Heal the Bay Blog

We hope you’re spending today beached somewhere cozy, hooting and hollering with friends and family, gobbling your free-range turkey, Tofurkey and/or sustainably harvested kelp compote—not reading this blog. However, if you do find yourself in this charming little corner of cyberspace at this very moment, we have a very special message, just for you:

Thanks for letting your lawn languish in the drought. Thanks for letting your car accumulate an impressive grit-and-grime layer. Thanks for saying hi to the seahorses at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium. Thanks for liking even the most boring, nerdy Facebook posts and retweeting the corniest memes that ever graced the internet. Thanks for donating $10, $20, $1,000—or just your Saturday morning. Thanks for caring about climate change, even though it’s scary.

Thank you for inspiring us to work harder for the ocean, coast and watersheds, every single day.

As a token of our gratitude, we’d like to let you turkeys in on a fishy little secret…

You’ll receive FREE admission to our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium next week if you mention the top-secret password below! This offer is good from Tuesday, December 2, through Sunday, December 7. We’re open Tuesdays through Fridays from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m., and Saturdays and Sundays from 12:30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Please note that the SMPA is closed on Mondays.

Thanks, readers, for being part of the Heal the Bay family. We hope you enjoy your Thanksgiving holiday, and we look forward to seeing you at the Aquarium next week—even though we don’t have any turkeyfish currently on exhibit.

Warmest regards,

Heal the Bay

P.S. — If you see a wild turkeyfish, do not eat. 

Elephant seal photo by Ian Parker

Since 1985, Heal the Bay has worked with a committed network of activists, volunteers, donors, educators and community groups to keep our watersheds, neighborhoods, beaches and oceans safe healthy and clean.

Be it hosting cleanups, monitoring dischargers or operating our Aquarium, we have a number of proven programs that make a big impact. Beyond our recurring programs, we have several special initiatives next year that we’d like to share with you:

Keeping Big Oil out of Santa Monica Bay. A public vote in Hermosa Beach will be held in March to determine the fate of a proposed slant-drilling operation underneath Hermosa’s seafloor. Heal the Bay is leading the campaign to halt this dangerous proposal and keep oil drilling out of our local waters.

Making Southern California more water self-sufficient. The record drought has called into question the wisdom of importing 80% of L.A.’s water supply. Heal the Bay will push regional municipalities to fund projects that capture stormwater, recycle wastewater and clean up contaminated local aquifers. The projects will improve beach water quality while creating a more reliable, less costly source of water.

Developing a predictive beach water-quality model. Heal the Bay plans to better protect the health of millions of ocean goers by predicting potential bacterial pollution days before swimmers hit the shoreline. Using statistical models developed with Stanford University, we will begin piloting the new tool at selected beaches this summer.

Building an amazing park. Heal the Bay is developing WAYS Park, a multiple-benefit project in the Avalon Gardens area of South L.A. that will open next fall and include green space with exercise amenities, reading areas, native habitat, and water quality capture and infiltration features. Fully funded through a Prop. 84 grant, WAYS Park will serve as a model for future community projects that benefit the environment throughout greater L.A.

Preparing L.A. for climate change. Our science staff helped support a sea level rise vulnerability study last year for the City of L.A., identifying the most vulnerable areas as Venice, Wilmington, and San Pedro. Next year we will be conducting research on how so-called Living Streets can help cities become more resilient in a changing climate, advocating for policies that protect sensitive coastal habitats against a rising sea, and helping educate people to better understand what can be done to help prepare local communities for climate change.

Inspiring the next generation of stewards. We are forming a coalition of STEM and environmental science educators whose mission is to provide youth with the environmental know-how to create healthy communities, from watersheds to the ocean.  Heal the Bay’s educational programs run in classrooms and at the Santa Monica Pier Aquarium will support our local teachers’ needs for content knowledge and practical hands-on application.

If this work is important to you, please join thousands of other ocean lovers in becoming a member of Heal the Bay.

Heal the Bay has a 29-year track record of defending Southern California’s watersheds, beaches and ocean, and 2014 marked another year of significant wins. Here’s a quick look at some of our top accomplishments, made possible by the generous support of our network of activists, donors, volunteers and educators.

Reducing blight and waste by playing a lead role in drafting and advocating for the just-enacted plastic bag ban in the state of California. The ban will remove an estimated 13 billion bags out of the waste-stream, lessening the environmental and economic harm posed by plastic pollution in our neighborhoods and oceans.

Enhancing local water by leading the legislative charge in Sacramento to enact AB 2403, which makes it easier for cities to secure public funding for multi-benefit water projects. Instead of importing costly and increasingly scarce water, we need infrastructure that repurposes the water we already have, such as stormwater capture facilities and wastewater recycling plants.

Safeguarding millions of ocean goers by providing weekly water quality grades for a record number of beaches along the Pacific Coast – 455. The good news is that some 95% of beaches in California received A or B grades in our annual report, a 2% gain from last year’s survey.

Beautifying shorelines by hosting 654 beach cleanups and educating 37,497 volunteers, a 3% increase from last year. These volunteers removed more than 23 tons of ocean-bound trash, guarding local marine animals that can be harmed by ingesting debris or becoming entangled in it.

Protecting open spaces by advancing L.A. County’s newly adopted Santa Monica Mountains Local Coastal Plan, which will protect scenic views, water quality and wild lands across 52,000 acres. We shaped this important guidance document for 10 years, successfully pairing limited development with land conservation in America’s largest urban national park.

Inspiring stewardship by welcoming a record number of visitors to our Santa Monica Pier Aquarium, which features animals found in our local waters. In addition, nearly 12,000 students on field trips received hands-on marine education and explored the newly opened Green Room, which honors our founding president Dorothy Green by educating visitors about local watersheds.

So thank you to all that volunteered at an event, signed a petition, attended a hearing, visited our Aquarium or shared information on our social networks. It takes a village to heal the Bay!

Please make your year-end gift now to ensure that we can hit the ground running in 2015.

Staff Scientist Dana Roeber Murray says a newly identified virus has wiped out millions of sea stars in California.

Where have all our sea stars gone? Once abundant in our tidepools and rocky reefs, millions of sea stars have wasted away and disappeared along our coast. Just last weekend as I went tidepool exploring at Leo Carrillo State Beach during a minus tide, we encountered octopuses, sea hares, urchins, and little fish — but not a single sea star. This time last year, the scene included missing limbs … melting masses of flesh … gooey lesions overtaking the entire body. Divers and tidepoolers encountered numerous sea stars with white lesions that eventually decomposed body tissue into a goo-like blob.

Over the past year, an international team of scientists worked together to get to the bottom of the mysterious marine infectious disease wiping out our sea stars. Just this week scientists have identified the pathogen responsible for the West Coast sea star die-off, through research published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Scientists say that the virus is different from all other known viruses infecting marine animals, and they’ve named it “sea star associated densovirus.” The progression of symptoms can be very rapid, with initial signs leading to death within a few days. Figuring out marine diseases and identifying what virus is to blame is difficult because one drop of seawater can contain 10 million viruses. Researchers had to sort through millions of marine viruses to identify the culprit.

The identified densovirus weakens the sea star’s immune system, making it more susceptible to bacterial infections, such as sea star wasting disease, a fast-moving scourge that has occurred along our coast for decades, but not at the recent widespread level. Reports of disintegrating sea stars have come from as far north as Anchorage, Alaska, to our shores along Palos Verdes, and down south to La Jolla. The current epidemic began in Washington in June 2013; since then at least 12 different species of sea stars and even some purple sea urchins have been found as victims. By the fall of 2013, the disease had become widespread along the Pacific coast.

Sea stars, in particular ochre stars, are an important keystone species that have the potential to dramatically alter rocky intertidal community composition. Removal of this top predator from intertidal ecosystems can affect the whole food chain. After past wasting events, ochre stars were absent along Southern California’s shoreline for years.

Going forward, scientists will be observing the next generation of baby sea stars that are starting to show up along some Pacific Coast beaches. “We are interested in the potential for stars to develop resistance to this outbreak,” says Drew Harvell, a marine epidemiologist at Cornell University and the University of Washington who has been coordinating the research. “The only way forward and to have sea stars in the future is for them to develop resistance and having new stars to propagate.”

Leading scientists continue to investigate environmental factors that may have caused sea stars to be more susceptible to viral infections. Those factors include effects from climate change such as warming ocean waters and ocean acidification. Important to note, there is no evidence at all that links the current wasting event to the ongoing disaster at the Fukushima nuclear facility in Japan.

Scientists ask the public to keep an eye out for infected sea stars and urchins. If you see any possible infections while out in our local intertidal and subtidal seas, please report your findings to seastarwasting.org.

If you’ve enjoyed a day at Southern California beaches anytime over the past 10 years, take a moment to thank Kirsten James.

Kirsten has been Heal the Bay’s clean water watchdog for nearly a decade, most recently serving as our co-Science and Policy Director. During her tenure, beach water quality has steadily improved, with 93% of L.A. County beaches now getting A or B grades in our last annual report. Ever humble, she’d probably attribute the cleaner waters to drought and less urban runoff, but Kirsten and her team should take a lot of the credit.

Kirsten has now decided to take the next step in her professional career by exiting Heal the Bay to join the Boston-based nonprofit Ceres. She will develop a West Coast water program for the group, which catalyzes major industries to invest in sustainable practices.

Her years in the trenches of Southern California water policy will serve her new group well. Kirsten is a staunch defender of the federal Clean Water Act, standing strong in the face of many local challenges. She has played a pivotal role in ensuring that water quality standards are met in the region’s various water bodies and that dischargers are held accountable when they pollute our creeks, rivers and ocean.

It’s detail-oriented and somewhat tedious work at times—testifying at dozens of Regional Water Quality Control Board meetings held in stuffy conference rooms, poring over inches-thick technical permits written in legalese, and negotiating patiently with harried bureaucrats, skeptical dischargers and partner non-profits.

It takes a unique blend of personality and knowledge to be an effective advocate. Kirsten’s success has been built on a bedrock of traditional Midwestern values. As a native Missourian, she’s industrious, self-effacing and unfailingly polite. Think of her as the Girl Next Door—but with an encyclopedic grasp of arcane water quality regulations and a dogged determination to see them enforced.

When our longtime president Mark Gold transitioned to UCLA three years ago, Kirsten had huge shoes to fill in taking over Heal the Bay’s water portfolio. After years of apprenticing under the famed environmental warrior, she now was calling the shots on water strategy and policy. Slowly but surely, she found her own voice and style, leading us to some remarkable wins. Among her most recent accomplishments:

• Securing the adoption of a more holistic MS4 stormwater permit for the greater L.A. region, which requires municipalities to treat water as a resource to be reused and recycled.
• Playing a lead role in drafting and implementing plastic bag bans in the City and County of Los Angeles, which served as a model for the recently enacted statewide ban.
• Leading the legislative charge in Sacramento to reform Prop 218, making it easier for cities to secure public funding for multi-benefit water projects.

The Bay is healthier than it was a decade ago, thanks to Kirsten. So are the swimmers—and marine animals—who frolic in it. As the modest Kirsten attests, still waters run deep. Very deep.

As Kirsten transitions to her new job, we asked some of her key partners to share their thoughts about her impact.

“Kirsten’s sharp critical analysis and tireless advocacy has truly shaped water quality programs, initiatives, regulations and legislation throughout the region. Our Bay and region is in a much better place from a water quality perspective because of the work that Kirsten has done. Her legacy will be felt by generations to come.”

-Alix Hobbs, HtB president

“In all my years at Heal the Bay, no one wrote better technical comment letters than Kirsten. She was able to read the most complicated, technical, jargon-laced, draft regulations and develop clear, strong advocacy comments. Heal the Bay won on so many critical issues because of her analytical writing, and technical and policy skills.”

-Mark Gold, former HtB president  

“Kirsten has been my comrade-at-arms for a decade as we’ve fought the marine debris battle. She always writes what needs to be written (no matter how complicated), and shows up at every meeting. She has pounded the halls of Sacramento even into the wee hours of the morning. She has worked harder than anyone to ensure that the environment is protected, and she has done it with a smile on her face, and her friendly hello. From our 4 a.m. flights (always working the whole time), to my hoisting her over a wall to take clandestine pictures of a nurdle factory, from utter dismay when the first state bag ban bills failed (I remember she got physically ill once, and had to take a sick day), to our zany attempts at plastic fashion wear, we have shared so much, professionally and personally. She is an invaluable colleague, and a treasured friend.

-Leslie Tamminen, former HtB legislative director and consultant for Seventh Generation Advisors

“The Bureau greatly appreciates Kirsten for her tireless support of the organization, in particular the Watershed Protection Program I oversee. Working on stormwater issues with us, Kirsten is truly a champion of the environment in California and has helped protect the water resources in our entire region.

Shahram Kharaghani, division manager for the L.A. Bureau of Sanitation.

“From the volleyball court to the hearing room, Kirsten handles tough situations with precision and poise. I’m honored to have spent the last nine years working with her at Heal the Bay (and two years beforehand together at graduate school). She’s never met a water policy acronym that she can’t break down. Kirsten’s leadership has led to many water quality improvements throughout Southern California that will be felt for decades. We will all miss her.

Sarah Sikich, Kirsten’s co-director of science and policy

                                          Kirsten at a City Hall press event celebrating the plastic bag ban.

If you’ve enjoyed a day at Southern California beaches over the past 10 years, now is a good time to take a moment to thank Kirsten James.

Kirsten has been Heal the Bay’s lead watchdog for clean water for nearly a decade, most recently serving as our co-Science and Policy Director. During her tenure, beach water quality has steadily improved, with 93% of L.A. County beaches now getting A or B grades.  And while she may cite the drought and less runoff for the cleaner waters, Kirsten and her team can take a lot of the credit.

Kirsten has now decided to take the next step in her professional career by exiting Heal the Bay to  join the Boston-based nonprofit Ceres. She will develop a West Coast water program for the group, which catalyzes major industries to invest in sustainable practices.

Her years in the trenches of Southern California water policy will serve her new group well. Kirsten stands strong to protect the federal Clean Water Act locally in the face of many challenges. She has played a pivotal role in ensuring that water quality standards are met in the region’s various water bodies and that dischargers are held accountable when they pollute our creeks, rivers and ocean.

It’s tedious and repetitive work at times — testifying at dozens of Regional Water Quality Control Board meetings held in stuffy conference rooms, poring over inches-thick technical permits written in legalese, and negotiating patiently with harried bureaucrats, skeptical dischargers, and fellow non-profits.

It takes a unique blend of personality and knowledge to be an effective advocate. I think that Kirsten’s success has been built on a bedrock of traditional Midwestern values. As a native Missourian, she’s industrious, self-effacing and unfailingly polite. Think of her as the Girl Next Door – but with an encyclopedic grasp of arcane water quality regulations and a dogged determination to see them enforced.

When our longtime president Mark Gold transitioned to UCLA three years ago, Kirsten had huge shoes to fill in taking over Heal the Bay’s water portfolio. After years of apprenticing under the famed environmental warrior, she now was calling the shots on water strategy and policy. Slowly but surely, she found her own voice and style, leading us to some remarkable wins. Among her most recent accomplishments:

• Securing the adoption of a more holistic MS4 stormwater permit for the greater L.A. region, which requires municipalities to treat water as a resource to be reused and recycled.
• Playing a lead role in drafting and implementing plastic bag bans in the city and county of Los Angeles, which served as model for the recently enacted statewide ban.
• Leading the legislative charge in Sacramento to reform Prop 218, making it easier for cities to secure public funding for multi-benefit water projects.

The Bay is healthier than it was a decade ago, thanks to Kirsten. As are the swimmers who recreate in it. As the modest Kirsten attests, still waters run deep. Very deep.

Heal the Bay president Alix Hobbs and TreePeople CEO Andy Vought write that Prop 1 marks a new start for California’ s water future. But that future starts with you … today.

Nov. 11, 2014 — Last week marked a watershed moment for California, both literally and figuratively. After years of legislative gridlock and public indifference, voters agreed to start fixing our state’s broken water system. Though not perfect, Proposition 1, the just-approved $7.5 billion water bond, sets the stage for a more sustainable California.  

But we can’t afford to wait for funded projects to be built.

There’s much to be excited about in the approved measure. It includes investments in multi-benefit projects that harvest stormwater runoff instead of funneling it to sea. Instead of polluting our shorelines, stormwater will replenish our depleted groundwater.

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

But it doesn’t help for water to be sent to aquifers if they are polluted. Fortunately, the bond also sets aside money to clean up existing groundwater supplies. Locally, that may help us rehabilitate contaminated aquifers in the San Fernando Valley. Bond funds have been set aside for watershed restoration projects that improve the natural cleansing function of the environment, which may prove a boon to the ongoing revitalization of the Los Angeles River.

Proposition 1 isn’t a cure-all for our water woes. Despite last weekend’s welcome downpour, extreme drought continues. We live in a dry climate, with the added stress of ongoing climate change. No amount of bond spending will change these dynamics.

The late Dorothy Green, Heal the Bay’s founding president and water warrior, recognized California’s challenge 30 years ago. We have enough water for the people and the environment, but without wise water management the well will soon run dry.  There will never be enough water to meet every need.  We need to start valuing every drop.

As we start to wean ourselves from costly and increasingly scarce imported water, we improve both our fiscal and environmental health. Transporting water to Los Angeles remains the single largest use of electricity in our state. Taxpayers pay millions in cleanup costs each year to deal with urban runoff, the primary source of pollution in our ocean and shorelines.

Happy as we are with the water bond’s passage, it won’t make a difference to our current drought. Projects will take years to implement, and we can’t afford to wait. Just as the bond passage is a watershed moment, our third year of drought is an historic event. And we can start addressing it today right in our own backyards.

By taking individual actions, we can achieve collective benefits immediately to our water supply and quality. Rainwater harvesting at the parcel level has huge potential.  A one-inch rainstorm in Los Angeles County sends some 10 billion gallons of polluted runoff into the stormdrain system. Every property in Los Angeles can capture rainwater and add to our local water supply, rather than having it shed from roofs and paved surfaces to the sea.

To spur this needed change in thinking, the City of Los Angeles and other local municipalities have adopted Low Impact Development policies, which require new and redevelopment projects to incorporate water-saving and water-harvesting components.

These actions can be simple and inexpensive. For example, Angelenos can hook up rain barrels or cisterns to their rain gutter downspouts. Tanks fill up quickly even in the lightest rainfall, providing “off the grid” water for irrigation. Simple landscape modifications such as contouring land to sink rainwater into swales and rain gardens, combined with climate-appropriate plants and trees, can dramatically reduce water use – in some cases by more than half.

Proposition 1’s passage marks a new era of water management.  But fighting the drought didn’t end at  the ballot box.  Small individual actions add up to big impacts, and are critical to creating a sustainable water future for California.  Local water agencies and nonprofits can show the way. Rebates abound.  We all need to go outside and assess where we can capture and save water to make it through this current drought – and California’s long-term drying trend.  

Let’s not waste this watershed moment.

This Op-Ed originally appeared in the Daily News, Daily Breeze and other Los Angeles News Group publications earlier this week.

Nov. 1, 2014 — After last night’s sporadic but intense rainfall, L.A. beachgoers this morning were treated to some spectacular sights – full, vibrant rainbows arcing to the sea.

Unfortunately, they were also treated to a less uplifting scene – trash-strewn shorelines.

Matthew King, our communications director, took a reconnaissance trip to Santa Monica’s Pico Kenter storm drain this morning near Bay Street. As the pictures below attest, there was no shortage of plastic bags, water bottle, fast food packaging, balloons and bits of Styrofoam to be found after the storm.

During the so-called “First Flush,” more than 70 major outfalls in L.A. County spew debris, animal waste, pesticides, automotive fluids and human-gastrointestinal viruses into the marine ecosystem. This pollution poses human health risks, harms marine life and dampens the tourist economy by littering shorelines.

Trash and toxins that have been accumulating for months on sidewalks, roadways and riverbeds are being washed into the stormdrains as you read this. Exposure to this runoff can cause a variety of illnesses, most frequently stomach flu.

For that reason, Heal the Bay urges residents and visitors to avoid water contact at Los Angeles County beaches for 72 hours following rainfall. Recent studies suggest five days be more appropriate at storm drains like Pico Kenter.

But not everyone has gotten the message apparently. During Matthew’s visit, two tourists staying at nearby hotels jumped into the ocean directly in front of the flowing Pico Kenter stormdrain. Yuck!

There’s another equally disturbing aspect to the runoff – it’s a huge waste of a precious resource.

Los Angeles imports costly and increasingly scarce water from Northern California and the Colorado River. The region now imports more than 80% of our water, using enormous amounts of energy and capital to do so.

Stormwater — if held, filtered and cleansed naturally in groundwater basins — could provide a safe, more secure and less costly source of drinking water. That 10 billion gallons of water from an average single storm in L.A. could fill nearly 120 Rose Bowls. That would provide enough water for a city the size of Santa Monica for more than three months.

“It’s depressing to see all the waste on our shorelines after First Flush,” said Alix Hobbs, president of Heal the Bay. “But it’s just as depressing to think about all that rainwater we are wasting. In a time of drought, we have to do a better job of using the water we already have.”

Heal the Bay’s science and policy team is now working closely with the city of Los Angeles to develop a funding mechanism to design and build large-scale, multi-benefit stormwater capture facilities.

During the rainy season, Heal the Bay reminds residents that they can take steps in their own home to take pressure off an already taxed stormdrain system. Among them: keeping trash out of gutters and stormdrains, disposing of animal waste and automotive fluids properly, and limiting runoff by curtailing such wasteful practices as hosing driveways and overwatering landscapes.

                             The usual, depressing detritus littered Santa Monica beaches after the recent storm.

                             One unknowing or foolhardy swimmer takes a dip right in front of Pico stormdrain.

Today’s guest blogger is Melina Sempill Watts, a staffer with the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains.

Oct. 23, 2014 — In partnership with Heal the Bay staff and volunteers, the utterly fascinating “Snows of the Nile” will be screened this Saturday as part of the Santa Monica “Wild and Scenic” Film Festival at Elkins Theatre at the Pepperdine University.

State Sen. Fran Pavley, an international leader in reducing climate change by proactive legislation, will be speaking at the event, which is organized by the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains. The evening features several films about climate change and begins at 6:30 p.m.

A subsequent program of films is planned for Saturday, Nov. 8, with a special focus on water.

Why does “Snows of the Nile” resonate? This gorgeous film provides an incredible before-and-after look at the fate of a key system of glaciers in the heart of Africa.

Environmentalists know that a fundamental driver in restoring ecosystems is establishing a baseline. To determine what healthy looks like now, it’s useful to have a thoughtful look at the past. 

Roll back the clock to 1906. One of the dashing explorers at the turn of the century was Prince Luigi Amedeo, Duke of the Abruzzi, a great climber and raconteur, whose narrations of his adventures echo through the decades. On his trip to the Ruwenzori Range in modern day Uganda, also called the Mountains of the Moon, he brought with him Vittorio Sella, arguably Italy’s answer to Ansel Adams. The pair captured stunning photographs of the glaciers that, up to that point, Europeans could not imagine in equatorial Africa. 

Cut to just a few years ago:  Dr. Neil Losin and Dr. Nate Dappen, a charismatic pair of young evolutionary biologists in the process of earning their Ph.D.s,  meet while doing research in Costa Rica and share their fascination with those historical photographs.

The two determined to go the Ruwenzori Range to replicate the gorgeous images Sella took during that famous Abruzzi climb some hundred years earlier. By current estimates, these glaciers will disappear in 20 years. So making the trip now was critical.

Moving from researching lizards in Florida to filmmaking in Uganda and the Congo about climate change impacts may seem like quite a leap. But the filmmaking duo applied to the first Dos Equis “Stay Thirsty” contest and their idea won over Internet voters. They came away with $25,000, enough to fund the expedition and the movie. 

Both men had been serious photographers, selling nature photographs to big magazines. But as UCLA graduate Dr. Losin says: “This grant became a stepping stone to a new world. We had made short research videos, and the whole thing snowballed. Filmmaking became something we were really passionate about.”

Coming at the subject matter with the perspective of scientists, Losin is endearingly modest.  “Climate change is a departure. The project that lead to ‘Snows of Nile’ is not a research project per se. There are people studying glacial retreat, movement of organisms… we wanted to visualize this in a way that people hadn’t before. This was a unique opportunity because of the historical photos. To us, this feels like more of an art project than research.” 

Anyone who has done trekking, climbing, photography, history or science will see how much of each discipline was required on the project. Many days the filmmakers struggled to find the exact spot to replicate the images captured by Sella over 100 years earlier. Like the Duke of Abruzzi before them, they were aided by members of the Mykonjo people, who worked as guides and porters. 

As a viewer, it seems like finding even one of the locations that would recapture the original image would indeed be a needle-in-the-haystack endeavor. And yet, our two protagonists get the shot, over and over again. They create side-by-side photos, offering then-and-now images that tell a painful truth of the disappearance of ice from our world.  They emphasize, however, that the mountains that remain, are to them, still beautiful.

At one point, one of the trekkers asks Losin, “What can we do to stop this?”

Neither Losin nor Dappen has an answer.

One truth that emerges, however, is that working as scientist-documentary filmmakers makes for a winning hyphenate. Rather than pursue prestigious post-docs or teaching careers at universities, the two Ph.D.s find that now an array of documentary film subjects are calling them all over the world. 

You can view a trailer of the festival here. To purchase tickets, please click here. A full list of other films to be screened can be found here.

Heal the Bay helps you cut through the clutter of a crowded ballot. If you care about a clean, reliable water supply and healthy open spaces, please support Props. 1 and P.

For decades, Heal the Bay has played a role in shaping policy and the funding environment needed to support our work to clean up the Bay. And Nov. 4 marks another important day for people who care about healthy watersheds and thriving oceans. The election will shape the future of our local watersheds, as well as determine how to best manage water resources around the state. We’re keeping our eye on two important campaigns: Proposition 1 (the state Water Bond) and Proposition P (the L.A. County Parks Bond).

Heal the Bay has long supported the “integrated water management approach.” But what does that phrase really mean? In simple terms, water managers need to consider all of our water systems holistically in order to ensure a sustainable water supply and healthy waterbodies.

For example, instead of allowing billions of gallons of stormwater to flow to L.A. County beaches during each rain event, runoff should be captured and infiltrated into local aquifers. This will not only help augment our local water supply but it will also prevent dirty stormwater runoff from polluting our rivers and Bay.

The integrated approach also supports increased water recycling, where we utilize the highly treated wastewater for beneficial uses (e.g. irrigation, industrial needs, recharging aquifers). This in turn will minimize discharges to our Bay. To give you some perspective, the city of L.A.’s Hyperion plant discharges nearly 360 million gallons a day of treated wastewater into the ocean. Imagine if we replenished our aquifers with that water instead of dumping it into the Bay.

These projects are an investment in our collective future, but they do require public funding. Propositions 1 and P can help our region secure these critical funds. Protecting rivers, coasts and watersheds and moving towards regional self-reliance for water supply are vital to our state’s future ecological and economic well-being, as well as our quality of life. This is especially true in the face of threats like climate change and long-term drought.

Proposition 1

What: Proposition 1 is a $7.54 billion dollar statewide bond measure that is focused entirely on water resources. Specifically, the bond includes $1.535 billion for water recycling, stormwater capture, water efficiency and other local water projects. It includes another $900 million for cleaning up groundwater contamination. Also of note, it includes $1.495 billion for watershed protection and $520 million for clean, safe and reliable drinking water.

Why we support: If passed, investments will be made in local water supply projects and watershed restoration — initiatives that can directly benefit our drought-stricken state and Santa Monica Bay.

What opponents might say: Some opponents argue that there is a disproportional amount allocated in the Bond for water storage projects – projects that can have major environmental impacts and do not promote the practice of finding “new” local water sources. While this is true, we believe that the many good elements of Proposition 1 outweigh the potentially problematic elements. As the saying goes, you can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good. Further, on-the-ground advocacy and current environmental review requirements should help prevent bad projects that are proposed.

Vote: YES on Proposition 1.

Proposition P

What: Proposition P continues funding generated by a 1992 funding measure that is set to expire. Should Proposition P be approved, it would continue funding $54 million a year through an annual $23 per parcel special tax for 30 years.

Of particular note, 15% is allocated to the County for parks, beaches and clean water/park projects and 30% to the County for regional projects for open space, foothill, mountain, trail, river, wetland and stream projects. Cities get 20% of the funds to spend on similar types of projects.

Why we support:  Proposition P allocates funds across Los Angeles County, with increased emphasis on projects that enhance water quality in the L.A. River, San Gabriel River and local creeks, lakes and beaches; projects that protect water supply sources; projects in park-poor areas; and projects that employ local youth (Proposition A employed more than 25,000 young people).

Since 1992, we have seen nearly 1,500 projects successfully implemented as a result of the current funding measure. If passed, Proposition P would continue to fund these important projects as well as provide open space for L.A. County residents to enjoy. It would also consider water quality improvements concurrently with these projects.

What opponents might say: Some opponents argue that this is just another tax during tough economic times. Although the measure would cost property owners $23 per year, it’s a small price to pay for a sound investment in the health and wellbeing of Los Angeles and increased water sustainability.

Vote: YES on Proposition P

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Painting by Elizabeth Kennen