No Day at the Beach

This week, the State Water Board heard Los Angeles County’s appeal on the inclusion of enforceable beach water quality standards in the county’s stormwater permit.  The county appealed the permit despite the fact that the L.A. Regional Board modified the permit nearly three years ago and it has been relatively successful in getting a lot [...]

Victory in Ventura!

After a grueling and tense 12-hour hearing, the Southern California Regional Water Board last night approved a new stormwater permit for Ventura County on a 5-1 vote.  The permit follows over two years of contentious debate involving Ventura County, its muncipalities, the Building Industry Assn., the environmental community and the Regional Board.
Over the last year, [...]

Contagious Cleanups

Last Saturday, Heal the Bay held its monthly “Nothin’ But Sand” beach cleanup.  We’ve been running these regularly scheduled cleanups for a few years now, but they’ve really swelled in the last year.
An amazing 820 folks escaped March Madness to come out on a blustery morning to remove debris at Dockweiler Beach near Imperial Highway, [...]

This Story Has Legs, er, Arms …

The pressure to blog on Heal the Bay’s biggest star is overwhelming.  I spend way too many hours each week blabbing on about TMDLs, toxicity levels, water recycling, you name it, in a bid to engage jaded and overwhelmed members of the media. But the public has spoken – they love critters.
Because the eight-armed vandal [...]

License to Kill

On January 8, 2009, Heal the Bay released a report on the current state of the aquatic toxicity program in the Los Angeles region.  The report took about a year and a half to put together and never could have happened without an enormous amount of help from local Los Angeles Regional Water Board staff [...]

Dorothy’s Law

About 125 people came out to the beach at Santa Monica Pier on a cloudy Sunday to share their favorite Dorothy Green stories. Some people came as far as San Francisco, Sun Valley and Denver to reminisce about Dorothy’s amazing achievements, tireless work ethic, big heart, and sense of humor. The County Lifeguards paid tribute [...]

Cynical About the ‘Bu

On Thursday, the Regional Water Board unanimously approved a resolution requiring Board staff to negotiate a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Malibu for permitting on-site wastewater treatment systems (OWTS, or septic systems).  In addition, staff was ordered to move forward on an OWTS moratorium for the Malibu Civic Center area.  Both of these actions [...]

A Green Giant – Sharing Our Remembrances of Dorothy

I delivered these remarks at Thursday’s memorial service for Heal the Bay founding president Dorothy Green, who passed away this week. We are encouraging others whose lives were touched by Dorothy to share their thoughts and remembrances by submitting comments to this blog entry.
Dorothy was so much to so many. Wife, mother, grandmother, environmental icon, friend, [...]

The Passing of an Environmental Legend

My closest friend and mentor passed away today. Words you never want to express. After six years of redefining courage in her fight against cancer, Dorothy Green died peacefully in her Westwood home. The same home that spawned Heal the Bay, the Los Angeles/San Gabriel River Watershed Council, the POWER (Public Officials for Water and [...]

Parasite Cove

As a high schooler in the late ‘70s, I was lucky enough to live in Point Dume , spending time at local beaches like Zuma, Westward, Big and Little Dume and Paradise Cove.  The area from Big Dume to Paradise Cove has always been my favorite stretch of beach along the Bay because of its [...]