The
water can also contain bacteria and human viruses strong enough,
even in a diluted state, to survive in the ocean and make people
sick from swimming there.
Pollution of the beach damages Santa Monica’s
lucrative tourism businesses, which are a big part of the city’s
tax revenues.
“The city is continuing to increase
the forces to prevent pollution and the efforts to inform the public
that our environment is an important resource to the city,”
said city coordinator Dean Kubani, spokesperson for the city’s
Environmental Programs Division.
According to Kubani the city has reduced
the amount of untreated urban run-off by 95 percent.
The newly developed Santa Monica Urban
Runoff Facility, (SMURF), is the first one of its kind in the world
and it recycles treated runoff water for the irrigation of parks
and other green areas.
“We’ve definitely seen an
improvement,” said Jones. “I think some of the [laws]
we have are working well, but the ones that are too weak needs to
be updated,” she said.
“I don’t think there are any
differences of goals,” said Kubani. “The city works
very closely with organizations like Heal the Bay to ensure that
public health is preserved.”
Heal the Bay is conducting and supporting
utilitarian research designed to make recommendations about how
to best protect the Santa Monica Bay.
Researched topics are human health risks,
how to enforce water quality laws and how to manage urban runoff.
“I walk here everyday, but I wouldn’t
go in the water,” said Marina Pianca, a beach-loving Santa
Monica resident who hasn’t noticed any signs of improvement.
“Some years ago my son’s back
got sore after he went swimming,” said biologist Sandra Sarnoff.
“Now I’m seeing shore birds
and other animals that I haven’t seen before. Those are positive
signs of environmental improvement,” she said.
Among the city’s methods to reduce
polluting runoff are the street sweeping program and filtering devices
that keep trash from the streets out of the storm drains, similar
filters for oil and requirements enforced on new building construction
to prevent runoff.
The Total Maximum Daily Load is a new piece
of legislation that decides how much harmful bacteria there can
be in the bay.
Another important step towards a cleaner
bay is the Los Angeles Stormwater Permit Appeal, a legislation that
controls urban runoff.
A plan for the summer half of the year
was established under the federal Clean Water Act and recently approved
by the state.
A similar plan for the winter half of the
year, which has the most amount of urban runoff and pollution, is
to be decided on by the Los Angeles Regional Water Board in the
coming 30-60 days.
“We are fighting real hard to convince
politicians to pass the Los Angeles Stormwater Appeal for the wet
months,” said Jones.
“[The plan] means that, in just three
years, all Santa Monica Bay beaches will be safe for swimming during
the summer,” said Dr. Mark Gold, Heal the Bay executive director.
To educate the public about the environmental
issues the marina is facing and to tell people what they can do
themselves, Heal the Bay offers two public outreach programs.
The Speakers Bureau focuses on organizations,
businesses, residents and schools whereas the Key to the Sea project
works with children from kindergarten up to 5th grade.
“We are absolutely supportive of
[Heal the Bay’s] cause,“ said Shannon Clements director
of Sustainable Works, a Santa Monica College based non-profit organization.
“We send a lot of volunteers to work with Heal the Bay,”
she said.
“Our goal is to support other non-profit
organizations that are doing environmental work.”
In the future, Heal the Bay will increase
the efforts to reach communities and places more inland, where less
information has come out.
Representatives from Heal the Bay will
be discussing their efforts at a seminar Thursday, Oct. 3, at 8
p.m in the Science building room 140.
The event is one in a series of lectures
on environmental issues organized by SMC’s Center for Environmental
and Urban Studies. |
