Heal the Bay Blog

Plastic bags create loads of unnecessary litter; they are easily blown by the wind creating hazards for wildlife, and they often end up in the ocean where they can choke marine life.

Heal the Bay Entertainment presents a silent film about a young man and his trusty reusable bag on an adventure to the supermarket. Will our heroes succeed against the dastardly, plastic Bag Monster villain?

To find out, watch it now!

Reduce energy, save money, create jobs and support Heal the Bay.

Energy Upgrade California in Los Angeles County is a rebate and incentive program for homeowners to improve their homes’ energy efficiency, save water and natural resources, lower utility bills, and create a healthier and more comfortable home through a home energy upgrade. Heal the Bay has been selected as an Energy Champion to introduce homeowners to the benefits of a home energy upgrade.

Air leaks in your attic, crawl spaces, doors chimney or air ducts are hard to find, but they are a source of energy loss. For a limited time, when you improve the energy efficiency of your home, you will get rebates up to $8,000 and give back to Heal the Bay.

Learn more about how you can find savings for YOUR home.

• Informational Brochure
• 2-Minute Video
• Flyer

Ready to save some cash and help the planet? Download your Homeowner Action Form here.

Energy Upgrade California connects homeowners with local Participating Contractors who can complete their home energy upgrade and help them apply for rebates and incentives. For more program details, visit www.EnergyUpgradeCA.org/LACounty

Today’s guest blogger is Matthew King, communications director for Heal the Bay.

In my past life as an editor at The Hollywood Reporter, I covered way too many film and TV trade shows. Heavy on the glitz and light on substance, these promotional confabs left you exhausted from sensory overload. The studios pulled out all the stops: Jumbotron video banks, hip-hop performances, prancing bikini babes, fog machines, you name it …

As you might imagine, attending something called the Water Environment Federation’s 84th Annual Technical Exhibition and Conference is a bit tamer. But what the world’s largest water quality conference and exhibition lacks in wacky, it certainly makes up in wonky.

Held this week at the Los Angeles Convention Center, WEFTEC 2011 features a dizzying array of the latest technologies and equipment involved in water treatment and sustainability.  I had been kindly invited to check out the conference by Alec Mackie, who serves as VP of the Los Angeles Basin unit of the California Water Environment Assn.

Staring out at the endless sea of UV filtration systems, contaminant and nutrient removal services, data monitors and old-fashioned infrastructure like pumps and pipes, I immediately thought of Mark Gold, Heal the Bay president and self-admitted water geek . With 20,000 participants spread over three giant exhibition halls, this was a veritable Versailles of wastewater. Gold must be in heaven, I thought. Unfortunately, I’m neither an engineer nor a scientist. I felt like a Stranger in a Strange Land.

Read more of this post »

I flew out to Washington, D.C., this week to meet with Nancy Stoner, the EPA’s Acting Assistant Administrator for Water, to help voice environmental community concerns about the direction of the National Beach Water Quality Criteria due out in 2012. The NRDC’s Steve Fleischli, a longtime friend, joined me for the meeting with Stoner and about a dozen Office of Water staffers in the EPA East building. Other enviros from Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay and New Jersey’s Clean Ocean Action joined by phone.

We remain upset with the direction of the EPA draft criteria for a number of reasons. At a workshop in New Orleans earlier this year, and in a number of subsequent conference calls, EPA Office of Water staff made it clear that the proposed rules would be nearly identical to the 1986 criteria, marking almost no changes in 25 years. In some ways, the criteria will be even weaker than the 1986 version, despite more than two decades of new studies.

I had the privilege of taking the lead for the enviros in the meeting. I explained that EPA was considering an approach to beach water quality regulation that would be far less protective than California’s and would compound existing weaknesses in the 25-year-old criteria. Because I’ve spent those same 25 years working on beach water quality issues as an advocate, scientist, public health professional and legislative sponsor, I was pretty wound up.

About 50 minutes into today’s meeting, as I was attempting to make a key point, the ground started to move. Then the chandeliers started to sway.  The rock ‘n’ roll continued for nearly a minute, with some folks moving away from the light fixtures, others diving under the desk and still others crowding the door jamb.  There I stood, making a stand for greater health protection for swimmers and surfers during a 5.9 earthquake.

Photo courtesy USGS

Read more of this post »

Add a comment to this post »