Heal the Bay Blog

In a nail biter, the State Water Resources Control Board got the three votes it needed Tuesday to turn down a broad amendment that would have gutted California’s new Once-Through Cooling policy for power plants. Board members Tam Doduc, Fran Spivy-Weber and Art Bagget supported the motion to uphold the policy and oppose the amendment.

The board also agreed to expedite analysis of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s implementation plan next summer. Over the past year, the DWP has argued numerous times that it can’t meet the OTC policy compliance deadlines for re-powering three of its power plants by the end of 2021.

Earlier, the DWP promised to phase out all OTC, but it wanted until 2031 for Scattergood and up to 2040 for co-generation power plants.  But, then DWP lobbied the State Water Board for a policy amendment to extend the compliance timeframe in exchange to phasing out OTC at all three power plants.  Instead of introducing a narrow amendment for DWP, the State Board proposed an expanded amendment, opening up a Pandora’s box in the OTC policy for co-generation and fossil fuel plants up and down the entire state coastline.

As a result, a number of enviro and fishing communities joined to oppose the expanded amendment for gutting the policy. Linda Sheehan, the executive director of California Coastkeeper Alliance, took lead in the comment-writing and organization effort. Santa Monica Baykeeper, NRDC, Sierra Club and Surfrider also strongly opposed the amendment at the hearing.

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December brings connotations of the holiday season. Office parties, vacations, holiday shopping, football bowl games, family gatherings, overeating, lighting the menorah, and Christmas lights and trees. For Heal the Bay, this December is anything but a time to ease into the new year. As always, there is our push for year-end giving. Tis the season for charitable write offs. Also, once again, Heal the Bay is spearheading the Day Without a Bag event. Over 30,000 bags will be given away at over 60 locations throughout LA County on December 16th as a reminder to bring reusable bags whenever you go shopping. Once again, partners include LA County, Los Angeles, other cities, retailers, grocers and other environmental groups. This year, the event has spread across much of the state with counties from San Diego to San Francisco participating.

However, this December is as busy as any previous December I can remember.

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Recently, the Los Angeles City Council voted for three supposed Department of Water & Power reforms:

• Creating an Office of Public Accountability with a ratepayer advocate;
•  Requiring DWP’s budget to be submitted earlier, with a guarantee that “surplus” funds will come to the city of L.A. for general fund uses;
• Granting the City Council the authority to remove the DWP’s  General Manager or DWP Commissioners with a two-thirds council vote.  The council could also override the mayor’s removal of the GM or commissioners with a two-thirds vote.

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Looking for a way to give back to the community this holiday season? Need to meet community service hour requirements? Just want to meet some like-minded new friends? Volunteering for Heal the Bay is a great way to meet people and earn CS hours while doing something that helps us out at the same time. We truly have a volunteer opportunity for every schedule and interest. Below is a sampling of how you can get involved. View all of our volunteer opportunities.

Don’t have a lot of time but want to make a big impact? Participate in a cleanup.

Like the office environment and have time on weekdays? Join our Wednesday office volunteers.

Enjoy speaking with people and going to events? Become an Ambassador.

We’ve been bombarded with half-page Chevron ads in the Los Angeles Times for over a month and a half now. I guess with the current financial state of the Times, any ad is a good for them. At least Clippers owner Donald Sterling’s hokey-looking award announcements can’t fill up the entire front section.

The ubiquitous ads highlight common-sense advice about renewable energy with compelling stills of indigenous people, children and everyday people like you and me.  Then the “We Agree” tagline follows with signatures from Chevron’s CEO or some other corporate executive.

The campaign spawned a brilliant parody from The Yes Men working with The Rainforest Action Network and Amazon Watch.  There’s even a contest for the public to come up with even funnier parody ads.

The spot featuring the little girl and the tag line “It’s time oil companies get behind the development of renewable energy” pisses me off the most.  After all, Chevron, along with big alcohol and big tobacco, bankrolled Proposition 26.  So I guess Chevron is behind the development of renewable energy as long as it is voluntary and maximizes shareholder profits.

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For the past couple of years, the water testing that helps keep people safe from polluted water has been in serious jeopardy.  Monitoring agencies and dischargers all up and down the coast of California used to get state funds to test ocean water for bacteria. Heal the Bay takes the results of those tests and creates the Beach Report Card, translating hardcore science into usable information.  But in 2009, Governor Schwarzenegger vetoed the $1 Million in state funding, leaving agencies with no way to pay for monitoring.  They pieced together funding for the last couple years, but it was set to run out on Jan. 1, 2011.  Now, in good news for all the swimmers and surfers out there, the State Water Board just voted to continue funding the program for another year. That doesn’t mean we’re out of the woods yet, it just means we have one more year to find a permanent funding source before beach bacteria monitoring, and the Beach Report Card, disappear. Read more in this article from the LA Times.  http://lat.ms/c3lf12

All public offices are now officially for sale — thanks to last year’s disastrous U.S. Supreme Court decision allowing corporations to buy elections with unlimited corporate donations. The corporatizing of Congress and state legislatures has been discussed forever.  But the upcoming Nov. 2 election is an eye-opening example of Big Business aiming to further its interests to the detriment of our environment.

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Heal the Bay’s Beach Report Card^® expanded its coverage northward from California this summer by providing weekly grades for over 150 popular beaches in Oregon and Washington. By expanding the Beach Report Card, Pacific Northwest beachgoers will now be able to make informed decisions about which beaches to frequent and when. With the addition of the new Oregon and Washington locations to those of California, the Beach Report Card now grades 500+ beaches along the entire U.S. West Coast—from Mexico to Canada.

The Beach Report Card

• Oregon 
• Washington 
• California

More BRC Information

• 2010 Summer Report Card
  PDF: 2.81MB
• FAQs
• Historical Data
• Background Information
  Grading System & Terminology
• Research & Scientific

As in California, grades are calculated using water quality monitoring data provided by local health agencies and regulators who are responsible for actually sampling and testing the water.

You have the right to know how clean your favorite beach is, and Heal the Bay is dedicated to making that information clear, concise, and accurate. In addition, Heal the Bay also hopes to use the Beach Report Card grades to call for more frequent monitoring at those beaches that need it, and we hope it will help call attention to some of the more troublesome pollution spots in the Pacific Northwest.

The 2010 End of Summer Beach Report Card recaps Oregon and Washington summer water quality and weekly grades are available at the online Beach Report Card during the summer months.

(Note: because there aren’t many people in the water during the Pacific Northwest winter, Oregon and Washington beaches are only monitored during the summer).