Results tagged “healthebay”

A state water board's administrative error has basically left a polluting company off the hook. In what Heal the Bay president Mark Gold calls "one of the most polluted beaches in Santa Monica Bay"--that would be Paradise Cove in Malibu--a mobile park owned by the Kissel Company "has been one of the largest sources of fecal pollution to the beach." Ew! So here's what happened:

A long summer of hot-hot-hot heat means lots of beach days for Southern Californians. Now that the season is wrapped up, Heal the Bay has released their annual Summer Beach Report Card [PDF]. The non-profit group graded nearly 500 beaches statewide based on bacterial pollution levels monitored from Memorial Day to Labor Day this year, according to their release, and the news is generally pretty good.

    

Public health officials today extended the closure to a portion of Will Rogers State Beach after tests confirmed that sewage was being discharged from a storm drain into the ocean. How much sewage? Approximately 9.600 gallons, according to the L.A. County Department of Public Health. That's a big yuck.

Whether you live in the Valley or near the coast, we are all connected. That piece of trash sitting in an Encino curb could easily be swept into the storm drain system or L.A. River, traveling to the beach and into the Pacific Ocean. This Saturday, Heal the Bay and other organizations hope for 15,000 volunteers at more than 70 inland and beach locations for the 25th annual international Coastal Cleanup Day (and the 19th for the event to happen locally).

LA County still has worst water quality in state and includes several sites on the top 10 "beach bummer" (i.e., worst beaches in the state) list in this year's Heal the Bay Beach Report Card. This comes as neighboring Orange and Ventura counties earn high grades for good water quality.

An extensive review of the last 8 years worth of toxicity reports filed to the Water Quality Control Board has shown a pattern of oversight and lack of enforcement for violations to wastewater dischargers, according to Heal the Bay.

An estimated six billion plastic bags are used every year in LA County with the average Californian using 552 of them per year. That's a lot potential harm to the ecosystem, especially when not recycled. The plastic bag industry has made weak arguments to keep the environmentally unfriendly object around, even slapping lawsuits on cities who propose a ban (desperation?).

This Saturday morning, some 11,000 volunteers at more than 70 beaches and inland sites throughout the LA area will be participating in Heal the Bay's Coastal Cleanup. They estimate that this year's cleanup will mark their one millionth pound of picked-up trash since the event began in 1990.

On the heels of the annual Great LA River CleanUp comes another large do-gooding river activity tomorrow morning. 2,000 people from Heal the Bay, the NAACP, PAVA and ANAHUAK will be cleaning the Glendale Narrows section of the LA River along with Councilman Eric Garcetti and other neighborhood and organization leaders.

On Monday night, Malibu took a big step for the environment: they forbid the distribution of both plastic and compostable carryout bags. It's the most aggressive plastic bag action to date for any Southland city, according to Heal The Bay.

"Paper or Plastic?" is the somewhat innocuous and expected question we're faced each time we check out at the grocery store. But what if that question came with a price tag, like 15 cents for every plastic bag we required when making a purchase? Or what if we banned the bag altogether?

Heal the Bay gives out free canvas bags for "A Day Without A Disposable Bag Day"

Did you know that residents of Los Angeles County use 6 billion plastic bags a year, and only 5% of bags in the US are recycled? In the state of California the average person uses 552 bags, according to the environmental organization Heal the Bay. These bags are then left to choke up our waterways, landfills, streets, and urban landscapes, causing harm to animal life and our ecosystem. This is why Heal the Bay, along...

Following a flap from an LA Times article that found 60,000 LAUSD students attend school within 500 feet of a freeway, the school district is looking into ways it can reduce the health hazards for kids close to pollution-filled freeways. Maybe the school district can use the $53 million in funds they're trying to recoup to build domes over playgrounds. Thousands of birds and an immeasurable amount of fish have died as a result...

Attention all surfers, beach combers, visiting tourists, etc. The beaches of the South Bay, specifically from Ballona Creek to the Manhattan Pier, will be CLOSED from Tuesday through Thursday this week. You might think it's because of the rain, god know that's usually reason enough to stay out of the water for fear of skin and sinus infections, but this time it's due to "periodic" maintenance from the Hyperion Water Treatment Plant:

If you love the ocean and want to support the people out there every day trying to protect it, you have no choice but to attend the party next weekend celebrating the reopening of Heal the Bay's Santa Monica Pier Aquarium.