You Stood Up for Clean Water

On Friday, October 5, Heal the Bay supporters and staffers packed a Metropolitan Water District meeting room to lend our voices to the fight to keep strong stormwater protections in place throughout Southern California.

Thanks to those of you who came to the “Take L.A. By Storm” hearing, for taking time to share your testimony with the Regional Board. Your words were powerful and effective in letting officials know that the Los Angeles community supports swimming and fishing in safe waters.

In addition, the NRDC and LA Waterkeeper as well as experts Rich Horner, Jenny Jay, and Mark Gold, and a diverse cross-section of people (mothers, divers, NGOs, surfers, beachgoers and ocean lovers) presented robust testimony. All wore buttons declaring: “I support a strong permit.”

While we won’t know until November 8 how the board will rule on the push by many cities to weaken existing pollution limits, we felt we made progress on key elements of the permit, including Public Participation, Low Impact Development and Monitoring. However, due to the concerns raised by a coalition of cities that will be regulated under the permit, the Board is also contemplating a proposal to weaken the permit by allowing something other than strong numeric limits for receiving waters ‑‑ our waterways.

To those of you who couldn’t make the hearing, but who lent your support by either signing our petition or providing moral fortitude, we also thank YOU!

You would have been proud to hear the AP environmental science students from Apex Academy in Hollywood (pictured, below) share their love for clean water. “We have to protect what we have,” one 15-year-old testified. “We can’t live without water. We have to take care of it.”

Sign up for our Action Alerts to stay up to date on the Take L.A. by Storm campaign as we continue to push for numeric, enforceable limits. Or follow us on Twitter for real-time updates with the hashtags #LAbyStorm and #CleanWater.

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