stormwater infrastructure.
We must improve systems to divert the first and most contaminated stormwater flush to wastewater treatment facilities instead of allowing toxic runoff to flow directly into the ocean and increase stormwater capture throughout LA County.
Establish clear post-fire testing protocols.
This must include identifying all pollutants associated with urban wildfires and designating a responsible authority for timely ocean and sand sampling.
Set public health standards for recreational exposure.
Communities need clear, science-based benchmarks for contact with fire-related contaminants like lead, arsenic, and chromium.
Continue monitoring.
With ash coating the ocean floor and rain continuing to carry sediment from burn areas, sustained monitoring is essential to protect both human health and marine life.
In an era of climate change, true recovery means learning from what you have lost and being better prepared for what is coming next. It requires clear leadership from government agencies, proactive plans to protect public health and ecosystems, and sustained funding so nonprofits are not left filling critical gaps alone.
The Palisades Fire changed me. It changed our community. And Heal the Bay is working to make sure it also changes policy, so the next community facing a climate disaster is better protected.
-Tracy Quinn, President and CEO, Heal the Bay
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Blue Ribbon Commission On Climate Action And Fire-Safe Recovery
Photo Credit: LA County Fire Department
Ready to take action? Join us this January for beach cleanups, science talks, and other events focused on building regional resilience as we mark one year since the LA Megafires.
Heal the Bay celebrated forty years of protecting the people, wildlife, and coastal waters of greater Los Angeles, and this year demonstrated just how vital that work is. From rising seas and plastic pollution to toxic algal blooms, our region faced mounting threats — and it began with one of the most devastating climate disasters in Los Angeles’ history.
The January wildfires disrupted ecosystems and displaced communities, including Heal the Bay’s own CEO, Tracy Quinn, yet the response was immediate and effective. Volunteers, neighbors, and supporters stepped up to care for one another and the environment, proving time and again that even the smallest actions can lead to a massive impact.
As we near the end of 2025, we’re proud to celebrate the impact we achieved together. Here are some of the milestones that demonstrate what’s possible when a community comes together for clean water, healthy ecosystems, and a thriving coast.
The Road Ahead
Building a stronger, safer coastline for LA: As rising seas, toxic algal blooms, and climate change threaten public and coastal ecosystems, Heal the Bay scientists are advancing critical research and pushing for science-driven policies that protect people, wildlife, and coastlines.
Stopping plastic pollution at the source: Plastic waste is more than an eyesore. It shows up in our air, our food, and our ocean. Heal the Bay is confronting the problem upstream by strengthening bans on single-use plastics, partnering with the LA28 Olympic and Paralympic Games to promote reusable solutions, and holding plastic polluters accountable.
Turning awareness into action: From beach cleanups to climate education, we’re empowering Angelenos with hands-on tools to advocate for our coast and helping educators inspire the next generation of ocean stewards.
Your support makes this work possible. If you’re inspired by what we accomplished together in 2025, consider making a year-end gift to help us continue defending clean oceans and healthy coastlines for all.
Among our many generous supporters this year was high school student Preston Lilly, who paddled 21 miles during Coastal Cleanup Day 2025 to raise funds for Heal the Bay.
A message from Heal the Bay President and CEO Tracy Quinn:
As we head into the holiday season, I’ve been thinking back on 2025 — the challenges, the moments of hope, and the resilience this community showed.
The year started with a tragedy none of us will forget. Wildfires tore through our neighborhoods, destroyed homes, and left so many — including me — displaced.
As we tried to pick up the pieces, another wave of challenges emerged. Wildlife washed up on our shores, sickened by a toxic algal bloom. Environmental protections we fought so hard to win were rolled back. Funding for the work that protects our coast began drying up. And all of it amid mounting hardships on the people and communities that make Los Angeles home.
It would’ve been easy to give up. Accept defeat. No one would have blamed us. But time and time again, Angelenos showed us what strength and resilience look like.
And that’s why I want to say thank you to everyone who made a difference this year, not just for Heal the Bay, but also for our coast and the people and wildlife that call it home.
Thank you to our volunteers — nearly 20,000 of you — who cleared plastics and pollution from our beaches.
Thank you to the teachers across Los Angeles who joined our workshops and brought students to the Heal the Bay Aquarium for STEM field trips. With your help, we reminded thousands of young people that they have the power to rewrite the story of our oceans.
And thank you to our donors. Your generosity, in every amount, made it possible for us to lead the science, education, and advocacy that our community relies on.
You are the reason I’m honored to lead this organization. You are why we do this work. And you are what has kept it going for the past 40 years.
At Heal the Bay, we talk a lot about resilience, how we can bounce back when it feels like all is lost. We can’t know what 2026 will bring. We do know there are big challenges ahead. But I’ve seen the strength of this community, and I’m confident we have what it takes to tackle whatever comes our way.
Even with everything we’ve been through this year, there’s still so much to be grateful for. For me, it’s this: After nearly a year of living out of a suitcase, storing my groceries in the office fridge, and navigating never-ending insurance claims, I’m finally moving back home. And I know that makes me one of the lucky ones.
So today, when I reflect on what I’m thankful for, I’ll think about this incredible place we get to call home. And I’ll think of you, our dedicated Heal the Bay community. Here’s to what we’ve weathered, to what we’ve rebuilt, and to everything we’ll keep fighting for — together.
– Tracy Quinn, Heal the Bay President & CEO
P.S. You can ensure that Heal the Bay has what it needs to protect our coast in 2026 — and help us save endangered species from extinction. Donate through our Giving Tuesday campaign and your gift will have twice the impact.
Decades of toxic DDT and “forever chemicals” still linger in Santa Monica Bay, putting subsistence and recreational anglers at risk. Heal the Bay is urging the Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment to call for new testing and update safety standards to protect our local anglers.
California has a responsibility to protect its residents from toxic pollution. Sign the petition to urge OEHHA to take the necessary steps to keep our angler community safe.
The 2025 legislative session was a tough one for California’s environmental advocates. Against the backdrop of devastating wildfires, raids impacting California’s immigrant communities, severe budget constraints across the state, and federal rollbacks that weakened environmental protections, many of our state’s most important environmental bills faced uphill battles as legislators were forced to reshuffle their priorities. Still, amid the challenges, we saw meaningful wins for ocean health and waste reduction. And we’re hopeful that a number of bills still in the pipeline will pass next year.
Below is a breakdown of the environmental legislation we’ve been tracking this year and where it stands as we head into 2026.
Major Wins for Our Environment
AB 1056 — Phasing Out Gillnets for Good
We’re thrilled to share a major victory for ocean conservation, and one that Heal the Bay has proudly supported every step of the way through support letters and direct lobbying on California Ocean Day in Sacramento. Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1056into law, which will phase out the last remaining set gillnets in California.
Set gillnets are mile-long nets anchored to the ocean floor that often entangle high numbers of marine wildlife. This destructive gear dates back to 1915, so this victory has been a long time coming. Congratulations to our friends at Oceana, Resource Renewal Institute, and the Office of Assembly Member Steve Bennett who sponsored and championed this milestone legislation. Read the press release here.
SB 279 — Scaling Up Composting Statewide
Another bright spot this session was the passage of SB 279, which takes a major step toward building California’s circular economy by expanding access to composting programs across the state. Composting not only curbs greenhouse gases but also enriches soils, conserves water, supports local agriculture, and helps reduce pollution by making it even easier to use and dispose of compostable products, making this a win for both people and planet. This law strengthens California’s ability to divert organic waste from landfills, reducing methane emissions and helping cities and counties meet their climate goals.
Missed Opportunities
AB 823 — Expanding the Microbead Ban
We were deeply disappointed to see AB 823, vetoed by Governor Newsom. This bipartisan bill that passed both the Assembly and Senate would have expanded California’s existing microbead ban to include cosmetics, further protecting our waterways from harmful microplastics. The governor’s veto cited procedural concerns, but this decision undermines years of progress toward a plastic-free future.
This was an important measure to stop microplastics at the source. Heal the Bay will continue to push for stronger action on this front next year.
SB 45 — Tethered Caps on Bottles
SB 45would have required tethered caps on beverage bottles, preventing loose plastic caps from polluting our beaches and waterways. This solution already exists in other parts of the globe, with producers adopting the tethered cap design. Unfortunately, the bill died earlier this spring. But it won’t stop our continued advocacy for targeted solutions and bigger, more comprehensive plastic-reduction policies that keep plastics out of our environment.
Bills Still in the Pipeline
Several promising bills didn’t cross the finish line this year but will return for consideration in 2026. We’ll be leveraging our advocacy efforts next year to ensure these proposals around pollution prevention, water justice, and waste reduction don’t stall out for good.
AB 762: Proposes a ban on disposable vapes to protect public health and reduce e-waste.
SB 561: Would create a manufacturer responsibility program for safely managing the disposal of unused emergency distress flares — explosives that poses serious safety risks.
SB 501: Would establish a producer responsibility program for household hazardous waste and require producers of that waste to provide a convenient collection and disposal system.
SB 350: Introduces the creation of a statewide water rate assistance program to ensure access to affordable, clean water.
SB 601: Would reaffirm California’s Clean Water Act protections following federal rollbacks.
AB 638: Was authored to provide state guidance for safely using stormwater as a non-potable water source.
Looking Ahead
Despite the challenges of this legislative season, our commitment to protecting our coast and communities remains as strong as ever. Every session brings new opportunities to advance policies that protect biodiversity, reduce pollution, safeguard clean water, and build a more sustainable Los Angeles.
We’ll continue advocating alongside our partners and community members to advance these bills that are still in the pipeline and ensure that California remains a global leader in ocean conservation and climate action.
Stay tuned for action alerts, local advocacy opportunities, and ways to raise your voice for clean water and healthy ecosystems.
United Nations led talks in Geneva aimed at crafting the first legally binding treaty to stop plastic pollution ended in deadlock last week. Oil-producing nations including the U.S., Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait blocked proposals to limit plastic production and control toxic additives, advocating instead for voluntary measures focused on waste management and recycling. Meanwhile, over 100 countries and their community members, scientists, and most impacted citizens pushed for legally binding reductions in plastics production, the elimination of hazardous chemicals, and financial support for frontline communities.
This was the third attempt at reaching an agreement. With global treaty efforts stalling yet again, what happens in our own backyard becomes even more critical.
What Heal the Bay is Doing
Advocating for bold plastic reduction policies: Heal the Bay continues to lead the charge for comprehensive plastic-waste reduction in Los Angeles. We have successfully expanded LA’s polystyrene ban, a policy we first helped pass in 2022. We are now championing the “Reuse for Dine-In” law, which mandates reusable foodware and drinkware across restaurants, cafes, and event venues.
Pushing for stronger legislative action on plastic pollution: We are at the forefront of efforts to strengthen SB 54 regulations, holding corporations accountable for the plastic pollution they produce, and shifting the burden of cleanup to manufacturers instead of our communities.
Leading beach cleanups and data collection: Through our flagship beach cleanups, thousands of volunteers remove millions of plastic items from beaches before they reach our oceans. These cleanups also serve as data collection opportunities, which aid our scientists in informing stronger environmental laws.
How You Can Get Involved
Join us for Coastal Cleanup Day on September 20, our largest day of volunteer action! Help remove thousands of pounds of trash and plastic from coastal areas, rivers, and inland sites.
The failure in Geneva may feel like a setback, but it’s also a reminder: Collective global action is vital. But local leadership is where transformation begins. By driving change here at home, Heal the Bay is helping shift the tipping point toward a circular future one bottle, one cup, and one policy at a time.
Heal the Bay’s CEO, Tracy Quinn, co-chaired on the Commission’s Water Working Group, leading the effort to design critical water protection and reliability measures that will curb climate-related water impacts and pollution and increase fire resilience in high risk communities. This includes solutions focusing on the protection of waterways and infrastructure from climate pollution, the implementation of robust water safety testing plans, the creation of climate-resilient water infrastructure, and the ways to ensure firefighters have the water they need.
The next step will be working with decision-makers at the local, state, and federal levels to implement these solutions. Details below.
The independent Blue Ribbon Commission on Climate Action and Fire Safe Recovery released a final report today outlining ways to ensure a resilient and sustainable recovery from the devastating 2025 LA wildfires and make the region better prepared for future climate disasters. The report assesses a range of recovery and preparation issues, providing important recommendations for efficient and climate-smart rebuilding, equitable recovery, and climate-resilient infrastructure.
Water safety and resilience is also a key focus of the report. Heal the BayCEO, Tracy Quinn, served as a co-chair on the Commission’s Water Working Group, driving forward the development of critical water protection and reliability measures in the face of increased climate-related water impacts and pollution.
“Like so many, these fires forced me to learn firsthand about the recovery, remediation, and preparedness steps we, as individuals, need to take to better protect our homes and families from the impact of climate change,” said Tracy Quinn, CEO of Heal the Bay. “This report provides a broader community-wide lens, seeking to improve our building standards, address our infrastructure needs, and provide equitable funding approaches for recovery and resilience.”
“It also takes a look at how to preserve our most precious resource: water,” Quinn continued. “We need our water resources to be readily available during any crisis and we need the ability to deliver it. We need our waterways and water reserves to be protected against disaster-related toxic contamination. We need to have the tools in place to comprehensively test water safety before we drink or recreate in it after a disaster strikes. And we need to ensure our wastewater systems are built to withstand disaster – and not become part of the problem. This report outlines essential steps we need to take to keep our most precious resource abundant and safe from climate harm.”
Some of the key water quality and safety recommendations found in the report include:
Protecting Waterways and Infrastructure from Climate-Related Pollution
Implement erosion control measures and nature-based solutions to safeguard watersheds and water infrastructure from post-disaster sedimentation, runoff, and debris flows.
Establish buffer zones to help protect communities, reducing potential for secondary harm to waterways.
Implementing Robust Water Safety Testing Plans
Update state legislation to require water systems to test for a broad array of contaminants before lifting health notices.
Improve and implement communication protocols for post-disaster water testing results.
Ensuring Water Infrastructure is Climate-Resilient
Conduct comprehensive vulnerability assessments of water and sewer infrastructure.
Site new systems outside of high-risk areas.
Ensure rebuilding along the Pacific Coast Highway properly assesses wastewater treatment and conveyance alternatives to avoid sewage overflow and leakage into the ocean.
Ensuring Water Infrastructure Maintains Pressure for Firefighting
Utilize low impact development (LID) stormwater capture strategies to increase water supply redundancy
Upgrade systems to meet modern fire flow requirements.
Test flow rates and system capacity under peak demand and emergency conditions.
Detailed Water Recommendations can be found in the Chapter entitled WATER SYSTEM RESILIENCE AND SAFETY on page 60 of the report.
The Commission was created on February 13, 2025, in the wake of the LA fires, to develop a set of policy recommendations to promote a safe, resilient recovery for Los Angeles. The Commission includes a broad cross-section of volunteer technical experts and professionals from governmental, academic, public interest, and other civic institutions. Implementation is critical to the impact of these recommendations and will require engagement with decision-makers at the local, state, and Federal levels.
Getting a water-smart recreation area built in marginalized South L.A. was no walk in the park. But Heal the Bay persevered.
Seventeen years ago, residents of South L.A. began working toward a vision: to transform a long-overlooked lot into a vibrant community space. Heal the Bay’s Meredith McCarthy joined that effort as a committed partner, supporting the neighborhood’s leadership and helping to navigate the challenges of funding, permitting, and environmental planning. Together, they turned a neglected space into a thriving public park rooted in community vision and care.This June, Inell Woods Park officially opens—named in honor of a beloved local activist. The quarter-acre, multi-benefit park is designed to improve the quality of life for historically marginalized residents while enhancing the health of the surrounding watershed. Meredith’s persistence, creativity, and patience made this park a reality, despite major hurdles with funding, permitting, construction, and a global pandemic.
Read the full breakdown from Meredith on the story behind her, Heal the Bay, and the community’s shared labor of love, and how this space can serve as a model of hope and smart environmental planning across greater L.A.
So, how did Heal the Bay get involved in building a park in inland L.A.?
In 2008, Heal the Bay was working deep inside Compton Creek watershed, the last major tributary to enter the Los Angeles River before it enters the Pacific Ocean. We understood that the health of our rivers and coastal ocean cannot be separated from the health of our inland neighborhoods. We were committed to showing the interconnection of communities, green space, and public health, particularly in under-resourced neighborhoods. Our goal was to invest in areas where parks were most needed – in historically marginalized areas lacking green space, shade, and clean waterways. Through our community work, we identified a site in South L.A. that could potentially serve as a pilot for our Healthy Neighborhoods, Healthy Environments Initiative. The idea was fairly simple: build a small multi-benefit park that could achieve two goals simultaneously: make life better for residents while improving water quality in the watershed. Getting it done would prove to be much more complex. But we did it.
Tell us about the site before it was a park?
The park sits on what once was a vacant half-acre parcel of land at 87th Street and McKinley Place, owned by CalTrans. The site was riddled with broken concrete and asphalt, with only a few spindly trees. On any given day you could find abandoned desks, sofas, appliances and worn-out clothes littering the site. It was basically a trash dump. Not only a safety hazard, the eyesore became a magnet for crime and a symbol of civic neglect.
And what challenges does the surrounding community face?
The lot is surrounded by residential homes and apartments, including a large public housing complex to the southwest called Avalon Gardens. Almost 40% of residents live at or below the poverty level. In the State’s CalEnviroScreen, the neighborhood scored in the highest-impacted ranking of 91-100%. Recognizing the environmental and social challenges the community faces, we partnered with local residents to reimagine and revitalize the long-neglected lot into a space that serves their needs.
What are some of the features of this park? What makes it special for this community and the region as a whole?
The park serves as a green space, fitness area, a meeting spot, an environmental education site, and a water quality improvement project, bringing lasting benefits to a resilient and historically underserved neighborhood in Greater L.A. With exercise stations, a tot lot, shaded seating, biodiverse gardens, and a system that captures and reuses stormwater, the park is a prime example of smart water design—using green infrastructure to support both community well-being and cleaner waterways. It’s a valuable space for play, learning, and connection for kids, teens, and seniors alike. The project creates multiple benefits and distinct open spaces designed for active and passive recreation. Equally important, it serves as a beacon of hope for the hard-working families that live in a neighborhood that hasn’t received a lot of infrastructure love or funding.
Why is this project important to Heal the Bay from an overall water quality perspective?
It’s pretty simple: Creating more green space in individual neighborhoods improves water quality throughout all of Los Angeles County’s interconnected watersheds. In addition to providing recreation areas and wildlife habitat, green spaces can function as essential stormwater solutions by capturing and naturally cleansing polluted runoff. These multi-benefit parks improve local water quality, increase water reuse and supply, reduce carbon, and mitigate the heat island effect.
For all the “stormwater wonks” out there, can you explain how the park has been engineered?
The park is designed to capture water when it rains. This prevents polluted runoff from reaching Compton Creek and the Los Angeles River. The stormwater treatment component is the Permavoid system and has been used in several other City of L.A. parks. Permavoid is a multi-functional stormwater management system engineered to create functional and appealing stormwater capture. This system treats stormwater as a resource, rather than a waste product. The captured water will be filtered and used to irrigate the native plants and trees at the park.
How much water can the park capture and reuse?
For LID (low impact development) compliance, the requirement is to capture the 85th percentile storm, which is approximately 1 inch in 24 hours. Based on the design calculations, each storm event of 0.98 inches or more will yield approximately 20,800 gallons of captured runoff for storage in the Permavoid Planter for eventual use. We assume that five or six rain events will meet or exceed the 85th percentile storm in an average year. This would result in approximately 104,000 to 124,000 gallons of rainwater captured for reuse over the rainy season between October and April.
How did the project come together in the beginning?
In 2012 Heal the Bay won an initial $1.3 million grant to design and build the park. But the logistics of remediating an abandoned lot became far more complicated than we had ever imagined. Leasing the land from CalTrans and getting the necessary permits became almost insurmountable, but we stuck to it. Construction costs began to mount, and then the pandemic stalled the park for two years. Councilmember Curren Price Jr., who represents the neighborhood, kept the park on track though. His office helped us secure additional funds from a federal Community Block Grant. Through the efforts of L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell, Accelerate Resilience LA, the Rivers and Mountains Conservancy and the Bonneville Environmental Fund, we finally secured the $3.1 million to get the park built. After years of delays, we started construction on Feb. 12, 2024.
Meredith, what was the hardest part about getting this park built?
The city bureaucracy can be mind-numbing. There isn’t a rule book or an air traffic controller to help navigate the permitting process. If it weren’t for our amazing project manager, Erin Jones, at Griffin Structures, and engineer Barbara Hall, we wouldn’t be here today.
What’s next? Can these types of projects be replicated at scale?
Inell Woods Park is a good example of how the County’s Safe Clean Water Program aims to increase local water supply, improve water quality, and protect public health by focusing efforts on multi-benefit projects in marginalized communities. Multi-benefit projects are the most efficient and effective use of our taxpayer dollars because they are cost-conscious solutions that serve both community and environmental needs. Heal the Bay has spent decades working on smart infrastructure policies and funding measures like Measure A and W to create community-centered improvements. With commitment, we can build more parks like this throughout our region. It’s critical as climate impacts intensify and imported water supplies become more unreliable and expensive.
Why is this project important to you personally?
Inell Woods is proof that multi-benefit projects work. We can use infrastructure dollars to improve the quality of life and clean up stormwater. We aren’t going to support the environment without involving the people, too.
Who motivated you? Who did you meet along the way?
Over the 10 years it took this project to come together, we watched the neighborhood kids grow up. So many amazing families came out to support and share their hopes and dreams about this space. Jimmie Gray, Inell Woods’ daughter, was a tremendous force of love and action. She became our greatest cheerleader.
There were a couple of people that really stuck with us that made the park possible. Darryl Ford at Parks & Rec, who I really believe is the smartest man in the city, never let us down. Sherilyn Correa and Xavier Clark from CD9 sat through hours of meetings and were always willing to go the extra mile and fight to make this happen. Michael Scaduto from LA Sanitation came in later in the process but was keen on streamlining and finding solutions to our permitting and construction frustrations. The vision of this park, however, really belongs to Kendra Okonkwa at the Wisdom Academy for Young Scientists. She made us believe that change could happen in her neighborhood. Finally, I have to honor my partner through most of this, ex HTB-staffer Delaney Alamillo. Her deep love of community and commitment to “listening first” is tattooed on my heart.
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