Heal the Bay Blog

Heal the Bay president Ruskin Hartley on what it really means to waste water:

On Wednesday I joined Mayor Garcetti, Gov. Brown and members of the President’s Task Force on Climate Preparedness and Resilience at a reception at the Getty House to kick off day-long talks about how the federal government can help communities confront climate change. And today in Fresno, President Obama is unveiling an aid package for communities hit hardest by the drought.

Even as we address immediate needs of drought-stricken communities, we must move beyond short-term aid and invest in a water system for California’s future. And that presents historic opportunities for our work at Heal the Bay. Since 1985, we have been focused on cleaning up pollution in California’s waterways and ocean.  We have had some remarkable successes.  However, many of the state’s rivers and streams still fail to meet clean water standards and much of our groundwater is polluted.

There’s much discussion at the moment about how we “waste” water by dumping it into the ocean. Every time I hear that I cringe. While it is not a waste to let water flow to the ocean (it’s an essential part of the natural system that keeps us alive), it is a waste to dump highly treated water in the ocean that could be reused to off-set dwindling imported supplies.   And we do this every day from countless wastewater treatment plants. One plant alone, Hyperion out by LAX,  flushes 250 million gallons a day of treated wastewater into Santa Monica Bay – equivalent to the water needs of 2 ½ million people. That’s unconscionable waste!

And then there’s stormwater. When it rains, millions of gallons of rain flush through the urban watershed via engineered culverts and channels, picking up pollutants in a rush to the ocean. In a naturally functioning system, much of this would infiltrate into the ground and replenish our aquifers.  Instead we are left with polluted beaches and depleted aquifers. Crazy! 

We cannot make it rain. But we can make much better use of the precious water we have. Today, Heal the Bay is advocating for solutions and investments that make better use of our local water resources: groundwater clean-up, stormwater capture and recharge, and increased recycling. Taken as a package, they will go a long way to cleaning up our rivers, streams, and ocean. And that will make for a healthier bay. I’ll drink to that!

Kirsten James, Heal the Bay’s director of water quality, recently took a trip to China to discuss environmental issues with policymakers in the world’s most populous nation. Here she shares her reflections.

I’m back from China, and breathing a lot easier. I had a fabulous time, but the air pollution is brutal! Last month, the Beijing government invited me to speak to its Water Authority about water issues and regulation in California and share lessons to help inform the development of Beijing’s Water Action Plan.  My trip was a great learning experience, providing an up-close view of Chinese culture and how the nation goes about tackling environmental issues.

Addressing water supply and water quality is no small task for Beijing managers, given that they serve a population of more than 21 million residents. Officials I spoke with repeatedly pointed to population growth as their greatest environmental challenge.  As I described our work to benefit the city of Los Angeles and its 4 million residents, they nodded but said we are on a totally different playing field.  Nonetheless, they seemed keen to investigate how practices used to manage water in California could be introduced to Beijing, such as Total Maximum Daily Loads, other pollution limits and low impact development requirements.

In some respects, Beijing could be considered a step ahead of us in conservation. The city has had success implementing the use of grey water, water metering and price-tiering. Yet those programs might be attributed to an overly strong government hand and more lax public health regulations, which may not be a good thing.

My Chinese colleagues got a good chuckle when I mentioned that people in the greater L.A. region use 187 gallons of water per day on average.  One participant noted that he keeps a bucket of grey water from his sink/laundry to flush his toilet.  Beijing  has significant water recycling initiatives and is seriously exploring indirect potable reuse, so-called “toilet to tap” technologies. Beijing has definitely taken notice of Orange County’s cutting-edge efforts to cleanse wastewater and turn it into drinking water.

My biggest takeaway was seeing how the Chinese government has such a strong role in both hindering and encouraging environmental progress.  For example, if the government owns much of the industry and business, are officials going to make themselves the “responsible party” for cleaning up a groundwater contamination issue or an industrial spill?  However, if the government determines that a new subway line needs to go in within the year and that people shouldn’t drive a certain day of the week to help reduce air pollution, this can be done overnight (no CEQA in China)!

Local municipalities, residents, businesses and public policy advocates in Southern California struggle with the number of agencies dealing with water management. It can be hard to gain consensus and move forward when there are so many silos (e.g., the DWP, MWD and L.A. County Public Works).  Beijing had a similar problem, with 70 different agencies working on water issues.  So in 2004, the government decided the competing unit would all unify into one agency. Voila!

I learned a lot in Beijing to broaden my perspective on water management and hopefully I provided some tools that can help officials there develop and implement a robust water plan.  However, it’s good to be home, drinking clean water from the tap and enjoying a clear blue sky.    

Marina del Rey Harbor is the most toxic metropolitan marina in the state. Here, staff scientist Peter Shellenbarger discusses how refinishing boat hulls can reverse the decline.

Update: After a heated discussion that lasted over four hours, the Regional Water Board unanimously approved the amendments to the Marina del Rey Toxics TMDL at its Feb. 6 meeting that will require boat owners to remove copper-based paints from the hulls of their boats (see below for details). Although many boaters expressed concerns over the potential costs of repainting, Regional Board staff reiterated their intent to help secure some grant support. USEPA and others also discussed studies and research by the Department of Toxics Substance Control and others that identified cost-effective, non-toxic paint alternatives. Heal the Bay looks forward to working with the Regional Water Board, the County and the public to help find a sensible path forward for TMDL implementation.

Marina del Rey attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors each year with its breathtaking views and coastal amenities. Its harbor, the centerpiece of the community, is the largest man-made marina in the United States, with mooring space for more than 6,000 small vessels. It also serves as home to many coastal service industries, such as sport fishing, whale watching, and boat racing.

Before the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers created the Harbor in the 1950s, a vast salt marsh covered the area, providing habitat for many aquatic and terrestrial species. Despite the massive transformation of the area over the past 60 years, it remains home to many species that once occupied the wetland, such as sea lions, pelicans, and gulls.

Despite all this animal and human activity, there’s a reason to be concerned about the health of the Marina. Most visitors don’t know that in 2009 Cal EPA found the Harbor to be the most toxic metropolitan marina in the state. Bottom line: Many aquatic species can’t survive in these polluted waters, which also pose a health hazard to humans who regularly come in contact with the water.

Marina del Rey is now on the Clean Water Act Section 303(d) list of impaired waterbodies for a variety of pollutants (chlordane, copper, lead, zinc, PCBs, DDT, dieldrin and sediment toxicity). Accordingly, many beneficial uses of the Harbor, such as water contact recreation, fishing and marine habitat, are negatively impacted.

In response, the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board established pollution limits in 2005 for the water body to help clean up the Harbor and protect the many uses of its waters. At its Feb. 6 hearing, the Regional Board will reconsider the pollution limits – also known as a TMDL – in order to incorporate the latest science.

The most controversial element of the proposed revision is a requirement for an 85% reduction in copper loading from boats into the water column. Unfortunately, many of the boats in the harbor have their hulls coated in paints that contain high levels of the metal. The copper is effective in keeping barnacles and other unwanted creatures off hulls, but it also can leach into surrounding waters and be a major contributor to overall toxicity.

The new rules would dictate that 85% of the boats now moored in the Harbor would need to refinish their hulls with an alternative product by March 2024. The San Diego Regional Water Quality Control Board recently adopted a similar requirement to reduce dissolved copper in the water column in the Shelter Island Yacht Basin Copper TMDL.

Understandably, the cost of refinishing hulls is a big concern for boat owners. However, studies indicate that the difference in total lifetime costs for using copper-based hull coatings versus alternative hull coatings is fairly small when routine maintenance schedules are followed. On the positive side, non-copper-based hull coating outlast copper-based products.

To help offset the high upfront costs of switching to non-copper based hull coatings, the Regional Board is exploring grant options for boat owners. The San Diego water board has pursued a similar path to help boat owners.

Marina del Rey is an iconic location in Los Angeles. In order to ensure future generations can fully enjoy this important coastal resource, it is critical that water quality is protected. Heal the Bay’s policy team has determined that updating the Marina del Rey Harbor Toxic Pollutants TMDL to address the copper issue will help protect this resource and the marine life that depends on it.

For more information on copper leaching from boat hulls, you can visit:

http://www.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/safe-paint/index.html

http://www.epa.gov/region9/waste/features/safe-paint/san-diego.html

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb4/Boater_Fact_Sheet_updated.pdf

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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